Writers, Computers, and Networks
 
PROVIDENCE
 
DATE April 25, 2005, 7:00 pm
PARTICIPANTS John Cayley, Yael Kanarek, Nick Montfort, and Noah Wardrip Fruin
VENUE Smith-Buonanno, Room 106, Pembroke Campus, Brown University
CONTACT Noah Wardrip-Fruin
 
BOSTON
 
DATE April 26, 2005, 7:00 pm
PARTICIPANTS John Cayley, Thalia Field, Nick Montfort, and Noah Wardrip Fruin
VENUE Rabb Lecture Hall, Boston Public Library
CONTACT Jo-Anne Green
 

Within the digital arts there are also letters: works by writers who explore the possibilities of texts controlled by computational processes, or who write in ways that take the network as a medium (rather than a distribution mechanism). Net art includes text-, image-, and sound-based works; many e-literature works include images (moving and still) and sound. In both strains are the recurring themes of interactivity, participation, process, potential, and chance, as well as a questioning of the definitions of artist/writer, audience/reader, and the art object.

In this reading, Turbulence.org and the Electronic Literature Organization celebrate their commonalities by presenting four writers reading from network-enabled work: Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Nick Montfort will read from their recent Turbulence commissions; Wardrip-Fruin from "Two Textual Instruments: Regime Change and News Reader," and Montfort from "Mystery House Taken Over." Yael Kanarek will read from "World of Awe," and Thalia Field will read "Zoologic," and also give a short preview of "Rest/Less." John Cayley will perform from "Translation" and related pieces. A discussion will follow.

This event is made possible by the Department of Literary Arts, Brown University and the LEF Foundation.

 
BIOGRAPHIES
 
John Cayley is a London-based poet, translator and publisher. He has lectured at Brown University and the University of California, San Diego, where he was also a Research Associate of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA). Cayley's most recent work explores ambient poetics in programmable media, with parallel theoretical interventions concerning the role of code in writing and the temporal properties of textuality. He won the Electronic Literature Organization's Award for Poetry in 2001. Web site: http://www.shadoof.net/in/
   
Thalia Field is the author of "Point and Line" (New Directions, 2000), "Incarnate:Story Material" (New Directions, 2004), and the forthcoming ULULU (Clown Shrapnel) (Coffee House Press, 2006). Her collaborations with choreographer and media artist Jamie Jewett include "After the Fall" (premiered at Danspace, 2004), "Seven Veils" (premiered at Slought Networks Gallery, Philadelphia, 2003) and "REST/LESS," an interactive poetry environment for dance that can be seen at Green Street Studios as part of the Boston CyberArts Festival on May 6 and 7, 2005.
   
Yael Kanarek is a new media artist who has been developing her integrated-media project World of Awe since 1995. At the core of "World of Awe" is "The Traveler's Journal"-an original narrative that uses the ancient genre of the traveler's tale to explore the connections between storytelling, travel, memory and technology. Selected for the Whitney Biennial 2002, Kanarek is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Turbulence commission—Portal—an interactive net.dance in collaboration with dance filmmaker Evann Siebens and composer Yoav Gal. She is represented by Bitforms gallery in New York City. Web site: http://www.treasurecrumbs.com/
   
Nick Montfort is a poet and computer scientist who has developed pieces of interactive fiction and other types of online writing and art, often in collaboration with others. He wrote the first academic book about interactive fiction, Twisty Little Passages (MIT Press, 2003), and co-edited The New Media Reader (MIT Press, 2003) with Noah Wardrip-Fruin. Montfort is co-vice president of the Electronic Literature Organization. Montford is the recipient of a 2004 Turbulence commission. Web site: http://nickm.com
   
Noah Wardrip-Fruin has recently co-edited two books: The New Media Reader (2003) and First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game (2004). His artwork has been presented by the Whitney and Guggenheim museums. Wardrip-Fruin is co-vice president of the Electronic Literature Organization. Wardrip-Fruin is the recipient of a 2003 Turbulence commission. Web site: http://hyperfiction.org
 
ORGANIZATIONS' BACKGROUNDS
 

Electronic Literature Organization

The Electronic Literature Organization was established in 1999 to promote and facilitate the writing, publishing, and reading of electronic literature. Electronic Literature Organization programs support new forms of literature that utilize the capabilities emerging technologies to advance the state of the art for the benefit of present and future generations of readers. Since its formation, the Electronic Literature Organization has taken great strides in creating programs designed to assist writers and publishers in bringing their literary works to a wider, global readership and also to provide them with the infrastructure necessary to reach one another.

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc./Turbulence.org

New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) was founded in 1981 to foster the development of new and experimental work for radio and sound arts. In 1996, it extended its mandate to net art and launched its pioneering web site, Turbulence.org. Turbulence has commissioned, exhibited, and archived over 80 works that explore the networked medium, and supported over 20 experimental real time, distributed, multi-location performance events.

 
 
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