Multimedia Theory

and Experimental Fiction

Glenn A. Kurtz
San Francisco State University
Multimedia Studies Program
Spring 1997

Hypertext Fiction

*Individual Authors

• Fiction and artwork by Christy Sheffield Sanford. Especially recommended are Red Mona and Tapestry.

   

• Fiction, Science Fiction, and Essays by Kathryn Cramer. See also her fiction links.

   

• The Place An on-line artwork of poetry, fiction and images.

   

• The E-Ville Dialogues A large, interesting hypertext by Shana Fisher.

   

• "253" A Novel for the Internet about London Underground in Seven Cars and a Crash, by Geoff Ryman.

   

• Under the Ashes Fiction by Gavin D. Inglis

   

• Lies Fiction by Patrick Pryll

   

• WAXweb. For more information on WAXweb, click

  here.

   

• Poet Robert Kendall's home page

   

• Alva Svoboda's home page (Ezra Pound's Cantos)

   

• "Cynthia" Hyperfiction by E. Stephen Mack.

   

*Collective Efforts/Journals

• Hypertext Hotel On-going hypertext workshop started by Robert Coover at Brown. Several MOOs have developed out of this site: for more information click

  here.

   

• High-Pitched Voices Women's collaborative fiction workshop started by Carolyn Guyer

   

• Web del sol "Designed to bring the literary arts to a byte-cultured nation."

   

• Trudy's Calling Cards A unique, on-going, epistolary "novel."

   

• The Festival of Digital Storytelling. See also

  Joe's Digital Diner.

   

*University Programs and Archives

• Brown University Hypertext Project Index of hypertext projects at Brown University, including student work from Robert Coover's hypertext fiction and George P. Landow's hypertext theory courses.

   

• Hypertext at Brown University.An index of hypertext at Brown.

   

• The Online Writery "A virtual place for writers," with web-related resources, from the University of Missouri.

   

• CalTech Hypertext fiction and criticism from Cal Tech.

   

• Washington University Archive of Interactive Fiction

   

Multimedia Theory

*Essays/Books

• Vannevar Bush, "As We May Think" (1945)

   

• "Poetry Webs 1996" Excellent site edited by Christopher Funkhouser, including "Hypermedia Poetry" (essay with copious links: excellent) and "Multimedia Effects: American Poetry Layered since Black Mountain" (essay on the evolution of contemp. poetry and its significance for the development of hypertext).

   

• "The Erotic Ontology of Cyberspace," an essay from Michael Heim's "Metaphysics of Virtual Reality."

   

• E-Literacies Essays with wonderful links by Nancy Kaplan at the University of Baltimore.

   

• Stuart Moulthrop's home page, with essays and fiction.

   

• David Winer's website: Essays.

   

• Sherry Turkle's website.

   

• Konversatorium A conference held in Hamburg, Germany. Some interesting papers.

   

• The Electronic Labyrinth A book-length study of hypertext fiction and software.

   

• Excerpts from The Gutenberg Elegies, by Sven Birkerts.

   

• Marshall McLuhan Site focusing on the work and influence of Marshall McLuhan.

   

• "Written on the Web" Carolyn Guyer examines the state of hypertext fiction.

   

• "Women Writers and the Restive Text: Feminism, Experimental Writing and Hypertext" Essay by Barbara Page.

   

• Excerpts from Alan Lightman's novel Einstein's Dreams.

   

• "Rhetorics of the Web: Implications for Teachers of Literacy." Essay by Doug Brent in the journal Kairos.

   

• "The Poetics of Artificial Intelligence." Essays on contemporary graphic design, with work by Elliott Peter Earls, Johanna Drucker, Darick Chamberlain, Charles Bernstein.

   

• "The Rationale of Hypertext" Essay by Jerome McGann.

   

*Issues: Journals and Projects

• Post TV Very cool, but be prepared to wait.

   

• Ted Nelson's Xanadu project FAQ For more information about Ted Nelson, click

  here. You can also get excerpts from his book

  Literary Machines.

   

• CMU Oz Project home page. Always interesting.

   

• HyperContent, HyperJunk Jorn Barger's home page.

