MITH Mission Statement

Coming into this semester I knew very little of electronic literature. One month into the semester I am still a novice, but I do have a grasp on the genre. What I find most interesting is the creation of digital worlds combined with literature. For instance, Donna Leishman's work, “Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw,” is a work I really like. The user works through an interactive world “at the mercy of her exploration history,” trying to find meaning along the way. I like that the restrictions involved in such a work actually add to the theme of a demonic possession, which can not be controlled by anyone.
Since I bought my Macbook I have become very interested in playing with it and doing as many new things as possible. I also became very interested in the program, Blender, which was presented to me last Wednesday. I have begun working through tutorials, but still need a lot of practice. This is what I would like to focus on for the rest of my internship (and after): to create a digital experience in Blender which will include some form of literary narrative. I do not yet know Blender's full potential, so I am not sure exactly what shape my work will take, but I am determined to create a piece in the next few months.
I can put in a lot of time on this project. Any time I am not working on other school work I will be able to sit down on my laptop and make progress. To keep myself focused I would like to make weekly progress reports detailing what I have completed so far and what I plan on doing in the future. I know I can ask anyone in the MITH office for help along with my friends who have a computer science background. There are also countless tutorials on the Internet I can use while creating my piece. This is obviously a rough sketch of my final project, but week by week, it will take a more defined shape. I am very excited about this and I can't wait to complete a work.

Patchwork Girl by Shelley Jackson

Yesterday I had the pleasure of travelling through Shelly Jackson's "Patchwork Girl." To start, this work fits perfectly together - Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is a great work to base this work on. She explains to us that her work of electronic literature is a type of Frankenstein; it is put together by some outside force. There is a general pattern - Jackson's programming is like the basic human form Victor F. has to work with. We are Prof. Frankenstein haphazardly putting together a piece of art with little remembrance of the past and no clue as to the future. The links on the page are the bones and nerves Victor F. creates his masterpiece with. I love the works concept and image. This really is a great work to introduce anyone to Electronic Literature. Being able to make the connections to the novel really helps me helps me understand the genre.

Throughout the piece I felt Walt Whitman's presence. She writes, "You will all be apart of me" and you can easily add, "From prostitute to president" in Whitman style. The connections from page to page are like his "gossamer thread[s]" "Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them." The web of pages stretches in all directions and while in the middle of it there seems to be no end. I have only gone through it once but it seems that new start will lead in a new direction - something Whitman would have loved.

Throughout my reading, questions abounded in my mind. The prevalent thought was "Is it Linear?" I could not grasp whether or not there was a specific way to go. I seemed to exhaust the options but in retrospect I don't think I did. The next question would be "Is it a different story every time?" and I guess it could be. I liked to think that the different readings do make up a greater body of text. Just like the monster is thrown together haphazardly we seem to travel through the prose just as randomly. And I think the different readings represent the newly acquired body parts the monster adopts - like the foot she tears off a thief.

About an hour in to the adventure you wonder, "Is there an ending?" I remember finishing the text, but I don't really remember the ending. I feel she left the end unremarkable so that we would remember the travel more. In the middle you feel lost - you don't have a page number for reference and you don't know where you are. There could be an end, but you can't see it. It is definitely not linear. Just as this female Frankenstein is a complicated jumble of parts, Jackson's work is a puzzle piece with endless possibilities.

Brandon Morse

On Tuesday the 13th I went to Digital Dialogues to hear Brandon speak. I hadn't looked up his work before going so I didn't know what to expect. Overall I was more interested in the type of technology he was using than the actual work itself. I thought his concepts of minimalism were interesting and his study of the growth of things on a computer was compelling, but I was a little bored by them.

