_Leonardo Electronic Almanac Discussion (LEAD)_ Apologies for cross-posting. The following is the unedited transcript from today's chat session with digital poet and multimedia artist Stephanie Strickland, part of the online discussion around the New Media Poetics special issue of the _Leonardo Online Almanac_ (http://leoalmanac.org/). The next chat (using the jabber chat program): Manuela Portela 10/23 1 pm West Coast US / 4 pm East Coast USA / 10 pm Paris FR / 6 am Melbourne AU
Sandy <begin transcript> cynthia1stephanie : Hello, this is Stephanie & Cynthia here sbaldwin : Hi there Jason as well! tpeterson : greetings Stephanie sbaldwin : i need to log off for about 10 minutes jnelson : Howdy Steph and Cynthia and Time and Sandy jnelson : Tim not Time although Time might work well for you Tim tpeterson : Jason I was saying before that I'm too poor to travel for DAC, but hope that goes well What is your involvement? tpeterson : Stephanie I'd like to attend the Kelly House thing but not sure if I can get tim(e) off from work jnelson : wellsadly I was rejected todaymy abstract was not abstacty enoughtoo poetic they say tpeterson : what? As in too lyrical or what tpeterson : Stephanie is leaving and disappearing Everything ok? jnelson : not sure reallybut from the peer review comments it appeared that the languae I used was too abstractand yeah too lyrical cynthia1stephanie : But Jason, isn't the next one in Australia? jnelson : Yesit is cynthia1stephanie : What's their problem? tpeterson : Stephanie is a flickering signifier of the author cynthia1stephanie : Tim, I hope you can come to Philadelphia jnelson : My experiences in Australia so far seem to signal that they play it very safe hereso that means more references and less thought jnelson : Stephwhen you do readings or artist talkshow do you approach them? tpeterson : Why is digital poetry so much like engineering? Like, the only people who know about it are those who dod the technical aspects of it cynthia1stephanie : Preferrably with Cynthia :) tpeterson : a potentially contentious statement, I realize cynthia1stephanie : Tim - it's not just engineering, it's making of any kind And that applies to the coder who often tries to get the reader/recipient to do their own reconfiguring tpeterson : Whereas with New Media art there's a wider discourse Sandy, do you think this is just "assimilation" sbaldwin : i'm back reading the logs: jason, you should form a counter dac called cad tpeterson : GrandTextAutoCAD cynthia1stephanie : Tim's posts are coming in 4 times sbaldwin : the kelly house thing: is that the elo collection? cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - yes sbaldwin : assimilation, yes, codification tpeterson : We've been having that problem too It appears to be a weird subjective thing cynthia1stephanie : But, there's a whole program involving Bernstein, Silliman, and others sbaldwin : c1s: some seem to come through several times not sure why may have to do with the browser and/or whether you hit enter or "send message" sbaldwin : but it may not sbaldwin : sort of narcisystematic jnelson : I agree timcertainly there are really stern lines drawn by the various crowdsand the academics herewont explore beyond a very limited set of theoristsso mention lachan and you are fine sbaldwin : i was thinking this morning that we should have done this all in second life or something like that tpeterson : but isn't the "codification" thing a question of reading? If reading is more important or just as important than writing tpeterson : then it would seem to be important to develop a discourse for reading new media poetry works sbaldwin : - tim, i've been arguing that for year tpeterson : but don't listen to me -- I'm what Bloom calls a "weak poet" sbaldwin : that is, arguing that we should do so jnelson : Hey Dan dwaber : greetings and/or salutations to jason and all sbaldwin : though it seems to me this argument has been going around for quite a while: the need to create readings of new media works in their specificity sbaldwin : hi dan cynthia1stephanie : Tim - hard to read through all the multiple posts, but I think that neither coding/writing nor reading is privileged; the important thing is what Bootz calls "the semiotic gap" and what I call the veto power of several peers Each entity knows things the other doesn't That's what makes the situation so interesting tpeterson : Jason Nelson's work as anamorphosis sbaldwin : - i'm going to ponder the multiplicity for a moment and see if there's an answer tpeterson : I agree, Stephanie That's one of the most interesting things about your article to me, that it points at the