#Log Entries for Introduction to Electronic Literature
####Day 1: Introduction/Survey of E-lit
Electronic Literature, commonly defined as born digital work or "texts with important liteary aspects that take advantage of the caps and contexts of standalone or networked computer" seems like a very loose but capacious genre that overlaps with other genres such as video games. I was struck by the incredible diversity and range of e-lit. Although it's true that genres may generally break down or fail to truly account for exceptions, they are still useful as entry points or epistemological tools—that is, you need to try applying the model before you can understand where and how it fits or does not fit.
Another important issue that emerged from our opening discussions was that of preservation. Many e-lit texts (especially early ones) are very hard to preserve, view, interact with, or access because the platforms, hardware, and software for which they were made are already obsolete. e-lit works are subject to rapid and planned obsolescence, as well as proprietary codes or platforms that may obstruct attempts to preserve them. Maybe this is, at least in part, because e-lit falls into a curious gap in terms of preservation and the popular imagination: it is not quite old enough to be included in our mental image of what needs preserving (cf. "old, dusty books"), nor to have established modes/methods of preservation.
####Day 2: Analysis
Today, we discussed some interpretive strategies and theories for approaching electronic literature. For example, we discussed the method of traversal common in the Pathfinders project by Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop. Traversals record (quite literally, with video) a specific, reflective encounter with a digital text that explores the text's possibilities, capabilities, key features and/or themes.
What I find particularly fascinating about the traversal, a method that borrows somewhat from usability testing, is the way it records an embodied experience as it unfolds across time. This method does not only encompass different sensory modalities (e.g. the flicker of the screen in Judy Malloy's traversal of Uncle Roger). It also points to the importance of the material contexts of a text's performance, as well as the contingencies of who is performing the work in a specific place at a specific time (historical moment). In some ways, the emphasis on studying material contexts (e.g. hardware, software, platform) in electronic literature is somewhat analogous to bibliographic studies for printed literature. Of course, for many (historical) works of print literature, we cannot recover, and likely do not have, anything like a traversal. In this sense, electronic literature seems particularly curious in the ways one can plan for future preservation in the present moment—ways we don't or cannot make use of with print literature.
####Day 3: Curation
We discussed curation and exhibition as an artform. The discussion ranged from the practical/logistical to the ethical dimensions of curation and exhibition. Although I'm fairly used to thinking of an arrangement as an argument from other courses across the digital humanities, it was interesting to see how this may change in a community of practice such as electronic literature, which has, as Dene noted, particular affordances and constraints. For example, an electronic literature exhibition has particular technical constraints (e.g. number/placement of outlets) that an exhibition of printed literature may not need to consider.
Moreover, the experimental nature of e-lit—that is, the fact that the public may have difficulty conceiving of it as literature—poses a challenge when trying to make the exhibit inviting and engaging. In this sense, I found the New Legacy exhibit, curated by Alex Saum-Pascual and Elika Ortega and exhibited at the Berkeley Center for New Media, especially fascinating. Saum-Pascual and Ortega incorporated custom-fabricated wood frames, pedestals, and supports into their exhibition space, which was mostly marble. The effect of this was to make the exhibit feel more organic and tactile than a screen-based exhibit of electronic literature might otherwise be. I find this tactic not only artistic but also very radical in the way it points to a kind of digital that is not screen-based (i.e. digital fabrication) and, in so doing, challenges the assumed oppositions between print and digital that might preclude e-lit from being considered "literature" in the first place.
####Day 4: Creation and Teaching
We started the day by trying to create our own works of e-lit (or at least starting or prototyping one), in part to better understand how such texts are made in terms of the labour, (possible) code, technical and/or critical decisions involved. I spent this part of the day experimenting with CSS animations and transitions since they're something I've been meaning to explore for a while but never found the time or had a compelling reason. As a fairly small-scale and manageable experiment, I thought about building off of Nick Montfort's Hexes by expanding the word list (this might require an extra bit of code to strip spaces if it were to include phrases). Or I could create a work based on Jim Andrews' "stir-fry texts", which use a kind of JavaScript cut-up technique to remix the text when you hover over parts of it with the cursor.
For the second half of the day, we discussed teaching electronic literature. For example, what are some good resources for course texts? What are some good exercises, assignments, or questions for students (especially for those used to print literature)? For the former, [elmcip.net](elmcip.net: http://elmcip.net/teaching_resource) is especially useful—not just because of the sheer amount of records but also because all of them are linked to each other. For example, in an entry for a particular work of e-lit, you can find secondary criticism discussing that work. In general, I find that a major draw and strength of the field of electronic literature is that it is such a welcoming, encouraging, supportive, and engaged/engaging community of scholars and artists. I definitely enjoyed this class and look forward to more opportunities to participate in the community in the future.
####Day 5: ELO 2016
For last morning of our class, we attended the opening talks of ELO 2016, featuring Stuart Moultrhop and Anastasia Salter. Stuart Moulthrop offered a new way to typify works of electronic literature that ranged from "pseudo-literature" on one end (texts that hide their mechanics and are premised on misdirection or mis-perception) to "para-literature" (texts that foreground their algorithms). Although I think I would have gotten more out of Moulthrop's talk if I were more familiar with the terms and texts he referenced, I like his concept of the "intimacy of mechanics" as a way to consider the genres of "text" (literature) and "game," and see how they might inform one another.
While Moulthrop touched briefly on the issue of gender and games, Anastasia Salter's talk did a brilliant job of connecting this thread to larger debates/discussions about programming (or "brogramming") and its role in the digital humanities, games studies, and electronic literature. I thought Salter's talk was especially fascinating for the way it drew together these different fields in a way that speaks to my own inclination towards interdisciplinarity. Salter's talk provoked many questions for me, especially as I am increasingly thinking about what a feminist pedagogy for technical skills might look like. How do we argue for inclusivity without reinforcing the myth that women are absent (when they have, in fact, been contributing all along)? How do we make programs and platforms more accessible without reinforcing the idea that highly technical programs and platforms are scary and should be avoided? How do we create safe spaces for marginalized populations without segregating or tokenizing them? Do we need to be coding evangelists at all? Should we exhort everyone to code?