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Research Questions
Is it possible to identify common key moments of change
for a writer moving to writing online?
The internet has provided a new creative environment for the writer.
When trAce was founded in 1995 very few writers were working with
experimental computer texts, but today the practice is growing rapidly.
This project proposes to capture a fleeting moment of literary revolution
when authors are developing a new kind of writing and finding new
ways to read it. Currently, there appear to be two specific ways
in which writers engage with the internet, with an increasing amount
of migration between them. For the purposes of discussion, they
can be divided into two groups:
Group A uses the web purely as a distributive
and communicative tool. They conduct research, publish their work
online, and gather in communities where critical and social interactions
occur. They come from a print-based background and their focus
is upon the individual author.
Group B contains writers and artists from
a range of disciplines including literature but also the visual
arts, film, programming, science and engineering. Their work appears
in digital formats rather than print. Their interest in the web
is as a medium for new forms of artistic expression and their
projects are often collaborative and/or feature public contribution
and interaction.
Is it possible to identify common
key skills which must be acquired for this to occur and what kind
of support is required to facilitate it?
Although Group A writers use technology on a regular basis, they
often consider themselves to be unskilled in this area and have
little confidence or interest in programming or building their own
websites. Group B writers tend to be self-taught, keen to experiment
with new hardware and software, and prepared to fail. Kate Pullinger's
experience as a 'control' subject, coupled with data from the existing
archive, will help to identify a model of good practice for supporting
writers new to online writing.
Are the opportunities for collaboration provided by the
web causing a significant move away from the single-authored text?
The methods of [B] are sometimes similar to those of TV and film,
based around a production team of specialists. We will seek to quantify
the spread of collaborative works among writers who formerly worked
alone.
How can writers using the medium as [A] be brought to
work with writers and artists utilising the medium as [B]?
TrAce has already managed a number of online mentoring projects
and the archives will help to identify best practice for that
and other kinds of collaboration and support relationships. Our
interviews with web-based writers will seek to further identify
their views in how this might operate to best advantage.
Aims and Objectives
The most common characteristics of writers and artists working
in new media are that they are generally self-taught and with
idiosyncratic learning styles dictated by individual need. However,
this project aims to identify some common milestones in their
experience by examining the experience of both writers new to
the field and writers with a history of established practice.
Our aims and objectives are as follows:
Aims
- To map the process of movement from writing for print to writing
for the web.
- To begin to define the differences, if any, between print-based
and web-based literatures.
- To define the creative skills and qualities common to writers
moving towards writing for new media.
Objectives
- To produce a short online guide to the differences between
print and new media literature.
- To produce a practical online toolkit of support materials
for writers new to the medium.
- To facilitate further examination of these findings via conference
papers, online discussion, a live online seminar, and a university-based
seminar.
Dissemination
The output will consist of a complementary combination of print,
digital and live reports plus an online sound archive of interviews
and conversations. Work-in-progress will be presented at:
State
of the Arts Electronic Literature Organization Symposium, Los
Angeles, April 4-6 2002
Incubation The
trAce International Conference on Writing & The Internet, Nottingham,
July 15-17 2002 |