social space outside the work itself tpeterson : or maybe shows how the social space might be part of the work cynthia1stephanie : Mez and Bootz do this too but from completely different perspectives tpeterson : a belated hi to Dan jnelson : so stephone of the many things i admire about youis yoour ability to both write about what you doand your poetics, both digital and otherwiseand be obviously a gawd like creative writer sbaldwin : - tried changing the refresh rate on the chat, see if this makes any diff? tpeterson : how do you change refresh rate cynthia1stephanie : Jason just came through twice cynthia1stephanie : it seems to be worse (that was with Enter, this one with Send message) sbaldwin : ok, changing it back tpeterson : test cynthia1stephanie : If we use "send message" it consistently sends in only once tpeterson : What is the connection between Language Poetry and Poietic Writing for you Stephanie cynthia1stephanie : Hi Dan sbaldwin : yes, that is better it may still be something with the refresh(ments) But yes, try send message button if possible jnelson : stephdo you find that you have to switch brainsto switch mind sets to go from one style of writing to anotherand is this ever problematic for you? tpeterson : hors d'oeuvres cynthia1stephanie : I like Mez's concept of "liecra"/lycra - a kind of stretchiness or chrysalis breaking I like to get to a place where it all works together sbaldwin : <lowered the refresh rate to see if that helps> In about three minutes I'll get formal and announce that we're "starting" jnelson : were you always able to do that? I'm terribly curiousbecause I cannot do thatcannot write about my workand yet you do seem to mesh your theory and poetrywhat is the secret? mdeed : Hello from Martha Deed and Millie Niss cynthia1stephanie : I immerse myself in different stuff so in some cases what happens is writing In other cases I'm wrestling with a bunch of experiences/writings and it's like a jungle gym, a kid's climbing toy, combined with a maze There's a way, there's a path that will finally make sense So the critical stuff is more wrestling cynthia1stephanie : Hi Martha & Millie sbaldwin : Hi all, because it's 1pm now I thought we'd "officially" start sbaldwin : There's been some great discussion already - all available via transcript/logs mrowley : Hello from mari-lou sbaldwin : This is one of several chats scheduled with authors in the LEA special issue on New Media Poetics Today we're happy to welcome Stephanie Strickland, a print and digital hypermedia poet, most recently author of (I believe) of V, as well as an author of many significant critical/theoretical essays cynthia1stephanie : Hi Mari-lou! sbaldwin : There is some echo in here - hopefully it won't be an issue My name is Sandy Baldwin, and I'm organizing this chat but - as in the nature of chat - all are welcome to join inall are welcome to join in sbaldwin : I welcome everyone else to introduce themselves as well? sbaldwin : Does everyone know each other? cynthia1stephanie : We're here as two - Stephanie & Cynthia because Stephanie can't use her hands very much jnelson : I love that ideaof the mazea wrestling mazeit is a murky and tangled wonderment you spin towards and away from usmy dearest steph tpeterson : I think we do all know each other? dwaber : cogito ergo sumo tpeterson : Stephanie what happened w/your hands I heard you have an injury that won't allow you much computer use sbaldwin : OK, good <It seems the echo of messages is less if you hit send message not enter> sbaldwin : - thanks Jason for returning to stephanie's comments on the relation between her creative and critical work tpeterson : yet your writing is eloquent and smooth Do you dictate and then have someone type it out later smiller : Hi, I'm Sean, a PhD student at Royal Holloway cynthia1stephanie : I used a beta version of StorySpace for 12 hours a day for 5 weeks This version had the effect that every 11th save it would delete all your links I thought it was all my fault Very serious hand problems exacerbated since sbaldwin : so, you live with storyspace all the time now cynthia1stephanie : No, I monitor a certain amount of hand use and have to be very careful, especially lists and email So, chats is one thing I don't do cynthia1stephanie : Well, the after effects tpeterson : Hi Sean mrowley : stephanie, your notion of switching gears between critical, creative work as latex-like, cyrsalis breaking is great jnelson : Stephon the topic of your handsI know that has kept you from creating as much digital workbut I would love to knowwhat ideas are swirling in your headbriefly sbaldwin : if i understood correctly