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Artist Talk: Malcolm Fife, Malcolm Fife

Scholars Week

MALCOLM FIFE

RECENT WORK

Artist Talk

Art 399

Breathe The Machine, Matt S. Roberts, Terri Witek, Teresa Carmody, Dengke Chen

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Breathe the Machine

interspecies morph edition featuring a video conference and solo or synched blow-ins

Teresa Carmody Dengke Chen Matt Roberts Terri Witek

The FaaS were future-oriented. Every day, they contemplated the question: what kind of ancestor will you be?

A collaborative group composed of a prose writer, new media artist, 3-D animator, and poet enter your personal computers and suggest that in this particularly viral moment, individual breaths + machines may be the closest we get to community touch. An animated video conference offers the project's conceptual framework, including questions about invasive species and intimacy in this new world …

Landscapes Of Light And Text And Layer: A Projection Poetry Performance, Jason Nelson Dr.

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

A digital poetry performance in seven locations. This online performance mixes pre-recorded video of projection poetry in seven places/landscapes around SE Queensland, Australia with a live digital poetry reading.

The theme of this performance is landscapes of change, exploring places in SE Queensland impacted by bushfires, deviated by floods, altered by drought, damaged by weapon testing, trees thousands of years old, home of non-human creatures and the revealed geology that roads carve.

Using pico/portable projectors, digital poet Jason Nelson, will add a poetic light-based skin to these landscapes, recording the results, replaying them during the performance. As the projection videos …

The Tenders: Embrasures In The Fort’S Collapse, Judd Morrissey, Abraham Avnisan, Mark Jeffery

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

The Tenders: Embrasures in the Fort's collapse (zoom edition) is an simultaneous multi-channel mixed reality performance that engages with structures of the fort and the home, combining remote live performance and augmented reality poetics with 3d scans of the site of Fort Dearborn, an early American garrison out of which the city of Chicago was incorporated. Juxtaposing excavations of urban monuments with scans of the bedazzled home of self-taught artist, Loy Bowlin, who embodied the persona of "the original rhinestone cowboy", The Tenders seeks to invert and queer colonial narratives lodged deep within the American imaginary.

Phone Down Magic On (An Augmented Reality Performance/Reading), Laura Zaylea

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Phone Down Magic On is designed as a chapter book for children, grades 3-5, and each chapter begins with augmented reality content. The story follows three young friends who text each other before bed. By holding a phone above the physical chapter book, readers see the characters’ texting session as if it were happening on their own phones… and when a parent says to put the phone down, the texting stops and the “magic” begins. The screen interface dissolves into a dream scene, and clues to a mystery are presented in floating text presented within animated sequences supported by sound …

Tweet Your Shared Adventure: An (Un)Continuous E-Lit Jam, Sarah Whitcomb Laiola

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

ABOUT:

For this virtual engagement session of ELOrlando, participants will create and play a collaborative work of e-lit on Twitter, modeled after Choose Your Own Adventure-style hypertext fiction. This e-lit jam will run the course of the conference, from Thursday July 16-July 19, on the hashtag #TYSA (T[weet] Y[our] S[hared] A[dventure]). All Twitter users in the ELO community are invited to join.

HOW THIS JAM WILL JAM:

On the first day of the conference, the session’s organizer (Sarah Whitcomb Laiola, @DrSarathena192 on both Twitter and Discord) will tweet out on #ELOrlando and #TYSA the beginning of an adventure story. …

Savage Words, Lee Tusman

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Savage Words is a realtime massive multiplayer online text space as well as a collaborative poem and asynchronous chatroom. It is a corner of the internet built on the platform Your World of Text, an infinite grid of text editable by visitors.

Throughout the conference period, participants can join in a communal writing, a textual table of simultaneous and asynchronous shared writing. ASCII images, freewheeling conversations, 'Poetry', and other forms of experimental text will be woven together into a freewheeling shared work.

