(Process-Intensive) Literature

Scott Rettberg

The University of Bergen, Norway

ELO Future of Electronic Literature Symposium, May 3, 2006

Writing Under Constraints

• Oulipo idea of constraints as productive

• Constraints of network communication technologies/styles

• Algorithmic constraints• Constraints in service of

collaboration

Processes of Collaboration

• Relationship of constraints and collaboration

• Negotiation• Heuristic loop• Hidden/

unacknowledged collaboration (e.g. with software designers

Processes of Distribution

• The creation of a new literary culture

• Nonhierarchical distribution

• Ad hoc publication models/systems of review

• Meaning of global distribution

• “Communitizing”

Processes of Reading

• Institutional Context• Negotiating the

ergodic• Reading and closure• Educating readers,

but how to support or inspire more writers to create in this medium?