Practices
I found the practices involved in the production and experience of electronic literature very interesting. While creating literary works has always been thought of as something within the domain of writers, it is apparent that different skill sets can be helpful in creating more complete works of electronic literature. For instance, digital poetry “fuses crafted language with new media technology and techniques” (Funkhouser, 2006). According to an article from MIT, programmers have used software to create their own poems, harnessing computers’ ability to iterate more easily than humans (Repantis, 2014). Besides writers, programmers and designers may be involved in creating electronic literature, making it not just the endeavor of one profession but of multiple.
The practices we use to interact with electronic literature are also influenced by the practices we use when consuming print literature. Electronic literature only arrived after “five hundred years” of print literature, so our expectations of aspects like “letter forms” and “print conventions” have been indubitably influenced by print literature. (Hayles, 2007). I find Hayles’ comment to be very true for myself too – even when browsing electronic works, I found myself wanting to read left to right and up to down, simply scrolling through the work.
I have always conceived the practice of producing literary works as an art, not something rooted in science or technology. However, reading about electronic literature and experiencing works of interactive fiction such as The Jew’s Daughter have allowed me to realise that the practice of literary production can be both (Morrissey, 2000). As aptly put by Funkhouser, programmers can “assemble language” according to commands, indicating an intractable scientific precision. However, literature is hard to fully divorce from emotion and sentiment, and so writers are always needed to choose the right words (Funkhouser, 2006). What ultimately emerges is a practice that is grounded in both art and science, reshaping the practices readers adopt when interacting with literature.
