33 | 2004

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Concrete Poetry in Digital Media: Its Predecessors, its Presence and its Future
Simanowski, Roberto (2004)
How does concrete poetry develop in digital media? What is its intention? What is the meaning behind it? Does the play with the symbolic orders of language question social patterns as in concrete poetry in the 1960s? Does it rather aim to free the word from its representational, designational function towards the "pure visual"? And how should one approach it? With a meaning driven soul asking for the message behind the technical effect and disparaging any brainless muscle flexing? With a spectacle driven soul enjoying all the cool stuff you can do with programming and embracing de "pure code" as new avant-garde? This essay discusses the aesthetic concept of concrete poetry and places the subject into the ongoing discussion of "software-art" and the aesthetic of the spectacle. It begins with a look back to the predecessors of concrete poetry in print media before introducing to examples of concrete poetry in digital media.
Digital Literatur and Theoretical Approaches
Castanyer, Laura Borràs (2004)
From a literary point of view, we are living through a time characterised by disenchantment with the oldest form of the modern revolution: hypertext. The initial enthusiasm has given way to more skeptical tendencies. - This essay introduces the research project Hermeneia, the conference Under Construction, the subject itself and the "history of discontinuities and ruptures" behind it.
Editorial
Castanyer, Laura Borràs (2004)
Is this hypertext any good? Evaluating quality in hypermedia
Landow, George (2004)
What is quality in hypertext? How, in other words, do we judge a hypertext collection of documents (or web) to be successful or unsuccessful, to be good or bad as hypertext? How can we judge if a particular hypertext achieves elegance or just mediocrity? Those questions lead to another: what in particular is good about hypertext? To answer these questions this paper proposes a number of basic rules, including (1) Individual lexias should have an adequate number of links, (2) Following links should provide a satisfying experience, (3) The pleasure of following links comes from a perception of coherence, (4) such coherence can take the form of analogy, (5) Individual lexias should satisfy readers and yet prompt them to want to follow additional links, (6) The document should exemplify true hypertextuality by providing multiple lines of organization, and (7) hyper-document should fully engage the hypertextual capacities of the particular software environment employed. The paper also asks if (1) hypertext has a characteristic or necessary form of metaphoric organization? (2) how important are gaps between documents to successful hypertext? (3) What is the relation between animated text and hypertext.
Littérature numérique, contraintes et ouvertures de l’écran: (Du stylo à l’ordinateur ou du livre à l’écran)
Balpe, Jean-Pierre (2004)
This essay sets out the concept of “engrammation” which deals with the process of text mediatization and presents some practical examples such as different algorithmic programming in order to illustrate the mediatization processes.
Six Problems in Search of a Solution: The challenge of cybertext theory and ludology to literary theory
Eskelinen, Markku (2004)
As its title should tell the paper tries to solve or at least complicate six specific problems. First, as narratives are supposed to be transmedial how should we extend literary narratology beyond its print heritage? Second and thirdly, in addition to various narrative and would-be-narrative constellations and devices also the relations between texts and the text's relation to itself have changed. Fourthly, all these changes have their bearing on the role of the reader in the situation where the lack of conventions is well matched with the outdated expectations concerning narratives, texts and transtextuality. Fifthly, enter playability and the fear of variety when readers and scholars should perhaps be willing to give up the idea of literary wholes and try to pursue happiness in the form of parts, phases and playthings. Sixthly, we'll try to shed some ludological light into the recent trend of building textual instruments and instrumental texts.
The Frontiers between Digital Literature and Net.art
Campàs, Joan (2004)
My aim is to show how the frontiers between the various disciplinary spheres are disappearing in the digital world. Therefore, to start with, the basic aspects of what is known as digital art are set out and are compared with the concepts of Roland Barthes on the post-modern text. In this way a relationship is established between the discourses on Net.art and digital creation on the Net and theoretical postulates on hypertext and Net.literature. Next the results of this comparative reflection are applied to a visual experience: letting a series of online works speak, grouped together in a particular classification, in order to see whether or not the theoretical model constructed is valid. Finally, I pose questions about this experience by highlighting the implications of the construction of new contexts in real time in the sphere of literary and artistic creation.
These waves of memories: A hyperfiction by Caitlin Fisher
Koskimaa, Raine (2004)
The web-based ‘hypermedia novella’ These Waves of Girls by Caitlin Fisher (see review in dichtung-digital) won the first prize in the fiction category awarded by the Electronic Literature Organization in 2001. In this article I’ll take a closer look on some of the aspects of this work, which is a confessional autobiography about a girl coming to terms with her lesbian identity. The article is structured around a set of relations: the relation between the critic and the work; textual and audio-visual representation; personal and social relations; hypertextual structure and autobiographical, unreliable narration. These Waves is a class-room example of the so-called associative hypertext. The hypertextual structure is also closely linked to the problematics of autobiographical narration.. As readers we get to ponder about the nature of remembering, of telling stories about one’s life. One of the genuine accomplishments of Fisher’s work is to bring forth these questions in a tangible, and still discreet, way.

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