Stuart Moulthrop and Dene Grigar
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262035972
- eISBN:
- 9780262339018
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035972.001.0001
- Subject:
- Information Science, Communications
Many pioneering works of electronic literature are now largely inaccessible because of changes in hardware, software, and platforms. The virtual disappearance of these works--created on floppy disks, ...
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Many pioneering works of electronic literature are now largely inaccessible because of changes in hardware, software, and platforms. The virtual disappearance of these works--created on floppy disks, in Apple’s defunct HyperCard, and on other early systems and platforms--not only puts important electronic literary work out of reach but also signals the fragility of most works of culture in the digital age. In response, Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop have been working to document and preserve electronic literature, work that has culminated in the Pathfinders project and its series of “Traversals”--video and audio recordings of demonstrations performed on historically appropriate platforms, with participation and commentary by the authors of the works. In Traversals, Moulthrop and Grigar mine this material to examine four influential early works: Judy Malloy’s Uncle Roger (1986), John McDaid’s Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse (1993), Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl (1995) and Bill Bly’s We Descend (1997), offering “deep readings” that consider the works as both literary artifacts and computational constructs. For each work, Moulthrop and Grigar explore the interplay between the text’s material circumstances and the patterns of meaning it engages and creates, paying attention both to specificities of media and purposes of expression.Less
Many pioneering works of electronic literature are now largely inaccessible because of changes in hardware, software, and platforms. The virtual disappearance of these works--created on floppy disks, in Apple’s defunct HyperCard, and on other early systems and platforms--not only puts important electronic literary work out of reach but also signals the fragility of most works of culture in the digital age. In response, Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop have been working to document and preserve electronic literature, work that has culminated in the Pathfinders project and its series of “Traversals”--video and audio recordings of demonstrations performed on historically appropriate platforms, with participation and commentary by the authors of the works. In Traversals, Moulthrop and Grigar mine this material to examine four influential early works: Judy Malloy’s Uncle Roger (1986), John McDaid’s Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse (1993), Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl (1995) and Bill Bly’s We Descend (1997), offering “deep readings” that consider the works as both literary artifacts and computational constructs. For each work, Moulthrop and Grigar explore the interplay between the text’s material circumstances and the patterns of meaning it engages and creates, paying attention both to specificities of media and purposes of expression.
Stuart Moulthrop and Dene Grigar
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262035972
- eISBN:
- 9780262339018
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035972.003.0001
- Subject:
- Information Science, Communications
This chapter explains the occasion for the book, the threatened obsolescence of key works from the first modern generation (or “Golden Age”) of digital writing. The authors attempted to preserve not ...
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This chapter explains the occasion for the book, the threatened obsolescence of key works from the first modern generation (or “Golden Age”) of digital writing. The authors attempted to preserve not just the material form of the works, but the experience of their operation or performance, recording encounters with the works on vintage equipment. Traversals represents a second stage in this process, reflecting both on insights gained in the preservation effort, but on the interventions themselves and the cultural meaning of obsolescence.Less
This chapter explains the occasion for the book, the threatened obsolescence of key works from the first modern generation (or “Golden Age”) of digital writing. The authors attempted to preserve not just the material form of the works, but the experience of their operation or performance, recording encounters with the works on vintage equipment. Traversals represents a second stage in this process, reflecting both on insights gained in the preservation effort, but on the interventions themselves and the cultural meaning of obsolescence.
David S. Roh
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780816695751
- eISBN:
- 9781452953670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816695751.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
In chapter 3, Roh shifts focus to distribution networks and how they facilitate dialogic activity on intratextual and intertextual scales. The advent of decentralized networks complicates the ...
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In chapter 3, Roh shifts focus to distribution networks and how they facilitate dialogic activity on intratextual and intertextual scales. The advent of decentralized networks complicates the regulating effect law has on dialogic activity. Strongly centralized distribution channels throttle the dissemination of unsanctioned works. Digital networks widen output and loosen control and for this reason have come under regulation to simulate existing paradigms of control. More than a simple technological innovation, distributed communications networks reflect a discernible cultural shift in alignment with postmodernity. Using the XDA Developers open source software community as a model, Roh evaluates how their carefully curated environment employs a decentralized structure—a form without center—and analyzes the resulting dialogic operability. That is, Roh argues that the online network environment best reflects the cultural and architectural roots of nonhierarchical dialogue conducive to rapid, iterative cultural, and textual evolution. With a historical and theoretical survey of decentralized networks, Roh shows how the mechanics of nonhierarchical textual exchange operate online and how that may benefit literary development.Less
In chapter 3, Roh shifts focus to distribution networks and how they facilitate dialogic activity on intratextual and intertextual scales. The advent of decentralized networks complicates the regulating effect law has on dialogic activity. Strongly centralized distribution channels throttle the dissemination of unsanctioned works. Digital networks widen output and loosen control and for this reason have come under regulation to simulate existing paradigms of control. More than a simple technological innovation, distributed communications networks reflect a discernible cultural shift in alignment with postmodernity. Using the XDA Developers open source software community as a model, Roh evaluates how their carefully curated environment employs a decentralized structure—a form without center—and analyzes the resulting dialogic operability. That is, Roh argues that the online network environment best reflects the cultural and architectural roots of nonhierarchical dialogue conducive to rapid, iterative cultural, and textual evolution. With a historical and theoretical survey of decentralized networks, Roh shows how the mechanics of nonhierarchical textual exchange operate online and how that may benefit literary development.
