Digital Poetics LTWR 103
Elizabeth Losh
Course Description:
This workshop/lab for creative writers includes instruction on using software and writing basic computer code. Student writers will create innovative web-based works that experiment with poetic form, draw on rich media resources, and provide more accessibility and interactivity for public audiences. Participants will also be encouraged to interrogate the definition of poetry itself, as they work with different fonts, screen layouts, sounds, and rules and consider the analogies between writing poems and writing computer code. Further information about this course is available at the syllabus at http://losh.ucsd.edu/courses/poetics.html
We will be working with the Archive for New Poetry to see examples of experimental work in the twentieth century that uses poetic effects from the concrete form of the text on the page, sound, nonlinear composition, and chance.
Office Location: Pepper Canyon Hall 249
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursdays 12:30-1:30PM
Recommended Non-Poetry Books:
Digital Foundations: Intro to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Suite, Xtine Burrough and Michael Mandiberg
Getting Started with Processing, Casey Reas and Ben Fry
Week One
1/4 Lit 455
Introductions - Bring a poem that you have written or one you admire to read out loud.
Talking about Technical Matters
Electronic Literature Organization
Electronic Literature Collection
E-Poetry at The Electronic Poetry Center
Joe Davis, I Made Tea
Animated Poetry
Robert Kendall, Faith
Brian Kim Stefans, The Dreamlife of Letters
1/6 Center 315
Kinetic Typography (bring USB drive for .fla files)
K. Michel and Dirk Vis, Ah
Jeff Smith-Luedke, Minimalism
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Cunnilingus in North Korea
Adaptation and Motion Graphics
Pulp Fiction in Motion Graphics
Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type
Lev Manovich, "Generation Flash"
Week Two
1/11 Geisel Library Special Collections Room
Session in Special Collections
Also check out the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry
And Early and Clairvoyant Journals by Hannah Weiner
Reviewing Experimental Movements of the 20th Century: Symbolism, Imagism, Surrealism, Objectivism, The New York School, Black Mountain School, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry
1/13 Pepper Canyon Hall 240
Reading and Responding to Electronic Literature with Jeremy Douglass
Word at a Time Works
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Dakota
William Poundstone, Project for Tachistoscope
Interactive Works
Sam Barlow, Aisle
Daniel C. Howe and Aya Karpinska, open - ended
Dan Waber and Jason Pimble, I, You, We
Week Three
1/18 Center 315
Archivally Inspired Illuminated Manuscript Created with Photoshop Due!
Using Photoshop or a similar form of image editing software, create an electronically generated "illuminated manuscript" inspired by a work of concrete poetry from the Archive for New Poetry at UCSD. Please turn in a one-page print-out, either in black-and-white or in color. Please also include your name and the author and title of the work that inspired your homage.
1/20 Center 315
Introducing Sound
John Cayley, Windsound
Thomas Swiss, Blind Side of a Secret
Jennifer Hill-Kaucher, Dan Waber, and Reiner Strasser, >>Oh<<
Week Four
1/25 Lit 455
Flash Adaptation Assignment Due: Francis Ponge's "Rain" (To Save Flash File with Text, Use Firefox or Explorer) [Dropbox]
A student sample response from Rose Mireya
Sound and Performance: From the Beats to Spoken Word
Tips on working with audio from the Library:
You can limit the scope to "audio" on the Roger basic search page before entering your search terms. You will notice on the Roger search page a number of options just above the search box: All Audio Books Digital Images Electronic Materials Films & Videos Journals & Serials Maps & Atlases – The default is "All," when you select "Audio" the bar across the top turns purple. You may then enter your search terms and results will come from across libraries, including digital audio collections, and will exclude printed works, films, etc.
To find audio recordings from the Archive for New Poetry specifically limit the scope to audio, as above, and enter Archive for New Poetry as your search terms. Everything in ANP is given this additional heading, so it is a good way to bring together all ANP titles. You will see this is 1477 results. So, you will no doubt want to perform a more precise search for particular poets, date ranges, etc.
Even more specifically, everything in the New Writing Series is pulled together with an added title New Writing Series (as it was called from the years 1982-on) or UCSD New Poetry Series (1973-1981, as it was called during that time). You will notice that the most recent years have been digitized and the links to the audio is available from Roger as you search that way. We also post the current quarter readings on our website: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/locations/mscl/resources/new-writing-series-podcasts.html
John Kusch, Red Lily
Jeremy Douglass, He began, she ended
1/27 Lit 455
Electronic literature off the screen and into social media with Mark Marino
http://bunkmagazine.com
http://hands.literatronica.net
http://bunkmagazine.com/diigo
Extra Credit that afternoon- Attend the eWriting Symposium
Week Five
2/1 Lit 455
Original Flash Composition Due [Dropbox]
Thinking about Databases and Information Visualizations
Public Secrets and Blood Sugar by Sharon Daniel
2/3 Center 315
Remix Culture
Week Six
2/8 Lit 455
Audacity Adaptation Assignment Due: Louis Zukofsky's "The Bird" (remember: no music can be used in your remix) [Dropbox] (Sample adaptation by John Schell)
Non-Linear Poetry
"Procedural Literacy: Educating the New Media Practitioner," Michael Mateas
Thinking spatially: Sarah Waterson, Elena Knox, and Cristyn Davis, Trope and Chico Marinho, Palavrador
2/10 Lit 455
Introduction to HTML and Javascript
Week Seven
2/15 Lit 455
Original Audacity Composition Due [Dropbox]
2/17 Lit 455
Week Eight
2/22 Lit 455
Hypertext Poetry
Judd Morrisey, The Jew's Daughter
Scott Rettberg, The Unknown
Non-Linear Adaptation Assignment Due: George Oppen's "Route" [Dropbox]
2/24 Lit 455
Week Nine
3/1 Center 315
Introduction to Processing
10-Print
Original Hypertext Composition Due [Dropbox]
Critical Code Studies
3/3 No Class
Week Ten
3/8 Lit 455
Review
Processing Adaptation Assignment: Carl Rakosi's "Americana" [Dropbox]
3/10 Lit 455
No Class
Exam Period: Project Showcase
Final Project Due [Dropbox]