Screenshots of the unfolding text will be saved at regular intervals, to be published after the conclusion of …

Poetry For Seers Or The Peruvian Visual Poetic Tradition In Front Of New Media, Michael Hurtado, Pamela Medina, Enrique García, Michael Prado

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Since the first decades of the twentieth century, Peruvian poetic tradition has been characterized by experimental uses of language. Among these possibilities, some records tensioned this medium from the link with the plastic arts, as in the case of the poetry of José María Eguren, while others opted for the playing with the spatiality and visuality of the blank sheet, such as in the case of the work of Carlos Oquendo de Amat. However, it is not until the appearance of the poetry of César Vallejo, specifically with a poems like Trilce in 1922, that these breakages force us to …

Falproject, Mohsen Hazrati

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

"A fāl or Bibliomancy is good or bad, the profit or the loss whose occurrence is predicted by hearing a word or a voice, seeing the movement or the expression, opening or reading a book, or observing a specific motif or image." Mohammad Vojdani

FAL Project is a VR-AR Prediction Machine based on an Old Iranian Bibliomancy tradition.

This project is about generating a virtual environment of a prediction using unlimited online data based on the Persian Mysticism and tradition into a VR artwork. As there are so many people who get matched results based on their niyats(Intent of prediction) …

Glitch Reading: [Re]Mediation And The Protocols Of Reading, Jacob Reber

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

In this paper, I outline a methodology for reading poetic works that operate between media environments, noting the subtle shifts and failures that mark the material changes. The space between mediums and processes of remediation produce residue from the various material substrates and protocols of reading that adhere to works moving through networks. The attention to the residue can be understood as glitches, which proliferate the possibilities of reading and reveal the construction of imbricated reading environments. This is a practice I want to consider through the framework of glitch reading. Drawing on Rosa Menkman's theorization of glitches and Tan …

The Aesthetics Of Multicoding Esolangs, Daniel J. Temkin

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

In the influential 2005 paper "A Box, Darkly," Michael Mateas and Nick Montfort introduced the idea of multicoding: when one text holds multiple meanings, depending on context. Examples include polyglots, programs that can run successfully in two different languages, as well as sentences that can be read in French or English. Esoteric programming has a history of explicit multicoding languages. The best known are Piet, whose programs are images, and commands are the change in color from one pixel to the next; Shakespeare, with code written as plays, and Chef, whose programs are recipes that work in the kitchen. While …

Electronic Writing As Hypermaterial Playground, Michael B. Heidt

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

The text examines e-lit’s potentials for reframing the question of digital materiality through playful poetic practice. To this end, the discussion reconstructs the genealogy between concrete poetry and electronic writing:
Digital structures, such as source code, programmable logic devices, neural networks, databases, and sensor readouts, accompany us continuously, yet remain annoyingly hard to fathom. Although we ceaselessly interact with them, it is hard for humans to relate to these materials, to shape or see them. However, as long as we allow the material reality of these structures to slip through the cracks of the collective imaginary, it remains easy for …

Procedural Montage: A Design Trace Of Reflection And Refraction, Jasmine T. Otto, Angus G. Forbes

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Narrative media may vary the adjacency of fixed textual passages to drive rhizomatic readings through a montage procedure. We present the design of “exul mater”, a hypertext fiction which locates perlocutionary acts in virtual spaces and resonant gaps. We reflect on sculptural fiction, the (de)formance of complex systems, and tarot reading as methods of layering metaphorical blends into polysemous juxtapositional elements. "exul mater" consists of one set of such elements and their pairwise juxtapositions, as presented through an interface which supports higher-order ‘gap-filling’ reading(s). We draw on peer feedback to address challenges to readability arising from the narrative application of …

Why Are We Like This?: Exploring Writing Mechanics For An Ai-Augmented Storytelling Game, Max Kreminski, Melanie Dickinson, Michael Mateas, Noah Wardrip-Fruin

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Why Are We Like This? (WAWLT) is a playful, co-creative, AI-augmented, improvisational storytelling game in which one or more players explore and influence an ongoing simulation which they then glean for narrative material. It uses the recently developed simulation technology of story sifting (the recognition of microstories in a chronicle of simulation events), via the Felt library, to afford a new kind of playful, social, and creative writing experience. In this paper, we discuss our primary design goals: (1) using computation and interaction design to support casual player creativity, and (2) foregrounding character subjectivity as a driver for …

Exhibiting, Disseminating, Teaching: Digital Literature In Danish Public Libraries, Malthe Stavning Erslev

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Danish public libraries have since 2010 exhibited, disseminated, and taught digital literature. This paper lays out the general trajectory of their work, and introduces the notion of a post-digital literacy: a theoretical lens through which to conceptualize and articulate the importance of teaching digital literature in K-12.

