Chris Joseph

[From Marc Garrett]

Welcome to a new Furtherfield…

www.furtherfield.org

We are pleased to announce a new Furtherfield with the creation, design and technical development of a dynamic content management system (CMS). We invite our ever-increasing users, audiences, practitioners, and digitally, cross and poly-culturally focused explorers to continue with us in the discovery of viewing, researching and sharing contemporary media art.

We invite you come and join us:
Create a new user ID by registering either from the front end of the site or via this link -
http://www.furtherfield.org/register.php

New changes/features to Furtherfield include:

- All reviews/interviews of artists projects are now tagged from the front page and through the site, so that users can find related information, either about projects, subjects, artists, groups, interviews, reviewers, genre etc…

- A more comprehensive and user friendly ID card section which include users, artists, reviewers & groups.

- An updated ‘Public Broadcast’ section for visitors/users to add and promote projects and events.

- Under the ‘Public Broadcast’ section on the front page we have set up an area where users can recommend their own favourite reviews, artworks, interviews featured on Furtherfield for others to view.

- New sections for easy access to view artists/reviewers and reviews/articles on Furtherfield.

- Updated system so that reviewers are now able to add their own reviews themselves.

- Updated system so that it is easier for artists and groups to update/add new work, projects and material to their personal ID cards on Furtherfield whenever they wish to.

Remember, Furtherfield is still free and everything is accessible and can be linked from outside of the site itself.

Read more

Another great post from James Bridle at booktwo.org with an alternative take on one of the classic criticisms of electronic literature (”I hate reading from screens!”). James compares the authors of The Guardian’s Writers’ rooms series to ascertain how they compose their books, and identifies the ‘lovers’ of screens (15 authors), ‘haters’ (10) and ‘in-betweens’ (4).

I’m one of those (in-be-)tweeners who composes on paper then transfers to screen at a later point. I find staring at a blank sheet of paper much more inspiring than at a blank screen; the physical motion of the pen on paper is more pleasant than fingers on keys; and it is still much easier to sketch/doodle/write upside down or in circles on paper than in any word processor I’ve seen (admittedly, ’straight’ text novelists may not have the flexible doodling requirement that I require for first drafts of multimedia writing). Finally typing/drawing everything up on to a computer at a later stage encourages me to assess and edit with a fresh head.

This particular booktwo post is investigating the author’s side of the electronic vs print discussion, so it doesn’t delve into the obvious issues of screen legibility. However there are many other excellent posts on booktwo that do, so I strongly recommend looking through the archives. My feeling is that screen reading is certainly still too tiring for most people’s eyes, but this won’t be the case in 10-15 years time when the rapidly developing new screen technologies are widespread. Portable reading technologies will also help change the need to sit at a (computer) desk and read, which is certainly less comfortable and convenient than reading a book on a sofa, on the train, or in the bath (to quote a favourite Margaret Atwood complaint about electronic books).

New portable technologies may bring their own restrictions, of course: reading a 100,000 word novel on a mobile phone screen will always seem ambitious at best (iPhones?), an utter pain the backside at worst (generally any phone from Motorola), unless phone tech changes fairly dramatically. But poetry and short stories could flourish within those restrictions on screen size. Similarly collaborative efforts like A Million Penguins or interactive and participatory fiction could really take off on mobile and net-connected reading devices.

Then there are the thousands of multimedia, generative and participatory works that will always require reading from a screen rather than a printed page; then there is the hugely interesting potential for crossover devices such as Manolis Kelaidis‘ blueBook (for more on this see the Nov 2006 booktwo post, or the June 2007 post by Tim O’Reilly after this years O’Reilly conference, where Manolis and the blueBook were the undisputed stars).

So, plenty to keep persuading those screen-haters that they really are missing out, and that this particular ‘fad’ (i.e. electronic literature) is here to stay (and no, screens will not REPLACE books, just supplement them). If you are an e-author just remember (for now) not to expect your readers to sit through dissertation-length texts… and stay clear of those ‘interesting’ aesthetic choices such as pink text on lime green pages.