Electronic Authorship

Collaboration, Appropriation, Community, and Practice

Scott Rettberg, University of Bergen

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS WORLD?

Some obvious aspects that are actually significant

PRODUCTION

1) The process of production2) The material produced3) The destination of the process

DISTRIBUTION

1) Social networks as distribution channels2) Transnational by nature3) Events, conferences, festivals4) Unstable models based on institutions of print culture5) No real division between digital art and e-lit culture

ECONOMICS

1) Almost no investment from major print publishers in e-lit2) Market forces have little impact on artistic production3) For a period his has been to the benefit of experimental practice4) As electronic reading device become commonplace, changes

RECEPTION

1) The intimate community2) Viral recommending, tweeting, blogging, "flagging"3) Online journals, conventional media channels4) Academic reception -- scholarly articles, collections, and monograph. 5) Teaching

“CANONIZATION”

1) The problem of persistence2) Archiving and documentation

- Anthologies- Directories / Databases- Archives / Repositories

3) Hacking the academic / industrial complex

AUTHORSHIP

THE FICTION OF SOLITUDE

TRANSPARENCY OF COLLABORATION IN DIGITAL MEDIA

THE SPECTRUM OF COLLABORATION

FEEDBACK LOOPS

- Author and coauthors- Author and responsive audience- Author and system- Author and the environment

COMPLICATIONS

- Communication breakdown- Ownership?- Artistic choices

COLLABORATIONS IN E-LITSome of my experiences

The Unknown (1999)William Gillespie, Scott Rettberg, Dirk Stratton

The Meddlesome Passenger (2001)Scott RettbergIllustrations by Shelley Jackson

Kind of Blue (2002)Scott RettbergAfter “Blue Company” by Rob Wittig

Implementation (2004) (2011)Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg

Tokyo Garage (2009)Scott RettbergOverwriting of “Taroko Gorge” by Nick Montfort

The Last Volcano (2010)Roderick Coover, Scott Rettberg

INSIGHTS?

NETWORK - ENABLED

THE JOY OF MEATSPACE

ADVERSARIAL AND DIALOGIC

GAME

COLLABORATIONAND/ORAPPROPRIATION

COLLABORATING WITH THE MACHINE

CONSTRAINTS

FRIENDSHIP

COLLECTIVE NARRATIVESRecent works exploring larger scale collaboration

TOC: A New-Media Novel (2009)Steve Tomasula, Stephen Farell, et al.

Exquisite Code (2009)Brendan Howell, et al.

The Last Performance (2007)Judd Morrissey, Mark Jeffery, et al.