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Electronic Literature Organization

Archive-It Partner Since: Jul, 2007

Organization Type: NGOs

Organization URL: http://eliterature.org/   

Description:

The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1999 to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature. Since its formation, the Electronic Literature Organization has worked to assist writers and publishers in bringing their literary works to a wider, global readership and to provide them with the infrastructure necessary to reach one another. Since 2006 the ELO has been housed at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) at the University of Maryland.

Page 1 of 1 (3 Total Results)

Title: Arteroids

URL: http://vispo.com/arteroids/

Collection: Electronic Literature: Individual Works

Description: Arteroids is a literary shoot-em-up poem-game for the Web. The battle of poetry against itself and the forces of dullness. Pilot your red id-entity text against poetry and the forces of dullness. Winner takes wall. Write your own texts in Word for Weirdos. Save poetry from yourself. Game mode or play mode. Play for life and death in game mode. Shoot for art in play mode. Go on. I dare you. Entry drafted by: Scott Rettberg

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Subject:   cybertext poetry shockwave animation interactive software digital poetics digital art audio hypermedia kinetic game

Title: Seattle Drift

URL: http://www.vispo.com/animisms/SeattleDrift.html

Collection: Electronic Literature: Individual Works

Description: Jim Andrews’ “Seattle Drift” is a play on motion and stasis, surface and depth. Its initially simple presentation consists of a self-described “bad text,” a subversive poem that moves and stutters around the screen when given the instruction to do so. A series of simple controls written in Dynamic HTML allows a user to guide its movement: one is given the option to “do” the text (which makes it drift around the screen), “stop” it (which freezes the letters mid-drift), or “discipline” it (which returns the letters to their original position). Stopping and starting the text allows the user to create new linguistic and visual configurations for the poem, and this flexibility is the cause of the text’s status as “bad”—it “used to be a poem, but drifted from the scene.” The poem dares its user with a come-on—“I just want you to do me”—that complicates the supposed transparency and stasis of the traditional written word, and makes the user an accomplice in this transformation. The poem itself has the experimental, minimalist quality that characterizes much of mid-90s net art, exploring the role of particular code functions in the construction of Web aesthetics while also playing with the code’s distance from (and closeness to) the surface of the Web browser. An Easter egg awaits those curious enough to explore the source code. Entry drafted by: Rob Schoenbeck

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Subject:   poetry animation html/dhtml

Title: Enigma n

URL: http://www.vispo.com/animisms/enigman/meaning.html

Collection: Electronic Literature: Individual Works

Description: Beginning with the provocative epigram by Phyllis Web, “The world is round. It moves in circles,” which gives way to a minimal interface with the word “meaning” placed in the center of a black screen, Jim Andrews’ “Enigma n” is a densely packaged experiment in the potency of language. With a click of the mouse, the reader can “Prod,” “Stir,” and “Tame” the word, causing the letters to swirl chaotically around no particular center. After all the options have been selected, the reader is permitted to restore order to the word by clicking “Spell.” Conceptually, the temporal sequence (epigram, the assertion of “meaning,” the reader’s acts of disruption, culminating in a restoration of order) might be interpreted as a parable of communication, from sender to receiver. As an experience of reading, the attentive mind will seize upon the various anagrams that arrange themselves chaotically, making sense wherever it is suggested by juxtaposition. However, Andrews’ piece does not simply end with the anti-climactic, almost jarring, return to order. The intrepid reader will quickly move to prod, stir, and tame the text again, and will be rewarded with a fifth option, “0/1,” which freezes the swirling letters in space. Another click on “0/1” opens up another option “Colour,” which invites further exploration leading to a reward at the end. In its entirety, “Enigma n” is an extraordinary and deceptively simple work that offers rich rewards for those who take the time to play with it. Entry drafted by: Davin Heckman

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Subject:   poetry animation html/dhtml visual poetry

Page 1 of 1 (3 Total Results)