Fiction as a Tool & Tools as Fiction
« procedural writing & interactivity
We use our machine to write, so we say 'I write with my machine' but in most cases, the machine is merely executing commands I know as old typewriter command (in an extended form).
E-poetry takes the machine as the writer, the programmer is the author of the script that allows the machine to write.
Where is the door to possible interaction and what problems/excitements/tranformations one encounters when entering through that door?
Can we imagine a writing practice where we really start writing with the machine? As a compagnon, a co-author amongst others.
« writing with machines as a performance/direct mirroring
crosses body & tools
online & physical
writing is one of the disciplines that goes into perfection, the classic idea of the finished text that is able to perform on itself and live an independant life as a reflection of/vision on contemporary practices, can be opposed to the idea of collaborative writing, with humans and machines, that is never perfect/independant but in permanent transition. Therefore it has a powerful performative nature, one that demands the unlearning of 'the masked performance' and includes errors and failure as valuable parts of the performance (not sure if the formulation here is right)
The authors are close again to the audience and possibly are not only authors anymore and the audience notonly audience
–> how to explore that relationship & reflect upon it
ex. http://www.kfda.be/nl/projecten/sometimes-i-think-i-can-see-you
ex. appelmoessession with Femke
ex. cadavre exquis
« materiality
literally:
desktop computer/laptop/mobile device
- start from tools available: POD, GPS, mobile uploads… and think them through in narratives
- start from narratives and think them through in available tools
questions:
* how to go beyond 'the internet as a marketing tool' for products, the question I get regularly when explaining the digital version of Tot Later (oh, so it is just a way to advertise your novel? grrr)
* how to get more classical literary channels involved in this (or go move from 'new media art' to 'digital literature' and back), ex. publishing house, literary magazines, established authors…
–> this questions the 'literary nature' of digital literary creation/criteria???
* make a Belgian version of the Free Art License and start using it/referencing it properly
« versioning
how to work with the massive narrative archive we have available (all the books ever written, including those representing an oral literature)…
–
Concretely:
* experimental development practice as creative performative sessions
* writing workshops inviting people doing interesting work in the still rare field of digital literary creation
* reading sessions (modernist practices/dada/surrealism/oulipo; science-fiction & programming tools)
Kaleidoscope/!Co LAPse KoDe is a first step in this direction, but I would like to explore the practice with light weight personal tools (not needing a space/lights/camera etc)
example:
- establishing a personal relationship with the computer & keeping a diary using alias/bash & cron commands
- writing with context the machine indicates, a word present in a text, ex. ash/wash/carwash/bash/ etc
- git/collaborative writing (project Alex & Stephanie)
- …