[…]common sense, to disarticulate our conceptions of ecology and environment from each other, and to formulate a perspective which takes ecological concerns seriously while at the same time enabling one to understand the peculiar mixture of successes and failures, as well as the processes of institutional and conceptual fraying, which have characterized the trajectory of environmental movements since their meteoric rise in the 1960s and 1970s. From such a perspective, I will argue, social systems theory appears neither as an ally nor as an enemy of environmentalism; it cannot hope to contribute to its success, nor can it bring about […]
[…]when one of the mottoes of the students was Il est interdit d’interdire («It is forbidden to forbid»). Does not self-censorship always begin with this statement? Is it not that the author is always guided by the desire to «prohibit all prohibitions»? Is it not that every period (full point) is an attemp to supress, to self-censor, to say no more? Joseph McElroy puts a rhetorical question in the end of his essay:«What is not censorship? Knowing perfectly well the difference between state censorship and the artist’s instinctive and exacting omissions, though knowing this how well?» And I’ve just tried […]
[…]in the Work of Kathy Acker.” From March 7th to September 15th 2017 he carried out the inventory of the Kathy Acker Study at the University of Cologne, which he is currently […]
[…]his second point, since the Film Photo Novel has aged enough to become a historical artifact and form that is no longer dependent on its source films. But it’s Baetens’s third claim—the inspiration of new cultural form—that I find most intriguing, and want to interrogate with respect to the term archive and digital culture. The central question is what distinguishes the Film Photo Novel and its digital repository that inspires revisiting of its now-obsolete cultural practice and subsequent dialogue? What is it about the object, with its strange conceit that is no longer relevant but once enjoyed mainstream popularity, which […]
[…]had been happening on Twitter before Elon Musk took it over, it seems that at times, indeed, “[m]emes are the street art of the social web, and, like street art, they are varied, expressive and complex” and that sometimes “memes help make transformative and positive changes in society” (Mina 12). While I am tempted to emphasize that a meme power may lie in its transversal, highly mobile potential, the fact is that this power is not always used in noble ways. It can, however, serve both as a tool that may help to cross boundaries, divisions, and aesthetics and a […]
[…]there’s definitely something to the sheer monumentality of the work and also the sort of drive to completionism that pulls you in. It was set out that he was doing this his task over this period and writing, you know, an insane amount of words every day and you feel like you need to ride along, even though parts of it, we could argue, are boring, you know, some parts of it are very much about the quotidian and maybe not even the quotidian of a protagonist who you always identify with. You know, there are many descriptions of conversations […]
[…]Felix, remembers his mother talking about her “various conspiracy theories” including that “[t]he planet was getting colder” (193). These are admittedly few moments of explicit engagement with of climate in a 400-page novel. However, this sporadic, subtle depiction of climate can be read as an additional representational strategy, different from, but no less important than the often future-oriented, catastrophe driven, bourgeoning genre of “clifi.” What I’d call Smith’s strategy of “soft representation of climate change” is perhaps one answer to Gosh’s critique about the realist novel’s lack of engagement with climate change. While grand intrusions of climate change such as […]
[…]just like it, a substantial number of third gen e-lit is being distributed on YouTube, because, “[i]f YouTube is anything, it is both industry and user driven” as Snickars and Vonderau (11) have stated, again emphasizing the tensions I am interested in. In the words of Abigail Keating, “video websites like YouTube as distributary spaces problematize the distinction between ‘leisure’ and ‘corporate’ media to arguably its most explicit extent” (107). This is such because, YouTube, by being driven essentially by amateur production dismantles the prospect of the amateur being bound by the private sphere, and instead, catapults “amateurism into not […]
[…]pointed out while setting a direction for the Electronic Literature Directory in 2007, [p]romoters of e-literature should avoid sounding too disappointed about the ‘loss’ of established works of e-lit whose platforms are now outdated […] the vast majority of past works are fated to be lost not through acts of critical judgement but through neglect. Considering that Foster and Ravipinto’s work is hardly neglected, I think it will be more worthwhile to the discussion to ponder the effect that its non-inclusion – in favor of other literary pieces or pieces of literature, but not both – might have on what […]
[…]these articles explore the disruptive potential of electronic literature to decenter and complement the DH field. Creativity is central and found at all levels and spheres of e-lit, but as the articles in this gathering show, there is a need to redeploy creative practice critically to address the increasing instrumentalization of the digital humanities and to turn the digital humanities towards the digital cultures of the present. Conceived as an ongoing conversation, rolling out 2-3 articles each month until the end of the year, all contributions are tackling at least one of the four following areas: Building Research Infrastructures and […]