It’s literature, Jim… but not as we know it

(I’ve got a feeling Alan Bigelow may have used this line already.)

From Vooks to ebooks, from the iPad to the Google settlement, and from print-on-demand to new styles of writing, this article attempts to analyse the effects of the digital revolution on the publishing industry, and to make some educated guesses about how things may develop in the next few years.

“An alternative to the Big Publishing model is already with us, and despite the odd viral phenomenon it consists in the main of very large numbers of small-scale products reaching small audiences, rather than small numbers of very high-profile products reaching huge audiences. This alternative model is enabled by digital technology, and it replaces high production values and market-minded editorial controls with the principle that people’s desire to publish themselves and to look at each other’s efforts is itself a profit motor.”

To read the whole article, go to http://www.hyperex.co.uk/reviewdigitalpublishing.php or http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=406 .

- Edward Picot
personal website – http://edwardpicot.com

The inaugural issue of VLAK will be launched at the St Marks Poetry Project, 131 E. 10th St., New York, on the 27th of September, and at the Prague Microfestival Poetry Series in October.

Contributors to VLAK 1.1 include Abigail Child, Holly Tavel, Marjorie Perloff, Alexander Jorgensen, Joshua Cohen, Eileen Myles, Stephanie Barber, John Wilkinson, Matt Hall, Stephanie Strickland, Allen Fisher, Marjorie Welish, Catherine Hales, Mez, Karen Mac Cormack, Robert Sheppard, Bill Mousoulis, Ali Alizadeh, Ron Padget, Brandon Downing, Pam Brown, Thor Garcia, John Coletti, Jessica Fiorini, Bruce Andrews, Richard Tipping, Vincent Farnsworth, Mark Terrill, Elizabeth Gross, Douglas Piccinnini, Stephan Delbos, Arlo Quint, Vincent Katz, Veronique Vassiliou, Vadim Erent, Pierre Joris, Habib Tengour, Aaron Lowinger, Darren Tofts, Ian Haig, Louis Armand, John Kinsella, Steve McCaffery, Stacey Szymaszek, Mike Farrell, Andrea Brady, Edwin Torres, Alli Warren, Jess Mynes, Tim Gaze, Jen Hofer, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, Ales Steger, Betsy Fagin, Amande In, Jena Osman, Henry Hills, Keith Jones, Octavio Armand, John Godfrey, Allyssa Wolf… and more!

Continuing the abridged version of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South – abridged on the principle of leaving out all the important bits. In this section Margaret, supposedly on the lookout for a water-bed, conceives a sudden and all-consuming passion for clogs.

http://edwardpicot.com/and/

- Edward Picot

http://edwardpicot.com – personal website
http://hyperex.co.uk – The Hyperliterature Exchange

#feralC’s Series 1|Episode 1 Session 3 Transcript is now live here.

“Despite his experiments with HTML, Weishaus’ writing has always retained a strong connection with traditional literature. His latest work, ‘The Gateless Gate’, is deliberately simple and book-like in its construction; it takes the form of a series of “double-page spreads,” with text on the left and a processed photographic image on the right. The texts do not describe the images and the images do not illustrate the texts, but they do share the same thematic preoccupations—notably dream-imagery, the natural world, prehistory, and prehistoric psychology.”

http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2010summer/weishaus.shtml

- Edward Picot
http://edwardpicot.com – Personal Website
http://hyperex.co.uk – The Hyperliterature Exchange

It has not been long since the last one, but there’s a new story at webyarns.com…

“This Is Not A Poem” is a toy, a game, a language engine, and a poem all at the same time….

The new plaything is at http://www.ThisIsNotAPoem.com

Also, in case you missed it, “My Nervous Breakdown,” released a few months ago, is available at
http://webyarns.com/MyNervousBreakdown.html

For other stories, both new and old, please visit http://www.webyarns.com

Many thanks for your interest!

yours,

alan
–
stories for the web
http://www.webyarns.com

The first challenge is: viivakoodi, barcode, código de parras, codice a barre…

Time for a Vispo is a new blog run by Finnish visual poet, Satu Kaikkonen, where she gives a weekly challenge to create a vispo. The 1. challenge, issued by Satu on Monday 28 June, was barcode. It’s always good to have an opportunity to shake out some vispos/e-poems from the R3/\/\1X\/\/0RX archive and, since barcodes have featured in a number of remixes, this challenge was such an occasion. See the collection under the remixworx barcode tag. It includes two new Flash remixes: barcode (every citizen under the sun) by babel/Chris Joseph, and id card, which is my response, a random coded e-poem with voices.

