{"id":564,"date":"2013-03-07T10:06:53","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T18:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/?page_id=564"},"modified":"2013-03-30T15:15:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-30T22:15:02","slug":"denes-curatorial-statement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/denes-curatorial-statement\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cOn Evolving and Emerging Literary Forms:\u00a0 A Curatorial Statement for \u2018Electronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms’\u201d<\/b><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

by Dene Grigar, PhD, Associate Professor & Director, The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program, Washington State University Vancouver<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction<\/b><\/div>\n
\"nao-small\"<\/a>

Eduardo Kac, \u201cNao!\u201d (1982\/84)<\/p><\/div>\n

The title of this exhibit could very well have been \u201cLiterary Experimentation from Print to Electronic\u201d or \u201cThe Human Impulse toward Literary Expression,\u201d or even \u201cThe Evolution of Literary Form,\u201d for they all capture particular nuances that we convey with this show.\u00a0 But \u201cElectronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms,\u201d the title we have chosen, makes it clear that the exhibit focuses on the specific literary form of electronic literature and the way artists have experimented over time with it. \u00a0The design of the exhibit lays bare this notion:\u00a0 On the one hand, the Library of Congress\u2019s Whittall Pavilion is arranged so that the five Electronic Literature Stations are located in the prime location, i.e. the center of the room, underscoring electronic literature\u2019s prominence as both concept and artifact; on the other, the display of print works comprising the five Context Stations showing connections to and contextualizing the experiments of artists creating for the electronic medium is organized to its left, hinting to chronology and antecedents of form.\u00a0 Creation Stations on the right hand side of the space suggest opportunities for visitors to engage actively with creating literary art.<\/p>\n

As such, the exhibit builds on scholarship by Eduardo Kac and C. T. Funkhouser to make the argument\u2013\u2013one expressed experientially rather than in written form\u2013\u2013that electronic literature is a natural outgrowth of literary experimentation and human expression with roots in print literary forms and, so, constitutes an organic form generating from the dynamic human spirit that is evolving, will continue to evolve through time and medium. \u00a0No matter the medium\u2013\u2013orality, writing, print, electronic, mobile\u2013\u2013give an artist something, anything, to create with\u2013\u2013air, animal skin, paper, computer screen\u2013\u2013and she or he will find a way to use it for making art.\u00a0 This impulse is, after all, a feature of our humanity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Describing Electronic Literature<\/b><\/div>\n
\"elc2\"<\/a>

The Electronic Literature Organization’s Electronic Literature Collection 2<\/p><\/div>\n

But what is<\/i> electronic literature?, you may ask. It is generally defined as a \u201cdigital born\u201d literary work\u2013\u2013that is, \u201ca first generation digital object created on a computer and (usually) meant to be read on a computer\u201d (Hayles 3).\u00a0 In a world dominated today by smart phones and tablets, the term computer has come to include also a computing device<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Electronic literature was not digital born yesterday but rather has been in existence for over five decades, starting with Th\u00e9o Lutz\u2019s 1959 computer generated poem, entitled \u201cStochastische Texte\u201d (Kac 273; Funkhouser xix), and has been available commercially since the early 1990s with works published by Eastgate Systems. \u00a0Its history has been inextricably linked to and enriched by experimentation generating from various art forms including literature, the visual arts, sonic art, performance, and cinema, and it is influenced by code and platforms associated with computer science.\u00a0 Thus, electronic literature is a hybrid art form that requires its readers to utilize various sensory modalities, such as sight, sound, touch, movement, when experiencing it.\u00a0 Just as one does not expect music to play when opening a book, one does come to expect it, for example, in web-based work like Erik Loyer\u2019s \u201cStrange Rain\u201d or Thom Swiss\u2019s \u201cShy Boy,\u201d both found in this exhibit.<\/p>\n

Within electronic literature one finds many genres\u2013\u2013some of them reflected in this exhibit, like hypertext poetry, hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, kinetic poetry, generative text, interactive drama, to name a few.\u00a0 Key to understanding electronic literature is the construction of the genre\u2019s name\u2013\u2013that is, a mechanic feature complementing a traditional literary genre, i.e. hypertext and<\/i> poetry, kinetic and<\/i> poetry, interactive and<\/i> drama.\u00a0 Function and form are rendered obvious in a way that we do not notice in print.\u00a0 So accustomed we have become to the technology of the book and writing that we no longer think of them as technology\u2013\u2013but they are.<\/p>\n

