Literary Art in Digital Performance : Case Studies in New Media Art and Criticism

"Literary Art in Digital Performance" examines a dozen works of digital literature, a category comprising creative works that are principally (but not exclusively) textual in character, and which includes interactive poetry, narrative computer games, projective digital art, among other creative classifications specific to digital media. Electronic art in all its forms has presented a need for approaching its mechanism as new aesthetic. The historical change in digital literature centers on the fact that part of the creative content and the conditions for its reception are now produced by machine structures rather than exclusively through manual means and materials. With this new factor, in which the creative impetus is embedded in algorithmic decisions, the aesthetic practices and strategies of digital literature are not approachable in the same way that literature is understood. However, the rise of highly commercialized and popular fascination with media has not incorporated significant discussion about the degree to which art and literature remain as before, or are altered by this kind of widespread mediation. Literary Art in Digital Performance examines electronic works of literary art, a category integrating the visual+textual including interactive poetry, narrative computer games, filmic sculpture, projective art, and other works specific to digital media. In recent decades, electronic art's aesthetic has been driven by new algorithmic, randomized, and emergent processes. Although this new art differs from material art or print literature, the rise of popular fascination with new media has neglected signifcant discussion of how technical mediation impacts contemporary art and literature. Presented as a collection of case studies by leading scholars, the book provides a contemporary optic on this art's forms, problems, and possibilities. Each case study is followed by a post-chapter dialogue where the editor engages authors on the foundational aesthetics of new media art and literature. "Literary Art in Digital Performance examines electronic works of literary art, a category integrating the visual+textual including interactive poetry, narrative computer games, filmic sculpture and projective art. Each case study/chapter is followed by a 'post-chapter' dialogue between editor and author - providing further entry points for theoretical analysis."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Literary Art in Digital Performance examines electronic works of literary art, a category integrating the visual textual including interactive poetry, narrative computer games, filmic sculpture and projective art. Each case study/chapter is followed by a 'post-chapter' dialogue between editor and author - providing further entry points for theoretical analysis.