Electronic Lit and Online Performance Art

This week, we are going to take a different approach to Internet-based poetry. Instead of looking at poetry that is written for or on the Internet, we are going to look at writers that take language from the Internet and use it to create poetry on the analogue page.   What is the analogue page? In this case, analogue simply means the physical page --in other words, poetry that is written for a physical book of poems. While the poems you are going to read for this week were published individually in online journals (which is how you are reading them here), keep in mind that the goal of these poets was to eventually publish a collection of poems in a physical, traditional book.     This is a very different approach to the Internet, when you think about it. The audience is different, for one--usually poetry that is published on the physical page is only read by other poets.  Additionally, while writers who make work on Twitter or Facebook inhabit the spi...

Poetry After the Internet Discussion Questions: Discuss the different strategies each poet uses to explore the Internet in their poems? What specific aspects of our experience of the Internet are they exploring, and how? (Ex. surfing the net, being isolated, wanting "likes, etc.) In what ways does the unique language of the Internet function in each poem/project? (The like button, .gifs, etc.) Discuss which poets seem critical of the Internet, if any. What specifically are they criticizing? Discuss which poets seem ambivalent toward the Internet or are simply studying it. Discuss which poets seem to celebrate aspects of the Internet. What aspects are they celebrating? Why is the Internet a good topic or subject for a poem? What is the role of the audience in each poem? Are they acknowledged directly? Are they antagonistic toward the speaker? Do they have empathy for the performer/writer? Discuss the emoji translation poems. What is unique about the language of emo...

Twitter Poetry Discussion Questions: What is unique about Twitter as a poetry platform? What did you like about it? How did it change your reading experience?  What kinds of works emerge when the artistic gatekeepers are bypassed?   How are writers using this space in creative ways, to reach an audience?   What are their goals in reaching that audience (political, subversive, playful, etc)? Discuss the works you read for today.  What is the role of the audience? Are they antagonistic? Do they have empathy for the performer/writer?  What are some of the creative or artistic limits of the platform?  What makes Twitter especially primed as a platform for poetry?

It was perhaps only a matter of time after Twitter was created in 2006 that a platform dedicated to pithy, brief SMS communications was capitalized on by the writers of brief, pithy ... poetry. Sometimes called "micro-poetry," and in the spirit of the haiku, Twitter poetry limits itself to the 280 (once 140) characters of the platform. This constraint allows a certain freedom in choosing ones word carefully, something all great poets do.       Twitter poetry has a specific relationship to its audience. If they like what you have to say, they might retweet your poem. This dissemination model is quite different than buying a poetry book and passing it along; it means ones poem can theoretically go "viral." So Sad Today, one of the Twitter poets you are reading for this week's module, did just that. Her popular account now has 556k followers, and she received a book deal as a result--which, oddly, turned out to be a book of personal essays and not p...

1) Give us a brief synopsis and let us know what category or sub-genre you'd apply to your Twine game. 2) Take us through the game, letting us make choices. 3) Group discussions (brief).

  How successfully does the project set up its central concerns and what are those concerns? By concerns I mean what is the piece about?   What is the effect of the piece? How did it make you feel, what did it make you think about,  etc ?   How successfully does the artist utilize the medium in question to achieve their goals? *This should be a central focus of your critique   What  are some other specific ways in which the medium could be further utilized? What factors hasn't the author considered?   Who is the potential audience for the piece? What type of engagement with the work does the audience have? (For  example  with a Twine game the audience must interactively click through the game and make conscious choices; with Twitter the audience might re-tweet or tweet back).  What are some ways in which the author could further engage their audience's interactivity?     You can address other aspects of the piece I didn't...

WEEK 1 LECTURE: DEFINING ELECTRONIC LITERATURE AND DIGITAL PERFORMANCE ART   As we move forward in this course, it's important to understand just what it is we are talking about when we say "electronic literature" and just what it means when we say "digital performance art."     According to theorist Scott Rettberg , electronic literature consists of new forms and genres of writing that exploit the capabilities of computers and networks – literature that would not be possible without the contemporary digital sphere. Types of electronic literature include hypertext, interactive fiction (and other game-based digital literary work), kinetic and interactive poetry, and networked writing based on our collective experience of the Internet.       Digital performance art is performance art that uses the digital realm (the Internet) as medium and platform for performance work; it also encompasses work that crosses over into physical spaces b...

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