Post Conference Buzz

These are links and resources provided by conference participants. The idea behind each is to keep the conference discussion moving forward, as well as encourage participants to involve themselves and their work in other, similiar endeavors.


Selected Conference Papers and Art Works To Be Published
A selection of the best papers and art work featured at the Electronic Literature Organization 2008 conference will be published in a special issue of Leonardo Electronic Almanac.

This special issue of LEA will not be a publication of conference proceedings, but rather a collection of the best original ideas and art works presented at the conference and polished for publication. All works selected for publication will follow the LEA peer review process.

Conference presenters are invited to submit essay length papers and, additionally, a 300 word abstract/synopsis, a brief author biography, any related URLs, and all author contact details.

Artists who exhibited electronic literary works at the conference are invited to submit those works, along with a 300 word artist statement, a brief artist biography, any related URLs, and all artist contact details. Visual art should be sent in the form of .jpg files, sonic works as .mp3 files, and video and flash works as .mov files.

Download full details HERE.

 

Conference Publicity Roundup
The following list documents places were conference participants have written about their experiences.

 

Who's Linking to the ELO Conference Website?

 

6 June 2008—Live Audio-Video Workshop Information Available
Information from the Live Audio-Video Workshop is available for anyone interested. Both Steve Gibson and Stefan Müller Arisona are providing notes from their portions of the workshop.

Steve Gibson's portion of the workhop is available as a PowerPoint presentation, HERE.

Stefan Müller Arisona's portion of the workshop is available as a .pdf file, HERE.

 

6 June 2008—Invitation to Join Empyre
Empyre invites E-lit creators/theorist to participate in a dispersed writing experiment.

For the June, 2008 Empyre discussion (beginning June 7th), I want to try a writing experiment. There are no concrete rules, but rather I want to encourage everyone to play and explore methods/chances/ideas for placing writing around the net, to create/built/spin out nonlinear, internet dispersed fiction, poetics or creative non-fiction. Semantic word labels aside, any text really.  

Dispersed Fiction/Poetry is when writers utilize net conduits or places where users can enter data on the net for their creative writing. For example,  Review Sections in places like Cnet.com or Amazon or Ebay Entries or forums or googlegroups or Ask Yahoo etc....Using these places/spaces,  writers can create  a series of poems, create a character, a story, etc...which is then entered into these places. The writing most both address/play with the ideas/products etc....contained on the page the writing is entered. For example someone might write a strange story about dogs and include part of it on a fake Amazon review of a dog book  Or someone might create poems within Delicious reviews or in the forums of Metacritic.

During the month people on the list will experiment with this writing form. Exploring how it effects their wordsmithing, responses from other users of forums or review sections, and any and all other issues and possibilities which arise. In addition, after the first week of entering/creating textual bits in these net spaces,  crossovers can happen if multiple writers engage each other's text on these forums and groups, commenting on other's reviews or extending their poetics and fiction bits.

To "read" these works, we can explore various methods. Initially, I would suggest simply sending urls, or screen shots or web site grabs. I will create a flickr account for the screen shots.

Additionally, as a group we will use the same keyword so all dispersed writing can be read via a keyword search. Individual writers might want to add their own keywords.

A bit of a warning: As most review sections/forums/groups are moderated, sometimes your writing will either be deleted quickly or refused before being published. Therefore, you might enter your text in multiple locations to ensure its appearance.

Also, to begin I want to avoid Myspace and Facebook. Later in the month we might play in these lands.

To play you must sign up to Empyre.  http://www.subtle.net/empyre/ If you want to do more than play, and be an officially invited quest, meaning you will contribute for the entire month (a few post every few days for example), let me, Jason Nelson, know ( heliopod@gmail.com ).

Cheers, Jason Nelson

 

6 June 2008—Two Papers at Hyptertext 08
David Kolb will present two papers at Hypertext 08 that may be of interest to members of the ELO community. The first, "Making Revisions Hypervisible," concerns issues that arise when revising hypertexts. The second, "The Revenge of the Page," studies the way web argumentative hypertexts do not use complex link chains, and whether or not we should give up the ideal of hypertexts that make rhetorical gestures that are accomplished over complex link patterns. David does not think so and makes some suggestions about ways of overcoming the bias towards single-link rhetorical moves that he sees built into the structure of node-and-link hypertext. Both papers can be downloaded, as .pdf files, HERE.

 

5 June 2008—Kate Pullinger Artist Talk
Dear All—

My artist's talk was cancelled on Saturday evening and I was at the airport on Sunday at lunchtime. I was disappointed to not have the opportunity to present my work to such an interesting group of people, so I thought I'd send a brief mail about what I was going to show.

