INTERIOR, NIGHT [computer glow; dark bedroom]
"Who reads this stuff?"
asks a friend as she looks up from the electronic book review (www.altx.com/ebr), her ear lit by the screen
"I mean . . . I love it," she says, "but how many of ME are there out there?"
CUT TO INTERIOR, LATE NIGHT [a mixer for the Electronic Literature Organization]
A bunch of us are huddled near some candles
shouting over the DJ
jamming on a spoken description of ebr . . .
"ebr is where academics who 'get it' & artists who 'get it' come to be smart about new work"
. . . yep, that sounds about right
CUT BACK TO [computer glow; dark bedroom]
"There are a lot of YOU out here," I answer my friend.
----------------------------------------
O, DEAR AUDIENT OF THE PRESENT!
YES, YOU!
COME TO BE SMART!
COME PLAY EBR!
ebr (www.altx.com/ebr) continues its hot work of melting the boundaries between disciplines
with its current constellation
"music sound noise"
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"Humans do not have a switch or "earlids" to turn off the ear's listening." --- Elise Kermani, currently in ebr
ebr 12 general essays (www.altx.com/ebr/ebr12/index.html) ---------------------------------------
A Poetics of the Link Jeff Parker contributes to the ongoing debate on electropoetics and invites readers to post their own link types and descriptions.
Cybertext Theory and Literary Studies, A User's Manual Considering cybertext as a subset of hypertexts, Markku Eskelinen weighs in with seven examples of how to implement Espen Aarseth's seven-fold typology.
"In short, serious print scholars will eat hypertext theory for breakfast sooner or later. And actually I can't wait for that to happen . . . . " ---Markku Eskelinen, currently in ebr
ebr 12 music/sound/noise (www.altx.com/ebr/ebr12/index.html) ---------------------------------------
The Sonic Spectrum Elise Kermani writes about her work with sound and invites readers to locate sounds of their own on the spectrum from noise to sound to music.
A Somewhat Legal Look at the Dawn and Dusk of the Napster Controversy Paul C. Rapp, Esq., a.k.a. Lee Harvey Blotto
Tattoo it in Skin: A Literary Prediction RVV Rob Wittig, Scriptor, fast forwards to a future when teenagers in neo-nikes and neo-soccer jerseys recreate ye olden days of the True Hip Hop Troubadour, circa Y2K.
Litmixer: The Literary Remediator With his software groovebox, Trace Reddell applies the tools and strategies of the DJ to the performance of literary interpretation and critical speculation.
End Construction: ebr3.0 Anne Burdick and Ewan Branda introduce the new ebr interface - a complement to the litmixer, but using ebr itself as the sampling source. (under construction)
A Disorganized Multilingual A to Z Poem poem: Raymond Federman. audio recording and production: Eric Rasmussen and Shaun Sandor
Flood poem: Thomas Swiss; photographs: David Henry; design: Ingrid Ankerson. Done in a "classical mode." Using Micromedia's Flash.
Stuttering Screams and Beastly Poetry Allison Hunter writes on Douglas Kahn, a modern musicologist who takes in the noise of modern battle, recordings from the tops of trains and the interiors of coalmines, and also the musicality of undigitized everyday noise.
When You Can't Believe Your Eyes: Voice, Vision, And the Prosthetic Subject in 'Dancer in the Dark' Cary Wolfe investigates why the reviewers were so rattled by the Lars von Trier film, and in the process puts Jacques Derrida, Stanley Cavell, Slavoj Zizek, and Judith Butler into conversation.
New Beatle/Beach Boy Facts David Greenberger on the two titans of entertainment and enlightenment.
further reVIEWs on critical ecologies: media/systems theory (www.altx.com/ebr/ebr12/index.html) ---------------------------------------
Further Notes From the Prison-House of Language Linda Brigham works through Embodying Technesis by Mark Hansen.
Mindful of Multiplicity Linda Carroli reviews Michael Joyce on networked culture, whose emergence changes our ideas of change.
The Cybernetic Turn: Literary into Cultural Criticism Joseph Tabbi reviews the essay collection, Simulacrum America.
ebr12 reVIEWs of general interest (www.altx.com/ebr/ebr12/index.html) ---------------------------------------
Duchamp Through Shop Windows Reviewing new scholarship by David Joselit, Molly Nesbit, Thierry de Duve, and Linda Henderson, Hannah Higgins proposes that writing about Duchamp needs to be Duchampian in flavor.
What Lies Beneath? Gene Kannenberg, Jr. finds the most well-publicized comic by one of America's most significant cartoonists to be technically accomplished, challenging as narrative but finally all too true to its title: the characters and situations in David Boring are in fact boring.
Talking Back to the Owners of the World Steffen Hantke on Tom LeClair's and Richard Powers's novelistic imaginations of terror.
America: The Usable ClichÈ Sue Im-Lee reviews Reciting America by Christopher Douglas.
Reading the L.A. Landscape Claire Rasmussen on geography and the social theory of Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Mike Davis, and Edward Soja.
Accretive Dreams, Junk Narrativity, & Orphaned Excess in Moderation Lance Olsen reviews hypertext writing, past and present, by Robert Arellano.
Unraveling the Tapestry of Califia Jaishree K. Odin on the hyperfiction of M.D. Coverley.
++ electronic book review ++ http://www.altx.com/ebr