Abstract:

This paper explores a range of issues related to the pedagogy and practice of generative writing in programmable media. We begin with a brief description of the RiTa toolkit – a set of computational tools designed to facilitate the practice of generative writing. We then describe our experiences using these tools in a series of digital writing workshops at Brown University in 2007-2008. We discuss and theoretically examine a set of core issues raised by workshop participants — distributed authorship, the aesthetics of surprise, materiality, push-back, layering, and others — and attempt to situate them within the larger discourse of generative art and writing practice.

The opening for the exhibition was wonderful with Stephanie Syjuco giving an excellent and “appropriate” artist talk; we exhibited her piece “Body Double.” Other artists in attendance were L. Amelia Raley (showing “I should have never ever ever did those things”) and Ted Riederer (showing “The Resurrectionists”).

From the press release: “Inappropriate Covers includes multimedia works by 11 established and emerging artists, chosen for the aesthetic tensions they generate through acts of appropriation, reconfiguration, and erasure. Works in the exhibition range from the refined to the outrageous, according to JoAnn Conklin, director of the Bell Gallery. Jim Campbell’s elegant sculpture muses on memory and loss: the artist’s own heartbeat and breath sets the frequency of a layer of fog that appears on a glass, covering and uncovering photographs of his parents. At the other end of the spectrum is Kelly Heaton’s Live Pelt (The Surrogate). Heaton refers to the cloak, made from 64 used Tickle Me Elmo dolls purchased on E-bay, as her “substitute lover.”  In addition to Campbell and Heaton, artists participating in the exhibition are Brian Dettmer, Kenneth Goldsmith, Christian Marclay, L. Amelia Raley, Ted Riederer, Brian Kim Stefans, Stephanie Syjuco, John Oswald, and Mark Wallinger.”

Inappropriate Covers @ The David Winton Bell Gallery, Brown University. Running until May 29, 2009:

A vlog about Inappropriate Covers made by Julie Levin-Russo for HASTAC:

Press Release from Brown University:

More Text, from The Brown Daily Herald & Yankee Magazine.

The wall text introducing the show: “We are not only surrounded by, but complicit in, cultures of rampant appropriation. From pervasive acts of everyday consumption, to strictly economic acts of human exploitation; from the plundering of the avant-garde by the advertising industry, to the emergence of fan creations that feed off dominant media productions, rewiring them into new, personalized texts. There is no doubt that techniques of aesthetic appropriation will remain central to art production in the years to come. But how do we distinguish critically valuable forms of productive appropriation from unreflective reproductions of a culture seeped in acts of appropriation? How do we, the curators, qualify what we mean by (in)appropriate?

Inappropriate Covers presents works gathered for the tensions they generate through acts of reconfiguration and erasure. Combining the concept of the appropriate with that of covering—signaling both the literal act of obscuring and the phenomenon of rock and roll covers—this exhibition gathers artworks which engage in a strictly inappropriate covering. An inappropriate cover is an operation of impropriety seeking to melt frozen social conventions while undermining standard uses of media and aesthetic materials. Beyond this impropriety, these covers also commit acts of in-appropriation, which negate the idea of appropriation. If “to appropriate” means “to seize possession for oneself” then an act of inappropriation is a giving back, a return or a release of aesthetically and politically reconfigured significance.

The works presented here give back what they steal, their gifts arriving in forms of visceral critique and denial, of redemption, of historical healing and recovery, of aesthetic exploration and formal discovery. They enact a “cover” from the storm of savage appropriation, protecting a rare optimism that art can still evaluate culture, selecting properties of its structure to negate as well as to cultivate. These Inappropriate Covers are not casual reflections of a culture seduced by frenzied appropriation but mindful interventions scouting the potential of culture’s material transformation.”

A few weeks ago the second volume of Transformative Works and Cultures went online. The issue is called “Games as Transformative Works” and contains a short article of mine: “Intrinsic motivation: flOw, video games, and participatory culture.” The article was published in their “Symposium” section, a space intended for shorter pieces that address both the academic community and general public. The ideas in the piece stem from the first chapter of my dissertation which contains a larger examination of Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow in relation to video games (but also in relation to Raymond Williams’ concept of televisual flow). The chapter attempts to fill a gap in game scholarship which often mentions Csikszentmihalyi & flow, but rarely with a critical eye. The article in TWC doesn’t go into much depth in the theoretical discussion of “flow,” but instead attempts to draw a relationship between the (sometimes) intrinsic motivation of modding and Csikszentmihalyi’s notion of “intrinsic motivation” which is attached to flow activities such as, potentially, video games. The gist being that at some point – when the player reaches a skill level where the game is no longer (or less) challenging – modification might be a choice to continue the “flow experience” cultivated in the game; thus, the intrinsic motivation of playing the game overflows into the immaterial labor of work (often to the material profit of others, not necessarily the modder). Anyway, take a look if you’re interested. There’s a brief discussion of the game flOw in relation to World of Warcraft actually… The rest of the collection looks fascinating as well, though I have only been able to read a few articles as of yet.