Writing with the Code: A Digital Poetics

This paper (presented at Digital Arts and Culture Conference, Bergen 2000) proposes a digital poetics, which focuses on the possible digital transformations of writing and reading with examples from current cybertextual literature. The paper discusses how programming structures (algorithms, cybernetics, object oriented programming, hypertext) can be interpreted as literary forms. The outcome is a literary way to read programming structures and a discussion of a digital literary poetics. As a consequence this paper argues (by taking some initial steps) for further crossdisciplinary research in the field of digital writing between literary theory and computer science as a way to understand the general cultural impact of the computer and as a way to further develop creative innovation.

(Source: Author's abstract)