September 10, 2008

Electronic Literature in Europe Conference

by Scott Rettberg · , 8:37 pm

50 scholars, writers, and artists from Austria, Croatia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, and the United States will be in Bergen from September 11-13th for the Electronic Literature in Europe Seminar: two days of presentations and discussions of academic research in electronic literature, two nights of readings and presentations of works, and one day of planning a European research network for electronic literature. This seminar is organized and sponsored by the University of Bergen Faculty of Humanities Department of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies’ Program in Digital Culture and cosponsored by Landmark Café, Permanenten, and HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area). In addition to the presentation of papers, highlights will include two nights of readings at Permanenten (Thursday) and Landmark Café (Friday), and a closing keynote address by American novelist, electronic literature pioneer, and Brown University Professor Robert Coover.

I include the program below, and will post an update later this week. Noah is in town for the event and to show work at tonight’s reading. Although I know that most of you who are reading this can’t be here, most of the participants have posted their full papers online.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Location: Dragfjellet Lobby
8:30-9:30: Coffee and Registration (Registration open until 11)

Location: Dragefjellet Room S2
9:30-10:45: Panel 1
Welcoming Remarks: Scott Rettberg, Conference Organizer
Semantisation, Exploration, Self-reflection and Absorption: Four Modes of Reading Hypertext Fiction by Hans K. Rustad
The Role of the Reader in Performative Digital Poetry by Karin Wenz
Teaching Net Literature: Literary Education in a Transatlantic Blended Learning Environment by Peter Gendolla, Jörgen Schäfer, and Patricia Tomaszek
11-12:15: Panel 2
Toward a Definition of Literary Cybertext by Emilia Branny
Hypertext and Bigos: On Esthetic Categories of Modern and Post-modern Polish Fiction that May Help Us Describe Electronic Literature in Yet Another Way by Mariusz Pisarski
Junction of Image, Text, and Sound in Net.fictions by Zuzana Husárová

Location: Zupperia
12:30-13:30: Lunch

Location: Dragefjellet Room S2
13:45-15:00: Panel 3
Aesthetics of Noise in Digital Literary Arts by Maria Engberg
Aesthetic Autonomy and Sensuous Appearing: Two Questions in the Aesthetics of Digital Poetry by Andrew Michael Roberts
E-poetry: the Palpable Side of Signs by Giovanna DiRosario
15:15-16:30: Panel 4
Bridging Intertextuality and Intermediality from a Cultural and Literary Perspective by Asunción López-Varela Azcárate
Intertextuality in Digital Poetry by Yra van Dijk
Endless Text: New Media Technologies in The Raw Shark Texts by Kiene Brillenburg Wurth

Location: Permanenten: The West Norway Museum of Decorative Arts — China Room
16:45-17:45: Evening presenters load-in and tech check
19:00-22:00: Reception w/ Appetizers and Drinks, Readings of Electronic Literature
Svevedikt by Ottar Ormstad
Talking Cure and Screen by Noah Wardrip-Fruin
Fitting the Pattern – or Being a Dressmaker’s Daughter: a Memoir in Pieces by Christine Wilks
Poetry Accompanied by Processed Photography by Dylan Harris
The 12 Labors of the Internet User by Serge Bouchardon, Mathieu Brigolle, Aymeric Brisse, Christopher Espargeliere, Mikael Labrut, Jérémie Lequeux, and Adrien Pegaz-Blanc

Friday, September 12, 2008

Location: Sydneshaugen Skole, Auditorium A
9-9:30: Coffee
9:30-10:45: Panel 5
Presentation on the Vinaros Prize and E-Poetry 2009 by Laura Borràs Castanyer
Polish Way to E-literature from Baroque to 21st Century by Andrzej Paj?k
Toward an Ontology of the Field of Digital Poetry by Phiippe Bootz and Samuel Szoniecky
11-12:15: Panel 6
The Aesthetics of Materiality by Serge Bouchardon
Transculturation by Simon Biggs
Electronic Literature Without a Map by Markku Eskelinen

