Category: Uncategorized

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Happy 50th to BASIC

Dartmouth is celebrating the 50th anniversary of BASIC tomorrow with several events, including the premiere of a documentary on BASIC that I hope to see soon. I teach two classes tomorrow; those and my other meetings will make it impossible for me to stop by, even though Dartmouth is not very far away.

There’s also a celebratory Time article about BASIC, one that is packed with nice photos, scans, and GIFs showing how programs were listed and how they ran. The GIFs include a sped-up one of 10 PRINT running in an emulator, and there’s a link to 10 PRINT CHR$ (205.5 + RND (1)); : GOTO 10, our book (by Nick Montfort, Patsy Baudoin, John Bell, Ian Bogost, Jeremy Douglass, Mark C. Marino, Michael Mateas, Casey Reas, Mark Sample, and Noah Vawter).

I do genuinely appreciate the link and the article overall – there’s excellent discussion of popular programming, recollections of personally writing BASIC, BASIC in books and magazines, and even David Brin’s 2006 Salon article – but it’s too bad our book is (twice) referred to as “a book of essays” when it is actually a single book-length academic study of the title program; quite in distinction to a book of essays, it was written by the ten of us in a single voice. The book, which among other things provides the major academic study of BASIC this century, is also available for free online and anyone can download/open it in seconds to check it out. And if such a glance entices a reader, he or she may, like the popular BASIC programmer of the late 1970s and 1980s, dive further in and learn about formal, material, cultural, historical, and other aspects of the title program, the Commodore 64, BASIC, and more.

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Scott Rettberg in Purple Blurb this Monday

Purple Blurb

MIT, room 14E-310

Monday 4/28, 5:30pm

Free and open to the public, no reservation required

Scott Rettberg

Scott RettbergThis Monday (2014-04-28) Purple Blurb is proud to host a screening and discussion of narrative video art work done in collaboration with Roderick Coover, including _The Last Volcano, Cats and Rats, Three Rails Live,_ and _Toxicity._ (The last two are combinatory pieces; _Three Rails Live_ is a collaboration between Coover, Rettberg, and Nick Montfort.) These pieces deal with personal and global catastrophes and are written across languages, with one of the voices in _Cats and Rats_ in (subtitled) Norwegian. They continue Rettberg’s work on novel-length electronic literature projects and his frequent collaboration with others.

Scott Rettberg is Professor of Digital Culture in the department of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. Rettberg is the project leader of ELMCIP (Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice), a HERA-funded collaborative research project, and a founder of the Electronic Literature Organization. Rettberg is the author or coauthor of novel-length works of electronic literature, combinatory poetry, and films including _The Unknown, Kind of Blue, Implementation, Frequency, Three Rails Live,_ and _Toxicity._ His creative work has been exhibited online and at art venues including the Chemical Heritage Foundation Museum, Palazzo dell Arti Napoli, Beall Center, the Slought Foundation, and The Krannert Art Museum.

More about Purple Blurb …

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ELO Awards: Call for Nominations

The Electronic Literature Organization is delighted to announce two awards to be given this summer; nominations are open now.

