electropoetics
A Personal Twine Story
In a keynote delivered at ELO 2024, Chris Klimas recounts ELO 2007 and the creation of Twine. In doing so, he highlights the importance of community and open-source software in fostering digital creativity, while pondering the possibility of a platform dark forest.
The Praxis of the Procedural Model in Digital Literature, Part 1: Structural Aspects of the Model
Phillipe Bootz defines and situates a set of artifacts, devices, material components and human groups that are in contact with earlier procedural "dispositifs." The procedural model, in Bootz's 30 year long research, analyses, theoretical frameworks and observations, expressly distinguishes human beings from material components. In opposition to artificial/human proposals such as the trans-human or the cyborg. The dispositif, in Bootz's presentation, only concerns the physical world. It does not contain signs, is not concerned with literature or art. And neither are individuals, within the procedural model, considered for themselves. They are actors at a given moment. Their positions are characterized by their power to directly act on the artifacts and objects of the dispositif.
Off Center Episode 10: Immersive Storytelling in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality with Caitlin Fisher
In this episode of "Off Center," Scott Rettberg, Director of the Center for Digital Narrative at the University of Bergen, interviews Caitlin Fisher, a pioneer of immersive AR and VR and Director of the Immersive Storytelling Lab at York University.
Affect Aesthetic and Politics of the Book
A Review of Bookishness, by Jessica Pressman.
Off Center Episode 9: Hypertext as Technology and Literature with Robert Arellano
Hypertext pioneer Robert Arellano discusses the genre with Scott Rettberg, Director of the Center for Digital Narrative (CDN).
Off Center Episode 6: Gendered AI and Editorial Labour in Digital Culture with Lai-Tze Fan
Scott Rettberg, director of the Center for Digital Narrative (CDN) is joined by Lai-Tze Fan to discuss gendered AI assistants and the invisible labor involved in editorial work.
Off Center Episode 5: AI, Computational Creativity, and Media Production with Drew Keller
Drew Keller, Microsoft employee and graduate of the Digital Culture program at the University of Bergen joins Scott Rettberg to talk about the potential role of AI in our media production. From the Jacquard loom to the PowerPoint designer, human creativity has always been intertwined with technology, but is the rapid increase in AI a revolution in the way we produce media, or just another tool?
Memorial for Marjorie C. Luesebrink
EBR would like to express thanks to Dene Grigar and Deena Larsen at Washington State University Vancouver, for organizing and hosting a memoriam for Marjorie C. Luesebrink and for letting us share the memoriam in our journal.
Review of Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan’s Code: From Information Theory to French Theory (Duke UP 2022)
Is it possible to discover digital prophecies in thinkers like Lacan, Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, Deleuze, and Baudrillard? Heckman has a go at it in this close reading of Dionysius Geoghegan's Code: From Information Theory to French Theory.
Off Center Episode 4: Meme Culture, Social Media, and the January 6th Insurrection with Ashleigh Steele
Scott Rettberg, director of the Center for Digital Narrative is joined by journalist and Digital Culture graduate Ashleigh Steele to talk about memes, post-truth and the way narrativity shapes our understanding of ourselves and our world. We are increasingly affected by algorithms, AI and conspiracy theories, but what kind of effect does this have on our discourse, and how do we fight back?