Chris Joseph

http://www.webyarns.com/loveis/LoveIs.html

“Love Is…” is an attempt at a definition, and as with all definitions that try to explain what love is, precision is not possible, and perhaps not even desirable. This piece moves toward a definition of love in three stages: first through a standard, accepted lexicon; then via a series of individual expressions of love; and finally as defined within randomly selected statements about love provided by readers. The work is created in Flash and, at the end of the piece, offers viewers the opportunity to write their own definitions of love into the site. These definitions are saved in a database so the next visitor can view them as they are randomly displayed. “Love Is…” takes approximately five minutes to view.

for remixworx, from the bakerloo line + London Tube Font by Jonathan Paterson

flash source: bakerloo.fla (128KB)

The Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media at De Montfort University is now in its second year. The course, created by writers Sue Thomas and Kate Pullinger, already teaches Fiction and Creative Nonfiction and students commencing their studies in September 2008 will now have the choice of two more modules - E-Poetry and Writing for the Creative Industries. Carolyn Handler Miller, author of Digital Storytelling: A Creator’s Guide to Interactive Entertainment, will teach Writing for the Creative Industries, and Peter Howard, highly-respected poet in both print and the digital, will teach E-Poetry.

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for remix_runran, from playing with fire

flash source: ode_to_xl5.fla (135KB)

“What They Said…” at www.webyarns.com is a typically accomplished blend of electronic fiction/poetry by Alan Bigelow, a hypnotic blend of text, images and sound with a strong political dimension.

The scenes are accessed via a radio dial at the bottom of the screen. While the individual scenes can be viewed in a non-linear order, each scene must be viewed in its entirety in order to access the final scenes, which provides a neat solution to the classic narrative problem of non-linear texts. Within each scene a fast progression of text (a la Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries) is combined with very fast visuals in a way that is both unsettling and absorbing; indeed my only criticism of the piece is that these very fast flickering images probably warrant an epilepsy warning at the start (something like the beginning of Relativity Poem). That small point aside, this is another great piece of work from one my favourite e-writers.

Critical Code Studies - http://criticalcodestudies.com

The blog is dedicated to exploring interpretations of computer code within cultural contexts. Rather than focusing primarily on making code function or even the pursuit of “beautiful” code, critical code studies brings in critical theory to examine the ways in which the lines of code reflect, shape, and reproduce our culture including aspects of class, gender, race, sexuality. These criticisms include both the context for the code’s creation and the ways in which it circulates in culture. Rather than one specific lens, CCS names a growing collection of methodologies for making/finding meaning in code.

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“Bluedolph the blue-nosed reindeer
Didn’t have a shiny nose…”

A mildly anti-festive animated parable about one of the less successful reindeers. In Flash, with sound (and sprigs of holly). Happy Christmas!

http://www.edwardpicot.com/bluedolph/

Congratulations to Stuart Moulthrop, who has won the 3rd International Digital Literature Award Ciutat de Vinaròs in both Narrative and Poetry categories - official announcement below:

The jury of the 3rd International Digital Literature Award Ciutat de Vinaròs has announced the following awards:

NARRATIVE (2,500 €) to Stuart Moulthrop with the work Deep Surface.

POETRY (2,500 €) ex-aequo to Stuart Moulthrop with the work Under Language and to Isaías Herrero Florensa with the work Universo Molécula.

ESPECIAL MENTION VICENT FERRER to the best work in Catalan language (1,000 €) was awarded to Isaías Herrero Florensa with the work La casa sota el temps.

for remix_runran, from it’s vispo for lunch again <- vispoet + Heinz Alaphabet noodles

flash source: visposoup.fla (38KB)

http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/electropoetics

In the latest selection from the Electronic Book Review, Associate Editor Lori Emerson brings together both critics and creators of electronic poetry, some of whom established themselves at the very start and many more who are recent entrants in the field of electronic literature. Essays on print poetry as well as born digital poetry help to situate the field in both a trans-disciplinary and trans-national context.

The collection (more than twenty essays in all) includes three review-essays on the Electronic Literature Collection (volume 1), published by the ELO: “How to Think (with) Thinkertoys” by Adalaide Morris; “Letters That Matter” by John Zuern; and “Electronic Literature circa WWW (and Before)” by Chris Funkhouser. New essays on and by Douglas Barbour, Michael Barrett, Greg Betts, Christof Bruno, Charles Bernstein, Stephen Cain, Robert Creeley, Clayton Eshleman, Alan Fisher, Eduardo Kac, Hugh Kenner, Walter Benn Michaels, Jay Murphy, Janet Neigh, Soren Pold, Christopher Nolan, Jaishree Odin, Tom Raworth, Maggie O’Sullivan, Stephanie Strickland, Angela Szczepaniak, Steve Tomasula, and Eugene Thacker.

[from The Electronic Literature Organisation]