Despite being actually middle age, electronic literature is still relatively young in the eyes of the general public (and in comparison to print).\u00a0 However, recent articles and posts in Salon.com<\/i> (\u201cAfter e-literature, there\u2019s no going back\u201d) and The Huffington Post<\/i> (i.e. \u201cNew Wor(l)d Order: E-lit Plays With Language\u201d) and readings at The Kitchen in NYC in 2012 and 2013, along with its mainstreaming with traditional literature at the Modern Language Association and Association of Writers and Writing Programs go far in raising awareness of electronic literature.\u00a0 Likewise, the growth of the Digital Humanities, with its focus on new approaches to research and teaching, has helped to foster interest in it.\u00a0 In fact, this exhibit exists because of the intervention of digital humanist scholars, particularly Research Assistant Professor and THATCamp Coordinator at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University Amanda French and the Library of Congress\u2019s Susan Garfinkel, who were eager to see it \u201cintroduced\u201d widely to a general public.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mounting an Exhibit of Electronic Literature at the Library of Congress<\/b><\/div>\n
\"curatorial-model\"<\/a>

The Curatorial Model (image by Dene Grigar)<\/p><\/div>\n

As Iwona Blazwick and Simon Wilson explain in Tate Modern:\u00a0 The Handbook<\/i>, \u201cWorks of art are rarely encountered in isolation. \u00a0They are experienced in relation to each other and articulated by the architectronics of a building and the unconscious choreography of other people\u201d (31).\u00a0 This approach to curating sees the curator, art, space, and audience colluding to produce an exhibit.\u00a0 Years of curating also teach us that the curator is responsible for orchestrating as much of the experience as possible and, then, steps back, allowing the exhibit to unfold.\u00a0 In the case of the Library of Congress, foundational as it is to American culture and the literary arts, the curator must make a mindful connection to the vast riches that the Library houses and match the beauty and grandeur of the space it inhabits.<\/p>\n

The Library of Congress\u2019s mission as the center of learning is clear: \u201cto further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people.\u201d\u00a0 What better way to demonstrate this concept of \u201cprogress\u201d than with an exhibit focusing on what can only be called innovative literature and its evolution from print to electronic for both desktop and mobile environments?<\/p>\n

The curatorial design of \u201cElectronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms\u201d responds to this mission.\u00a0 We have organized the exhibit into three main sections that, taken together, make the argument that literature is a natural outgrowth of literary experimentation and human expression with roots in print literary forms and, so, constitutes an organic form generating from the dynamic human spirit that is evolving, will continue to evolve through time and medium.\u00a0 Media from the Library\u2019s collections are displayed on five \u201cContext Stations\u201d located on the left hand side of the space; electronic literature, displayed on five \u201cElectronic Literature Stations\u201d situated in the middle of space; and finally, materials provided for hands-on workshops on \u201cCreation Stations,\u201d available on the right hand side of the space.\u00a0 As mentioned previously, the Context Stations are envisioned to show connections to and contextualize the experiments found on the Electronic Literature Stations. These stations are organized to the left, hinting to chronology and antecedents of form, and the Creation Stations suggest opportunities for visitors to engage actively with creating literary art, both print and electronic.<\/p>\n

