July 7, 2004
Leonardo CFP on New Media Poetics and the Digital Prose
Nisar Keshvani, Editor-in-Chief of Leonardo Electronic Almanac, passes along this call for papers: LEA Special Issue: New Media Poetry and Poetics
Guest Editor: Tim Peterson
The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is inviting papers and artworks that deal with New Media Poetry and Poetics. This category includes multimedia digital works(image/text/sound) as examined through the lens of “writing,” specifically any of those concerns central to poetry rather than narrative or prose: reader as active participant in the “ergodic” sense, the use of stochastic methods and chance procedures, and the complex relations between the author, reader, and computer-as-writer/reader which evolve from that interaction. Modes of work that foreground the digital medium (such as “codework”) are also welcome. We would particularly like to emphasize the “poetics” of new media writing as well, that is, the point where aesthetics intersects with politics to create dynamic attempts at social change.
LEA encourages international artists / academics / researchers / students to submit their proposals for consideration. We particularly encourage authors outside North America and Europe to send proposals for articles/gallery/artists statements.
Proposals should include: 300 word abstract / synopsis, a brief author biography, any related URLs, and contact details.
Deadline for proposals: 15 Aug 2004
Please send proposals or queries to: Tim Peterson and Nisar Keshvani, LEA Editor-in-Chief. http://lea.mit.edu.
Note: this call was changed 7/16/2004 at the request of the LEA editors.
July 14th, 2004 at 6:21 pm
14/7/2004
[they want papers]
Leonardo’s special issue on New Media Poeti […]
July 8th, 2004 at 12:07 am
Cool. Looks like a great opportunity.
July 8th, 2004 at 11:51 am
This looks like it will be a great issue; I wish I had time to put together a proposal and article. On a different note:
the use of chance or automatism inherited from movements such as Oulipo
Warren F. Motte, Jr., Introduction to Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature, ed. Warren F. Motte, Jr. Dalkey Archive Press, 1998, p. 17.
July 10th, 2004 at 1:46 am
Nick,
I realize this…that’s why it says “inherited from movements such as Oulipo” rather than “an imitation or recreation of Oulipo’s project.”
Would you, as a remedy, lay emphasis on using chance procedure to acquire prophetic insight, as a seer of some kind? That seems to me a position difficult to maintain in the realm of the digital…
Thanks,
Tim
July 11th, 2004 at 9:55 pm
I didn’t mean that the statement was wrong, I just thought I’d mention that the association between the Oulipo and chance/aleatory methods, which might be suggested to some people by the CFP and which is something that I hear mentioned now and then, has been denounced by several Oulipians.
Members of the Oulipo do use techniques such as automatic writing at times — at least, Harry Mathews does. But then, members of the Oulipo do all sorts of non-Oulipian writing at various times.
I’m sure there are digital projects that draw inspiration from the Oulipo and are chance-based. While I wouldn’t emphasize the prophetic in discussing chance, there are some pretty well-established aleatory digital system that have that sort of basis, even if it’s tongue-in-cheek: the Unix “fortune” command is one; the Internet Oracle is another.
July 14th, 2004 at 12:22 pm
I see now that my writing was unclear. By “chance” I meant to indicate procedural work or work based on constraints, at least in regard to Oulipo. I agree with you that members of Oulipo are not particularly known for automatic writing — rather, that is the area of the Surrealists.