Postgraduate program on ‘Poetry and Poetics’
Seminar: « Kinetic poetry»
Course description
We will look at ways in which the motion of meaning in the chain of
signifiers, one of the structural features of language, is simulated in
several kinetic poems. We will see how specific forms of animating
texts symbolize both the instability of signifiers and the instability
of meaning. This reflection on the electronic and graphic materiality
of reading and writing in new media will be based upon works by
British, North-American, Canadian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and
Brazilian authors. Hyperlinks for a selection of digital works can be
found at the following webpage:
http://www.ci.uc.pt/diglit/DigLitWebCdeCineticos.html
Assessment will be continuous (75% attendance is required). It will be
based upon the following assignments: a critical review of two items
chosen from the course bibliography (c. 2000 words, 50% of final
grade), and analysis of one animated poem in essay form (c. 2000 words,
50%).
Aarseth, Espen (1997). Cybertext. Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Bootz, Phillippe (2006). ‘Digital Poetry: From Cybertext to Programmed
Forms’, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and
Poetics, ed. Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/pbootz.asp
Cayley, John (2006). ‘Time Code Language: New Media Poetics and
Programmed Signification’, in Digital Media Revisited: Theoretical and
Conceptual Innovation in Digital Domains, eds. Gunnar Liestol, Andrew
Morrison & Terje Rasmussen. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 307-334.
Cayley, John with Dimitri Lemmerman (2006). ‘Lens: The Practice and
Poetics of Writing in Immersive VR (A Case Study with Maquette)’, in
Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed.
Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/jcayley.asp
Drucker, Johanna (2009). SpecLab: Digital Aesthetics and Projects in Speculative Computing, Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Emerson, Lori (2006). ‘Numbered Space and Topographic Writing’, in
Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed.
Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/lemerson.asp
Engberg, Maria (2006). ‘Morphing Into New Modes of Writing: John
Cayley's riverIsland’, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New
Media and Poetics, ed. Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/mengberg.asp
Eskelinen, Markku (2004). ‘Six Problems in Search of a Solution: The
Challenge of Cybertext Theory and Ludology to Literary Theory’, in
dichtung-digital 2004.3. www.dichtung-digital.org/2004/3-Eskelinen.htm
Funkhouser, Chris (2007). Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archaeology of
Forms, 1959-1995. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
Glazier, Loss Pequeño (2002). Digital Poetics: The Making of E-Poetries. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
Glazier, Loss Pequeño (2006). ‘Code as Language’, in in Leonardo
Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed. Tim
Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/lglazier.asp
Hartman, Charles O. (1996). Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer
Poetry. Hanover, N.H.: University of Press of New England [for]
Wesleyan University Press.
Hayles, N. Katherine (2006). ‘The Time of Digital Poetry: From Object
to Event’, in New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories,
ed. Adalaide Morris and Thomas Swiss, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,
143-164.
Hayles, N. Katherine (2008). Electronic Literature: New Horizons for
the Literary. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame.
Hillner, Matthias (2006). ‘“Virtual Typography”: Time Perception in
Relation to Digital Communication’, Leonardo Electronic Almanac,
Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed. Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6
(Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/mhillner.asp
Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. (2008). Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Liu, Alan (2004). The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Manovich, Lev (2001). The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Memmott, Talan (2006). ‘Beyond Taxonomy: Digital Poetics and the
Problem of Reading’, in New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and
Theories, ed. Adalaide Morris and Thomas Swiss, Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press, 293-306.
Mez (2006). ‘_Net.Drenching -- Creating The Co[de][i]n.Text_,’ in
Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed.
Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/mez.asp
McGann, Jerome (2007). The Point is to Change It: Poetry and Criticism
in the Continuing Present. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.
Morris, Adalaide and Thomas Swiss, ed., (2006). New Media Poetics:
Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Perloff, Marjorie (2006). ‘Screening the Page/ Paging the Screen:
Digital Poetics and the Differential Text’, in New Media Poetics:
Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories, ed. Adalaide Morris and Thomas
Swiss, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 143-164.
Peterson, Tim (2006). ‘New Media Poetry and Poetics. From Concrete to
Codework: Praxis in Networked and Programmable Media’, in Leonardo
Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed. Tim
Peterson, Vol 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/tpeterson.asp
Portela, Manuel (2003). ‘Untranslations and Transcreations’, in Text:
An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies, Vol. 15: 305-320.
Portela, Manuel (2006). ‘Concrete and Digital Poetics’, in Leonardo
Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and Poetics, ed. Tim
Peterson, Vol 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/mportela.asp
Portela, Manuel (2007). ‘Significantes em Movimento em Movimento’, in
Cadernos de Literatura Comparada, Nº 17, Dezembro de 2007 (Porto:
Instituto de Literatura Comparada Margarida Losa): 63-92.
Portela, Manuel (2008). ‘Flash Script Poex: A Recodificação Digital do
Poema Experimental’, in Po-Ex: Poesia Experimental Portuguesa -
Cadernos e Catálogos, Centro de Estudos sobre Texto Informático e
Ciberliteratura (CETIC), Universidade Fernando Pessoa,
http://po-ex.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=148&Itemid=31&lang
(15 Julho 2008)
Portela, Manuel, ed. (2005-2008). DigLitWeb: Digital Literature Web, sítio web no endereço http://www.ci.uc.pt/diglit
Pressman, Jessica (2007). ‘Reading the Code between the Words: The Role
of Translation in Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries’s Nippon’, in
dichtung digital
http://www.brown.edu/Research/dichtung-digital/2007/pressman.htm
Schreibman, Susan and Ray Siemens, eds. (2008). A Companion to Digital
Literary Studies. Oxford: Blackwell. Also in
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companionDLS/ (01 Dec 2008)
Strickland, Stephanie (2006). ‘Writing the Virtual: Eleven Dimensions
of E-Poetry’, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Special Issue: New Media and
Poetics, ed. Tim Peterson, Vol. 14.5-6 (Sept 2006)
http://leoalmanac.org/journal/Vol_14/lea_v14_n05-06/sstrickland.asp
Watten, Barrett (2006). ‘Poetics in the Expanded Field: Textual,
Visual, Digital…’, in New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and
Theories, ed. Adalaide Morris and Thomas Swiss, Cambridge, Mass: MIT
Press, 335-370.
© Manuel Portela, Julho 2009
