Electronic Literature Lab

On December 31, 2020 Adobe dropped support of Flash software, a premier platform for net art popular in the late 20th century to first decade of the 21st. Within weeks, born-digital literature created with the software was no longer accessible to the public––including the 447 the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) had collected for its repository. By the end of January 2021 the Electronic Literature Lab’s efforts to restore ELO’s Flash archives began in earnest with a variety of methods: Ruffle.rs, Conifer, Webrecorder, and video recordings attained with the Pale Moon browser and the Wayback Machine.This exhibition, featuring 48 works the lab selected from the online journals and anthologies held in the ELO’s archives, lays bare both the importance of Flash as a platform for conveying highly experimental and compelling literary art and the challenges artists and preservationists face in keeping the art produced with it accessible to the public.

List of Artists and Works:

Annie Abrahams, "Séparation" / "Separation"Ingrid Ankerson & Megan Sapnar, "Cruising"Adriana de Barros, "Blinding Lights"Giselle Beiguelman and Helga Stein, "Code Movie 1"Alan Bigelow, "Brainstrips"Serge Bouchardon, "Toucher" / "Touch"Mez Breeze, "_Clo[h!]neing God N Ange-Ls_"Oni Buchanan, "The Mandrake Vehicles"David Clark, "88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the Left Hand)"Sharon Daniel and Erik Loyer, "Public Secrets"Juliet Davis, "Pieces of Herself"Claire Dinsmore, "The Dazzle as Question"Tina Escaja, "Pinzas de metal"Caitlin Fisher, "These Waves of Girls"Muriel Frega, "Alice in the 'Wonderbalcony'"Peter Howard, "Xylo"Yael Kanarek, Evann Siebens, Meeyoung Kim & Yoav Gal, "Portal"Aya Karpinksa, "mar puro"Rob Kendall, "Faith"David Knoebel, "Thoughts Go"John Kusch, "Red Lily"Deena Larsen, "Firefly"Donna Leishman, "Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw"Jason Edward Lewis, "Nine"Mark Marino, "Stravinsky's Muse"María Mencia, "Birds Singing Other Birds's Songs"Judd Morrissey, "The Jew's Daughter"Stuart Moulthrop, "Under Language"Jason Nelson, "i made this. you play this. we are enemies."Millie Niss, "The Dancing Rhinoceri of Bangladesh"Santiago Ortiz, "Bacterias Argentinas"Regina Pinto, "Café de Pao"Joerg Piringer, "Soundpoems I and II"William Poundstone, "3 Proposals for Bottle Imps"Kate Pullinger and babel, "Inanimate Alice, Episode 1: China"Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph, "Flight Paths"Brian Kim Stefans, "The Dreamlife of Letters"Reiner Strasser and M. D. Coverley, "ii — in the white darkness: about [the fragility of] memory"Reiner Strasser and Alan Sondheim, "Tao"Stephanie Strickland, "slipping glimpse"Thom Swiss, "Shy Boy"Rui Torres, "Amor de Clarice"Ana Maria Uribe, "Anipoemas"Dan Waber, "Strings"Christine Wilks, "Fitting the Pattern"Jody Zellen, "Disembodied Voices"Natalie Zeriff, "Meditation on a Barstool"John Zuern, "Ask Me for the Moon"

Woman E-Lit was a symposium that took place on March 30, 2021 during Women’s History Month celebrating women who have contributed to the field of electronic literature. It also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Electronic Literature Lab (ELL). The two events intersect in that it was important to the ELL Team to celebrate the lab's anniversary in a way that speaks to it mission––that is, to curate, document, preserve, and produce born digital literary works and other media. Hosting a symposium where women could come together to amplify achievements, provide a space of free and welcomed expression, and celebrate you, us, all of us, whether here today or not seemed to be the most joyful way to accomplish this goal.

Schedule:

9:00-9:10: Welcome & Introductions by Dene Grigar

9:10-9:30: "Women researchers in Latin American E-Lit," by Carolina Gainza, Rejane Rocha, Nohelia Meza, and Veroníca Gomez

9:30-9:40: "Provocation: Why Are Women Special?," by Lyle Skains

9:40-9:50: “Mothers and (sometimes unexpected) Daughters of E-Lit. On Polish women, (e-)literary theory, and VR poetry," by Agnieszka Przybyszewska

9:50-10:00: "Digital Poetry & Gendered Bodies," by Jeneen Naji

10:10-10:20: “Leading Women in the Assimilation of E-lit in Arabic Culture," by Eman Younis

10:20-10:30: “#Crossroads…,” by Annie Abrahams

10:30-10:40:  "Gender and Canadian Digital Poetics with Asterisks," by Dani Spinosa

10:40-10:50:  “Griottes of a New Age,”  by Judith Okonkwo

10:50-11:00: “Call to Action: Let Her Name Be Remembered,” by Dene Grigar

This is an activity whereby all participants at the event honor women who have shaped the field over the years by documenting their names and contributions.

"A Toast to the Flash Generation" took place on New Year’s Eve Day to celebrate the genius of the Flash Generation. Over 20 artists of Flash narratives, poetry, and essays will read and performed their works throughout the day via Zoom.