\"spine_sonnet-art\"<\/a>

Jody Zellen’s “Spine Sonnet”<\/p><\/div>\n

Showing the relationship between electronic literature and literary experiments generating from the print medium goes far in establishing electronic literature as a natural outgrowth of artistic experimentation not unlike that which has occurred in the print medium, e.g. cut up poetry or artist books.\u00a0 The collections of works selected for exhibit along with electronic literary works, such as books, manuscripts, and other artifacts, offer a wealth of resources that help us make this case.\u00a0 The Library\u2019s edition of Laurence Sterne\u2019s Tristam Shandy<\/i>, on view from the Rare Book and Special Collections on Thursday, April 4, a novel criticized at the time of its publication for plagiarism, suggests remixing source texts.\u00a0 This concept is connected to Jody Zellen\u2019s \u201cSpine Sonnet,\u201d located on Electronic Literature Station #3, a generative poem that remixes titles of books found on their spine into sonnets.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the exhibit is located in the Whittall Pavilion on the ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, certainly one of the most elaborately decorative buildings of the 19th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Thinking through the layout and design of the space has prodded us to consider such details as using large screen iMacs for displaying the works and selecting specific colors for the wallpaper for computer screens.\u00a0 All aesthetic decisions made about this exhibit have been thought through and carefully considered.<\/p>\n

\"waber-strings-72rgb\"<\/a>

Dan Waber’s “Strings”<\/p><\/div>\n

Most importantly, the conceptual framework developed for the exhibit has informed all decisions for the selection of works.\u00a0 The Library of Congress\u2019s stature as the nation\u2019s<\/i> library makes it apparent that the exhibit should focus on major American artists and influential pioneers working in any language and whose art fits the classic definition of electronic literature. \u00a0The Library\u2019s appeal to a wide audience with more than 1.7 million onsite visitors each year and more than 77 million visits and 581.1 million page views on the it website means that the works chosen need to reflect a broad spectrum of genres and approaches, e.g. \u00a0kinetic poetry, hypertext fiction, animated graphic novels, augmented reality environments.\u00a0 Finally, common to all works is the quality of \u201cliterariness,\u201d whether it be articulated through the use of language, the presence of narrative or poetic elements, or as Hayles refers to as \u201ccreative artworks that interrogate the histories, contexts, and productions of literature, including as well the verbal art of literature proper\u201d (4).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Electronic Literature Stations<\/b><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Electronic Literature Station 1: \u00a0From Concrete to Kinetic Poetry<\/div>\n

Eduardo Kac, \u201cNao<\/a>!\u201d (1982\/84)
\nDan Waber, \u201cStrings<\/a>\u201d (1999)
\nThom Swiss, \u201cShy Boy<\/a>\u201d (2002)
\nRobert Kendall, \u201cFaith<\/a>\u201d (2002 )
\nA. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz, \u201cAfeeld<\/a>\u201d (2010)<\/p>\n

The affordances the electronic medium, particularly broadband internet access and graphical user interface (GUI) browsers like Netscape, made it possible for computers to display and disseminate works that featured movement and sound. These innovations provided the opportunity for electronic literature artists to animate concrete poetry and distribute it online to large audiences. This station highlights such experiments, beginning with Eduardo Kac\u2019s \u201cNao!,\u201d originally presented as an electronic sign board, then, later offered online. The works by Waber, Swiss, and Kendall were produced at the height of net art\u2019s (short for \u201cinternet net\u201d) popularity in the first decade of the 21st century, and Liszkiewicz\u2019s at its end. The introduction of smart mobile devices in the latter part of the decade provided new outlets of expression for artists creating kinetic poetry but also posed a challenge to those using Flash software because the Apple Corporation chose not to support it on the iPhone and iPad. None of these works, in their current format, are available on Apple smart mobile devices.<\/p>\n

Electronic Literature Station 2: \u00a0From Cut Up to Broken Up<\/div>\n

Michael Joyce, afternoon: a story<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1990)
\nStuart Moulthrop, Victory Garden<\/em><\/a> (1991)
\nJudy Malloy,\u00a0its name was Penelope<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(1993)
\nJennifer T. Ley, The Body Politic<\/em><\/a> (1999)
\nM.D. Coverley, Egypt:\u00a0 The Book of Going Forth by Day<\/em><\/a> (2006)
\nStephanie Strickland, \u201cslippingglimpse<\/a>\u201d (2007)<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to say I may have seen my son die today.\u201d This poignant line from Michael Joyce\u2019s hypertext novel, afternoon: a story, can easily be missed considering the story is broken up into 539 different chunks of text (called \u201clexias\u201d) organized as nodes, with thousands of links providing multiple pathways to them. Thus, the story can be configured as the reader chooses. The concept of hypertext comes to us from Theodor (Ted) Nelson who saw literature as \u201ca system of interconnected writings.\u201d He himself was influenced by William S. Burroughs who viewed \u201cthe reading experience as one of entering into a multi-directional web of different voices, ideas, perceptions, and periods of time\u201d and \u201cthe cut-up as a tool that let the writer discover previously undetected connections between things, with potentially enlightening and subversive results\u201d (Packer & Jordan). Station 2 features six different hypertext works created over a 17 year time period, from 1990 to 2007. All make bold use of hypertext\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n