   

• BAD SUBJECTS: Political Education for Everyday Life A site intended to promote radical thinking & public education about the political implications of everyday life in a forum for rethinking American "progressive" or "leftist" politics.

   

• Indra's Net cybertextual project By John Cayley. "This piece allows readers to create and explore collocational blends generated from an article on the relationship between software engineering and experimental poetics written for the electronic journal, Ejournal." The HyperCard-based (Macintosh-only) cybertextual version of this work can be downloaded by clicking

  here.

   

• Hypertext and the English Renaissance An interesting site with mildly hyperlinked bibliography.

   

• Computers and Composition An international journal for teachers of writing.

   

• "Light Assemblage" Interesting site about architecture.

   

• Massurrealism

   

• Hyperflow Evolving hypertext dictionary.

   

• Internet Anagram Server

   

• The Copyright Website Important information regarding copyright and intellectual property on the web. See also

  The Report of the Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights: "Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure".

   

*Courses in Multimedia and Society

• Interactive and Non-Linear Narrative: Theory and Practice MIT class taught by Janet Murray. See also her list of web-based resources.

   

• "Open Sesame" HyperTheory/HyperLiterature Home Page Course at University of Vermont taught by Len Hatfield.

   

•  

  Computers in Composition and Literature Program Program in the Dept. of English at Ohio State University, H. Lewis Ulman Director.

   

• Literary Narrative in an Information Age A class at the University of Virginia, with student projects.

   

*Smart Technologies

• Steve Mann's (MIT Media Lab) home page featuring the wearcam. Essays include "'Smart Clothing': Wearable Multimedia Computing and 'Personal Imaging' to Restore the Technological Balance Between People and Their Environments."

   

• Rapid Prototyping.

   

• Personal Area Networks An essay on "Near Field Intrabody Communication," by Thomas G. Zimmerman at IBM.

   

'Zines

*Lists and Indexes

• Yahoo Zines list

   

• Index to Electronic Journals and Magazines

   

• Lawrence University's List of Electronic Journals

   

*Recommended for Fiction

• Word An excellent site.

   

• Cyberkind"Prosaics and Poetics for a Wired World"

   

• Rune MIT Literary magazine

   

• Leonardo Fiction and essays put out by the MIT press

   

• B & A New Fiction Canadian Literary Journal

   

  Rhetnet "A Cyberjournal of Rhetoric and Writing" from the University of Missouri.

   

• Electronic Book Reviews.

   

*Recommended for Theory

• InterText magazine On-line theoretical magazine.

   

• TELECINE Interesting site from Northwestern University.

   

• Postmodern Culture

   

• Enterzone UC Berkeley on-line magazine.

   

• CTheory An international, electronic review of books on theory, technology, and culture. Sponsored by the Canadian Journal of Political and Social Theory

   

• Mediamatic Excellent Amsterdam-based magazine of theory.

   

• Quanta

   

*Recommended for Curiosity

• Rock art sites.

   

• Interesting VRML site.

   

• Urban Desires: An Interactive Magazine of Metropolitan Passions Sophisticated smut

   

Hypertext Sources

*Links to Links

• Voice of the Shuttle: Technology of Writing Page Hypertext links from UC Santa Barbara. One of the best resources.

   

• Hypertext and Literary Things An excellent resource of 200 links, including fiction, theory, art, cognitive science, human-computer interface, linguistics and literature, maintained by Kia Mennie.

   

• Eastgate Systems hypertext resources on the Web. Eastgate Systems, of Cambridge, Mass., publishes quality hypertext. This link provides works (or teasers of works) by authors Michael Joyce, Jay David Bolter, George P. Landow, Judy Molloy, and others, plus a bibliography and information on hypertext conferences and events.

   

• Eastgate Systems Home Page

   

• Yahoo Hypertext Listings One of the best sources for links to hypertext fiction.

   

• Hyperizons A good list of hypertext resources, including a bibliography, "Precursors to Hypertext," "Theory and Technique of Hypertext Fiction," and collaborative fiction.

   

• Lawrence University's links to academic resources in English Literature

   

• Hypertext Fiction From Hell A good, basic short list.

   

Mail new links to me!

Compiled for the Multimedia Studies Program at San Francisco State University.

last updated 5/1/97

To Chris' HomePage