On May 1st, at 12 p.m. (noon), in the Rock Conference Room of the Rockefeller Library, Scott Rettberg (University of Bergen) will present, “An Emerging Canon? Mapping a Field through Database Visualization.”
The Electronic Literature Knowledge Base is a cross-referenced, scholarly database containing entries about creative works of and critical writing on electronic literature, as well as information about authors, events, exhibitions, publishers, teaching resources and databases in the field. It was established in 2010 by the University of Bergen Electronic Literature Research Group, as an aspect of the seven-nation project Electronic Literature as a Model for Creativity and Innovation (ELMCIP ). This presentation will show how the Knowledge Base has been developed as a scholarly resource and how gathering humanities data about a creative field of practice allows us to see new connections and patterns through distant reading strategies, visualisations and network analysis. Through an analysis of all critical references to creative works in critical writing documented in the Knowledge Base, and visualizations, we are able to consider and contest the possiblity of an emerging canon based on more objective measures of citation analysis than previously possible.
Bio: 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 the 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, Toxicity and others. 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, The Krannert Art Museum, and elsewhere.
Date: Thursday May 1
Time: 12 p.m. (noon)
Location: Rock Conference Room (Rockefeller Library)