Week 1 "Bring it to the table"

 In chapter 1 of Electronic Literature, Scott Rettberg defines electronic literature and describes the different genres associated with it. At first, I assumed e-lit had to do with e-books, online textbooks, or written articles, but it soon became evident that those aspects are not as closely related to electronic literature as I originally thought. In making the distinction between e-lit and e-books, Rettberg claims,    "We usually consider a "work" of literature to have reached a state of fixity and of completion...Writing in digital media on the contrary can and will change over time," (Rettberg 7). What I didn't understand at first is that electronic literature is an ever changing, it can be published and circulated amongst the public but still be changed at the same time. Which allows for the ever changing views, ideas, and opinions of society. It is an odd concept to think about for me, as I am very used to the traditional "once it is published, that's it" perspective. Additionally, the different genres are interesting to me, as the author mentions them several times but doesn't go into detail as to what they entail. The genres of electronic literature are incredibly different from the other genres of literature we would think of today. He uses phrases such as "hypertext fiction" and "kinetic poetry," and while I have very little idea of what these mean, I'm interested to learn what they involve. 

I chose to explore "Nio" by Jim Andrews (2001), which is an interactive music program created by Andrews in 2000. The program is downloaded by the user and contains two verses. In the first verse, there is a ring of icons, each one producing a different sound. Each sound has a visual associated with it, which plays in the middle of the ring. You can click the icons to produce and layer sounds, building a song-like outcome, meanwhile the visuals compile in the center. The second verse has a grid, where the user drags the icons and can layer and sequence the sounds, so one sound can come before or after other sounds, while the visuals still play on the side. It was an incredibly interesting program, though I was confused as to how it fell into the category of electronic literature. When thinking about literature I typically think writing, though this program was solely audio and visual based. This makes me want to learn more about the aspects of digital literature outside of just writing. 

Verse 1 

Verse 2