Electronic Literature Lab

For Advanced Inquiry into Born Digital Media

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  • People
  • History
  • Research Output
  • Projects
    • ELO’s The NEXT
    • Restorations & Reconstructions
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 1
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 2
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 3
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 4
    • Live Stream Traversals
  • Catalog
    • Beta Catalog
    • Expanded Catalog
  • Podcasts
  • CMDC Studios
  • Home
  • People
  • History
  • Research Output
  • Projects
    • ELO’s The NEXT
    • Restorations & Reconstructions
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 1
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 2
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 3
    • Rebooting Electronic Literature 4
    • Live Stream Traversals
  • Catalog
    • Beta Catalog
    • Expanded Catalog
  • Podcasts
  • CMDC Studios
ELL icon

About

Founded and directed by Dr. Dene Grigar, ELL contains 61 vintage Macintosh & PC computers, dating back from 1977, vintage software, peripherals, and a library of over 300 works of electronic literature and other media. It is used for the advanced inquiry into the curation, documentation, preservation, conservation, and production of born-digital art, literature, and video games. The lab has created and continues to manage the ELO's The NEXT and supports video game R&D through CMDC Studios.

For more information about the lab or for help with preserving or recovering born-digital work, contact Dr. Dene Grigar at dgrigar[at]wsu[dot]edu.

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CATALOG

Visit the online catalog of computers and media works; designed and coded by the CMDC technical assistant Greg Philbrook. The new version of the catalog with expanded entries is now on preview.

other labs icon

Other Media Archaeology Labs or Working Archives in the U.S.

Obsolete Computing & Media at the University of Victoria, directed by John Durno

Media Archaeology Lab at U of Colorado-Boulder, directed by Dr. Lori Emerson

The Trope Tank at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology, directed by Dr. Nick Montfort

The Deena Larsen Collection at the Maryland Institute in the Humanities at the University of Maryland, directed by Dr. Matthew Kirschenbaum, with Amanda Visconti

The Bill Bly Collection at the Maryland Institute in the Humanities at the University of Maryland, directed by Dr. Matthew Kirschenbaum, with Amanda Visconti, and Porter Olson

  • Updates

    Ruffle Implementation Report #5

    April 12, 2021 /

    The team has completed implementing ruffle.js to all of the 231 Flash works in the anthologies and online journals held in the Electronic Literature Organization’s repository. The last journal, The Iowa Review Web (TIRW), was completed over the weekend by Andrew and Arlo. 8 of 33 works from the journal could be preserved, amounting to a 28% success rate. This number is in keeping with our efforts with the other publications we have tried to preserve with this approach. We have not yet tackled the two Showcases, Turbulence and The Museum of the Essential and Beyond That or the many works in the Individual Artists and Scholars collections. We need to turn our attention…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    The Ethics of Digital Preservation: Obligation to Future Generations

    September 6, 2021

    Congrats to Holly, Kathleen, Mariah, and Moneca

    April 26, 2020

    Consider It Down

    September 22, 2019
  • Updates

    Ruffle Preservation Report #4

    April 6, 2021 /

    We are making progress with the Ruffle implementation. Thus far, the Undergraduate Researchers who are undertaking the project have applied ruffle.js and the accompanying note to the Flash works found in the Electronic Literature Collections 1, 2, and 3; Cauldron & Net, frAme, Poems That Go, Riding the Meridian, Word Circuits, and BeeHive. Left to do of the seven online journals is The Iowa Review Web, which they plan to complete by next weekend. All total, the team has been able to preserve 58 of the 198 Flash works published in six of the seven online journals. Below are screenshots of the spreadsheet containing the works we have managed to save. You…

