
>syllabus
<schedule>
“Never forget that. Always remember the fun.” -Robert Coover
Introductions all around
Tuesday, January 20th
Introduction to the class & each other
Show your neighbor your neighborhood…
Read: syllabus & course website, post an intro/image to the course blog
Thursday, January 22nd
Situating electronic literature
Class planning: blog & discussion assignments
Read: Electronic Literature Chapter 1 & “electronic literature: what is it?” by N. Katherine Hayles
Electronic literature form & genres: how did we get here?
Tuesday, January 27th
“bring it to the table”: What is e-lit? Why should we read it? Write it?
Multimodal affordances & Medium is the message
Read: “The Medium is the Message” by Marshall McLuhan, "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush & "The End of Books" by Robert Coover (Off Center podcast episode Remembering Robert Coover)
Thursday, January 29th
Play: How do we read this thing? Interactive Art (UNH Museum field trip?)
Read: EL Chp. 2 & Cent Mille milliards de poems (Hundred thousand billion poems) by Raymond Queneau (& ELD entry & assemble your own poem)
Tuesday, February 3rd
“bring it to the table”: combinatory poetics
Exquisite corpse about you (but really about all of us)
Read: Storyland by Nanette Wylde, @everyword & ELD entry (& book!), ("How to make a Dadaist Poem" by Tristan Tzara for Thursday), & Taroko Gorge & Off Center podcast episode 7 w/ Nick Montfort
Thursday, February 5th
Play: Dada & Oulipo
Collage & Blackout Poetry &“The Infinite Woman” by Katie Schaag
Read: EL Chp. 3 & “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges (& Forking Paths in the ELMCIP) & Sunshine 69 & Off Center podcast episode 9 w/ Robert Arellano
Down the rabbit hole… hypertext & games & how things work
Tuesday, February 10th
“bring it to the table”: POMO to e-lit
Read afternoon or Patchwork Girl (in-class)
Read: “Strachey’s nineteen-fifties love machine” by Siobhan Roberts & “An Account of Randomness in Literary Computing” by Mark Sample, & "The Poetry Machine"
Thursday, February 12th
Play: Generative poems
Read: Entre Ville by JR Carpenter, My Body a Wunderkammer by Shelley Jackson & “A Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Haraway, & Off Center podcast episode 13 w/ Talan Memmott
Tuesday, February 17th
“bring it to the table”: hypertext
Lexia to Perplexia & preservation of “old media” (ELMCIP & Traversals)
Introduce midterm analysis essay/presentation/ ELD entries
Read: “How to Rob a Bank” by Alan Bigelow & “Hana Feels” by Gavin Inglis, & "Vocable Code" by Winnie Soon
(Sign up for ThingLink (invite code on Thursday's <Play>))
Thursday, February 19th
PLAY: hypertext
Optional proposal conferences
Read: EL Chp. 4, “Good literature can come in digital forms – just look to the world of video games” by James O’Sullivan, Zork & “The Enduring Legacy of Zork” by Elizabeth Woyke, Elude (YouTube walkthrough) & Off Center Podcast episode 12 with Doris Rusch
Tuesday, February 24th
“bring it to the table”: Games or literature?
Play/Read The Bafflement Fires, DWTD, Hair Nah, The Stanley Parable (& other "games" TBA) in class
Proposals due
Read: “A Vast and Lonely Desert” by Davis G. See, “Depression Quest” by Zoe Quinn & "Twine Game Narrative and discussion about LGBTQ representation" by Luiza C. Braganca, Rosilane R. Mota, and Eduardo P.C. Fantini
(Download Twine2 & look at example & Twine Cookbook)
Thursday, February 26th
Play: Twine
Read: EL Chp. 5 & i love you)last night by e.e. cummings, dear e.e. by Lori Janis & Ingrid Ankerson, Cruising by Ingrid Ankerson & Megan Sapnar & ii in the white darkness by Reiner Strasser & M.D. Coverly
Tuesday, March 3rd
“bring it to the table”: the medium is the metaphor
(& the death of Flash)
Draft conferences this week
Read: Lotus Blossom byYoung-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, “Forgotten Nights" by Peter Hebden, & The Dreamlife of Letters & Star Wars One Letter at a Time (video) by Brian Kim Stefans (Digital Poetry with Buchanan and Stefans)
(watch Photoshop animation or Adobe Animate tutorial)
Thursday, March 5th
Play: Movement
Workshop/revisions on analysis/presentations
Respond: Lit. analysis (but different)
Tuesday, March 10th
E-lit presentations due!
Thursday, March 12th
Presentations continued
Workshop/ revisions on analysis/ELD entries
Read: EL chp. 6 & "Flight Paths" by Kate Pullinger, Chris Joseph & co. The Unknown by Scott Rettberg & co., Occupy MLA transcript (originally on Twitter) by Mark Marino and Rob Wittig, & Live/Archive: Occupy MLA by Kathi Inman Berens & Off Center podcast episode 24 w/ Rob Wittig
March 16th - 20th Spring break
Here’s where things start to get weird… collaborative & immersive spaces
Tuesday, March 24th
“bring it to the table”: collaboration & networks
Final e-lit analysis & ELD entries due/submitted!
Read: We Feel Fine info. & gallery, Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow, “Exposed” by Sharon Daniel, & Netprov: #1WkNoTech
Thursday, March 26th
Play: Collaboration: Netprov w/ special guest star!
Read: EL chp. 7 & Text Rain by Camille Utterback. &Strange Rain & Bubble & Far Away from Far Away (on phone), “The Trajectory Cabinet”by Jason Nelson, "Circle" documentation by Caitlin Fisher
(& begin Motto (on phone))
Tuesday, March 31st
“bring it to the table”: mobile & touch & immersive spaces
Read Pearl in class or outside of class (or The Book of Distance)
(& behind the scenes of Pearl)
Introduce final projects
Read: Motto, VR/360 of your choice
(look at Scene & Google Earth (& revisit ThingLink) for 360)
Thursday, April 2nd
Play: Virtual
Read: “VR is the ultimate empathy machine” & Clouds Over Sidra by Chris Milk, Let it Brain's This is Not Private & Stanford VHIL 1000 Cut Journey & Becoming Homeless (& news story on 1000 Cut Journey), & other VR TBA (The Book of Distance?),Off Center Podcast episode 10 w/ Caitlin Fisher
Tuesday, April 7th
“bring it to the table”: VR & empathy
Complications of embodied narratives
Read:Queerskins: A Love Story by Illya Szilak and Cyril Tsiboulski
Thursday, April 9th
Multimodal affordances
Final projects
Play: technology review or class choice!
Project planning
Proposals due
Compose & create: “Never forget that. Always remember the fun.” -Robert Coover
Tuesday, April 14th
“bring it to the table”: Your project/technology
Thursday, April 16th
Play: learning your medium
Worktime
Tuesday, April 21st
Worktime
Thursday, April 23rd
Workshop final projects
Tuesday, April 28th
E-lit project drafts due!
Project presentations!
Thursday, April 30th
Project presentations continued!
Revisions
Final project revisions/analysis due Monday, May 4th!