In fruitful dialogue with a variety of other parties and institutions, including Aarhus University and the ELO, a handful of public libraries have developed considerable and impressive expertise, grounded in practice-based experimentation. Their efforts, which have taken place in the course of six projects, are the case into which this paper inquires. …

The Borders Between Linear Narrative And Interactive Forms, Eric S. Miller

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

This paper traces the boundaries between linear narrative forms and interactive forms. The paper starts with a glossary of relevant terms and then attempts to untangle issues that tie these forms together and separate them. It attempts to answer questions such as:

1. Where are there major overlaps between these forms?

2. What are the specific affordances of interactive forms?

3. What are the specific affordances of linear forms?

The paper draws from multiple sources, such as Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel, Narrative as Virtual Reality by Marie-Laure Ryan and Half-Real by Jesper Juul. Agency is the core attribute of interaction, though …

Productive Misreading In Intermedia Art: Four Approaches By A Musician, Jeff Morris, Elisabeth Blair

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

This discussion examines the evolution and lessons of four artistic performance works that engage with text and imagery with the mindset of a composer, rather than as an author or visual artist. The works involve computer music, improvisation, video art, generative art techniques, and challenging aesthetics. An analytical discussion reveals that different forms and mechanisms of reading are manifest in the artworks, and reflections upon these elucidate the intermedial nature of reading and the productive, expressive potential of interfering with these processes.

Designing For Truth In Counterfactual Games, Mark Sample

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

This paper brings together two distinct and seemingly irreconcilable threads: first, the place of interactive narratives and games within the broader context of documentary media; and second, the value of counterfactual narrative as a documentary form. I will weave these two threads using my own counterfactual documentary game as the guide. Currently under development in Twine, the game is rooted in archival research about the past yet is about a version of the past that didn’t happen. The game asks the following counterfactual question: what if gene editing technology like CRISPR had been invented in the 1920s and 1930s, the …

Getting Down In The Muds: A Ludological Perspective On Arguers, Michael A. Yong-Set

OSSA Conference Archive

Dan Cohen (2018) and Michael Gilbert (1997) have variously emphasized the need for argumentation theorists to pay attention to ‘arguers’ and not just ‘arguments.’ Following Yong-Set (2016), this paper will suggest that ‘games’ can be leveraged to enrich an understanding of the ‘person’ aspect of argumentation.

Ludology is the academic and critical study of games qua games, especially in terms of system design, player experience and the socio-cultural dynamics of gaming. By drawing upon and extending the lessons learned from ludologist Bartle’s (1996, 2012) analysis of the relation between player-types and games that successfully implement Multi-User-Dungeons (MUDs), I argue that …

"Family Portrait: Insert Here"An Artistic Multi-Media Manipulation Of Familial Cultural And Racial Identity Exploration As A Multiracial Student., Josie Szankiewicz

Scholars Week

"Family Portrait: Insert Here" by Josie Szankiewicz (Photograph printed with graphite pencil drawings, white pencil, acrylic paint on watercolor paper) I have gazed deeply into every face of the individuals photographed in this family portrait of the Szankiewicz family. This photograph was most likely taken in 1923 in New York, shortly after the family’s immigration from Poland. Though I will never know much of the stories of each of these individuals, I have constantly felt the pull to delve into the mystery of my family’s history. Although I feel a clashing of cultural identities, due to my Japanese-American identity and …

Using Design To Advocate For Transit Justice, Aneesha Solomon, Tanvi Muruges, Valerie Bravo

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

As a group of three design students from USF, we collaborated with SOMCAN to design a series of posters and stickers in support of their transit justice campaign. SOMCAN is a non-profit organization that provides services to help community members with common struggles such as evictions, searches for affordable housing, employment, childcare, discrimination, and most recently transit justice. The transit justice campaign is meant to bring awareness to the high cost of MUNI fares and the impact it has on communities who depend on it the most. We created a series 7 posters that each represented a variety of SF …

Visual Arts Education For Grades 6-12 In Arkansas And Its Changes Since The Twentieth Century, Callie Anna Dunlap Oxner

Scholars Day Conference

The field of education in the United States has changed greatly in many ways since its foundation. No longer do students meet in small log cabins with all ages together to learn the basics of a few practical subjects before returning to regular life. The federal government seeks to provide consistently updated standards for how children of all ages should be instructed and have frequently modernized the education system. From creating mandated subjects of learning, such as math, science, reading, writing, foreign languages, and art, raising teacher salaries, and instigating assessments to ensure complete subject literacy, America has shown in …

