The Dreamlife of Letters

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Description (in English): 

A Flash animation, based on a text by Rachel Blau DuPlessis, that attempts to explore the ground between classic concrete poetry, avant-garde feminist practice, and "ambient" poetics (that's really just plain fun to watch).

(Source: Author's Description from ELC Vol. 1)

I ♥ E-Poetry entry: 
NT2 entry: 
Pull Quotes: 

On a five year old i-book, the sporulation [in "Dreamlife of Letters"] is clearly visible; on a recent macbook, the animation is run slightly faster, and the sporulation seems less visible; on a more powerful non-portable computer, it becomes even imperceptible! In this particular case, the reader is given no opportunity to grasp the meaning the author wants to convey. He is not even able to guess it, for there is no theoretical paratext to warn him about the fact that certain surface events may become invisible (qtd. in Saemmer "Aesthetics of Surface, Ephemeral and Re-Enchantment in Digital Literature" 482).

Technical notes: 

Flash

Critical writing that references this work:

Titlesort ascending Author Year
Why Digital Literature Has Always Been “Beyond the Screen” Andrew Michael Roberts 2010
Typing the Dancing Signifier: Jim Andrews' (Vis)Poetics Leonardo L. Flores 2010
Travels in Cybertextuality. The Challenge of Ergodic Literature and Ludology to Literary Theory Markku Eskelinen 2009
These terabytes I have tries to shore against our ruins: Digital poetics, the modernist project and modes of cognition Theodoros Chiotis 2010
The Imaginary Solution Craig Douglas Dworkin 2007
Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound Lori Emerson 2014
New Media Poetics: As We May Think/How to Write Adalaide Morris 2006
Letters That Matter: Electronic Literature Collection Vol 1 John David Zuern 2007
Le(s) Mange Texte(s): Creative Cannibalism and Digital Poetry Chris Funkhouser 2007
Language as Gameplay: toward a vocabulary for describing works of electronic literature Brian Kim Stefans 2012
Immanence, Inc.: Algorithm, Flow, and the Displacement of the Real Brian Kim Stefans 2018
I Love E-Poetry Leonardo L. Flores 2011
From (Command) Line to (Iconic) Constellation Kenneth Goldsmith 2001
Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics Brian Kim Stefans 2003
Experimental Poetics of the Asian Diaspora: Readings in Meatspace and Cyberspace Sunny S.Y. Chan 2018
Digital Poesi. Æstetisk Analyse og det Mediales Rolle i Kunstværkers Kommunikation Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen 2013
Digital Gestures Carrie J. Noland 2006
Cybertext Poetics: The Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory Markku Eskelinen 2012
Creative Practice and Experimental Method in Electronic Literature and Human Experimental Psychology Andrew Michael Roberts, Lisa Otty, Martin Fischer, Anna Katharina Schaffner 2012
Computerpoesie: Studien zur Modifikation poetischer Texte durch den Computer Saskia Reither 2003
Screen shots: 
Dreamlife of Letters
Dreamlife of Letters
Dreamlife of Letters
Dreamlife of Letters
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Record posted by: 
Patricia Tomaszek