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    Dene Grigar

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    ELL Activities

    September 29, 2018

    Live Stream Traversal of Judy Malloy’s its name was Penelope

    April 22, 2018

    Michael Joyce’s Traversal of Twilight, a Symphony

    January 20, 2021
  • Electronic Literature,  History,  Updates

    Woman E-Lit Event & Initiatives

    March 30, 2021 /

      Welcome to Woman E-Lit, a very special symposium that took place on March 30, 2021 during Women’s History Month celebrating women who have contributed to the field of electronic literature. It also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Electronic Literature Lab (ELL). The two events intersect in that it was important to the ELL Team to celebrate the lab’s anniversary in a way that speaks to it mission––that is, to curate, document, preserve, and produce born digital literary works and other media. Hosting a symposium where women could come together to amplify achievements, provide a space of free and welcomed expression, and celebrate you, us, all of…

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    Dene Grigar

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    Resetting the Table

    August 16, 2019

    Hacking Electronic Literature Workshop

    February 24, 2018

    Curatorial Statement for “Tear Down the Wall” Exhibition at ACM Hypertext ’19

    August 11, 2019
  • History,  Updates

    Celebrating 10 Years of the Electronic Literature Lab, Part 1

    March 13, 2021 /

    As I mention in the History section of this website, the idea for the Electronic Literature Lab was born out of the successful “Early Authors of Electronic Literature: The Eastgate School, Voyager Artists, and Independent Productions—Special Collection on loan from N. Katherine Hayles,” exhibition that I curated at ELO’s Visionary Landscapes conference held at WSUV in the summer 2008. Using legacy computers that I had collected and those lent to me by a former student in my program, Jeff Grisso, I was able to provide conference participants with the opportunity to experience, first-hand, hypertext literature and other forms of e-lit published on floppy disks on computers for which they had…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    CELL Confab with Joe Tabbi and Davin Heckman

    May 6, 2018

    Why a Lab Like ELL Is Needed for Digital Preservation and Archival Research

    November 12, 2018

    CMDC Studios: Video Games R&D

    June 9, 2022
  • History,  Updates

    Women’s History Month 2021

    February 28, 2021 /

    Join us in celebrating Women’s History Month 2021. This year we are highlighting the output by women working in the area of born-digital literature from all over the world. Each day we will post, on Twitter, one work by one woman artist or scholar. All works will be accessible on the web and all posts will be archived at the Electronic Literature Lab’s (ELL) website for future study. Additionally, you are welcome to nominate works to be featured. Each Sunday during the month of March, we will post links to works by women you wish to honor. To nominate, contact ELL’s Project Manager. Posts Monday, March 1 Join us today…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    Coping with Bits Project Meeting

    December 20, 2018

    Visitors to ELL

    June 17, 2013

    Panel Accepted for the AWP

    August 16, 2022
  • Updates

    Ruffle Preservation Report #3

    February 20, 2021 /

    This third report continues with our updates about the lab’s efforts to save Flash e-lit.  What Has Been Preserved Thus Far We finished preserving the Flash works published in the Electronic Literature Collections (ELC) 1, 2 & 3, Cauldron & Net, Word Circuits, and frAme. Yesterday Andrew Thompson and Arlo Ptolemy (the Ruff Rangers, as we now call them) began implementing Ruffle to the 37 works published in the 14 volumes of Poems That Go from 2001 to 2003. Ruffle Success Rate Here is the number of Flash works we have been able to save from each of the six publications: ELC 1: 12 of 26 ELC 2: 1 of…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    The Art and Science of Hypertext

    August 8, 2018

    Live Playthrough/Traversal/Performance of Robert DiChiara’s “A Sucker in Spades”

