Invited lecture

Piotr Marecki, Ph.D., from Jagiellonian University and the UBU Lab in Kraków, Poland, will speak on the popular 8-bit computer released in 1982 in the UK, the ZX Spectrum. The title of his talk,  “The ZX Spectrum Demoscene as Organized Anarchy,” argues that the ZX Spectrum platform is unique as compared to other 8-bit machines and can be seen as organized anarchy. The event is scheduled on Friday, September 1, from 12-1 p.m. in VMMC 211A on the campus of WSUV.

Its uniqueness lies, Marecki claims, in the reception of the platform by users on a scale which is incomparable to that of any other platform. The traditional way of using platforms (not only the 8-bit) is based on their consumption, or the use of the official equipment, as well as programing, delivered by the manufacturer. And although the stories about platforms such as the C-64 or Atari are no strangers to creative and bottom-up approaches, these are based on the creation of independent programs. Besides the ZX Spectrum, none of these platforms generated, on such scale and creative level, the same hardware systems or clones. This is related to the simplicity of the computer’s construction and the cheap cost of the accessories as well as the geopolitical conditions in the world in the period of the platform’s popularity, the 80s and 90s.

As an example of organized anarchy, the ZX Spectrum demoscene, the phenomenon is apparent to those with advanced understanding of digital media. In the book Freax. The Brief History of Computer Demoscene it is stated that “almost all modern art genres have an underground stream that can not be found anywhere, or bought in shops, and only insiders know of its existence.” Adjectives such as illegal, grassroots, independent and DIY aesthetics are often related with this field and practice. The term itself is derived from the word “demonstration” and refers to the demonstration of the capabilities of a platform and the skills of a programmer. A basic understanding of the demoscene will treat it as “a subculture in the computer underground culture universe, dealing with the creative and constructive side of technology” (Demoscene FAQ). This talk takes into account and affirms the local perspective, different from the dominant one (ZX Spectrum as platform and demoscene as form of activity are very local). Talk is based on the research project on ZX Spectrum platform runs by the UBU lab at the Jagiellonian University.

Digital media, which are today dominant in social communication, serve also different types of creative expression (video games, new media art, electronic literature, demoscene). It is trivial to say that digital media are dominated by the English language. Both most recognized theoretical texts as well as canonical works are in the English language. And it is the West that is treated as dominant in this area. However, only over the past few years have we seen a new trend emerging, one which aims to discover what has happened in areas that the center has meaningfully called the “end (s)”. Particularly interesting are the perspectives and phenomena that have developed without influence or inspiration from the center in question (for example, communist countries beyond the Iron Curtain or the non-Latin languages, like Arabic or Chinese).

There is no strong scientific recognition of the distinctiveness of the approach to digital media in eastern countries. Both a lack of access to hardware and legal software under communism, as well as exclusion of the peripheries after the transformation gave rise to a number of local phenomena as cloning hardware, creating independent software, and widespread creative programming. The best proof of this is the demoscene – an underground subculture which developed in Europe (also in Central and Eastern Europe), with no comparable phenomena in other areas of the world.

Presentation by Piotr Marecki of UBU lab at Jagellionian University, discussion of different lab models for e-lit and digital culture.

In connection with the workshop “Aesthetic Imaginaries in Text and Image” 28-April, author and professor of English Steve Tomasula (University of Notre Dame) wil give two talks connected to his work. The talks are open to all interested:

“Ascension, A Novel: A Reading/Presentation of an Image-Text Novel in Progress”

“Ascension is a story of nature as it was. And is. And might become. It is the story of how our changing conception of nature, and the means we use to depict it, change the “natural.” And ourselves. It is the story of how we continually remake the world in our own image and in turn are remade by it."

(Source: http://www.uib.no/en/node/106721)

Since the rise of the mainframe computer, literary authors and critics alike have expressed anxiety about the computer’s ability to write narrative prose and poetry as well humans, or better. This lecture situates the contemporary digital literary practices of reading, writing, rewriting, and performing computer-generated texts within a broader social and historical context, dating to long before the advent of the computer. Christopher Strachey's 1952 Love Letter generator and Theo Lutz's The Castle generator are discussed in depth.

Andreas Zingerle, from the University of Linz, visited Digital Culture at the University of Bergen on an Erasmus teacher exchange in week 8 of 2015. Zingerle presented his research on February 16 and also gave a workshop on February 18.

Zingerle writes:

My work focuses on human computer and computer mediated human-human interaction with a special interest in transmedia and interactive storytelling. Since 2010 I collaborate with Linda Kronman as the artist group 'kairus.org'. We have worked with the thematic of internet fraud and online scams, constantly shifting our focus and therefore approaching the theme from a number of perspectives like: data security, ethics of vigilante communities, narratives of scam e-mails, scam & technologies. Research subjects are online scammers, vigilante communities of scambaiters and their use of storytelling and technology.

The practice based research is closely intertwined with the artistic production. We adopt methodologies, used by anthropologists and sociologist, therefore our artworks are often informed by archival research (scambaiter forums, archives of fake websites and scam e-mail correspondence), content analysis (narratives of correspondences between scambaiters and scammers), participation observations (self exploration of scambaiting tactics, ‘419 fiction’ workshops) and field research (artist in residence program in Ghana). Besides the artworks we publish academic research papers related to our projects and through workshops we contextualize our quite focused research topics of the artworks to wider discourses like data privacy, activism and hacking culture, ethics of vigilante online communities and disruptive art practices. In our workshops we also explore how scambaiting skills and tools can be used more generally in media competence trainings or in production of disruptive digital fiction.

(Source: UiB)

The Portuguese Electronic Literature Collection (PELC) at the ELMCIP KB aims to address and collect the most relevant creative and critical works produced by Portuguese authors in the field of electronic literature during the past forty-five years. The collection also brings together authors, events, organizations, publishers, journals, publications, conferences, performances and exhibitions related to the Portuguese context.

Álvaro Seiça gave a lecture on June 25, 2014, at 3 pm, at the Room Ferreira Lima (6th floor, Faculty of Letters, University of Coimbra), entitled "A Luminous Beam: Reading the Portuguese Electronic Literature Collection." In this lecture Seiça presented the Portuguese Electronic Literature Collection that integrates the ELMCIP database (Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice, project coordinated by Scott Rettberg). This initiative was organized by the PhD program in Materialities of Literature (FCT Doctoral Program), in collaboration with the Digital Culture Program at the University of Bergen.

In this presentation I use Ottar Ormstad’s works as an example to discuss the productive relationship between concrete poetry and film-production and demonstrate how Ormstad’s print-based work intrinsically implies motion.