Article in a print journal

This article has two objectives. One is to give a clear example of the way in which practice and theory, or rather practice-as-research, can exist in a symbiotic relationship – each benefiting and illuminating the other. The second aim is to propose and map out an area of potential further research into the discursive positioning of e-literature. It draws on some of the thinking of Deleuze and Guattari around language and literature, in particular as it is articulated through a reading of them by Jean-Jacques Lecercle. In this respect it should be seen as a point of departure, not a presentation of findings. The article is an extended version of one I gave at Kingston University as part of the From Page to Screen to Augmented Reality Conference. The original article was designed to be delivered in conjunction with a video of a digital text work in performance. For this context I have taken some screenshots of that video and added them to the article. They will at least provide some sense of how the digital text work is displayed and how it functions.

Source: author's abstract

In her three electronic works, Shelley Jackson exacerbates the tension between self-writing and the diffraction of subjectivity, as she engages with a more explicit autobiographic form. Shifting from hyperfiction in Patchwork Girl (1995) to a fictionalized exercise in remembering through the scrutiny of her body parts in My Body & A Wunderkammer (1997), she eventually explores a pseudo-historiographic and documentary approach of the games she used to play with her sister in The Doll Games (2001), a work closer to an online family album of sorts. The present article purports to interrogate the preservation of the intimate in a context of public self-exposure through an archival electronic medium.

Full title: "ELIZA — A Computer Program For the Study of Natural Language Communication Between Man And Machine"

ELIZA is a program operating within the MAC time-sharing system at MIT which makes certain kinds of natural language conversation between man and computer possible. Input sentences are analyzed on the basis of decomposition rules which are triggered by key words appearing in the input text. Responses are generated by reassembly rules associated with selected decomposition rules. The fundamental technical problems with which ELIZA is concerned are: (1) the identification of key words, (2) the discovery of minimal context, (3) the choice of appropriate transformations, (4) generation of responses in the absence of key words, and (5) the provision of an editing capability for ELIZA "scripts". A discussion of some psychological issues relevant to the ELIZA approach as well as of future developments concludes the paper.

(Source: Author's abstract)

The most talked-about, and potentially the most significant consequence of recent advances in electronic technology for the practive and theory of literature is the promise of interactivity. The idea of interactivity is traditionally associated with hypertext. But compared to Interactive Drama, a genre existing mainly in the conceptual stage, hypertext involves a relatively low grade of interactivity: the freedom to select an itinerary on a network of author-defined pathways. In Interactive Drama, ideally, "the interactor is choosing what to do, say, and think at all times" (Kelso, Bates and Weyhrauch); "the users of such a system are like audience members who can march up onto the stage and become various characters, altering the action by what they say and do in their roles" (Laurel). This essay investigates the basic dilemma encountered by Interactive Drama, a dilemma reminiscent of a familiar theological problem: how can the system grant users some freedom of action, and yet enact an aesthetically satisfying narrative scheme ? The predominantly epic structure of Brenda Laurel's VR installation Placeholder is contrasted to the Aristotelian design philosophy of Joseph Bates' Oz. In spite of these structural differences, both works uphold the ideal of a system designed in such a way that every traversal of the virtual world will provide a rewarding experience. This concern for the "safety of a controlled situation" suggests that in contrast to most forms of hypertext, interactive drama owes more to the spirit of classicism than to postmodern aesthetics.

(Source: Author's website)

The intelligence of a story-generating computer program can be assessed in terms of creativity, aesthetic awareness, and understanding. The following approaches are evaluated with respect to these three criteria: simple transition networks, grammar-driven models, simulations, algorithms based on problem-solving techniques, and algorithms driven by so-called "authorial goals." The most serious deficiency of the discussed programs resides in the domain of aesthetic awareness. In order to improve on this situation, story-generation should not follow a strictly linear, chronological order, but rather proceed from the middle outwards, starting with the episodes that bear the focus of interest. The program should select as top-evel goal the creation of climactic situations, create the preparatory events through backward logic, and take the story to the next highlight, or to an appropriate conclusion through a guided simulation. This strategy is ilustrated in a "reverse-engineering," or generative reading of Little Red Riding Hood that simulates the reasoning of an imaginary computer program.

(Source: Author's website)