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.