Twitter discussion & Review Series (cont.)

We began class last Tuesday evening with a continued discussion of electronic literature - this time on Twitter. A dynamic conversation ensued, spurned by our recent reading of Amanda Starling Gould's "A Bibliographic Overview of Electronic Literature".  Thank you to Prof. Gould for tweeting and sharing her insights with us, and thanks also to new media artist and scholar Stacey Mason, who joined in our conversation as well.

Please read my "Storify" of our different twitter conversation threads - #Elitclass discussion on twitter.  (I did not capture each and every tweet, but I attempted to highlight some of the topics we explored together.)  

I think we all found it inspiring (and exhilarating) to engage experts in the field beyond our own classroom.  This was truly a moment of connected learning.  Thanks to all of you for your thoughtful participation.  As I suggested in class, we might attempt to use twitter again at some point in order to engage e-lit artists about the production/creation/writing of e-lit. While last Tuesday's twitter conversation was more theoretical/conceptual, perhaps next time we can get some technical hands-on advice regarding digital tools and the e-lit creative process.

Next, we continued our Review Series:

Stephanie C. reviewed "Fitting the Pattern" - an interactive memoir incorporating the logic of dress making patterns, layered over a contemplation of identity and overdetermined maternal influence (tension between a mother's insistence on tradition and a daughter's search to find herself on her own terms).  The text features tools (scissors, needles, sewing machine, etc.) which you click to "construct" with (hence the interactivity).  Lexia manifests when you direct those chosen tools on the pattern.  The act of exploring the lexia is punctuated by sound (cutting and stiching sounds for example), and the screen is striking in contrasting bold black and white.  The only use of color is introduced with the lexia that appears when "constructing".  Stephanie illustrated how this text calls you to "play around".  The interactive aspect of "stitching things together" mirrors the piece's thematic concern with the delicate process of constructing an identity.  As Stephanie so aptly put "she feels her clothes should fit her, rather than she must fit her clothes".  The tone of this piece is stark, smart, probing, and cutting (no pun intended).

Vanessa reviewed the lovely "Like Stars in A Clear Night Sky".  This is a flash-hypertext poem.  It is elegant, simple - the screen is a dark night sky with a constellation of stars which become the access point for further poetic lexia.  Readers can explore the sky of interconnected poems at random.  There is an introductory voice-over poem in Arabic (with translation on screen in English).  The text is laced with ambient sounds of wind-chimes, offering the effect of a recollection of a distant place, a place of purity/simplicity, perhaps the "village"  of one's origin.  The tone of the text is soothing, calming, and dreamy - A reflective narrative voice repeats "I am full of stories", perhaps reminding the reader of that universal aspect of our human condition - that we are all "full of stories" - we are all a small universe within the larger universe.  Vanessa presented the this text effectively, pointing to the important theme of connectedness, and the way the text also invokes a sense of the vastness of the world.   

For next week's class:

1.  Read our class "Storify".  #Elitclass discussion on twitter

2.  Please read Kathi Inman Berens' blog post describing this week's exhibition on Electronic Literature at the Library of Congress - E-Literature at the Library of Congress.  This article includes a lot of information about the exhibit.  While reading the blog post you might consider how many of our class thoughts/concerns about the nature of e-lit are also incorporated into the logic/layout of this important exhibit.  In Dr. Berens' post you will also read about the Spine Poetry project.  Please make your own book spine poem - arrange your book spines, snap a pic, and then post it in spinepoetry.com to be included in the Library of Congress exhibit.

Spine poetry example:

3.  Your blog assignment for next week's class - please post your spine poem that you also submitted to spinepoetry.com.

4.  Please read the Project 2 assignment carefully before class next week -

Your next project = a non-hypertext work of digital literature. That leaves a lot to choose from - and hopefully as we continue to read through more e-lit texts via our Review Series you will gather some ideas. 

The idea for Project 2 is to give you another chance to explore - experiment with ideas + digital lit forms. The one requirement not stated on the sheet is that you do something VERY DIFFERENT from what you did for Project 1. The point is to get a range of experiences under your belt - so when you work on your final project - you have some experiences/material to draw from.  We will spend some time exploring/talking about what you can do with software that is readily available as a free download (Audacity, digital story software, etc) or in the "regular" software suites that come with most computers (like powerpoint). The assignment sheet for Project 2 is now also posted on this class blog under "class assignments".  Please note the project schedule, since dates are now coming up quickly.

Next Tuesday we will quickly finish up the remaining lightening round presentations on Project 1, then continue our Review Series with presentations from Joe & Andria.  We will close out our class with a thorough discussion of Project 2.  

Review Series (continued) & Project 1 Showcase

We continued our Review Series this evening with two informative and engaging presentations by 
Debbie and Heather- 

Debbie opened up the evening's discussion with the beautiful flash poem "Faith".  She shared with us that she was drawn to the poem due to its stark simplicity.  As she stated - "Faith" provides clear sense of an ending.  After our earlier experiences exploring hyperlink texts, this poem's recognizable "closure" was just the reassurance Debbie was seeking as a reader (and I am sure she is not alone in this admittance).  But we all soon discovered through Debbie's comprehensive and thoughtful presentation of this work that the perceived simplicity was indeed deceptive.  "Faith" can only be described as "layered" in the literary sense.  This kinetic/animated flash poem thrives on movement and punctuations with sound.  We discussed the allusions to the sacred (read "illuminated manuscript") and the signification implicit in both it's use of font color and audio track.  The flash elements foregrounded a playful exploration of textual logic, and an editor's sensibility.  We agreed it was a beautiful and complex poem.

