https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78860 2026-04-04T19:09:05Z 2026-04-04T19:09:05Z Marecki, Piotr https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/95704 2019-04-11T13:16:20Z 2015-02-27T00:00:00Z

Textual Demoscene Marecki, Piotr The demoscene is a mainly European subculture of computer programmers, whose programs generate computer art in real time. The aim of this report is to attempt a description of the textual dimension of the demoscene. The report is the effect of efforts to perform an ethnographic exploration of the Polish computer scene; it quotes interviews with participants of demo parties, where text plays a significant role: in demos, real-time texts, IF, mags or digital adaptations. Media archeology focusing on the textual aspect of the demoscene is important to understanding the beginnings of digital literature and genres of digital-born texts.

2015-02-27T00:00:00Z Montfort, Nick https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92422 2019-04-14T07:46:51Z 2014-12-19T00:00:00Z

New Novel Machines: Nanowatt and World Clock Montfort, Nick My Winchester’s Nightmare: A Novel Machine (1999) was developed to bring the interactor’s input and the system’s output together into a texture like that of novelistic prose. Almost fifteen years later, after an electronic literature practice mainly related to poetry, I have developed two new “novel machines.” Rather than being works of interactive fiction, one (Nanowatt, 2013) is a collaborative demoscene production (specifically, a single-loading VIC-20 demo) and the other (World Clock, 2013) is a novel generator with accompanying printed book. These two productions offer an opportunity to discuss how my own and other highly computational electronic literature relates to the novel. Nanowatt and World Clock are non-interactive but use computation to manipulate language at low levels. I discuss these aspects and other recent electronic literature that engages the novel, considering to what extent novel- like computational literature in general is becoming less interactive and more fine- grained in its involvement with language. (Text of a presentation at the 2014 ELO Conference in Milwaukee. To appear in Polish translation in ha!art, issue 48.)

2014-12-19T00:00:00Z Marecki, Piotr https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92416 2019-04-11T13:14:23Z 2014-12-19T00:00:00Z

Stickers as a Literature-Distribution Platform Marecki, Piotr Contemporary experimental writing often directs its attention to its writing space, its medium, the material on which it is presented. Very often this medium is meaningful and becomes part of the work – the printed text transfered to another media context (for instance, into a traditional book) would become incomprehensible. Literature distributed on stickers is a form of writing that is divided into small fragments of texts (a type of constrained writing), physically scattered in different locations. One of the newest challenges in literature are books with augmented reality, AR, which examine the relation between the physical (the medium) and the virtual interaction. Sticker literature is a rather simple analog form of augmented reality literature. The stickers have QR codes or web addresses printed on them, so the viewer who reads/sees a random sticker in the public space can further explore the text online. The viewer can read other parts of the text on photographs (the photograph being another medium) of other stickers placed in different locations. The author will discuss the use of stickers throughout literary history, beginning with 20th century French Situationists, through different textual strategies applied by visual artists and ending with literary forms such as the sticker novel Implementation (2004) by Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg or Stoberskiade (2013). The author shall try to explain why writers decide to use this form, how the text is distributed and received and how the city space is used in such projects.

2014-12-19T00:00:00Z Montfort, Nick https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87669 2019-04-10T13:42:15Z 2014-06-05T00:00:00Z

No Code: Null Programs Montfort, Nick To continue the productive discussion of uninscribed artworks in Craig Dworkin’s No Medium, this report discusses, in detail, those computer programs that have no code, and are thus empty or null. Several specific examples that have been offered in different contexts (the demoscene, obfuscated coding, a programming challenge, etc.) are analyzed. The concept of a null program is discussed with reference to null strings and files. This limit case of computing shows that both technical and cultural means of analysis are important to a complete understanding of programs – even in the unusual case that they lack code.

2014-06-05T00:00:00Z Fernández-Vara, Clara Montfort, Nick https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87668 2019-04-11T13:28:43Z 2014-06-05T00:00:00Z

Videogame Editions for Play and Study Fernández-Vara, Clara; Montfort, Nick We discuss four types of access to videogames that are analogous to the use of different sorts of editions in literary scholarship: (1) the use of hardware to play games on platforms compatible with the original ones, (2) emulation as a means of playing games on contemporary computers, (3) ports, which translate games across platforms, and (4) documentation, which can describe some aspects of games when they cannot be accessed and can supplement play. These different editions provide different information and perspectives and can be used in teaching and research in several ways.

2014-06-05T00:00:00Z Fernández-Vara, Clara https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78890 2019-04-10T08:43:35Z 2013-05-14T00:00:00Z

Electronic Literature for All: Performance in Exhibits and Public Readings Fernández-Vara, Clara Events involving electronic literature, such as public readings or exhibits, constitute a type of performance. These are the lessons learned from two different types of events, an exhibit featuring adaptations of literary works into digital games, and a series of public readings of interactive fiction. The performative aspects of electronic literature affect the design of the event, and must be taken into account in order to create a successful and engaging experience for the attendants. (Prepared after the presentation of the same title at the Electronic Literature Organization Conference, Morgantown, West Virginia, June 20-23, 2012)

2013-05-14T00:00:00Z Montfort, Nick Fedorova, Natalia https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78889 2019-04-10T08:43:34Z 2013-05-14T00:00:00Z

Carrying across Language and Code Montfort, Nick; Fedorova, Natalia With reference to electronic literature translation projects in which we have been involved as translators or as authors of the source work, we argue that the process of translation can expose how language and computation interrelate in electronic literature. (Prepared for the Translating E-Literature Conference, Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, June 12-14, 2012)

2013-05-14T00:00:00Z Montfort, Nick Fedorova, Natalia https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78888 2019-04-10T08:43:34Z 2013-05-14T00:00:00Z

Creative Material Computing in a Laboratory Context Montfort, Nick; Fedorova, Natalia Principles for organizing a laboratory with material computing resources are articulated. This laboratory, the Trope Tank, is a facility for teaching, research, and creative collaboration and offers hardware (in working condition and set up for use) from the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, including videogame systems, home computers, an arcade cabinet, and a workstation. Other resources include controllers, peripherals, manuals, books, and software on physical media. In reorganizing the space, we considered its primary purpose as a laboratory (rather than as a library or studio), organized materials by platform and intended use, and provided additional cues and textual information about the historical contexts of the available systems.

2013-05-14T00:00:00Z Montfort, Nick https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78887 2019-04-10T08:43:32Z 2013-05-14T00:00:00Z

XS, S, M, L: Creative Text Generators of Different Scales Montfort, Nick Creative text generation projects of different sizes (in terms of lines of code and length of development time) are described. “Extra-small,” “small,” “medium,” and “large” projects are discussed as participating in the practice of creative computing differently. Different ways in which these projects have circulated and are being used in the community of practice are identified. While large-scale projects have clearly been important in advancing creative text generation, the argument presented here is that the other types of projects are also valuable and that they are undervalued (particularly in computer science and strongly related fields) by current structures of higher education and academic communication – structures which could be changed.

2013-05-14T00:00:00Z Montfort, Nick https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/78870 2019-04-11T02:58:58Z 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z

The Trivial Program "yes" Montfort, Nick A trivial program, one that simply prints “y” or a string that is given as an argument repeatedly, is explicated and examined at the levels of function and code. Although the program by itself is neither interesting or instructive, the argument is presented that by looking at “yes” it is possible to better understand how programs exist not only on platforms but also in an ecology of systems, scripts, and utilities.

2012-01-01T00:00:00Z