His comment about color not being as "organic on the computer" makes sense to me, but I would still like to see more color. Just looking at my computer now it seems that color could be good - just as it is on the visualizer on iTunes, but I guess he's working with software not as advanced. The programs he made seemed somewhat simple and I feel that I could do it - I ust have to figure out what he was using. A link to some of his work is here "Almost Nothing Has Happened"

Jason Nelson - SecretTechnology

Jason's website Secret Technology is a must-see for anyone interested in Electronic Literature. It has "almost everything [he has] ever created" which is a pretty broad group of work. Clicking the link to "Digital Creations" takes you to a long page of his original works, the first being "Between Treacherous Objects"

It's a lot of fun but I struggle to find meaning in the works. I get an idea for some of them, but the lack of text for all but a few of the pieces makes it difficult. He did say when I met him though that he was working to add text. The first piece is Between Credit Dumpster. Some of the poetry within the grid is very good, especially the last one about accumulation help analysis and the picture is pretty clear when the password is Credit. Another fun part of this is that there is a email address broken in pieces and scattered in the different grids. Jason said that if you get the full address he would send you a postcard - so I found the pieces and sent him a request (We'll see if he comes through).


The "Poem Cube" is another fun piece. He gives you one 16 line poem to play with, but you are also able to create your own. I played around with his some. It's kind of like playing with a Rubik's cube - never really getting it perfect but having fun looking at all the interesting combinations; the meaning like the color scheme changing with each rotation.

There is a great mix of artwork, fiction, poetry, interactive literature and more stuff I don't know the name for yet. He also has several links which have been enlightening. I'm very glad I've found this site.

Response: "Electronic Literature: What Is It?" by N. Katherine Hayles

Reading this article makes me excited about Electronic Literature. There are so many possibilities surrounding this new form of literature, which is why I wanted this internship with MITH in the first place. This article is a great introduction to the field, but much of the language is lost in me and an inability to see many of the references makes it difficult to understand. I do plan to read this again when I have a better understanding of the field. Also, the "Electronic Literature Collection: Volume One" is a very helpful tool to be viewed alongside this article. It really helped me understand what Katherine is writing about.

The most interesting aspect of electronic literature so far is Generative art and the Flash poem. As an English major, I have a deep interest in the power of words. Their form, representation, and meaning can be very creative just on print, but the addition of electronic media adds a whole new interesting dimension. Again, there is now a new world of possibilities for authors and readers/viewers/players to create and interpret works of poetry. Philippe Bootz's work The Set of U is a simple and short example of an author’s ability to change words and meaning using graphics. There is a linear advancement of the poem which is like all forms of print, but the interesting part is that as the words move around the page the reader is able to move with the poem creating different meanings and phrases from where the words start and finish and while they move. This is exactly what I like about poetry - the openness of it - and it is exciting to just get a taste of the possibilities.

Flash poems are equally interesting. Robert Kendall's "Faith" changes it's meaning from stage to stage, creatively adding words to the previous ones to create a new and developing poem, but what I like most is the development of the stages. As the words fall or slide into place the meaning develops. I also like the animation of words doing what they say, like when "going" goes. The first screen is evident of the great possibilities of Electronic Literature as a new form or method of creating poetry. Instead of saying that logic can not break Faith, Kendall lets "logic" bounce off of "Faith," clearly communicating his intended meaning.

I hope that through this internship I will be given the chance to create some of my own work. I should have a new Macbook soon and I am excited about utilizing its capabilities. The grouping of so many genres and technologies seems to me to be the greatest spark for Electronic Literature. As technology advances (so so fast) even more things will be possible. I agree with Katherine that previous expectations of what literature should be must be incorporated into this new medium, but I believe this does not limit artists at all. Literature is open-ended. The point of it is to progress and change and I believe this art form is revolutionary. Just as the printing press opened literature to the masses and as the novel created new possibilities, electronic literature will include new artists into the realm of literature. Film, literature, computer code, graphics, and sound are all meshed together now. Also, the wall between author and reader is crumbling. With interactive stories the reader becomes the author (the author is now perhaps a new form of narrator, guiding the reader/creator along).

I am truly excited about this internship and I can't wait to get deeper into it.