Screenshot of id card, created in Flash by Christine Wilks (crissxross)

Others from the R3/\/\1X\/\/0RX archive include:

seepage by runran

artifact (bicycle – 2111) by runran

artifact (rusted sergio mix) by babel/Chris Joseph

barcode of life (detail), created in Flash by Chris Joseph

Worx by babel

sizing up by crissxross

And here’s another, barcode of life by babel/Chris Joseph, which is, strictly speaking, not part of remixworx but far too wonderful to avoid mentioning.

The current Time for a Vispo challenge is TRAFFIC, LIIKENNE, TRAFFICO but there will be a new one tomorrow!

R3/\/\1X\/\/0RX is a collaborative blog for digital art and e-poetry remixing, started by Randy Adams (runran) in November 2006.

The second piece, Clay Conversations is a video I made as part of a collaboration with ceramicist Joanna Still. It has text by me, ceramics and photographs by Joanna, and a soundtrack by Roger Dean made almost entirely of clay sounds. It is up at Scan Gallery http://scan.net.au/scan/gallery/works/smith_april10/smith.php

Reference number: 426-0587-2010

Description

The post is dedicated to working for 1 year in the 3-year research project “Developing a Network-Based Creative Community: Electronic Literature as Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice” which is financed by the European initiative HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area: http://www.heranet.info/). BTH’s part of the project includes among others the mapping of existing pedagogical models for teaching electronic literature, explore future possible pedagogical models, to create an anthology of European electronic literature, and host a workshop dedicated to electronic literature and pedagogy. BTH therefore seeks a postdoctoral researcher to work with the following tasks:

• Identify pedagogical models for work with and teaching of electronic literature:
• Map existing anthologies, collections, and archives of electronic literature;
• Contribute to the work of an anthology of European electronic literature (to be published online and on DVD), and
• Participate in the research project and contribute to BTH’s work within the project.

For more information about ELMCIP, please consult: http://www.bth.se/tks/hum.nsf/sidor/elmcip or http://elmcip.net/

Eligibility and desired qualifications:

Candidates are eligible to apply if they possess a PhD degree or a foreign degree deemed to be the equivalent of a doctorate. Eligible candidates must have completed their degree within three years before the deadline. Candidates are expected to have a doctorate in a subject related to the topic of the research project ELMCIP, e.g. literature, digital culture and humanities, pedagogy and digital media. Candidates should have experience of working with university level education. Knowledge of digital literature and/or experience of editorial work, or work with archives, anthologies or collections will be advantageous.

The successful candidate will work with Principal Investigator Maria Engberg and Co-Investigator Talan Memmott.

Fulltime position. January 2011 to December 2011, or according to agreement.

Duration: 12 months

For more information:

Please contact Interim Dean Peter Ekdahl, +46 454-38 59 09, peter.ekdahl@bth.se or Principal Investigator at BTH, Ass. Professor Maria Engberg, 0455-38 53 67, maria.engberg@bth.se. Union representatives: SACO Mikael Åsman +46 457 385720 and TCO Monika Nilsson +45 455-385440.

Application should include:

• CV
• Copies of doctorate and other degrees.
• Notification of first possible start day
• BTH applies individual wages. Enter salary requirements in application.

Send your application, marked with reference number, by August 15, 2010 to:

Registrar

Blekinge Tekniska Högskola

371 79 Karlskrona.

SWEDEN
To email enquiries about application procedures: diarium@bth.se

For more information about BTH: http://www.bth.se/eng/aboutbth

This ad in English: http://www.bth.se/tks/hum.nsf/sidor/elmcip-postdoc

This ad in Swedish: http://www.bth.se/for/employments.nsf/jobs/d540767703c39650c12577440030ebb8

ELMCIP:

Developing a Network-Based Creative Community: Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice (ELMCIP) is a collaborative research project funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) JRP for Creativity and Innovation.

ELMCIP involves seven European academic research partners and one non-academic partner who will investigate how creative communities of practitioners form within a transnational and transcultural context in a globalized and distributed communication environment. Focusing on the electronic literature community in Europe as a model of networked creativity and innovation in practice, ELMCIP is intended both to study the formation and interactions of that community and also to further electronic literature research and practice in Europe.

The partners include: The University of Bergen, Norway (PL Scott Rettberg, Co-I Jill Walker Rettberg), the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland (PI Simon Biggs, Co-I Penny Travlou), Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden (PI Maria Engberg, Co-I Talan Memmott), The University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (PI Yra Van Dijk), The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (PI Janez Strechovec), The University of Jyväskylä, Finland (PI Raine Koskimaa), and Univerity College Falmouth at Dartington, England (PI Jerome Fletcher), and New Media Scotland.

To view it on my site, go to http://www.edwardpicot.com/drhairy/oldfashionedmedicine.mov ; or you can see it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUdBHsW83bg ; or it should be on DVblog (http://dvblog.org) in the next couple of weeks.

- Edward Picot
http://edwardpicot.com – personal website
http://hyperex.co.uk – The Hyperliterature Exchange