[en] Playing with Chance: On Random Generation in Playable Media
and Electronic LiteratureRobert Schoenbeck, University of California, Irvine
Abstract
[en]
Randomly generated content poses problems for theories of digital art: such
content is resistant to structural theories, which can only provide templates,
and one cannot assume a shared text for close analysis. Instead of reaching
fixed endings, such works also tend to be of indefinite length or at least
suggest indefinite possible combinations. I argue that the impact of such works
can instead be found in how one attempts to work through their underlying
grammar, based on limits in the algorithms that generate the content — not those
limits themselves, but how their outlines come to be known. Repetitively
iterating through these works simultaneously upholds the chance nature of the
epiphenomenal occurrences while also illustrating the sameness of the underlying
algorithm over time, creating a future-oriented interpretive arc. I examine two
works that play off of this technique in different ways: Nick Montfort’s Taroko
Gorge, a poetry generator which uses random generation to distill the essence of
its object’s possibility, and the action role-playing game Torchlight, which
attempts to elevate chance beyond a mere gameplay mechanic and toward an
ethic.
[en] Digital Humanities: On Finding the Proper Balance between
Qualitative and Quantitative Ways of Doing Research in the HumanitiesHelle Porsdam, University of Copenhagen
Abstract
[en]
Are we currently confusing being connected with communicating - and does the sort
of communication people are typically engaging in on the Internet, in social
media and when they use their mobile phones merely lead to superficial rather
than meaningful dialogue? If this is the case, it ought to concern Digital
Humanities (DH) scholars, many of whom continue to be more interested in how we
connect than in the substance and dialogue of that very connectedness. I would
like to argue for a better balance between the “how” and the
“what” of DH - for a qualitative turn of sorts away from
an interest in gaining and making accessible more information only, to an
interest in also making sense of and understanding that information. For such a
turn, computer scientists need input from the humanities whose specialty has
always been to turn information into knowledge by means of critical
interpretation and contextualization.
[en] Visualizing Theatrical Text: From Watching the Script to the
Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET)Jennifer Roberts-Smith, University of Waterloo; Shawn DeSouza-Coelho, University of Waterloo; Teresa M. Dobson, University of British Columbia; Sandra Gabriele, York University; Omar Rodriguez-Arenas, University of Alberta; Stan Ruecker, Illinois Institute of Technology; Stéfan Sinclair, McGill University; Annmarie Akong, York University; Matt Bouchard, University of Alberta; Marcelo Hong, York University; Diane Jakacki, Bucknell University; David Lam, University of Waterloo; Alexandra Kovacs, University of Toronto; Lesley Northam, University of Waterloo; Daniel So, York University
Abstract
[en]
The Simulated Environment for Theatre (SET) offers an alternative to static,
two-dimensional visualizations of theatrical text by modeling the process of
moving from text to performance in the Western, text-based tradition of live
theatre production. Its interface links a three-dimensional ‘Stage View’
populated by character avatars to a ‘Text View’ enhanced with text visualization
tools by means of a central ‘Line of Action’ analogous to a timeline. All three
parts of the interface can be edited; edits in any individual section appear in
the others; and all three can be played back simultaneously. While emphasizing
that the traditional medium of theatrical performance is the actor’s body moving
in time and space, and providing a digital analogue for that medium, the system
also frees users from the limitations of the single, time-bound spectator’s
perspective. Potential applications include theatre analysis, theatre pedagogy,
and preparation for theatrical production.
[en] Theoretical Permutations for Reading Cybertexts: A Review of
Markku Eskelinen, Cybertext Poetics: The Critical Landscape
of New Media Literary Theory and C.T. Funkouser, New Directions in Digital PoetryManuel Portela, University of Coimbra
Abstract
[en]
“Theoretical Permutations for Reading Cybertexts” is
a review essay on Markku Eskelinen, Cybertext Poetics: The
Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory (London: Continuum,
2012), and C.T. Funkhouser, New Directions in Digital
Poetry (London: Continuum, 2012). Both books engage new media works
and practices in ways that are transformative of the conceptual apparatus and
tools of literary theory and literary analysis. Moving between the deep analysis
of the Funkhouser’s and the high-level abstraction of Eskelinen’s will give
readers an exhilarating sense of just how new media is changing our aesthetical
experience and our way of thinking and writing about the textual experience.
Markku Eskelinen’s Cybertext Poetics and C.T.
Funkouser’s New Directions in Digital Poetry set
new standards for the theory and analysis of digital texts. Eskelinen’s
groundbreaking book synthesizes his research of the last decade into a theory
for the new media textual condition with profound implications for the entire
field of poetics. Through Eskelinen’s transmedial reframing of the operative
categories of the field, it becomes clear how certain “universals” of
literary theory have been in fact strongly dependent on a limited corpus of
print-based situations. Funkhouser’s close readings of digital poetry are also
deeply informed by a hands-on poetics of digital writing and reading practices
on the web. Building on his historical account of computer poetry , his main concern here is to analyze the
multimedia and programmable specificity of post-WWW digital poetry. Eskelinen’s
permutational descriptions of the narratological and ludological variables
involved in ergodic and non-ergodic works, and Funkhouser’s close attention to
the signifying dynamics sustained by the variability of programmable forms
extend the critical landscape for thinking about literary poiesis,
digital and otherwise.