The term, “Flash Generation,” coined by theorist Lev Manovich in 2005, captured the zeitgeist of a new era of cultural production when artists and writers discovered they could express their creativity through movement, images, sound, and words through Flash software. Online journals like Poems That Go, Riding the Meridian, The Iowa Review Web, Caudron & Net, BeeHive, and many others, emerged as leading publishing venues for this new form of born digital media. During the heady period of 1999 to 2009, Flash influenced the development of net art, interactive art, Flash games, and literature, not to mention personal and organizational websites. It wasn’t until the rise of the Apple smart phone at the end of the first decade of the 21st century that Flash’s dominance as a viable form of digital production waned. After December 31, 2020 Adobe will discontinue its support for Flash, and all of this output will be threatened with obsolescence.

This event––besides celebrating the end of an important creative period and showcasing the wonderful Flash e-lit collected by the Electronic Literature Organization in its Repository––aimed to document it for posterity. The recordings and chat collected via Zoom will be held in the ELO Repository, has been made available on the Electronic Literature Lab’s Vimeo account, and will be published in Electronic Book Review.

During the event we provided information about the steps the Electronic Literature Lab is taking to preserve Flash works held in the Electronic Literature Repository and its own digital library. 

At the end of the event, Leonardo Flores, Chris Funkhouser and Dene Grigar lead the Toast to the Flash Generation.

Below is the program of readers/performers, featured works, and URLs to the work:

10:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. PSTWelcome: Dene Grigar, Anastasia Salter, Mariusz Pisarski

10:15 a.m.-10:30 a.m. PSTAnnie Abrahams (France) “Séparation,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/abrahams_separation/separation/index.htm

10:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m. PSTDan Waber (US): “Strings,” ELC1https://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/waber__strings/index.html

10:45 a.m.-11:00 a.m. PSTTina Escaja (Spain, US): “Pinzas de metal” (Forthcoming to the Repository)https://www.badosa.com/bin/obra.pl?id=n175

11:00 a.m.-11:15 a.m. PSTKate Pullinger (CAN, UK): “Inanimate Alice: Episode 1,” ELC1http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/pullinger_babel__inanimate_alice_episode_1_china/index.html

11:15 a.m.-11:30 a.m. PSTDonna Leishman (Scotland): “Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw,” TIRWhttp://www.6amhoover.com/xxx/start.htm

11:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m. PSTReiner Strasser (Germany) & Marjorie Luesebrink “– in the white darkness,” ELC1http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/strasser_coverley__ii_in_the_white_darkness/index.html

11:45 a.m.-12:00 p.m. PSTMaria Mencia, (Spain, UK) “Birds Singing Other Birds’ Songs,” ELC1http://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/mencia__birds_singing_other_birds_songs.html

12:00 p.m.-12:15 p.m. PSTChristine Wilks (UK): “Fitting the Pattern,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/wilks_fittingthepattern.html

12:15 p.m.-12:30 p.m. PSTClaudia Kozak/Leo Flores: Ana Maria Uribe (Argentina): From “Anipoemas,” TIRWhttps://www.elo-repository.org/TIRweb/tirweb/feature/uribe/uribe.html

12:30 p.m.-12:45 p.m. PSTRui Torres (Portugal): “Amor de Clarice,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/torres_amordeclarice.html

12:45 p.m.-1:00 p.m. PSTStephanie Strickland (US): “slippingglimpse,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/strickland_slippingglimpse/slippingglimpse/index.html

1:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m. PST Break

1:15 p.m.-1:30 p.m. PSTClaudia Kozak: Walkthrough of Regina Pinto’s “Museum of the Essential and Beyond That” (Brazil)https://www.elo-repository.org/museum-of-the-essential/

1:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m. PSTJim Andrews (Canada): “Nio,” Turbulence.orghttp://turbulence.org/Works/Nio/

1:45 p.m.-2:00 p.m. PSTAlan Bigelow (US): “This Is Not a Poem,” (Forthcoming to the Repository)https://webyarns.com/ThisIsNotAPoem.html

2:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m. PSTSerge Bouchardon (France): “Toucher,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/bouchardon_toucher/index.html

2:15 p.m.-2:30 p.m. PST Break

2:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m. PSTRob Kendall (US): “Faith,” Cauldron & Nethttps://elo-repository.org/cauldronandnet/volume4/confluence/kendall/title_page.htm

2:45 p.m.-3:00 p.m. PSTLeo Flores reads David Knoebel (US): “Thoughts Go,” ELC3http://collection.eliterature.org/3/works/thoughts-go/index.html

3:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m. PSTStuart Moulthrop (US): “Under Language,” TIRWhttps://www.elo-repository.org/TIRweb/vol9n2/artworks/underLanguage/index.htm

3:15 p.m.-3:30 p.m. PSTJody Zellen (US): “Disembodied Voices,” Turbulence.orghttp://www.disembodiedvoices.com/

3:30 p.m.-3:45 p.m. PSTErik Loyer (US) and Sharon Daniel (US): “Public Secrets,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/daniel_public_secrets/index.html

3:45 p.m.-4:00 p.m. PSTJason Nelson (US, AUS): “Game, Game, Game, and Again Game,” ELC2http://collection.eliterature.org/2/works/nelson_game_game_game/gamegame.html

4:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m. PSTDeena Larsen (US): “Firefly,” Poems That Gohttp://elo-repository.org/poemsthatgo/gallery/fall2002/firefly/index.html

4:15 p.m.-4:30 p.m. PSTMez Breeze (AUS): “_Clo[h!]neing God N Ange-Ls_,” Cauldron & Nethttps://elo-repository.org/cauldronandnet/volume2/features/mez/clone/cl…

4:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. PSTConversation and Toast: Leo Flores, Chris Funkhouser, and Dene Grigar