Why I Care about Early Interactive Media
The question I get asked a lot is, Why do I care so much about early interactive media, particularly since they are generally relegated to the black and white (or green on green) environment of a computer monitor (and a small one, at that), are text-heavy, and whose images–-if they exist at all––are comprised of […]
Versioning Rob Swigart’s Down Time
As Holly was updating the metadata for the ELO Repository, she realized that there were different CD-ROMs called Down Time held in the various collections. Upon closer inspection, she guessed that they were not copies but rather potential versions of Rob Swigart’s interactive narrative and asked me to look over them. And, of course, she […]
Reconstituting Annie Grosshans’ “The World Is Not Done Yet”
This week we kick off our new project: to reconstitute Annie Grosshans’ personal narrative, The World Is Not Done Yet. Called “[a] weblication of theoretical poetics,” the work was originally produced with Adobe Muse, another in a series of software programs––like Flash and Shockwave––that Adobe sold to the public but then later decided no longer to support. […]
Treasures from The Dene Grigar Collection
The Electronic Literature Lab holds the collection of over 300 works electronic literature, video games, and interactive media, along with the hardware and peripherals with with to view the work, collected for the last 29 years by Dene Grigar. The collection highlights include all works of electronic literature published by Eastgate Systems, Inc.; posters, […]
Collect, Not Correct: A Response to the U.S. National Archives’ Alteration of an Image from the 2017 Women’s March
The news that the U.S. National Archives had altered an image from the 2017 Women’s March to tone down political messages and references to women’s bodies spread quickly on Twitter and generated what can be considered condemnation for the deed. On January 18, the day of the 2020 Women’s March, the U.S. National Archives posted this […]
Moving Forward in 2020
2020 marks the 8th year that our lab has been on the WSUV campus. We kick off this new year with some changes to our personnel and many, many exciting initiatives. First, we hired recent graduate, Holly Slocum, as the lab’s official Project Manager. Holly served for close to two years as an Undergraduate Researcher […]
A Successful Presentation at the MLA 2020
The ELL Team, led by Holly Slocum, gave an excellent presentation at the Modern Language Association 2020 conference on Saturday, January 11. We were part of the Electronic Literature Organization’s special session, #594 “Making, Preserving, and Curating Electronic Literature.” Close to 50 people attended the six interactive demonstrations. All visited our station and looked over […]
MLA 2020 #594 Making, Preserving, and Curating Born-Digital Literature
Join us at session, #594 Making, Preserving, and Curating Born-Digital Literature, the ELO’s special session at MLA 2020. The program describes the session as: This session features interactive demonstrations about the creation, preservation, and curation of digital literary works that take advantage of the specific affordances of digital environments; participants discuss tools and strategies for making […]
List of Hypertext Literature Published by Eastgate Systems, Inc., 1988-2016
Those of you who have been following the activities taking place in the Electronic Literature Lab over the years may be aware that I have collected copies of 47 of the 48 works that Eastgate Systems, Inc. published since 1988 and validated publication dates for 20 of them. Dating works is not an easy task, […]
Organizing a Collection of Electronic Literature
One of the most satisfying experiences working in my lab is organizing a collection of electronic literature. Recently, for example, in preparation for writing an essay about Tim McLaughlin’s Notes Toward Absolute Zero, I went through the box of papers and disks he donated last March to the Electronic Literature Organization’s archives, which are housed […]