netpoetic.com

For my first netpoetic project, I will address certain aspects of data-driven poetic work. Rather than attempt an exhaustive approach that considers the different ways in which electronic writers inhabit networks cannibalizing, channelling, and remixing data sources, I will take a localized approach, writing largely from my creative practice over the last few years and through some recent/current projects. I do this, on the one hand, because it is simply what I know at the moment and perhaps may stimulate ideas or conversation (for others and myself as I catalog and move forward). I also attempt this out of the feeling that practice-based dialogue is an under-engaged element in the discourse of e-lit (but one beginning to unfold here at netpoetic).

The main works I will discuss are The Last Performance [dot org], which began in 2007, and The Precession, an early work-in-progress. These are collaborative and interdisciplinary works that exist on-screen as well as in performance and installation contexts. They borrow aesthetics and techniques from varied histories including constraint-based literature, process-driven performance, and database art. Thinking through them, I will consider topics such as constraint, collaboration, structure, location, and scale. In a later section, I plan to cite some pieces created by students with whom I have worked at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

This netpoetic contribution will unfold over the course of several entries with the first one coming soon and others coming as they come. A potential 6-fold outline looks like this:

Part I: Constraint, Structure, and Scale

Part II: Location and Interruption

Part III: Performance and Other Front-ends

Part IV: Works by Younger Colleagues

Part V: Hacking the Night Sky

Part VI: Exercises for Cadets

Links:

The Last Performance [dot org]

The Precession (early w-i-p)

“Electronic Literature (in Performance)” by Scott Rettberg

Review of The Last Performance* by David Grubbs

*access, unfortunately, restricted

Tags: Judd Morrissey

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