Electronic Literature and Online Literary Databases: The PO.EX and ELMCIP Cases

Critical Writing
Publication Type: 
Language: 
Year: 
2014
Publisher: 
Pages: 
89-102
Journal volume and issue: 
14:1
ISSN: 
0806-5063
Record Status: 
Tags: 
Abstract (in English): 

This essay reflects on the shift of user interaction operated by online literary archives and databases. One can easily recognize a change of scenery happening in the current networked world, given the way authors and general public produce, catalog, tag, access, research, analyze, preserve and share knowledge.
In the field of electronic literature, the creation of several collaborative and open access databases attests this trend. For this purpose, I review two of them: the PO.EX Digital Archive of Portuguese Experimental Literature and the ELMCIP Electronic Literature Knowledge Base. My aim is to contribute to an informed view on how these online literary databases are shaped and are shaping the field: What is their scope? How do they operate? What kind of navigation and user input exists? Why should they really matter?
Finally, I use these insights to develop some considerations concerning the relations between memory and archive, and different perspectives on electronic literature preservation.

(Source: Author's Abstract)

PO.EX entry: 

Critical writing referenced:

Title Author Year
A Ciberliteratura: Criação Literária e Computador Pedro Barbosa 1996
PO.EX: Essays from Portugal on Cyberliterature and Intermedia 2014
Poética dos Meios e Arte High Tech E. M. de Melo e Castro 1988
Poemografias: Perspectivas da Poesia Visual Portuguesa Ana Hatherly, E. M. de Melo e Castro, Fernando Aguiar, Silvestre Pestana, Antero de Alda, António Aragão, Salette Tavares 1985
Cibertextualidades 5 2013
ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature 2012
The ELMCIP Electronic Literature Knowledge Base: Project Report Scott Rettberg, Eric Dean Rasmussen 2013
Electronic Publishing Models for Experimental Literature Rui Torres, Manuel Portela 2013
Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice: A Report from the HERA Joint Research Project 2014
Entity/Identity: A Tool Designed to Index Documents about Digital Poetry Philippe Bootz, Samuel Szoniecky, Abderrahim Bargaoui 2009
The NT2 Hypermedia Art and Literature Directory: A New Knowledge Environment Devoted to the Valorization of Screen Culture Bertrand Gervais 2009
Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society Bruno Latour 2015
Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory Bruno Latour 2008
You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media Stuart Moulthrop 1991
Literary Machines: The report on, and of, Project Xanadu concerning word processing, electronic publishing, hypertext, thinkertoys, tomorrow's intellectual revolution, and certain other topics including knowledge, education and freedom Theodor Holm Nelson 1993
Scripting Reading Motions: The Codex and the Computer as Self-Reflexive Machines Manuel Portela 2013
Toward a Semantic Literary Web: Setting a Direction for the Electronic Literature Organization’s Directory (2007) Joseph Tabbi 2007

Databases/Archives referenced:

Title Organization responsible
PO-EX.net: Arquivo Digital da Literatura Experimental Portuguesa University Fernando Pessoa
ELMCIP Electronic Literature Knowledge Base ELMCIP: Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice, University of Bergen, Electronic Literature Research Group, University of Bergen, Program in Digital Culture
Electronic Literature Directory Electronic Literature Organization
NT2 Répertoire Des Arts et Littératures Hypermédiatiques Laboratorie NT2, Université du Québec à Montréal
UbuWeb
Rhizome Artbase Rhizome

Events referenced:

Title Datesort ascending Location
Les littératures numériques d'hier à demain 24.09.2013
Bibliotheque National Francais Paris
France
FR
Visualizing Electronic Literature Seminar 19.08.2013
Bergen
Norway
NO

Research Collection that references this Critical Writing:

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Alvaro Seica