>The ELO is proud to announce the ”The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of
>Electronic Literature” and “The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic
>Literature.” Below is information including guidelines for submissions for each.
>
>http://eliterature.org/2014/04/announcing-elo-prizes-for-best-literary-and-critical-works/
>
>“The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature”
>
>“The N. Katherine Hayles Award for Criticism of Electronic Literature” is an
>award given for the best work of criticism, of any length, on the topic of
>electronic literature. Bestowed by the Electronic Literature Organization and
>funded through a generous donation from N. Katherine Hayles and others, this
>$1000 annual prize aims to recognize excellence in the field. The prize comes
>with a plaque showing the name of the winner and an acknowledgement of the
>achievement, and a one-year membership in the Electronic Literature Organization
>at the Associate Level.
>
>We invite critical works of any length. Submissions must follow these
>guidelines:
>
>1. This is an open submission. Self nominations and nominations are both
>welcome. Membership in the Electronic Literature Organization is not required.
>
>2. There is no cost involved in nominations. This is a free and open award aimed
>at rewarding excellence.
>
>3. ELO Board Members serving their term of office on the Board are ineligible
>for nomination for the award. Members of the Jury are also not allowed to be
>nominated for the award.
>
>4. Three finalists for the award will be selected by a jury of specialists in
>electronic literature; N. Katherine Hayles will choose the winner from among the
>finalists.
>
>5. Because of the nature of online publishing, it is not possible to conduct a
>blind review of the submissions; the jury will be responsible for fair
>assessment of the work.
>
>6. Those nominated may only have one work considered for the prize. In the event
>that several works are identified for a nominee, the nominee will choose the
>work that he or she wishes to be juried.
>
>7. All works must have already been published or made available to the public
>within 18 months, no earlier than December 2012.
>
>8. All print articles must be submitted in .pdf format. Books can be sent either
>in .pdf format or in print format. Online articles should be submitted as a link
>to an online site.
>
>9. Nominations by self or others must include a 250-word explanation of the
>work’s impact in the field. The winner selected for the prize must also include
>a professional bio and a headshot or avatar.
>
>10. All digital materials should be emailed to elo.hayles.award@gmail.com by May
>15, 2014; three copies of the book should be mailed to Dr. Dene Grigar, Creative
>Media & Digital Culture, Washington State University Vancouver, 14204 NE Salmon
>Creek Ave., Vancouver, WA 98686 by May 15, 2014. Those making the nomination or
>the nominees themselves are responsible for mailing materials for jurying. Print
>materials will be returned via a self-addressed mailer.
>
>11. Nominees and the winner retain all rights to their works. If copyright
>allows, ELO will be given permission to share the work or portions of it on the
>award webpage. Journals and presses that have published the winning work will be
>acknowledged on the award webpage.
>
>12. The winner is not expected to attend the ELO conference banquet. The award
>will be mailed to the winner.
>
>Timeline
>
>Call for Nominations: April 15-May 10
>
>Jury Deliberations: May 15-June 10
>
>Award Announcement: ELO Conference Banquet
>
>For more information, contact Dr. Dene Grigar, President, Electronic Literature
>Organization: “dgrigar” at mac.com.
>
>“The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature”
>
>“The Robert Coover Award for a Work of Electronic Literature” is an award given
>for the best work of electronic literature of any length or genre. Bestowed by
>the Electronic Literature Organization and funded through a generous donation
>from supporters and members of the ELO, this $1000 annual prize aims to
>recognize creative excellence. The prize comes with a plaque showing the name of
>the winner and an acknowledgement of the achievement, and a one-year membership
>in the Electronic Literature Organization at the Associate Level.
>
>We invite critical works of any length and genre. Submissions must follow these
>guidelines:
>
>1. This is an open submission. Self nominations and nominations are both
>welcome. Membership in the Electronic Literature Organization is not required.
>
>2. There is no cost involved in nominations. This is a free and open award aimed
>at rewarding excellence.
>
>3. ELO Board Members serving their term of office on the Board are ineligible
>for nomination for the award. Members of the Jury are also not allowed to be
>nominated for the award.
>
>4. Three finalists for the award will be selected by a jury of specialists in
>electronic literature; Robert Coover or a representative of his will choose the
>winner from among the finalists.
>
>5. Because of the nature of online publishing, it is not possible to conduct a
>blind review of the submissions; the jury will be responsible for fair
>assessment of the work.
>
>6. Those nominated may only have one work considered for the prize. In the event
>that several works are identified for a nominee, the nominee will choose the
>work that he or she wishes to be juried.
>
>7. All works must have already been published or made available to the public
>within 18 months, no earlier than December 2012.
>
>8. Works should be submitted either as a link to an online site or in the case
>of non-web work, available via Dropbox or sent as a CD/DVD or flash drive.
>
>9. Nominations by self or others must include a 250-word explanation of the
>work’s impact in the field. The winner selected for the prize must also include
>a professional bio and a headshot or avatar.
>
>10. Links to the digital materials or to Dropbox should be emailed to
>elo.coover.award@gmail.com by May 15, 2014; three copies of the CD/DVDs and
>flash drives should be mailed to Dr. Dene Grigar, Creative Media & Digital
>Culture, Washington State University Vancouver, 14204 NE Salmon Creek Ave.,
>Vancouver, WA 98686 by May 15, 2014. Those making the nomination or the nominees
>themselves are responsible for mailing materials for jurying. Physical materials
>will be returned via a self-addressed mailer.
>
>11. Nominees and the winner retain all rights to their works. If copyright
>allows, ELO will be given permission to share the work or portions of it on the
>award webpage. Journals and presses that have published the winning work will be
>acknowledged on the award webpage.
>
>12. The winner is not expected to attend the ELO conference banquet. The award
>will be mailed to the winner.
>
>Timeline
>
>Call for Nominations: April 19-May 10
>
>Jury Deliberations: May 15-June 10
>
>Award Announcement: ELO Conference Banquet
>
>For more information, contact Dr. Dene Grigar, President, Electronic Literature
>Organization: “dgrigar” at mac.com.

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Bitcoin for your Warhol!

