In one half of a pair of critical reviews looking at recent titles in animal studies, Nicole Shukin examines Karl Steel’s How to Make a Human (Steel reviews Shukin in the other half). In particular, Shukin discusses Steel’s framing of “the human” in terms of medieval violence, and she considers what that framing can offer to today’s political and ethical conversations.
(source: http://electronicbookreview.com/thread/criticalecologies/humanizing)
Although This work was presented by Scott as being located in the library at the opening of the End(s) of Electronic Literature Festival Exhibition at The Arts Library. Its was in fact not a part of the official Electronic Literature Organization 2015: The End(s) of Electronic Literature festival, and yet it was there.
The meta-story of this "space-hack" should be seen in relation to the history of the physical object itself (TV), (Taroko-remix),e-poetry as well as Foucault work Discipline and Punish, Panopticism and the power institutions.
The digita part of the Take Gonzo was hosted on the secret sub folder together with to the rest of the digital works presented in the End(s) of Electronic Literature Festival Exhibition Kiosk.
Up until now, everyone alive on earth was bound to one another through African Eve, our last common ancestor, who 5,000 generations ago passed her genes and language to sons and daughters who did the same as they gradually populated the world. Today, however, Square, Circle and the other inhabitants of Flatland have the opportunity to step outside this lineage. To rearrange the bodies of animals, plants, and even themselves. VAS: An Opera in Flatland is the story of Square’s decision to undergo an operation that will leave him sterile for the good of his wife, Circle, for the good of their daughter, Oval, and for the good of society, including the unborn descendants he will never have. VAS is, in other words, the story of finding one’s identity within the double-helix of language and lineage—and Square’s struggle to see beyond the common pages of ordinary, daily life upon which he is drawn.
Utilizing a wide and historical sweep of representations of the body, from pedigree charts to genetic sequences, this hybrid novel recounts how differing ways of imagining the body generate differing stories of knowledge, power, history, gender, politics, art, and, of course, the literature of who we are. It is the intersection of one tidy family’s life with the broader times in which they live.
VAS will be of interest to anyone concerned with the futures we are now writing into existence.
This adaptation of the prize-winning children's book "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" is a combinatory work where children can choose between three options. The "Egg" mode generates a story without input from the child. The "Chick" mode lets the child choose from sets of objects and goals, for instance, "Complete this sentence: The Pigeon wants to... rule the world / drive a bus / eat your dinner." The story is then told with the child's choices inserted. In the "Big Pigeon" mode, the child can record their own story elements and a story is generated using the child's voice along with the pre-recorded audio.
This poem is constructed around an erotic scenario between two recurring characters in Sondheim’s writing: Nikuko “a Russian ballet dancer” and Dr. Leopold Konninger. From the loading frame in this Flash piece, we are provided a point of view as if we’re the computer and are about to enter Sondheim’s imagination, and the audio doesn’t set this up as a comforting prospect. The poem seems to be designed to disturb as images of fragmented, objectified human beings gaze at one from positions of powerlessness and empowerment. Nikuko herself is portrayed as a kind of geisha dominatrix, particularly when juxtaposed with Dr. Konninger’s post-coital supine body. Subsequent images of a pile of heads and body parts and phrases like “carnage and extasy” create an unsettling mix of death and “la petit mort.”
(Source: Leonardo Flores)
MyNovel.org (2006) takes six classic novels (Moby Dick, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Scarlet Letter, Lolita, 1984, and On The Road) and compresses them into four sentences apiece; at any point, if visitors wish to, they can write their own four sentence novel by using the tools included on the site.
(Source: Artist's description, 2008 ELO Media Arts show)
When I Was President is a portrait of absolute power as depicted by a fictional President of the United States. This President is unnamed and non-historical, that is, he has never, and could never, exist, yet what he represents is archetypal in nature and endures within the optimism, dangers, and limitations of political power. The work is created in Flash and divided into nine sections, each of which addresses a different Presidential act of power, and its consequences. The acts of power are elemental and metaphoric--they are simultaneously absurd, idiosyncratic, and impossible, yet they seem to tell some basic truth about the promise of absolute power, and its inherent failures. This work uses images, videos, and audio files acquired online, and modified by the artist. A credits page is included on the site.
(Source: from rhizome.org)
