Lindsay's Wk 1: "Bring it to the Table"

   Scott Rettberg's first chapter of "Electronic Literature" is a nice introduction to a topic I knew little about prior. I was under the impression electronic literature was constrained to the world of e-books. For me the clearest definition given by Rettberg of electronic literature is as follows, "Electronic literature is most simply described as new forms and genres of writing that explore the specific capabilities of the computer and network- literature that would not be possible without the contemporary digital context" (2). The various genres of e-lit all stem from literary and artistic traditions, with technology allowing for them to become interactive. There are various definitions of e-lit as well as murky boundaries of both the words 'electronic' and 'literature.' This ambiguous definition and these foggy constraints opens doors for the world of e-lit artists and writers to break boundaries and create new one-of-a-kind works. I learned that the world of e-lit is much larger and has been around for a lot longer than I had ever thought. 

    I chose to explore Jim Andrew's work Nio. While I could not get the software to work on my laptop, I read the lengthy description on the work and the process of creating it. Nio combines both the musical and the visual, allowing for interesting layers. Andrews states, "As sound poetry is to spoken poetry, so is visual poetry to written poetry, often" (para. 3). Nio is rhythmic, with the sounds controlling the visuals, which is unusual for a visual driven society such as ours. It captivates and keeps your attention throughout. I discovered that this piece only used 16 sounds back in 2001, and he was working on another with 60 sounds, so who knows what else is available to view nowadays.