Thanks to Golan Levin’s “atypical, anti-disciplinary and inter-institutional” FRSCI lab, the CMU Computer Club, and ROM hacking bit-boy Cory Archangel, several instances of previously unknown visual artwork, done by Andy Warhol on the Amiga 1000 in 1985, have been recovered.

CA$H for your WARHOL sign

Warhol’s use of this classic multimedia system is but one of the many surprising, rich aspects of Amiga history that are carefully detailed by Jimmy Maher in The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga. An early topic is the launch of the first Amiga computer at the Lincoln Center, with Andy Warhol and Debbie Harry in attendance and with Warhol producing a portrait of her on the machine during the festivities. Maher also writes about how Warhol’s attitude toward the computer was actually a bit retrograde in some ways: Rather than thinking of the screen as a first-class medium for visual art, he wanted better printers that could produce work in a more conventional medium. The discussion of Warhol’s involvement is but one chapter (actually, less than one chapter) in a book that covers the Amiga’s hardware development, technical advances, relationship to image editing and video processing work, and lively demos — from the early, famous “Boing Ball” demo to the productions of the demoscene. The Future Was Here is the latest book in the Platform Studies series, which I edit with Ian Bogost.

The Future Was Here cover

With these images surfacing now, after almost 30 years, the age-old question “soup or art?” is awakened in us once again. Do we need to print these out to enjoy them? To sell them for cash? Did Warhol invent what is now thought of as the “MS Paint” style, back on the Amiga 1000 in 1985?

Amiga soup can

Note, finally, that there is a detailed report on the recovery project provided in PDF form.

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Transcendance

The premiere of the film Transcendance, directed by Wally Pfister and starring Johnny Depp as AI researcher Dr. Will Caster, was last night in Westwood. I got to go since my spouse produced and co-wrote the iOS and Android game that accompanies this movie. Johnny Depp and other cast members were there, but, alas, I did not get to hang with them; there were many interesting conversations nevertheless and I was glad to get to see the film for the first time. (Those involved with it had often seen very many cuts already, of course.) The general theatrical release of the film is April 18.

It’s an idea-packed film with a good bit of action, explosions, and so on, as well as innumerable nanites. Much can and will be said of it. One thing I was pleasantly surprised to note, though, was that the film expressed a bit how AI researchers (and by extension academic researchers more generally) have different motivations for what they do. Some are mainly interested in the challenges that problems present, because those problems are beautiful or inherently interesting. Some want to learn and understand things about the world. Some want to produce benefits in the world. And (although this group is not represented among the top researchers in the world) for some it’s just a job to make a living. It was nice to see the nuance of these different motivations in the way AI research was portrayed in Transcendance.

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Microcodes and more Non-Object Art

In NOO ART, The Journal of Objectless Art, there’s a conversation between Páll Thayer and Daniel Temkin that was just posted. (Thayer recently collaborated with me to put up “Programs at an Exhibition,” the first software art show at the Boston Cyberarts Gallery.) The conversation covers Thayer’s code art, including his Perl Microcodes and antecedents, but also touches on free software, Windows, various esoteric languages by Temkin and others, painting and drawing, Christiane Paul’s CodeDOC project at the Whitney, “expert cultures,” and the future of code-based art.

It’s great reading, and objectless art might be just the thing to go with your object-oriented ontology.

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Lance Olsen in Purple Blurb, Mon 5:30pm

“Lance Olsen is at the center of every discussion I have about the contemporary landscape of innovative and experimental writing.”

-Bookslut

Lance Olsen

Lance Olsen

April 7, 5:30pm

MIT’s Room 14E-310

Experimental writing & video

Including a reading from his recent book _[[ there. ]]_ and video from his _Theories of Forgetting_ project.

Lance Olsen is author of more than 20 books of and about innovative writing, including two appearing this spring: the novel based on Robert Smithson’s earthwork the _Spiral Jetty_, _Theories of Forgetting_ (accompanied by a short experimental film made by one of its characters), and _[[ there. ]]_, a trash-diary meditation on the confluence of travel, curiosity, and experimental writing practices. His short stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies. A Guggenheim, Berlin Prize, N.E.A. Fellowship, and Pushcart Prize recipient, as well as a Fulbright Scholar, he teaches experimental theory and practice at the University of Utah.

Read the Bookslut interview about Lance Olsen’s [[ there. ]].

More on the Purple Blurb series.

Purple Blurb takes place on MIT’s main campus in Building 14, the same building that is the home of the Hayden Library. 14E-310 in in the East Wing, third floor, across the courtyard from the library entrance (do not enter the library to get to 14E-310).

Purple Blurb is free and open to the public, no reservation required.