Electronic Literature Station 3: \u00a0From Pong to Literary Games<\/div>\n

Nick Montfort, \u201cAd Verbum<\/a>\u201d (2000)
\nEmily Short, \u201cGalatea<\/a>\u201d (2000)
\nJason Nelson, \u201cGame, game, game and again game<\/a>\u201d (2007)
\nAlan Bigelow, \u201cThis Is Not a Poem<\/a>,\u201d (2010)
\nJason Edward Lewis, P.O.E.M.M. Cycle<\/em><\/a> (2011)
\nJody Zellen, \u201cSpine Sonnet<\/a>\u201d (2012)
\nMark Marino, \u201cLiving Will<\/a>\u201d (2012)<\/p>\n

Against a black screen, a white ball bounces as you hit it with your white paddle. It is 1975, and you are playing Pong, the video game that gives birth to the video game industry. It was not much of a leap for literary artists exposed to such games to see their potential as a medium for telling stories or making poetry. The concept of the literary game has long existed throughout our cultural history. The literary riddle, like the one posed by the sphinx in Sophocles\u2019 Oedipus<\/em>, provides one such example. Thus, the notion of literary games is not an oxymoron. It constitutes a form that provides us \u201cludic pleasure\u201d (Montfort 2). All of the works shown here, from Montfort\u2019s and Short\u2019s interactive fiction, to Nelson\u2019s and Bigelow\u2019s satirical and gameful net art, to Lewis\u2019s and Zellen\u2019s playful mobile apps, to Marino\u2019s acerbic political commentary, show the breath of possibilities that literary games offer.<\/p>\n

Electronic Literature Station 4: \u00a0From the Great American Novel to the Digital Multimodal Narrative<\/div>\n

Rand Miller, Robyn Miller, & David Wingrove, Myst<\/em>\u00a0(1993)
\nIngrid Ankerson & Megan Sapnar, \u201cCruising<\/a>\u201d (2001)
\nMichael Mateus & Andrew Stern,\u00a0Fa\u00e7ade<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(2005)
\nEvan Young & Geoffrey Young, The Carrier<\/em><\/a> (2009)
\nSteve Tomasula, TOC the Novel<\/em><\/a> (2009)<\/p>\n

F. Scott Fitzgerald said, \u201cAn author ought to write for the youth of his own generation, the critics of the next, and the schoolmasters of ever after.\u201d It is this notion of writing to one\u2019s generation, of capturing the zeitgeist of American cultural history, that gave rise to the pursuit of the Great American Novel. The benchmark of talent and vision of an artist, the Great American Novel has been attributed to many books, including Fitzgerald\u2019s own The Great Gatsby<\/em>. Electronic literature artists have also produced long narrative fiction that fits this genre. Myst<\/em>, The Carrier<\/em>, and TOC the Novel<\/em> constitute such examples. \u201cCruising\u201d and Fa\u00e7ade provide points of comparison. \u201cCruising\u201d is a short spoken word poem about cruising the strip of suburban America. The interactive narrative Fa\u00e7ade experiments with 1st person narrative common to many video games. All incorporate multimedia, making reading a rich multisensory experience. Other works in this exhibit\u2013\u2013Joyce\u2019s afternoon: a story<\/em><\/a>, Moulthrop\u2019s Victory Garde<\/em>n<\/a>, Coverley\u2019s Egypt<\/em><\/a>\u2013\u2013may also be viewed as examples of the Great American Novel in this early age of digital literary art.<\/p>\n

Electronic Literature Station 5: \u00a0From Artists\u2019 Books to Electronic Art<\/div>\n