    September 3, 2020

    Planet Electronic Literature

    November 29, 2020
  • Updates

    The Challenges of Born-Digital Fiction: Editions, Translations, and Emulations

    February 14, 2021 /

    Mariusz Pisarski and I signed a contract with Cambridge University Press this week for a book entitled, The Challenges of Born-Digital Fiction: Editions, Translations, and Emulations, for its Digital Literary Studies Element Series, edited by Gabriel Hankins, Adam Hammond, and Katherine Bode. It will be delivered in June 2022. The book will address the growing concern about how best to maintain and extend the accessibility of early interactive novels and hypertext fiction or narratives. These forms of born-digital literature were produced before or shortly after the mainstreaming of the World Wide Web with proprietary software and on formats now obsolete. Preserving and extending them for a broad study by scholars of…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    Live Playthrough/Traversal/Performance of Robert DiChiara’s “A Sucker in Spades”

    September 3, 2020

    Celebrating Women in E-Lit

    February 29, 2020

    Love and Loss in Kendall’s A Life Set for Two

    April 5, 2018
  • News,  Updates

    Ruffle Preservation Report #2

    February 7, 2021 /

    This is second report about the work the lab is doing to preserve born-digital literature created with Adobe Flash.  Today the team (CMDC juniors Andrew Thompson and Arlo Ptolemy) finished implementing Ruffle on the works published in the Electronic Literature Collections, Volumes 1, 2 and 3. This week we will begin adding scholarly commentary to their intro pages to alert visitors about their accessibility.  Sadly, of the 235 works published in the three anthologies, only 16 could be preserved with Ruffle. Some others appear to function, but when compared to their original files (using the Pale Moon browser on a Windows computer) actually showed problems. The sound files in Maria Mencia’s “Birds…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    Completed the Development of the Metadata for Turbulence.org

    July 4, 2018

    Linking Literature & Games

    August 21, 2019

    Consider It Down

    September 22, 2019
  • Updates

    Saving Flash Works: Report #1

    January 31, 2021 /

    This is the first of several reports from the lab about its efforts to preserve born-digital literary works produced with Adobe Flash software. Where We Are and How We Got Here If you have been following us over the last two years, you may remember that we submitted a proposal, entitled “afterflash,” to the National Endowment for the Humanities in July 2019 to use Rhizome’s Conifer to preserve the 447 works published in the 12 publications hosted on the Electronic Literature Organization’s Repository. That proposal was rejected, but it received an evaluation of three “excellent” and two “very good.” We resubmitted that proposal in July 2020 with revisions that addressed…

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    Live Stream Traversal of Mary-Kim Arnold’s “Lust”

    May 8, 2018

    Chapter 1 of Rebooting Electronic Literature is Released

    January 28, 2018

    Deena Larsen’s Donation to ELO

    December 1, 2018
  • Updates

    Michael Joyce’s Traversal of Twilight, a Symphony

    January 20, 2021 /

    Read More
    Dene Grigar

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    Resurrecting Flash: Hands-On Workshop

    September 23, 2021

    Coping with Bits Project Meeting

    December 20, 2018

    Linking Literature & Games

    August 21, 2019
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People

Director: Dr. Dene Grigar, Professor, The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program

Associate Director: Dr. Richard Snyder, Blackburn Fellow, The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program

Technical and Instructional Assistant: Greg Philbrook, B.A., The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program

Project Manager & Senior Designer: Holly Slocum, B.A., The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program

Post-Bacc Researchers: Kathleen Zoller, Joel Clapp, Ruth Woodcock, Andrew Thompson, Arlo Ptolemy, Ariel Wallace, Sierra O'Neal, Ahria Nicholas, Stratton Slater, Danny Blanchard

PhD & 2022 PostDoc Fellow: Madison McCartha, UC Santa Cruz

ELO Fellow: Alexandra Martin, QUAM (Canada)

Research Affiliates: Mariusz Pisarski, PhD (Poland); Erika Fulop, Phd, Lancaster University (UK; Agnieszka Przybyszewska, PhD, University of Łódź (Poland)

This website was created by Katie Bowen, Mariah Gwin, Holly Slocum and Austin Fields. Madeleine Brookman produced the ELL logo. All custom icons were designed by Holly Slocum. It is managed by Dene Grigar

Copyright © 2018