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Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks, a storyteller who worked with technology in many contexts, died last Friday of cancer. Kevin was finishing his PhD at the MIT Media Lab when I was there as a masters student. Although he was farther along in his studies and working on a different floor with Glorianna Davenport’s research group, he helped me with my thinking and became a real friend, discussing his work (from Tired of Giving In to his Agent Stories project for his dissertation, “Metalinear Cinematic Narrative: Theory, Process, and Tool”) and how to develop other sorts of interactive narratives. Kevin also introduced me to the storytelling of Brother Blue and the rest of the Cambridge storytelling community. Kevin was at Apple before coming to MIT and went on to work at Motorola and, later, Hallmark. When I came to MIT, I was interested in inquiring about narrative and poetics in the system-building work that I did, and I was lucky to encounter Kevin, who had been looking at the forms and structures of storytelling as well as its ability to treat themes, to change people, and to change the world.

There is a very nice profile of Kevin in the MIT News section Technology Review, from 2011.

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Advanced Bitcoin Simulator

If you felt like you missed your chance to … profit! … from the ascendance of Bitcoin, try the new, shiny Advanced Bitcoin Simulator, an interactive fiction by a sekrit author. It’s built with yui3, Inform 7, and parchment, but also builds on the simulation of online forums found in Judith Pintar’s CosmoServe, incorporates some of the audacity of several recent Twine games, and offers a bit (no pun intended) of the Ayn Rand pillory found in Bioshock.

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E.T.‘s Material Mess

My comments were part of a brief piece on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday. NPR only turns to me when there’s a very serious issue at stake; this time, some documentary filmmakers were thwarted, at least for the moment, in their quest to visit an Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill and dig up the large number of E.T.: The Extraterrestial Atari 2600 cartridges that, according to reports, are buried there.

Lots of people read the story of E.T. (the video game) as one of monumental punishment for a media company’s disrespect for users/players. To me, there are at least two other important points.

One is that digital media is material. As much as we love to speak of “the Cloud,” “Steam,” and even “the Web” with its gossamer immateriality, the computers that we use are matter, they are physical stuff, and all of so so-called software is ultimately inscribed materially. Digital media is part of our world, capable of being buried and dug up, part of our environment and able to influence its quality.

Another is that when you’re innovating and creating work in a truly new form, it can be easy to cross the line between success and failure. Howard Scott Warshaw takes the rap for creating, under tremendous deadline pressure, the difficult-to-play, difficult-to-enjoy E.T. Before that, he created a hit game, a similar style of adventure, that was also based on a movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark. And, before that, he created a game with a compelling appearance and complex but engaging gameplay: Yar’s Revenge. Ian Bogost and I wrote a chapter about this Atari VCS game in Racing the Beam; it was Atari’s best-selling “original” game for the system. Last year, Yar’s Revenge was added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, becoming one of only twenty videogames in their collection.

We might need tales of corporate hubris and downfall to remind us not to invest our money, or all of our lives, in today’s digital media companies. But it’s worth noting, too, that media we think of as insubstantial can sometimes be inconveniently material, and that poor work is sometimes not just the result of scorn – it can also happen when a great artist tries to do too much too quickly.

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A Book on the Song “Hallelujah”

Acting on a tip from The Kelly Writers House at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, I recently learned about, and then read, Alan Light’s book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah.” This intrigued me as an admirer of this song in particular, Leonard Cohen’s songwriting and singing generally, and other aspects of his literary art (particularly the incredible novel Beautiful Losers). It also appealed to me as an entire book written about a single, short work. In this case, the work isn’t a Commodore 64 BASIC program – as in the book collaborators and I wrote, 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1));: GOTO 10 – but a popular song with many lines and many covers, one that has been used in a wide variety of contexts.

The author discusses those many contexts well, covering the original release, the famous Jeff Buckley cover, and many other versions. There’s discussion of Shrek, the VH1 9/11 memorial video, manifestations on Idol and X Factor TV shows, and uses in religious ceremonies. The book is not really a deep dive into the music or the lyrics, although the etymology of the world “Hallelujah” and the differences in how the term is used in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles are discussed. Cohen declined to be interviewed, so the book also doesn’t spend too much time on origin myths, just recounting a bit from previous interviews. The book works to tease out the many things the song has meant to people and how it has managed to have all of these meanings.

It’s quite a different book from 10 PRINT, both in methodology and because the BASIC program is quite a bit different, culturally, than the song. I found it a quite enjoyable read.

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Mourn Google’s Departed

You may have noticed that “corpse” and “corporate” are lexically quite similar, and seem even more so when it comes to technology. Slate’s Google Graveyard lets visitors leave a virtual flower in memory of their favorite dead Google product. Seeking to be ever ready, they have dug a hole for Google Glass.