you described your work as a complex of ideas an experience the critical writing as a kind of wrestling with this? is the creative work a different metaphor - not wrestling? cynthia1stephanie : Mari-lou- it was never gears, I don't understand gears It was more fluid always tpeterson : Yet I think S is here primarily as a critic, no? This distinction was a little confused in our conversation w/ Loss tpeterson : Sandy I don't want to be bossy but I have a bunch of questions Should I try asking em now or later cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - the creative work - a lot of it is thinking and some is writing that I don't know what I'm doing This summer every day I wrote and never looked back at yesterday's stuff So by the Fall it was really a surprise to me to look at it I would never have done that when I first began writing sbaldwin : tim, you mean as her role in the special issue, as a critic there this is probably a vital but difficult distinction for many in this chat? tpeterson : yep sbaldwin : i mean, for those who are creators but also critics (of their own works and others) cynthia1stephanie : Jason - Cynthia and I are working on a piece which has a lot of video in it and sort of pushes the edge of what is easily done with Flash tpeterson : Well she does include discussions of her own work in her article, so I suppose it's not much of a distinction in this case sbaldwin : ooh, i'm curious about that edge? jnelson : yeah me too mdeed : Stephanie--Can you say something about how a poet's technical knowledge of coding (whether rudimentary or advanced) influences both choice of subjects and the work itself? Seems to me that a digital poet is writing in at least two languages simultaneously -- and is perhaps limited by one's ability in the less known language mdeed : I hit send message and got the echo tpeterson : yes does code feel "other" to you S sbaldwin : <got echo here too don't know the answer> cynthia1stephanie : My understanding of the entire "semiotic situation" is in play I go to others for specific technical understanding which is critical to what I want to happen in the piece, which I often have a strong vision of, but have to do some work to materialize sbaldwin : woah, 3x cynthia1stephanie : No code does not feel "other" Not at all sbaldwin : i'm thinking now about what you've said above about the semiotic situation and about communities of writers, and i think this bridges the critica artist gap tpeterson : Though it sounds like it is literally being done by others, in this case tpeterson : how so Sandy sbaldwin : the veto power of several peers you said above, which goes to the first entangled state you describe in your essay mdeed : which means that at least we must be able to imagine what the technical possibilities are jnelson : this use of the word "code" is always so brittle and wateryslipperywhat does "code" mean to you steph? cynthia1stephanie : Executable code tpeterson : good point tpeterson : well, it seems that it might also be a metaphor tpeterson : at least in relation to some of the terms you employ, such as "recombinant flux," "looping," and "ruin/erosion" Might these not also be characteristics of paper-based poetry? cynthia1stephanie : We're going to swithc browsers sbaldwin : ok jnelson : whoa mdeed : But can't code also be in the content, as in code poetry? Or even a work that explicitly shows its code as part of its text? tpeterson : Is paper-based code poetry somehow remediated sbaldwin : - Millie, so on the one hand, code as executable code tends towards support structure, and so on, towards hiding of code jnelson : I just think that the technical is emphasized far too often, idealy it would become invisible, as in Stephs vniverse tpeterson : The structure and the support! There it is again! cynthia1stephanie : Yes, but I think that work references the communication situation more than it actually engages it tpeterson : What happens if we think about "action writing" for new media? What is the act, coding sbaldwin : by "references," stephanie, you mean in a semiotic (coded) way tpeterson : Because writing is an act, the notion of striking as in typography cynthia1stephanie : Code can be part of the surface, but there it is part of what Bootz calls "the texte a voir" and not the author text sbaldwin : ok, so i'm going to return to my question about communities of authors: the veto power of several peers can you elaborate on this? sbaldwin : yow! i gotta stop hitting enter sbaldwin : <when I hit refresh in mozilla, all the multiple posts where gone, fyi> tpeterson : S I have a question about your 11 dimensions Do you think