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1. Visible and Invisible Archives: The Database Aesthetics of The Atlas Group Archive and haikU

   Although many works of electronic literature use databases in some form, “not all new media objects are explicitly databases” (Manovich 41, my emphasis). I analyze two works of electronic literature, The Atlas Group Archive (Raad) and haikU (Wylde), as examples of different material and conceptual databases. I approach and compare the works within the framework of Digital Hermeneutics, continuously considering the relationship between text and context, between parts and whole.

   Walid Raad's 1989-2004 The Atlas Group Archive (AGA) is a multimedial, fictional 'archive' which encompasses supposedly donated testimonies on the war in Lebanon (1974-1991), including diary logs, photographs with notes, and videos. The narrative is structured as a database, in which the layering of content in individual texts and images as well as in the database as a whole becomes the key feature.

   Hannah Ackermans - 06.08.2019 - 10:53

2. Narrating the Sociality of the Database: A Digital Hermeneutic Reading of The Atlas Group Archive and haikU (presentation)

   I investigate the database characteristics of electronic literature that makes them into social forms. Database structures are both fragmented and relational, displaying hypertext characteristics. I approach The Atlas Group Archive and haikU, two works of electronic literature, as examples of material and conceptual databases in order to explore the database function so saturated in our daily life. Both works highlight a database aesthetics, although the ways they do so are polar opposites. I analyze the works within the framework of digital hermeneutics, continuously considering the relationship between text and context, between parts and whole. I demonstrate how AGA is an explicit database, supposedly showing a 'complete' archive, whereas haikU is an implicit database that hides the corpus of sentences. I show the sociality of the databases, thematizing both the human process behind database formation as a whole, as well as how the individual elements influence the perception of the overall database.

   Hannah Ackermans - 03.12.2019 - 10:25

3. Narrating the Sociality of the Database: A Digital Hermeneutic Reading of The Atlas Group Archive and haikU (paper)

   In this paper, I investigate the database characteristics of electronic literature that makes them into social forms. Database structures are both fragmented and relational, displaying hypertext characteristics. I approach The Atlas Group Archive and haikU, two works of electronic literature, as examples of material and conceptual databases in order to explore the database function so saturated in our daily life. Both works highlight a database aesthetics, although the ways they do so are polar opposites. I analyze the works within the framework of digital hermeneutics, continuously considering the relationship between text and context, between parts and whole. I demonstrate how AGA is an explicit database, supposedly showing a 'complete' archive, whereas haikU is an implicit database that hides the corpus of sentences. I show the sociality of the databases, thematizing both the human process behind database formation as a whole, as well as how the individual elements influence the perception of the overall database.

   Hannah Ackermans - 03.12.2019 - 10:37

4. Let’s Talk About Databases: Acts of Interpretation in Browsing the Leading Structure of the Information Age

   Presentation geared at a wide audience about the saturation of databases and other information structures in our society in relation to one mode of this experience and that is browsing. Browsing is very focused on the daily experience people have with the database. I combine offline examples of browsing and with examples of browsing digital database structures. To highlight the cultural value of browsing databases, I analyze the creative database A dictionary of the Revolution to see how it engages our interpretation habits of databases.

   Hannah Ackermans - 03.12.2019 - 11:21

5. Electronic Literature in the Database and the Database in Electronic Literature

   Due to the constant threat of technological obsolescence, documentation practices of archiving and database construction are of vital importance, to warrant that artists and scholars can continue developing and understanding this field of practice and study. To this end, multiple e-lit databases are being developed in the context of research projects.
   Within the field of Digital Humanities, database construction is too often regarded merely as a preparatory task. But from the perspective of its developers, the e-lit database is both a research space, a form of dissemination, and a cultural artefact in itw own right. By no means neutral containers, database carry out diverse processes including storage, distribution, and exposition. Scholarship and artistic practice entangle: scholars attempt to document and research a field. Artists interrogate the database structure in their works, and the production of databases further develops the field, which leads to more (varied) creation and dissemination of electronic literature.

   Hannah Ackermans - 25.06.2020 - 13:33