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This month, ebr publishes a review of Steve Clay and Ken Friedman’s Intermedia, Fluxus and the Something Else Press: Selected Writings by Dick Higgins, reviewed by Betsy Sullivan and Virgina Kuhn. Known for his work on intermedia, in particular his 1965 essay “Intermedia,” Dick Higgins has been called writer, artist, and theorist. In their review “Many Lives to Live,” Betsy Sullivan and Virginia Kuhn identify Higgins’ unique technological literacy for his generation. In this vein, they highlight that the collection is able to represent Higgins’ experimental approaches to creation, encompassing… continue

The question of whether or not computers can write autonomously is at this point moot (hello, AI and generative text!), but perhaps where the field of digital writing needs further exploration is in the re-examination of writing practices, as well as how they can be taught. In their essay “Digital Writing: Philosophical and Pedagogical Issues,” Serge Bouchardon and Victor Petit argue that the technical (material) and symbolic (cultural) dimensions of digital writing must be explored as a Janus faced issue. Building upon established theories of writing from Derrida and Barthes, the essay explor… continue

For many of us, September is the time to return to campuses, the time for seasonal change. This year, Fall comes early (or Summer lingers too long) all over the globe and weather patterns continue to be abnormal. We all hear about climate change, we discuss strange weather patterns, and we analyze the Anthropocene in classrooms; it has never been a more important topic. This month, ebr re-prints an essay that applies a poet’s eye, ear, and spirit to this term “Anthropocene” to encapsulate the implications that humans have had on Earth. Joan Retallack’s essay “Hard Days Nights in the Anthropoce… continue

This month, we have an essay from Bruce Clarke entitled “Margulis, Autopoiesis, Gaia,” in which Clarke recounts his own process of critically and pedagogically working with the concept of “gaia” (the relations of things, as they exist on our planet, in relation the sun) through scientific discourse. In Lynn Margulis’s work What is Life? and Symbiotic Planet, Clarke comes to the realization that “if Gaia is a system, then Gaia theory is a form of systems theory” that can also articulate autopoietic or self-producing systems. Embracing approaches to autopoiesis, Clarke describes the expansi… continue

As you may notice, we have a new design for the ebr newsletter! I’d like to extend special thanks to our Managing Editor Will Luers for all the hard work that he put into developing this new template, which will offer our readers a more concise and visually organized update of our monthly issues. (If you are subscribed and have not received the June newsletter, it may have been blocked due to our recent changes. Please subscribe again with your preferred email.) Editors at ebr are currently developing a new biannual theme-based journal based on the born-digital essay. Please contact Will Luers… continue