of these are demographic/descriptive, or somehow forming a definition (having these characteristics makes something an e-poem) Do you feel it's useful to try to define what an e-poem might be tpeterson : as dinstinguished from what's not e-poetry cynthia1stephanie : Yes The coder, the coder's machine, the compiler, the network, the browser, the user's machine all read the code differently Each has access to something the others don't and often what the others cannot predict or envision That is the very complicated situation in which we act, communicate sbaldwin : how does this situation lead to (imply?) "veto power"? cynthia1stephanie : Tim - it's an exploration not a definition I think those dimensions play out differently for print and e-work, so are worth discussing cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - if any of them aren't working the whole communication situation fails dhowe : assuming the work relies on all cynthia1stephanie : Hi Daniel tpeterson : veto power? Can you say more dhowe : hi there cynthia1stephanie : Daniel - but it does unless it's a standalone and then not on the network cynthia1stephanie : Tim - veto meaning without it the thing won't go dhowe : yes, in networked pieces, but there is a temporal dimension as well; that is the compiler only needs to run once, and then network only long enough to dl the piece, where (in many cases) it runs only locally smiller : Stephanie, are you adapting the concept of '11 dimensions' from string theory? How do you define a dimension? jnelson : Stepha big questionhow would you describe the current state of E-Poetry? sbaldwin : tying these threads: might definitions at least at the level of "how to identify/make epoetry" look towards tools that enable (provoke?) entangled peers and group communication cynthia1stephanie : It also implies that the reader and coder are internal to the work in the way they are not with a book and classical reading As Bootz points out in his essay "Reader/Readers" the strength of the book as ontological object derives from that cynthia1stephanie : Daniel - unless there's constant updating from the network And the network has to sustain the reader's connection cynthia1stephanie : Jason - the state of e-poetry: infancy tpeterson : Yet we seem to be living most of our lives in a situation where we "communicate" via a remediated digital text sbaldwin : -- nice about internal to thework, and the work to them (absent body in the work) tpeterson : And those interruptions and disjunctions are seen as exceptions to the rule dwaber : judging by all the crying noises i make while coding, i'd agree with "infancy" dhowe : and yet we design for these failures, no? which become integral to the work cynthia1stephanie : Smiller - not from string theory Trying to avoid a canonical/definite number The one point about string theory that would apply is the duality of 10 & 11 dimensions there, that things can work the same whether you divide them into 10 or 11 mrowley : stephanie can you talk a bit about epoetry being inflected by the dual pattering of language the infinite comtinations of phonemes and letters tpeterson : Stephanie do you feel there are political or polemical possibilities for e-poetry, or too early to tell yet dhowe : that is, if we are communicating over the network, in an art piece, we are likely (at least i am) to include some caching mechanism or static data to 'fill-in' when the network fails, (even momentarily) cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - I wouldn't tie the definition to tools I accept anything that calls itself epoetry as epoetry at this point As Jason has said many things on Rhizome that don't call themselves that qualify in his view If what you're interested in is reconfiguring the cultural foundations of communication, or as Mez's in changing social conditioning or reconfiguring discourse, you stay curious and learn from everything sbaldwin : danial: i agree this is a kind of well or memory that's a kind of correlate of the social space? dhowe : so we are coding around the potential veto continuously; recognizing it and working with it as a new affordance (a place for interesting accidents, as you point out in your cave-wall analogy), but also 'defending' against it cynthia1stephanie : Daniel - we should embrace the failures, they are not failures, they are inherent to the process, the Darwinian process tpeterson : But on the other hand I attended an exhibit of "new media" works that was video screens on the wall (you couldn't interact with them) Is that e-poetry? sbaldwin : - well, not tie the definition to tools, but what i find valuable in something