First off, I was going to say that the ongoing multimedia novel in episodes I create with my collaborator Chris Joseph, "Inanimate Alice," is about to launch "Episode 4: Hometown." Having the first episode of Alice included in the EL Collection was a huge boost for this work; it has also won a number of prizes and awards around the world. If you use Alice in new media courses at university level you might be interested to know there's a growing pedagogical project based around Alice called iTeach. There are lesson plans and other materials available online. As well as this, we are about to launch our first income-generating (we hope) strand to the project, a simple tool for creating multimedia stories using your own text, music, sounds, etc., iStories. In its first iteration this tool is aimed at primary schools and we will be licensing it through a government education body here in the UK, also next week, alongside Episode 4. You can find everything at www.inanimatealice.com—this is where Episode 4 will appear, as well as information about iTeach and iStories. 

But the main project I was bringing to ELO, and for which I was awarded the bursary, is "Flight Paths: a networked novel." "Flight Paths" is an attempt by myself and Chris Joseph to created a multimedia fiction on and through the internet, open to collaboration. We started the project off in a wordpress blog last autumn, but soon found that blogging software is not the best platform for creating and collecting multimedia content and discussion—a blog is a blog is a blog, no matter how much you try to manipulate it. So, earlier this year, we moved the project into a Netvibes Universe, adding a forum for discussion, and archiving the blog. We have had a steady stream of contributions (including one already from Sarah Atkinson at the conference!—or on her way home rather) and I had hoped to use my artist's talk to discuss the project and to invite you all to contribute to the project or the discussions arising from it. The basic story is about a young man who falls from the sky and the woman who witnesses his fall; it's built around issues to do with immigration, asylum, and consumerism. It's a slow-burner of a project and will develop over the next several years. We are having our first live event here in the UK on 16 June with one of our partners, Refugee Week, a national organization that spends one week every year celebrating the contributions that refugees have made and continue to make to life and culture here in Britain. Please check it out at www.flightpaths.net.

I had also planned to say that Chris and I have been commissioned by a publisher here in the UK to create a story for cell phones, "Jellybone."  It's a supernatural multimedia mystery with a ton of interactivity. We hope to launch the pilot episodes in October. 

Lastly, but not least, my fifth novel, A Little Stranger, was published in the US by Serpent's Tail just last month (it came out in Canada and the UK in 2006). 

Thanks very much to the ELO for the bursary I was awarded. Thanks to everyone there for making it such an interesting few days. Contact me at katepullinger@btinternet.com if you want any more information or to link up in any way.  And let's meet up if you are ever in London!

Best—Kate Pullinger

 

3 June 2008—Call for Work from AstroDime Transit Authority
CALL FOR WORK: Dropout
Postmark DEADLINE September 15 2008

Seeking video, documentary and animation entries in relation to the idea of digital dropout for Volume 4 of INtransit, produced by the AstroDime Transit Authority. How does the loss or corruption of data alter information as it reaches us? What happens to the message when we become aware of the medium? When is a glitch not just a glitch? Digital decay, lost signal, system error, the cliff effect, rolloff, dropout, static, interference, noise, data loss, corruption, malfunction. Don't put a magnet too close to your computer screen. Don't store your DVDs in direct sun. Walk through a wall to get to the Minus World. Can you hear me now? Remember when all of your vacation film went through the x-ray machine at the airport? When technology fails, what is lost and what is gained?

Please mail your work to:

Ali Horeanopoulos
15 Channel Center Street
Studio 519
Boston, MA 02210

If you want it returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Preview copies should be on DVD, VHS, or mini-DV. For more info, contact AliNichole@gmail.com

The AstroDime Transit Authority is a Think-Tank and public service organization that considers issues of transportation, communication and world and intergalactic citizenship. We are specifically interested in issues of race, class, gender and culture, art and technoscience. In addition, we consult and advise in sustainable communication and transportation systems off and on this planet.

Our research includes curated video shows, data collection, and performances which reveal and explore these issues. We publish a twice-yearly video journal called INtransit. We invite guest artists and contributors to participate in our curatorial and creative projects.

For general questions about AstroDime Transit Authority, email rocketscience@virtualberet.net.

Our web site is http://www.virtualberet.net/ata.

We are sponsored by the 119 Gallery in Lowell, Massachusetts at http://www.119gallery.org/

 

2 June 2008—Article about the ELO Conference in The Columbian
A very fine article about the Visionary Landscapes Electronic Literature conference appeared in The Columbian, the local newspaper, during the conference. That article is now online and can be found HERE.