(Process-Intensive) Literature
Scott Rettberg
The University of Bergen, Norway
ELO Future of Electronic Literature Symposium, May 3, 2006
Writing Under Constraints
• Oulipo idea of constraints as productive
• Constraints of network communication technologies/styles
• Algorithmic constraints• Constraints in service of
collaboration
Processes of Collaboration
• Relationship of constraints and collaboration
• Negotiation• Heuristic loop• Hidden/
unacknowledged collaboration (e.g. with software designers
Processes of Distribution
• The creation of a new literary culture
• Nonhierarchical distribution
• Ad hoc publication models/systems of review
• Meaning of global distribution
• “Communitizing”
Processes of Reading
• Institutional Context• Negotiating the
ergodic• Reading and closure• Educating readers,
but how to support or inspire more writers to create in this medium?