Article in a print journal

This roundtable interrogates whether creative computational work can conjure aura, and to what extent the authoring and distribution systems those works rely on foreclose upon or enable "aura." Benjamin’s seminal "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935) describes fascistic modes of production and mass deception that forecast -- in very specific ways -- iOS. Co-chairs Berens and Flores will frame the discussion by centering on the authorial contexts afforded by PC and iOS. The other participants are all accomplished writers of electronic literature, actively creating works in a variety of computational environments and distribution models. Each presenter, including the co-chairs, will have 5 minutes to present their own critical and artistic insights on this topic. Once the roundtable discussion begins, they might comment on how Berens' and Flores' theoretical model plays out in their own artistic and commercial works.

This article contains an introduction to contemporary Portuguese electronic literature, focusing on works by Rui Torres. Starting from texts by other 20th-century authors, Rui Torres’ generative works recode their source texts by opening up their syntax and semantics to digital materiality and programmed signification. Randomized algorithms, permutational procedures
and interactive functions are applied to sets of digital objects consisting of verbal text, video, voice, music, and animation. His hypermedia poems demonstrate that programming codes have become crucial elements in the rhetoric and poetics of digital creation. I analyze his database poetry by looking at the algorithmic play between writing and reading in three hypermedia works: Mar de Sophia [Sophia’s Sea] (2005; http://telepoesis.net/mardesophia/), Amor de Clarice [Clarice’s Love] (2005; http://telepoesis.net/amorclarice/amor.html ), and Húmus Poema Contínuo [Humus Continuous Poem] (2008, http://telepoesis.net/humus/humus.html).

(Source: Author's Abstract)