editing

We report on Renderings, which focuses on translating highly computational literature into English. This has involved (1) locating literature of this sort that is written in other languages, (2) applying techniques that are typical of literary translation, (3) using programming and other Web development work to port and reimplement older works that are not easily accessed today, and (4) bringing literary and computational thinking together when the interaction of language and computing demand it. All four of these reveal cultural aspects of computational literature, including the one related to typical translation practices. The need to think in literary and computational terms as seen in (4) is particularly interesting, as is the search described in (1). Translators do not usually frame their search for work to translate as part of the translation task, but this is an explicit part of Renderings, which involves culturally specific investigations and considerations of different communities of practice.

The Renderings project began in summer 2014. During its first phase the collaborators were all based in the Trope Tank, the laboratory that Montfort founded and directs, for some of the time. The collaborators met weekly and were joined at four meetings by literary translators Robert Pinsky, Marc Lowenthal, John Cayley, and David Ferry. Seven core Renderings collaborators (Patsy Baudoin, Andrew Campana, Qianxun Chen, Aleksandra Małecka, Piotr Marecki, Nick Montfort, and Erik Stayton) worked on the first phase of the project, which concluded in December 2014 when 13 translations and bilingual works, from six languages (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish), were published in Fordham University’s literary journal Cura.

The project has so far not only dealt with e-lit across languages, but also in different national contexts (Argentine and Spanish language generators, for instance), from different communities of practice and literary movements and groups (including, in French work, the Oulipo and Mutantism), and of different historical eras. The earliest pieces translated were originally BASIC programs that generated Spanish and Polish texts, and were published in magazines for readers to type in and run. Adaptation to the Web was important, because the project aims to give access to today’s English-language readers using the typical Web context.

Members of the group are now actively seeking interesting computational literature in languages other than English, and additional Renderings collaborators are also being sought. The next phase of the project is being done in a more distributed fashion using simple systems for collaboration, including a mailing list and a wiki, which will hopefully allow a broader range of participation while still providing collaborators with common ground for discussion. Initially, Renderings focused on translating small-scale but complex projects; the project is now expanding to new languages and genres, including longer-form work. We anticipate including games, interactive fiction, and bots as the project continues.

Our discussion will address the question of how Renderings offers a new, broader perspective on electronic literature, how our search for computational literature suggests new directions for scholars, editors, and readers, and how our practice of the literary translation of computational works extends current concepts of translation.

(Source: ELO 2015 Conference Catalog)

Contemporary “format disruptions” (Savikas) lead to a new experience and practice of scholarly publishing: it is global, virtual, and instantaneous. How does this apply to electronic literature? Elit works exist in a field of publication, characterized by circulation, commentary, and archiving. They are subject to complex corporate toolchains, software updates, social media, etc. The work is no longer just the work but the entirety of this field. Publication is no longer a single event or a single thing. Think of this in terms of Luhmann’s systems theory: the differentiating distinction between artistic production and critical discourse is shifted; the difference made by artwork - its “poetics” - is now systematically linked to critical discourse.

Our essay is a call for editors and publishers of works on / about elit to become active participants in the process of creating the entire work and in creating the field around works of elit. Traditionally editors were invisible, working in the background. By contrast, the contemporary publishing situation - as well as the specifics of publishing on elit - enables publishers and editors to address the global with local realities of writers, the virtual with the material concerns of the text, and the instantaneous with the measured need for critical reading. We look at two case studies. The first is a discourse analysis of existing publications on elit. Scholarly publishing is already in a tight reflexive relation with elit works (e.g. the ELD). We recognize these contributions, but we also examine how in many cases the unevenness of the existing field of critical discourse re-distributes and re-names these works as dealing with “new media” or “electronic culture,” or similar topics. Our second case study is Po.Ex, a collection of essays on intermedia and cybertext by authors from Portugal, currently being co-edited with Rui Torres, and due to be published in 2013 by the Computing Literature series - releasing print and ebooks - developed at West Virginia University, in collaboration with the University of Paris 8. The three primary contributions of the book are: 1) a historical model of elit within a continuum of avant-garde writing stretching back to the Middle Ages; 2) a hermeneutic model for finding meaning in electronic literature through intermediality; and 3) a semiotic model for the computer as the cybernetic extension of human creativity and as an enabling medium for merging writers with readers as mutual authors (as wreaders). While these essays demonstrably shaped the field of elit, especially in Europe, their influence is limited because new generations of artists, critics, and students of elit do not have access to the works. Our case studies shows that scholarly publishing as a critical practice can address such limitations. Our overall claim is that publishing can organize and create the field of discourse for elit. We conclude with proposals and questions for future directions of critical publishing on elit.

(Source: Authors' abstract ELO 2013: http://conference.eliterature.org/critical-writing/editing-electronic-literature-global-publishing-system)

Interview about the Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 1.

Excerpt from chapter 2 of Literary Machines. Susalito, CA: Mindful Press, 1981.

Talan Memmott is Assistant Professor of digital media and culture in the Digital Culture and Communications program at Blekinge Institute of Technology and an internationally known practitioner of electronic literature and digital art with a practice ranging from experimental video to digital performance applications and literary hypermedia. In June 2011 I met with Talan to discuss the history of beehive Hypertext Hypermedia Literary Journal, which he founded and edited.

A report on the issues and challenges, both conceptual and technical, the four-member editorial team (Laura Borràs, Talan Memmott, Rita Rayley, and Brian Kim Stefans) faced when assembling a collection of sixty works of electronic literature that aspired to be representative of a diverse, international field of literary practice.