like bootz's model, for example, is that we could map the schema onto a given tool or s/w, eg locate the gap and so on mdeed : very comforting thought, Stephanie cynthia1stephanie : Tim - yes Interaction does not need to occur except with the eyes On the other hand, a lot of work would move toward what I call aerobatic interactions in 3D space and some analog of that in higher dimensional space tpeterson : S, I like what you say about anything that calls itself epoetry, etc, I'm just trying to figure out what about things that don't call themselves epoetry tpeterson : Can epoetry claim those for its team so to speak cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - I think Bootz's model is more about a complete semiotic situation What I wonder about with him is where he is going with the a-medial figures he finds in music Are we back to the Rig Veda? tpeterson : Because of the artist-poet dynamic and the way this usually plays out sbaldwin : oh, i agree that bootz's model is about a complete semiotic situation wouldn't disagree there - cynthia1stephanie : Tim - I do Lisa Jevbratt doesn't call her piece epoetry, nor do the single cell/double cell people, but I see what they do as relevant to epoetry jnelson : so really, Stephmuch of what you are talking about, we just dont have the technical tools to play outto truly explore aerobatic interactions in 3D space tpeterson : What do you think of Bootz's meta-reader Is such a thing possible, or only hypothetical cynthia1stephanie : Right, but the mathematicians do I like what McPhee and Warwick do when they engage with large scale datasets and so on sbaldwin : this makes me think of jim rosenberg's work: similar questions of interaction space sbaldwin : can you parse "aerobatic interactions"? jnelson : so in many waysyou have to think both as theorist and poetbecause some of what you would create poeticallyis only possible in a theoretical realm tpeterson : ooooh sbaldwin : a la pataphysics cynthia1stephanie : Tim - I see what he means by meta-reader It is the person who understands the code and watches the clueless recipient respond I like the way he contrasts the public and private reading situations The public/installation setting allows the reading task to be distributed so sequentially you can be the interactor and observer whereas the private/classical situation is stressful as you flip between those tpeterson : very interesting, multiple readings situations cynthia1stephanie : Aerobatics are maneuvres by guys in small planes really having to deal with 3D space Mostly so far based on world war I dog fights, but a great little plane called The Hummingbird has been designed by a guy in New Zealand to move flying away from fighting sbaldwin : and multiple engagements/affects in the settings tpeterson : So from now on I will have to say, not only "how do you read that poem" but also "from what position" dhowe : and yet we can imagine being the interactor & observer simultaneously cynthia1stephanie : Absolutely But that was also true with holographic poems and information landscapes tpeterson : Like what you said earlier Stephanie about looking at something you wrote later an being surprised by it cynthia1stephanie : Daniel - can we? The whole question of simultaneously is up for grabs neurologically and relativistically :) dhowe : and also interacting and observing (simultaneously) from multiple perspectives or positions sbaldwin : well, sure about the planes but the analogy for epoetry? tpeterson : This is kind of a NY School thing: "I wrote this"? The possibility of being estranged from or surprised by your own writing sbaldwin : d: do we imagine simultaneously or a kind of fast flipping between? dhowe : and computationally as well though i'd argue one can never be solely 'observer', at least in 'physic'-al sense jnelson : Stephmuch of your writing is just damn prettyisnt that enough sometimes? cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - Cayley imagines moving or being moved about in the Cave Times Square, if you subtract the buildings, is a kind of Cave-like textual environment Suppose you were only to navigate it as a reader Wouldn't you like a plane? cynthia1stephanie : Jason - that pretty stuff doesn't work when you're 64 tpeterson : my goodness, I never would have guessed mrowley : wonderful times square analogy sbaldwin : hee hee, i'd prefer something to collapse it or blot it out - not times square per se but the textual space tpeterson : r we experiencing intimate connection between peers cynthia1stephanie : Always an option in NYC, Sandy dhowe : some blotting of times square probably warranted as well ;) tpeterson : ugh midtown sbaldwin : Great discussion so far I wonder about other questions for Stephanie, or one's we need to come back to? jnelson : what I mean issometimes I find the description of some e-poetry works more interesting than the work itselfand that your work is not only interesting, but also beautifulagain the mesh of theory and poetry cynthia1stephanie : Good, as active and interactive readers you can go in and do it That's the point, to incite or lure readers to become active reconfigurers mrowley : maybe from left field but Getting back to language and coding intesting that teh problem with designing voice recognition software is in codingthe infinite possibilities of phonemes and the slippage from one sound to the other sbaldwin : <a question back to epoetry and its infancy = inability to speak> mdeed : I wonder about the issue of audience -- how much help we should give newcomers -- so the audience grows -- cynthia1stephanie : Yes Bringing us back to Rig Veda and tuning systems All those notes in between the so called notes, analog, slipping, in between digital tpeterson : I wrote a piece that used parts of the "we hold these truths to be self-evident" text onc using voice-text recognition software The performance of the piece depended on a loop which would gradually decay and says things like "life BEYOND the pursuit of happiness" dwaber : stephanie, I had an interesting conversation with an analog artist friend of mine recently that all keyed off of his (borderline hostile) question of: where does your art go when the power goes off? I'm curious if you've had conversations about digital art with those who are opposed it it (for whatever reason), and how you replied cynthia1stephanie : Martha - I believe in helping in every way, though I don't think every writer/coder has to have a help file My essay tried to be jargon-free enough to be understandable to a classically literary person dhowe : also relating to the experience of simultaneity / parallelism in linear/procedural systems (ie, computers) mdeed : sensitive issue right now, Dan tpeterson : why a sensitive issue mdeed sbaldwin : <lights out in buffalo, i think> cynthia1stephanie : I teach in MFA writing programs, for the most part They are default hostile to digital work I teach a course called "From Simonides to the Web: 2500 Years of Experimental Poetry" mdeed : I agree -- there is a strand within e-poetry that is fairly elitist--if you can't understand my work, Go Away sbaldwin : simonides = inventor of poetry and the ars memoria cynthia1stephanie : Daniel - there is no true parallelism without more than one processor tpeterson : creative writing programs are filled with luddite engineering majors, except they can't building anything useful jnelson : stephaniesorry to be mundanebut how did you get started in the digital realm? tpeterson : just a surface dhowe : exactly though how much does this matter if we experience it as such cynthia1stephanie : Tim - my best class ever was undergraduates at Georgia Tech who came from Engineering, Computer Science, and Literature equally It was fabulous We all just got creative tpeterson : that sounds wonderful tpeterson : Are your students ever resistant to the material sbaldwin : - yes, tech students are great dhowe : to what degree did that class (or projects within) work collaboratively?? sbaldwin : I know that Stephanie wanted to keep this to about 45 minutes We're over that time Do you want us to wrap up Stephanie? dhowe : were the tech students doing the tech and the writers the writing, etc? or did the roles blur cynthia1stephanie : Jason - back in 1995 I wanted to use Mathematica more than anything My kids in college had had email and I had an IBM typewriter I belong to the Society for Literature & Science and there heard about an NEH class in Electronic Writing run by Kate Hayles which I applied to as an independent scholar = unemployed cynthia1stephanie : In that class, people did collaborative and individual projects We also sponsored a Techno Poetry Festival for which the students were docents They made a lot of artist book-type projects too cynthia1stephanie : Sandy - I do think we should wrap up sbaldwin : OK Thank you everyone Thank you especially Stephanie Strickland and Cynthia sbaldwin : I will be posting a transcript of this (The logs do not record any of the multiple message postings - I found these went away for me if I refreshed my browser) jnelson : Thanks for the historyreally fascinating cynthia1stephanie : Goodbye Thanks to everybody for the questions Stephanie and Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo :) <end transcript>
