Love Letters Continued

 

 

Because we are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO), the theme of ELO’s  Conference and Media Arts Festival is “Love Letters to the Past and Present.” The general idea is that we are looking back to the years of our development and forward to what lies ahead––with love. As mentioned in my previous post, I am curating one of three exhibitions at the media arts festival: a showcase of artifacts I have been collecting for The NEXT and for my own interest.

In keeping with this theme, I have taken the conceit of a “love letter” for the commentary I have written for the artifacts selected to exhibit. Each of the six letters is addressed to “Dearest Electronic Literature”––that is, the art form and the artists and scholars who have contributed to it––and written by “your community.” With the final letter, I break the 4th wall, revealing the 1st person plural used throughout the previous five letters as myself.

This approach allows me to share some of the history and lore of the ELO but also of the decades of memories of the field, at large, contained in the archives I am holding at the lab. It also allows me to express my love and––dare I say it? Yes––passion I have for born-digital art, literature, games. 

I would like to acknowledge the gorgeous branding that Holly Slocum, the lab’s Senior Designer, has done for the ELO 2025 conference. She leaned into it and my love letters conceit for the design of the showcase’s interface. I should mention she also did all of the HTML and CSS coding for the site. Andrew Thompson, the lab’s XR Programmer, programmed the interactive behaviors with his prowess with JavaScript. Greg Philbrook, the lab’s Tech Guru, has done a yeoman’s labor with keeping the server, The NEXT, and the lab running smoothly. I also want to recognize the work that all of my lab mates put into The NEXT and the lab. I love you all very much!