Unit 1: Writing Writing Machines | Electronic Literature and Digital Writing

Friday, May 27 - Introduction to Electronic Literature and its Genres - synchronous class 6-8 pm.
Monday, May 30 - Holiday
Tuesday, May 31 - Combinatory Poetics
Wednesday, June 1 - Distant Writing
Thursday, June 2 - Bots and NaNoGenMo
Friday, June 3 - Hypertext and its Precursors (beginning of Unit 2: Hypertext)
Monday, June 6 - Essay #1 due.

Readings:
- Chapter 1 in Electronic Literature by Scott Rettberg. Here's a link to get the book.
- "Third Generation Electronic Literature" by Leonardo Flores
In class:
- Introductions
- Discuss course Syllabus
- Electronic Literature: History and Genres

Tuesday, May 31 - Combinatory Poetics

Assigned Material:
- Chapter 2 in Electronic Literature by Scott Rettberg.
- Read "English Versification for the Billion: Translating the Early Latin Poetry Generator Artificial Versifying (1677)" by Kaeden Berg, Henry Koelling, and James Ryan
- Explore "Surrealist Techniques" and "Oulipo" in Wikipedia
- Cut Up:
  - Bryon Gysin "Cut Ups"
  - William Burroughs "The Cut Up Method"
  - Read 1-2 "Stir Fry Texts" by Jim Andrews
- Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes (1961) by Raymond Queneau
  - Watch brief video demo of book (in French)
  - Read several iterations of Magnus Bodin's Web implementation
- Experiment with texts using this N+7 Generator
- Experiment with this Markov Chain Generator
Writing:
- Write a 250+ word response to the assigned material addressing the following question: What is the interest of generating literary writing through mechanical, mathematical, and algorithmic processes?
- Post in our ASULearn forum today and respond substantively to at least 2 classmates' postings by the following day.

Assigned Material:
- Watch "Distant Writing" lecture by Leonardo Flores
- Read "Christopher Strachey’s Nineteen-Fifties Love Machine" by Siobhan Roberts
- Explore this online implementation of "Loveletters" by Christopher Strachey
- Read all the poems in Memory Slam by Nick Montfort
- Read "The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed" by Racter
- Read "Sea and Spar Between" by Nick Montfort and Stephanie Strickland
- Read "Taroko Gorge" by Nick Montfort and explore 3-4 of the remixes linked to on the right hand column.
Writing:
- Write a 250+ word response to the assigned material addressing the following question: Which distant writing approaches do you consider to be most interesting or effective and why?
- Post in our ASULearn forum today and respond substantively to at least 2 classmates' postings by the following day.

Assigned Material:
- Bots:
  - Read Electronic Literature, pgs. 41-53
  - Flores, Leonardo "Artistic and Literary Bots"
  - Read this Wikipedia entry on ELIZA
  - Chat with this implementation of ELIZA.
  - Read "When PARRY Met ELIZA: A Ridiculous Chatbot Conversation From 1972" by Megan Garber.
  - Read “Genre: Bot” in the ELC3 and explore its bots.
  - Explore bots in my Artistic and Literary Bots Twitter list.
- NaNoGenMo:
  - Liza Daly. "Why I Love National Novel Generation Month"
  - Greg Kennedy. "Attack of the Robot Authors!"
  - Explore “NaNoGenMo” (click on the year, and then on "Issues" in the top menu) and sample 4-5 of the completed novels.
  - Whalen, Zach. "Computer-Generated Books: Metonymic, Metaphoric and Operationalist."
Writing:
- Write two 150+ word responses to the assigned material addressing the following questions:
  - Discuss 2-3 of your favorite NaNoGenMo novels and their interest from a literary point of view.
  - Discuss 2-3 of your favorite Twitter bots and their interest from a literary point of view.
- Post in our ASULearn forum today and respond substantively to at least 2 classmates' postings by the following day.

This is the beginning of Unit 2: Hypertext and Interactive Fiction.

Assigned Material:
- Electronic Literature, Chapter 3
- “The Garden of Forking Paths” by Jorge Luis Borges
- "As We May Think" by Vannebar Bush
- Wikipedia entry on Choose Your Own Adventure books.
- Underground Kingdom by Edward Packard
- Explore Eastgate Systems website.
- Read “Uncle Roger, File 1” in the ELC3.
- Read “Judy Malloy’s Uncle Roger” in Pathfinders and watch Judy Malloy’s traversals.
Writing:
- Write a 250+ word response to the assigned material addressing the following question: How does hypertext as a format allow for a reader-driven kind of text generation or experience of a text? Discuss how
- Post in our ASULearn forum today and respond substantively to at least 2 classmates' postings by the following day.

Choose a work from the following list:
- Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 3: Generative or Bots
- Any generative work published in Taper
- or any of the works assigned in this unit, including my list of artistic and literary bots, NaNoGenMo, and so on.
Parameters and Criteria:
- The essay should be about 1000 words (4 pages) in length.
- It should offer an interpretive thesis that is supported by detailed analysis of the work.
- When possible, include screen-captured images or video to support your essay.
- The essay should cite at least 2 secondary sources.
- The essay should be formatted in MLA or some other established format.
- The deadlines are specified in the course outline.

This essay is due on Monday, June 6.