@CailinJohnson
“Just as the twentieth century saw an explosion fo interest in the book as a medium, with an impressive canon of artists’ books and other experimental practices exploring the potential of the book as an artistic and literary venue, so electronic literature has seen a growing body of work that interrogates networked and programmable media as the material basis for artistic innovation and creation.” (Hayles). Electronic literature such as “Shy Boy” by Thom Swiss is not the same as printed literature. True electronic literature cannot be experience the way it is meant to be experienced on print. It uses code, color, animation and movement to created emotion, meaning and feelings out of a piece of work. “Nevertheless electronic text remains distinct from print it literally cannot be accessed until it is performed by properly executed code.” (Hayles). “Shy Boy” creates a very sad emotion with the use of the black, grey and white colors that flash on the screen as blocks. It also creates a feeling of sad emotion by the slow way the text moves across the screen. This type of art cannot be recreated by normal text. You would not get the same emotion from the story because you would not be able to have the movement of the text that creates the emotion to go along with the actual story. A “digital born” text cannot be correctly represented by print. Without the use of electronics you will not get the full work of art because it is created in something that it can only be fully experienced in.