Research resources

Digital Literature: From Text to Hypertext and Beyond

Author: Raine Koskimaa
Publication Date: 2000

Definition of Digital Literature

• Digitalization of print literature, such as Project Gutenberg and Project Runeberg
• Publication of contemporary literature on digital platforms, however, the creation process follows static print procedures
• Literary creation that actively adopted digital formats such hypertext literature, interactive poetry, and etc.
• Net Literature, being hypertext literature made readable on networked platforms (Internet), that the content reference to and being updated by external sources.

Memex

It was based on combination of a large data base with possibility to link different parts of that data base to each other. One can start to read a Memex document and continue by using link and access the associative reasoning chain which was behind that particular document. In Memex, user is allowed to link together different documents, to gather links to named paths, to add new documents to the database and to return to the database and follow the previous paths.

Project Xanadu

"Visibly Connected Pages and Documents for a New Kind of Writing"
A different way of presenting hierarchy, "transclusion"
Nelson realized that he was trying to create a new kind of thing. It was a tool, but it was also a library, and a medium, and a legion of slave-librarians. In the mid-1960s, when he was working at a book firm, he started to call the whole scheme Xanadu.

Ted Nelson on Xanadu Space

Xanadu, Network Culture, and Beyond by Rheingold

Literary Machine By Ted Nelson as introduction to hypertext, hypermedia and Xanadu Space

Computer Lib, Dream Machines By Ted Nelson as explaining how computer works for layman

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Telecollaboration: Beyond Memex and NLS

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As We May Think, Vannevar Bush

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Electronic Literature Collection, an archive of three volumes (2006, 2011 and 2016, even have a bot section)

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The Consortium on Electronic Literature (CELL)

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RESEARCH IN ELECTRONIC LITERATURE

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Qualities of Digital Literature

• Hypertextuality, Multi-linearity, Diverse Temporality
• User's active engagement in reading process

Brief Examples of Digital Literature

Hegirascope, in which page is refreshed in due time;
Victory Garden, in which the story has multiple hyperlinks as starting points; after entering content pages, user can choose from hyperlinks that are nested within content page.
Faith Robert Kendall's Kinetic Poetry
Luminous Airplanes in which the map shows networked clusters connect to each other
Thread Map Visualizer for web chat conversations

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Eastgate, a company that provides tools for hypertext writing.

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Wiretap, an event in V2 in 1995 on new ways of literature.

Precedents of Digital Network Literature

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, which is comprised of a preface, a poem, and comments and references to the poem.
Pnin by Vladimir Nabokov, which the narration is circular.
The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin, which extends from the concept of Parisian Arcade, to a comprised anthology of critiques of modern life.
The Night Ferry 夜航船 by Zhang Dai, which is an encyclopedia from three hundred years ago covering astronomy, geography and astrology.

Perception, Vision, Attention, Embodiment

Neural Decoding of Visual Imagery During Sleep

"Visual imagery during sleep has long been a topic of persistent speculation, but its private nature has hampered objective analysis. Here we present a neural decoding approach in which machine-learning models predict the contents of visual imagery during the sleep-onset period, given measured brain activity, by discovering links between human functional magnetic resonance imaging patterns and verbal reports with the assistance of lexical and image databases. Decoding models trained on stimulus-induced brain activity in visual cortical areas showed accurate classification, detection, and identification of contents. Our findings demonstrate that specific visual experience during sleep is represented by brain activity patterns shared by stimulus perception, providing a means to uncover subjective contents of dreaming using objective neural measurement."

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Dream Log
Dream Log in hand written

Computer Vision

Former application for Parallel Curriculum, in which titles of Jonathan Crary's books were mentioned as major reference. Beautiful Data, A History of Vision and Reason since 1945 Show PDF
Wrote a short essay for Hackers and Designers' workshop Show document

System of Things, Consumerism, Signs and Symbols

Baudrillard claims that our current society has replaced all reality and meaning with symbols and signs, and that human experience is a simulation of reality. - Simulacra and Simulation

Few objects today are offered alone, without a context of objects which 'speaks' them. And this changes the consumer's relation to the object: he no longer relates to a particular object in its specific utility, but to a set of objects in its total signification. - Consumerist Society

Gallery

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  Hypertext Diagram

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  Storyspace, a tool for hypertext writing developed by Eastgate

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  Vision for Project Xanadu

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  Project Xanadu, with Robert Adamson Smith, in 3D Space

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  City built with infrastructure for new information age