In this interview Andy Campbell talks about his first works in video games programming during his teens and how he got involved with digital literature in the mid-1990s. He then gives insight into his work by focusing on the importance of the visual and the ludic elements and the use of specific software or code language in some of his works. In the end he describes the way he looks at digital born works in general.
This article presents the problems and innovative aspects of hypertextual fiction. The hypertextual novel of multiple authors presents the following problem: the notion of the author in postmodern times is dissolved with multiple authorship and copyleft. The time of the discourse is not necessarily lineal, because there is no way to escape from sequentiality in the linguistic sign, but not even in the fragmentary linearity of Rayuela we could approximate to the linearity of the hypertextual story, because it is a polyphonic reality, made of multiple voices. As a consequence, the main characteristic of a novel of these characteristics is polydiachrony.
Este artículo presenta los aspectos innovadores y los problemas de la ficción hipertextual. La novela hipertextual de múltiples autores presenta el siguiente problema: la noción del autor en la época postmoderna se disuelve con la múltiple autoría y el copyleft. El tiempo del discurso no es necesariamente lineal, porque no hay modo de escapar de la secuencialidad en el signo lingüístico, ni siquiera en la linealidad fragmentaria de Rayuela podríamos aproximarnos a la linearidad de un relato hipertextual, poque se trata de una realidad polifónica, de múltiples voces. Como consecuencia, la principal característica de una novela de estas características es la polidiacronía.
Book of Waste is a collection of bleak short stories that can be read in multiple directions. The text is often imposed against atmospheric photography and unstable video effects with accompanying ambient sound. In some stories, the text is manipulated or moves/transforms over time, adding to the work's overall sense of instability. One section requires the discovery of a short number code to gain access to it.
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The subject of the thesis is to introduce and contextualise the possibilities of writing in the interactive media as well as to study the literary art of interactive media in the Anglophone area. One of the attributes of the contemporary art pieces of interactive media is their intermedial character; the authors often link text, image and sound to introduce the fictional world. The aim of the thesis is on one hand to refer to the questions that are not new but have appeared in new circumstances due to the digital format and internet and on the other hand to refer to the questions typical for the digital fiction research. The research concentrates on the digital fiction – a digital piece written in a computer programme, in which the author offers a fictional world. The thesis addresses several aspects of digital fiction, whose combination indicates its characteristic status within the group of digital art – fragmentarity of narrative, multilinearity, interactivity, performativity, dynamics, intermediality and the principles of game and play. The current phenomena that influence also the creation of the analysed art pieces and their popularity among readers are the aesthetic attraction, in this context brought mainly by the use of media diversity, and the effort to evoke the most intensive experience in the shortest time span. The thesis consists apart from the introduction, conclusion and interludium (dealing with the materiality of digital fiction) of four chapters. The scientific approaches to the problematics of writing in the interactive media are in the second parts of these chapters used in the process of analysis-interpretation of particular digital fiction pieces.
Predmetom dizertačnej práce je predstavenie a kontextualizácia možností písania v interaktívnych médiách a skúmanie literárneho umenia interaktívnych médií v anglofónnom priestore. Pre dnešnú tvorbu umeleckých diel v interaktívnych médiách je príznačný intermediálny charakter; autori pre predstavenie fiktívneho sveta často prepájajú text, obraz a zvuk do výpovedného celku. Cieľom práce je vyjadriť sa jednak k otázkam, ktoré síce nie sú nové, avšak digitálny formát a priestor internetu im umožnili nadobudnúť nové rozmery a aj k otázkam pre výskum digitálnej fikcie špecifickým. Výskum sa zameriava na digitálnu fikciu – v počítačovom programe napísané digitálne dielo, v ktorom autor ponúka svet fikcie. V práci sú predstavené viaceré aspekty digitálnej fikcie, ktorých kombinácia je indikátorom jej charakteristického postavenia v rámci ostatného digitálneho umenia – fragmentárnosť rozprávania, multilinearita, interaktivita, performativita, dynamika, intermedialita a princípy hry a hravosti. Fenoménmi súčasnosti, ktoré pôsobia aj na tvorbu skúmaných diel a ich čitateľskú popularitu sú estetická atraktivita, ktorú v tomto kontexte prináša predovšetkým využitie diverzity medialít a pokus o vyvolanie čo najintenzívnejšieho zážitku v čo najkratšom čase. Práca pozostáva okrem úvodu, záveru a interlúdia (venovanému kategórii materiality digitálnej fikcie) zo štyroch kľúčových kapitol. V týchto kapitolách sú vedecké prístupy k skúmanej problematike písania v interaktívnych médiách následne využité pri analýze-interpretácii konkrétnych digitálnych fikcií.
This study explores the ways in which ethnographic data might be represented within a hypertext format. It begins with an analysis of the historical roots of the technology to determine key characteristics that differentiate it from other media. Three characteristics surface through this analysis: multilinearity, multivocality, and multimodality. The current study examines these characteristics from a more critical stance to determine what is possible in practice. To this end, three ethnographic hypertexts are analyzed to determine strengths and weaknesses. From this analysis, a set of design implications emerge that provides a framework for a case study entitled The Congo Prototype . The Congo Prototype is built from an extensive study of a museum located in Belgium, The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA), along with interviews with colonial veterans who served in the Congo up until Independence. This work offers the reader specific techniques that might be incorporated into future works, and at the same time, provides a stand alone ethnographic study of numerous narratives revolving around the Belgian Congo. In the final sections of this dissertation, several suggestions are outlined for future research. It is suggested that practitioners might consider database driven ethnographies as a means of creating a more dynamic reading experience; cross linked studies to achieve a higher degree of multivocality; and integration of a "play around" feature that would allow readers to determine the amount of data that could be viewed in support of specific claims. The study concludes with a brief discussion of some of the intractable issues that cannot be solved through technological means, such as the crisis of representation, the importance of being in the field, and the politics of web publishing.Source: Author's Dissertation Abstract
[Note from ELMCIP KB editors: the most relevant references to the field of electronic literature have been included, but the list of references given in this database entry is not complete.]