Heather introduced to us to another beautiful text entitled "In the White Darkness".  This poetic mediation on the nature of memory was a piece that Heather said she was drawn to right away.  The text resonated with her, and she understood it's meaning instinctively.  "In the White Darkness" is a flash poem using pulsating nodes layered over a veiled screen of nature.  The reader is immediately drawn into a gentle but sad world of fleeting references, like the pieces of experienced time and space that we catch glimpses of, and sometimes lose altogether.  Heather shared with us the Japanese aesthetic influences she noticed (and the faded kangi in one nodal link).  The overall effect of this flash text is "a presentation of one person's present" - the fragmented nature of what we can re-member in the present, and the traces of what might be lost (or is being lost).  We agreed that the tone of the piece invokes a kind of sorrow, and it prompts questions about the erasure of identity when our memory cannot contain our experiences throughout time.  Heather did a great job of articulating the power of this text.

I am really enjoying our "Review Series" thus far.  Each one of you is doing a thorough job of taking us through a new discovery in Electronic Literature.

In the second half of class, we had "lightening round" presentations of your hypertext projects. Wow. What great work you did!  Innovative, stretching the boundaries of what hypertexts do, fun!
For those of you who were not in class or have not presented- you will have an opportunity to present your work next week.

Class next week - we will start with a twitter discussion with "guest scholar" Amanda Starling Gould from Duke University.  We will be discussing her article A Bibliographic Overview of Electronic Literature
Please prepare comments and/or questions for Professor Gould who will be tweeting with us for the first hour of class next week (this is your blog assignment for next week - see below).  While tweeting next week, please remember to always use the #elitclass hashtag so we can easily archive our class discussion.  After we finish our discussion with our guest scholar, we will continue our Review Series.  Stephanie C. will discuss "Fitting the Pattern" and Vanessa will discuss "Like Stars in a Clear Night Sky".  We will then have a short "lightening round" of the remaining Project 1 presentations.  With the remaining time left, I will discuss Project 2 as I review the assignment requirements, projected timeline, etc.

Your blog post for next week:
Please write a reflection - your thoughts/questions resulting from reading Amanda Gould's article on Electronic Literature.

Have a great week, and see you next Tuesday.

Hypertext Workshop

Tonight we kicked off our Review Series with two excellent presentations by Luis and Peter.

"Savoir-Faire" seems derivative of the mystery or detective fiction genre.  With its prolific use of "clues" to move the reader through the narrative, is requires a process of complex deduction.  Luis shared with the class that this text challenged his memory, and he quickly learned to take notes (old-fashioned style) in order to navigate the environment more effectively.  I have often thought of reading as detective work, so in the most explicit sense "Savoir-Faire"-as-interactive-detective-fiction seems to emphasize the notion of reading as deliberation, inference, and discovery.  Luis felt that this text was a true "immersion" into a new imaginary world.  In this sense, he was confident that it qualified as "literature".

Peter reviewed "The Cape" - a melding of visual art with a truly literary sensibility.  Themes explored in the text include geology, memory, sound waves, water flow, erosion of time & space, etc.  The text is an intriguing combination of official records (geological, cartographic, weather forecasting) with the remaining traces of personal memory (blurred or obscured photographs, reminders of moments in time with people now left behind).  Peter pointed out that one of the final links in the text includes a link to the author's personal narrative of her artistic process in producing/writing "The Cape".  He felt that this "back story" really opened up his engagement and understanding of this beautiful yet somewhat elusive text.  We reflected on the implications of including a reference to authorial intent in the artistic text itself. 

Thanks to both Luis and Peter for their thorough and informative presentations tonight.

I want to remind you all that you are all each other's "best resource" for figuring out the tech elements that support your creative work for our class.  Share what you have figured out, ask for support from classmates who seem to have familiarity or confidence with certain software, and try to build collegial connections/friendships with your classmates when working on your projects.  The workshop sessions are meant to foster this kind of class culture.  When Heather and Maria shared their anecdote of reading The Jew's Daughter together, I thought their account provided everyone with a great model for proceeding with class work.  I encourage you all to share your knowledge and support each other.

I have enjoyed speaking with you all about your process with the Hypertext project thus far. You now have the week of Spring Break to finish up your project.  When we meet on March 19th, be prepared to have your project open and ready for others to explore/read/discover.

For your March 19th blog (Blog #5) please post the following:

• a short introductory statement or “abstract” to characterize what your text “does”
• any instructions or suggestions for readers to have a successful experience
• a link to the readable/playable version of your hypertext

Please remember that you should each have four completed blog posts by now.  On March 19th you will submit your 5th blog post which should include the above listed content and the link to your hypertext.  Based on your recent blog posts and our discussion tonight, I am really looking forward to March 19th when we will all read through your finished projects. We will start off class with review presentations from Debbie & Heather.  Then we will proceed through a showcase of each of your Hypertext Projects.

Have a great Spring Break and see you in two weeks.