Not Exceptions: Historic Views Of Women In Art And The Impact On Contemporary Women Artists, Abby Leal

Scholars Day Conference

The misconception that artists of centuries past were almost exclusively men is no accident. It is a direct result of institutional inequity that kept women artists, though they lacked neither the talent nor the initiative of their counterparts, in a less advantageous position. They were denied the same opportunities for education and employment as men, and many women artists, even those with successful careers, have been lost to history. With this essay, I hope to give women artists the credit they deserve for their diversity. Not all women experienced their position in the art world the same way. Some sought …

Unhinged: Anthology, Elizabeth Shepard

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Unhinged explores women in mythology and religion that are perceived as “evil,” but in my telling, are reincarnated as modern, everyday female leads. The theme of Unhinged: Anthology is how women fight oppressive forces, not shying away from female identity and power. I’ve adapted my stories from myths and folklore from other cultures. The first three stories in Unhinged: Anthology are: “The Huldra“ (Norse), “The Rangda” (Balinese) and “The Maenad” (Greek). I’ve written these stories in the form of scripts, approved by my committee members. Because traditional black-and-white high contrast adds to the horror aesthetic, the medium for the pages …

Vern Multilingual Font System, Nathan Zawadzki

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Vern is designed in Latin, Cyrillic, and Hebrew for a total of roughly 160 characters or glyphs in this writing system. Based on the research of these systems, a reverse contrast style fits Cyrillic and Hebrew, while normal contrast has more difficulty in adjusting to them. This slab serif, reverse contrast style keeps the look of a traditional serif font in Latin. Vern’s unified design across multiple languages works in media such as book text or large-scale signage.

A Guide To African Princesses, Makayla Ray

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

A Guide to African Princesses inspires young Black/African American girls and will encourage Black/African American storylines in Hollywood. It includes Princess Yennenga, Queen of Sheba, Queen Amina of Zazzau Kingdom, Kandake, the empress of Ethiopia, and Yaa Asantewa. To achieve this, the guide focuses on having text including each princess’s name, lifespan, legacy, and appropriate phonetic transcription. Phonetic transcription is important because the spelling of a word or name does not always tell someone how to pronounce it. The guide also includes decorative elements; the decorative elements, linking back to the culture of each African princess. Research methods include, but …

Wild Apparel: A Sustainable Clothing Line, Jogvan Andreas A. Jacobsen

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

The fashion industry has increasingly contributed to environmental waste through production and distrubution of crops, fibers, and garments that are dumped every day, polluting our water, soil, and air. My sustainable clothing line does the opposite, with clothes and packages built from recycled materials. With Wild Apparel, I will create casual streetware clothes with a subconcsious focus on being sustainable, contributing to bettering our earth, although not in a protesting or reprimanding way. The clothes are made from recycled plastic, driven by solar powered machines and fair wages to the employees. Wild Apparel will be working with organizations around the …

A Sensual Exploration Of Melancholy, Rachel Blumer

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

What does it mean to be melancholy? It is a distinct and personal emotion—a type of sadness and a feeling all its own. Melancholy is not something people usually seek out, but it can be a comfortable, pensive, and creative space to sit in. The beautiful thing about melancholy is how one is able to be both joyful and sorrowful at the same time. I began the project by conducting a survey about what others think sadness smells, tastes, and sounds like. I have also researched poetry and music. I explore melancholy in different mediums and creative techniques, including a …

Disguysed, Margaret Feltman-Ruiz

Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE)

Throughout history, women had to change themselves in order to accomplish their goals. My thesis brings attention to these often forgotten or dismissed women of the past. Disguysed is a nonfiction children’s book that focuses on 12 women from history who disguised themselves as men to further their careers or lives. Each spread contains an illustration of the woman, along with a biography from the research I collected. Separate from the biographies, the book contains extra historical context to shed light on the social climates that these women experienced. The design of the illustrations isn’t masculine or feminine, in the …

Simon Mcneil, A Bfa Pecha Kucha, Simon Mcneil

Scholars Week

An assigned Pecha Kucha of my BFA work while under the Covid 19 pandemic