Location: UiB Student Center (Cafeteria Bistro)
12:30-13:30: Lunch

Location: Sydneshaugen Skole, Auditorium A
13:45-15:00: Panel 7
Senghor on the Rocks: A Georeferenced Electronic Novel by Florian Ledermann and Christoph Benda
Digital Orientalism: Japan and Electronic Literature by Alice Ferrebe
Some Stylistic Devices on Media Interface by Alexandra Saemmer
15:15-16:30: Panel 8
New Media Literacy. Hypertextual, Cybertextual, and Networked by Katarina Peovi? Vukovi?
An Experimental Tool for Digital Literature by Jean-Hugues Réty, Serge Bouchardon, Jean Clément, and Nicolas Szila
Reusement by Jerome Fletcher

Location: Landmark Café
16:45-17:30 Evening Presenters Load-in and Tech Check

Location: Boha
18:00-20:00 Conference Dinner

Location: Landmark Café
20:15-24:00 Readings of Electronic Literature
Twittering and Indeterminate Anti-Pop by Talan Memmott
Senghor on the Rocks by Christoph Benda
Speech-Sound Generated Visual Poems and Accidental Meaning by Maria Mencia
The Last Performance [dot org] by Judd Morrissey
Searchsongs, Sniff_jazzbox, and Appleinspace by Beat Suter, René Bauer, and Johannes Auer
I Am Writing You to Remember and She… by Renée Turner
Signal to Noise & Opening Sources by Ian Hatcher
Septyni Tiltai Pasaulio Centre (Seven Bridges in the Centre of the World) by Robertas Kundrotas and Gintas Kraptavicus

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Location: Sydneshaugen Skole, Auditorium A
9-9:30: Coffee
9:30-10:45: Short Presentations of Existing European Electronic Literature Initiatives
11-13:00: HERA Brainstorming/Grant Planning, Discussion of Other European Granting Possibilities

Location: On Your Own
13-15:00 Lunch, HERA committee meeting

Location: Sydneshaugen Skole, Auditorium A
16:00 Closing Keynote Address by Robert Coover

Robert Coover is one of the most prolific and influential living American novelists. HIs most recent books include The Adventures of Lucky Pierre: Directors’ Cut, Stepmother, A Child Again, and Noir. He is the recipient of the William Faulkner, Brandeis University, American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Endowment of the Arts, Rea Lifetime Short Story, Rhode Island Governor’s Arts, Pell, and Clifton Fadiman Awards, as well as Rockefeller, Guggenheim, Lannan Foundation, and DAAD fellowships. Coover is Visiting Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University. Coover created the pioneer electronic writing (hypertext fiction) workshops at Brown University in 1990-91, and has been working since 2002 with writers, composers, artists, modelers, and programmers in the immersive virtual reality of Brown’s “Cave” in a workshop called “Cave Writing.”

Coover lives in Providence, Rhode Island and London, England. Coover’s work has been translated in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Russia, Israel, Iran, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, Korea, Romania, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Serbia, Catalunya, and other countries.

Coover is one of the founders of the Electronic Literature Organization, and has been actively involved in shaping the field since the early 1990s. His 1992 New York Times Book Review essay The End of Books raised international awareness of electronic literary forms, and his 1999 Digital Arts and Culture Conference Keynote Address Literary Hypertext: The Passing of the Golden Age marked a formal shift in electronic literature correspondent to the popular move to the technology and culture of the Web.

8 Responses to “Electronic Literature in Europe Conference”


  1. josemanuel Says:

    Not that I really care, but, when did Catalunya (Catalonia) become a country?

    I wish people would not use events like these to promote their (reactionary) political agendas. Honestly, it’s so lame.

  2. Mary Flanagan Says:

    sounds like a fantastic program!

  3. William Patrick Wend Says:

    This sounds great…I am excited everyone’s papers will be online. Looking forward to reading them…

  4. Scott Says:

    Jose, don’t be an asshole.

  5. Scott Rettberg Says:

    William, they are online, read ’em. Video of Coover’s keynote will also be online there before the end of the week.

  6. William Patrick Wend Says:

    Awesome, I got them, Scott. I will begin reading them over the weekend.

  7. christoph Says:

    I was happy with catalunya, scott, but regarding flo’s and my contribution you could add austria to the list … ;)

  8. christoph Says:

    thank you =)

Powered by WordPress