Flight Paths

Flight Paths, a networked novel by Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph.

The project is associated with the Institue for the Future of the Book. Also doing other neat stuff.

And hey... we survived our first semester! I think that makes us all pretty kick ass. :-)

Happy holidays you guys! Be safe.

end of semester digression

royksopp, what else is there?

because if you're going to procrastinate, say, a textual studies project, it really should involve a floating house.

Thanks Robin!!!

eleven dimensions, new media, and string theory

I'm so happy to discover that someone is linking physics and new media. Stephanie Strickland (poet and author of True North by Eastgate and several others) has an article called Writing the Virtual: Eleven Dimensions of E-Poetry

Actually, she may not be trying to make that connection... but there are 11 dimensions according to string theory and I sort of couldn't help making the leap regardless.

And if you're interested in string theory you can now watch The Elegant Universe online.

And this is a very cool Flash piece called Imagining the 10th Dimension.

So, just catching up on my link posts I guess. It's been a long, long week (semester?) requiring lots of coffee...

bookbinding makes a comeback!

I recently discovered that a good friend of mine is making books!!!

Check out her website at handboundbooks... they are beautiful. And this one's my favorite! Thanks Rhonda!! :-)

and she also has a blog.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

I found this YouTube link in Kairos, a SCHOLARLY online journal (sorry I had to make an argument for this last night) "exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy." The current issue 12.1 is on Scholarly Webtexts and this link was just offered up as an example in their call for manifestos section for a future issue--maybe a submission possibility. Dr. Cheryl Ball, VCU MFA Alum is an editor (but I would plug it anyway). :-)

The Machine is Us/ing Us by Michael Wesch

Visionary Landscapes

This is the link for the Electronic Literature Organization's 2008 conference, Visionary Landscapes, in Vancouver, WA. They have also put out a call for a Media Arts Show (which offers bursaries for selected work). The conference is not until end of May/first of June and submissions are due November 1st. I would really like to go (I think I've said this before... huh) and will be looking into funding for conference-going and things like that very soon. It would be a great opportunity for us to showcase our work, represent the program, and network with some very cool people. Breakfast with Nick Montfort and N. Katherine Hayles anyone?

Casper & the Cookies

Casper & the Cookies is an innovative band out of Athens, GA. I heard/saw them open for the Apples in Stereo and they are quirky and eccentric and fabulous. They do clever things with mixing in voice and sound. Just thought I would share. Their most recent album is aptly named the Optimist's Club if you need a little happy in your life.

They also have a myspace page where you can give them a listen.

article from mit

Poking around for my 602 presentations I found this article Help or Hindrance? The History of the Book and Electronic Media by Paul Erickson that discusses McKenzie (and Darnton) and book history in the realm of new media:

"McKenzie admonished us to remember how marginal, in historical terms, the book is to the history of textual communication, and how mutable the physical form of the text can be. A continued attention to the materiality, and therefore the contingency, of the interaction with print, combined with new attention to the materiality of the experience of electronic text is one direction in which book historians can both continue to expand our knowledge of print culture and contribute to our understanding of electronic culture" (Erickson).

Gunther Kress

A new book in our field (amazon.com says it's a sub-field but there is a field out there for us, I'm sure), Multimodality: Exploring Contemporary Methods of Communication by Gunther Kress is coming out October 1st. I found this by the most scholarly of research methods, Amazon.com. Here is their quick book description:

"Multimodality is a new and rapidly developing sub-field of communication studies which looks beyond language to the multiple modes of communicating or making meaning - from images to sound and music. Gunther Kress, a pioneer in the field of multimodality and the co-author of the bestselling Reading Images, produces a comprehensive theoretical framework for the study of the topic providing sample analyses and suggestions for further reading. This exploration of this exciting new area in communication will be of interest to undergraduate and post graduate students in the fields of media, communication studies, education, English language and applied linguistics."

Here's the link if anyone wants to pre-order a copy. Amazon apparantly thought I would (I have a little thing for Gunther). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415320615/ref=pe_pe_5050_6688310_pe_snp_615

zen and the art of bibliography

(thank you Katie)

A week after feeling overwhelmed, a day at the ocean, and 23 hours and 26 minutes into my first day of 34:

I spent a great deal of time in the library last week. Although I was worried about adding hours or assignments (or anything really) to my schedule, I am trying to turn it around. Besides a few hours I spent by the ocean on Sunday, there is nothing that calms me as much as books. I know, I know... and I am devoted to hypertext and new media as an artform. But I also love books, bookstores, bookshelves, book reviews. So I have decided to view my 8-10 hours a week spent in the library among them and flipping through them my meditation time. No theory, no computer, just me and a few thousand hard bound reference texts. Om.

Image: If Ospreys Could Read by Tim Graveson 2003.

slight post-week 1 case of insomnia

I can't sleep despite having fallen asleep on my couch during the Sound of Music earlier tonight. A good way to ring in a new month... or a bad omen. or just a foreshadowing of what I'm in for over the next 15 weeks.

Besides finally creating my blog, I started my paper for 601. (good thing I threw in the Sound of Music or my friday night might look a little sad. we also went grocery shopping). I noticed some of the other blogs featured photos or art or very good narrative (as opposed to what I'm providing here) and not sure where I want to go with this quite yet (but feeling like I need to post SOMETHING), here are a couple of links I'm rather fond of. The ELO is having a conference at the end of May and I would really like to go. Submissions are due in November I think and I have the call if anyone is interested.

http://eliterature.org/ check out the electronic literature collection volume one
http://www.poemsthatgo.com/ and the poemsthatgo archives. maybe you've seen all this before. but there you go.

week one had its moments but overall I'm optimistic. the courses (and readings) are just what I was hoping for, css hasn't killed me yet, I'm spending less and less time lost in richmond, and I am almost unpacked (yippy!). see you all next week (and the week after that... and the week after that, etc., etc.)

(and maybe I should mention my penchant for parentheticals when I am very tired).