Developing a Network-Based Creative Community

Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice (ELMCIP) is a 3-year collaborative research project running from 2010-2013, funded by the Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) JRP for Creativity and Innovation. ELMCIP involves seven European academic research partners and one non-academic partner who will investigate how creative communities of practitioners form within a transnational and transcultural context in a globalized and distributed communication environment. Focusing on the electronic literature community in Europe as a model of networked creativity and innovation in practice, ELMCIP is intended both to study the formation and interactions of that community and also to further electronic literature research and practice in Europe.

Partners

The partners include The University of Bergen, Norway (PL Scott Rettberg, Co-I Jill Walker Rettberg), the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland (PI Simon Biggs, Co-I Penny Travlou), Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden (PI Maria Engberg, Co-I Talan Memmott), The University of Amsterdam, Netherlands (PI Yra Van Dijk), The University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (PI Janez Strechovec), The University of Jyväskylä, Finland (PI Raine Koskimaa), and University College Falmouth at Dartington, England (PI Jerome Fletcher), and New Media Scotland.

ELMCIP project objectives

¤ Understand how creative communities form and interact through distributed media
¤ Document and evaluate various models and forces of creative commuities in the field of electronic literature
¤ Examine how electronic literature communities benefit from current educational models and develop pedagogical tools
¤ Study how electronic literature manifests in conventional cultural contexts and evaluate the effects of distributing and exhibiting e-lit in such contexts.

ELMCIP project outcomes

¤ A series of case studies and research papers for publications and conferences
¤ A series of public seminars at several locations in Europe
¤ An online knowledge base with materials from seminars, project information and an extensive bibliographic record of e-lit works
¤ A pedagogy workshop and anthology - resulting in extensive documentation, presented as an accessible website and DVD-ROM
¤ An international conference
¤ A public exhibition of electronic literature artworks and performances
¤ Openly distributed publications (conference proceedings, exhibition catalog, project documentation and a DVD anthology of e-lit works)