Talan Memmott, Lexia to Perplexia<\/em><\/a> (2000)
\nErik Loyer, \u201cStrange Rain<\/a>\u201d (2010)
\nElectronic Literature Collection 2<\/em><\/a>, [\u201cbook\u201d format] (2011)
\nAmaranth Borsuk & Brad Bouse, Between Page and Screen<\/em><\/a> (2012)<\/p>\n

Through her interactions with artists\u2019 books, N. Katherine Hayles makes the connection between materiality and content, arguing that \u201celectronic textuality could be brought into focus by comparing it to print, just as the conventions, materiality, and specificities of print could become more apparent by comparing them to electronic work\u201d (Writing Machines 65). Memmott\u2019s, Loyer\u2019s, and Borsuk and Bouse\u2019s electronic literary art, featured at this station, may be viewed as an electronic version of an artists\u2019 book in that they possess a strong design aesthetic and a unique realization of the medium. Combined with the playful use of language, they delight and compel us to engage with them. The Electronic Literature Collection 2<\/em> has been included in this exhibit because of its material presentation. A small, seemingly hand-made book opens to a flash drive, housed within, that contains 63 works of electronic literature, thus surprising the reader with the juxtaposition of print and digital artifact.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/div>\n

As visitors experience the exhibit and see the connections made between past and present works of literary art\u2013\u2013where it has come from and where it has arrived\u2013\u2013we invite them to think about where it is headed. Literature is, like all of us, dynamic. Creator and the created, both evolving and emerging forms, organic and alive, always in a state of becoming.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

References<\/b><\/div>\n

Blazwick, Iwona and Wilson, Simon. \u00a0Tate Modern:\u00a0 The Handbook<\/i>.\u00a0 London, Tate Publishing, 2000.<\/p>\n

Chamber, Roland.\u00a0 \u201cAfter e-literature, there\u2019s no going back.\u201d Salon.com.<\/i> \u00a029 Oct. 2012. http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2012\/10\/29\/after_e_literature_theres_no_going_back\/.<\/p>\n

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. \u00a0“Letter to Booksellers’ Convention,” April 1920.<\/p>\n

Funkhouser, C. T.\u00a0 Prehistoric Digital Poetry:\u00a0 An Archaeology of Forms, 1959-1995<\/i>.\u00a0 Tuscaloosa, AL:\u00a0 The University of Alabama Press, 2007.<\/p>\n

Hayles, N. Katherine.\u00a0 Electronic Literature:\u00a0 New Horizons for the Literary<\/i>.\u00a0Notre Dame, IN:\u00a0 Notre Dame Press, 2008.<\/p>\n

—. Writing Machines<\/em>. \u00a0Cambridge, MA: \u00a0The MIT Press, 2002.<\/p>\n

Kac, Eduardo.\u00a0 Media Poetry:\u00a0 An Anthology<\/i>.\u00a0 Bristol, UK:\u00a0 Intellect Press, 2007.<\/p>\n

Montfort, Nick. \u00a0Twisty Little Passages: \u00a0An Approach to Interactive Fiction<\/em>. \u00a0Cambridge, MA: \u00a0The MIT Press, 2003.<\/p>\n

Nelson, Theodor. Literary Machines<\/em>. \u00a01984. \u00a02.<\/p>\n

Packer, Randall & Ken Jordan. \u00a0Multimedia: \u00a0From Wagner to virtual Reality<\/em>. \u00a0NY, NY: \u00a0W.W. Norton & Co., 2002. \u00a0http:\/\/www.w2vr.com\/overture\/datawork.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Szilak, Illya.\u00a0 New Wor(l)d Order: E-lit Plays With Language. The Huffington Post<\/i>.\u00a0 7 Feb. 2013. http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/illya-szilak\/digital-literature_b_2605389.html.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cOn Evolving and Emerging Literary Forms:\u00a0 A Curatorial Statement for \u2018Electronic Literature & Its Emerging Forms’\u201d   by Dene Grigar, PhD, Associate Professor & Director, The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program, Washington State University Vancouver   Introduction The title … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":78,"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002,"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564\/revisions\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dtc-wsuv.org\/elit\/elit-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}