genealogy

Since the 1960s, several Peruvian poets, insular and heirs to an experimental poetic tradition, created works with visual and verbal elements that advanced the presence of poetry in electronic media and platforms. Works such as those by Jorge Eielson, Raquel Jodorowsky, Ricardo Falla, Enrique Verástegui, César Toro Montalvo or Juan Ramirez Ruiz already showed in Peruvian creators an awareness of the existence and assimilation of electronic media to their productions based on references to circuits electronic (1964), computers (1973-1988) and formal and experimental games with the algorithm (1977). Works like these are used in key antecedents to reimagine the Peruvian poetic tradition, but, at the same time, they raise the need for an approach that analyzes and discusses the adoption of the media as part of poetic experimentation to understand, in all its dimensions, at the time of the internet boom and its platformization, the work carried out in later decades by José Aburto with interactive poems using Flash (2000); Oswaldo Chanove through the possibilities of the hyperlink in a web platform (2001); Enrique Beó with hypertext poems in binary language through Wix and Issuu (2010); and Rafael García Godos with MVX0 a video game poem programmed in Unity (2017). Therefore, the objective of this panel is to show how, since the 2000s, Peruvian poets have inhabited digital platforms with works that used different technologies in trend, as practices related to what was previously developed by their peers in the materiality of paper. For this, our research will focus on this problem from a media archeology with two areas that must necessarily dialogue: discursive and digital. In the first case, to trace the insularity of these authors, we start from Michel Foucault's concept of genealogy as the study of a non-linear and heterogeneous history of knowledge, contextualized by power relations. In the second case, to show the jobs that were hosted on the Internet, we will use various rescue platforms such as wayback machine, for old websites; Ruffle, for work done in flash; and videos of the experience in the case of wix. The result of this work will be exposed in a data visualization on what we have called the origins of electronic poetry in Peru. In this way, we consider that a genealogical work must combine the apparatus of symbolic evaluation and the consequent use of platforms to counteract the absence of a critical and theoretical approach to this complex field, but also the obsolescence of technology.

For individuals who have suffered from abuse, working with hyperlink texts can, but does not necessarily, provide an opportunity to unpack trauma and experience catharsis. As a disclaimer, this should only be done with the support of a counselor as this sort of writing can also result in becoming retraumatized. “Thin Spaces” is a hyperlink text that introduces interactors to a narrator reliving her experiences of being in an abusive marriage and her subsequent PTSD. Through presenting this autobiographical IDN, the hope is to shed light on abuse cycles and demonstrate one way that they can be broken. “Thin Spaces” weaves through two timelines: a personal timeline of key moments surrounding the abuse and a genealogical timeline consisting of historical documents and family stories of the narrator’s ancestors. The blending of personal experience and genealogy shows that abuse can span generations. The initial framework of the story forms a cycle that culminates in a therapy session. This lexia’s single hyperlink takes readers back to an earlier lexia in the story. This earlier lexia maintains its initial hyperlinks but introduces a new option to break the cycle using an italicized sentence offset from the rest of the text. The strand of lexia proceeding from this new hyperlink moves interactors through the aftermath of the narrator’s divorce, culminating in the hope that survival is possible. Like PTSD, some options in the new lexia–with inverse colors from the initial cycle–cause the reader to re-experience the traumatic episodes of the piece and require them to make the conscious decision to either hit the previous screen arrow within Twine to exit that phase quickly or work through the abusive sections again to find their way back out of the abuse. Being given this choice ties to the aftermath of trauma in which some PTSD episodes can be resolved quickly through deep breathing, self-talk, or somatic strategies while other episodes resist these tactics and take longer to escape. The interactor must be cognizant of the strategy of clicking the previous screen arrow in order to avoid lapsing back into a more lengthy process of sifting through abusive flashbacks, which parallels abuse survivors needing to have the wherewithal to employ the strategies they learn in order to avoid more serious flashbacks or PTSD episodes. At its conclusion, “Thin Spaces” shifts to the narrator being in a healthier place, though still using coping mechanisms to deal with the effects of the trauma. The piece allows readers the choice to exit with the call of the common loon, a calming sound to soothe the interactor after this experience. With this presentation, the audience will have access to “Thin Spaces” and see how the author’s writing process during the Pandemic unfolded, including choices in structure and color as well as the personal experience of writing autobiographically about trauma while quarantining.

Michael Joyce’s hypertext fiction afternoon, a story was first publicly presented in 1987, and is generally known as the “granddaddy” of electronic literature (Coover, 1992). It has been anthologised by Norton, is substantially analysed and discussed in dozens of academic treatises and is taught or at least mentioned in almost every course taught on electronic literature. But afternoon is not the first work of electronic literature. Why did this particular work become the progenitor of a community of writers, a common reference point for scholars and students for the next 25 years? There were alternative possibilities. (The case has already been made that interactive fiction is equally a form of electronic literature - but IF is a distinct genre with a distinct community.) Why didn’t bp Nichols’ work “First Screening: Computer Poems” (1984) start a movement? Why are there no cricital discussions of Judy Malloy’s database narrative “Uncle Roger”, published on the WELL in 1986/97? This brief paper will question the role of the mythical progenitor in the creation of a creative communtiy. Why do we tend to imagine a father or “granddaddy” of a field? Are certain kinds of work more likely to be adopted as progenitor of a field, or does the choice of progenitor depend more on social networks, modes of distribution or even chance? Would electronic literature have been different today if Nichols or Malloy had been crowned as the grandparent of the field?

(Source: Author's abstract)

(Full text of paper available at http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/paper/genealogy-creative-community-why-afternoon-“granddaddy”-hypertext-fiction - not in sidebar because URL is invalid - but works.)