Maria Engberg is a lecturer at Blekinge Tekniska Högskola in Karlskrona, Sweden, and a researcher in digital media and literature. David Prater interviewed her about electronic literature pedagogy as part of Cordite's 'Electronica' issue. The interview also features quotes from participants at the ELMCIP workshop on E-lit Pedagogy held in Karlskrona in June 2011.
There are some works that I would consider classics, but I taught that course over five years and what did really change was the examples – I really shifted them around. There are certain works you have to present in order to give a fair overview of the field. I’ve included afternoon: a story by Michael Joyce; I have included John Cayley’s works – usually riverIsland but I’ve changed that as well, in terms of an example of code work or engagement with algorithms.
"Ingenstans (meaning "nowhere" in Swedish) is a video project about living between languages, trading American city life for village life in Sweden, or somewhere, nowhere. As a whole, the film could be taken as a (quasi-)ethnographic film, combining elements of documentary film with narrative film, spurious accounts of cultural icons, and reenactments of actual events. INGENSTANS was shot in Karlskrona Sweden, Copenhagen, Paris, Amsterdam, and California. The video is in English and Swedish with fleeting moments in Bulgarian, Italian, French, and Chinese. (running time 20 minutes)" (http://talanmemmott.com/video.html).
