New book proposal, Games and Literary Theory (eds. Welsh & Goggin)

I've just agreed to contribute a chapter on Jason Nelson's poetry games to Timothy Welsh and Joyce Goggin's proposed collection, Games and Literary Theory - very exciting project, so fingers crossed it'll find a suitable publisher. My proposed chapter will be a version of my forthcoming talk at a Gothenburg-based Digital Poetry symposium in September, which will also feature the likes of H.C. Rustad and J. R. Carpenter.

My proposal:

“Can You Can Play?” Metaludicity and Surrealist Hyperattention in Jason Nelson’s Poetry Games

Astrid Ensslin, University of Alberta

Abstract

Literary gaming (Ensslin 2014a) happens at the creative interface between hyperattentive gameplay and deep-attentive close reading (Hayles 2007). Literary game designers experiment with the question of whether hyper and deep attention are indeed compatible, and they do so by juxtaposing creatively the readerly and playerly elements of a text/game. In this sense, literary games evoke a ludic metazone by foregrounding (poetic) language and other forms of semiotic expressivity, thus producing a variety of artefacts that inhabit various loci on the spectrum between ludic digital literature and literary computer game (Ensslin 2014b).

In this talk I’m going to focus on the poetry games of American digital poet and artist, Jason Nelson. In his ludic oeuvre he translates the clash between close reading and gameplay into an array of diversely surreal gaming interfaces that literally play with and undermine the rules of game design but also those of language and other semiotic modes. I will show that underlying his puzzling and often “annoying” (Alfredsson 2016) interfaces are concise techno-, socio- and ludocritical messages that emerge procedurally through kinetic, cognitive and curiously fun-oriented engagement with the ‘codes’ of his works.

References:

Alfredsson, J. (2016), Personal Correspondence, June 29^th, 2016.

Ensslin, A. (2014a) Literary Gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ensslin, Astrid (2014b) ‘”Womping” the Metazone of Festival Dada: Jason Nelson’s Evidence of Everything Exploding’, in Marcel Cornis-Pope (ed.) New Literary Hybrids in the Age of Multimedia Expression: Crossing Borders, Crossing Genres, pp. 221-231. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Hayles, N. K. (2007) "Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes." Profession 2007: 187-99.

ELO buzz

ELO 2016 at University of Victoria, BC, has just come to a close. It was a wonderful experience to see such a diversity of creative and scholarly projects. My favorite works on display (either in the gallery or in delegates' presentations) were Inanimate Alice, Episode 6 (more ludic and immersive tan ever - a real pleasure to play and read); Jason Nelson's Impossible Box (haptic fun with hardware); and SIS's / Nam Le's The Boat (both shocking and fascinating in its horrifying beauty). Following an inspiring discussion with Mark Marino, I've now set up a Facebook Group for Young People's elit - a platform for an informal SIG and curatorial / readerly community enjoying and wanting to share children's and teenage digital fiction and poetry. Academic sessions that particularly stood out for me were Kathi Inman Berens', Jessica Pressman's and Caitlin Fisher's panel on Feminist Horizons; Dave Ciccoricco's, Ilya Szilak's and Caitlin Fisher's panel on Narratives and Narrativity, and the keynotes by Anastasia Salter and Christine Wilks. I also massively enjoyed being on a panel on Literary Interventions with Kate Pullinger and Aaron Angello. I regret having to miss Sandy Baldwin's elit pedagogy session, but instead I enjoyed a refreshingly informed interview/discussion with James O'Sullivan. Thanks for the opportunity.
My own talk was a co-authored paper (with Alice Bell, Isabelle van der Bom and Jen Smith) on Dreaming Methods' WALLPAPER installation - an empirical reader response analysis on matters of immersion, site-specificity and multimodality.

The full slideshow is available here

Where gaming and reading meet - an interview with me on German radio (Deutschlandradio Kultur, Berlin, 13 May 2015)

Here's a brief interview with me on Deutschlandradio Kultur, which was inspired by my keynote at DiGRA 2015 at Leuphana University (Lueneburg, Germany), and explains how reading and gaming are converging and clashing in literary games and gaming. English translation to follow.
Another brief interview about digital fiction, the language of gaming, literary gaming and the future of literature has been published bilingually here.

Postmortem: the first UKIERI 'Computer Gaming Across Cultures' symposium, Bangor University, 8th May 2013

First review of Literary Gaming published in Leonardo

I'm really excited by the first review of Literary Gaming, published this month in Leonardo. In it Rob Harle describes the book as "a fascinating and detailed scholarly exploration of this fairly new field of academic inquiry...The book is very well written and, considering some of the complex theories (communication, meaning, authorship and so on) discussed, is still accessible to the interested general reader." He expects that "Literary Gaming will become a core text in the academic fields of new media, digital gaming, and literature itself. I cannot recommend the book highly enough to be included in all of the relevant university curricula, as well as being an excellent resource and inspiration for experimental game designers and creative writers." My response to his criticism that there should be an appendix listing all the works discussed in the book is that there is actually a comprehensive list of all primary material mentioned in the manuscript (pp. 173-177 of the Bibliography). But I accept that a list of further primary reading would have been useful too. I've made such a list for my own research and I may put it on this blog as soon as I've had a chance to edit it a little. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you'd like to see it in its present, raw form.
Anyway, thanks to Rob Harle for this positive evaluation. Hope we'll meet some day in person.

Literary Gaming is out!

My new book, Literary Gaming, is now out with MIT Press! So pleased to see it in print, and the endorsements (thanks to Stuart, Sandy and Noah) are really great too:

Overview

In this book, Astrid Ensslin examines literary videogames—hybrid digital artifacts that have elements of both games and literature, combining the ludic and the literary. These works can be considered verbal art in the broadest sense (in that language plays a significant part in their aesthetic appeal); they draw on game mechanics; and they are digital-born, dependent on a digital medium (unlike, for example, conventional books read on e-readers). They employ narrative, dramatic, and poetic techniques in order to explore the affordances and limitations of ludic structures and processes, and they are designed to make players reflect on conventional game characteristics. Ensslin approaches these hybrid works as a new form of experimental literary art that requires novel ways of playing and reading. She proposes a systematic method for analyzing literary-ludic (L-L) texts that takes into account the analytic concerns of both literary stylistics and ludology.

After establishing the theoretical underpinnings of her proposal, Ensslin introduces the L-L spectrum as an analytical framework for literary games. Based on the phenomenological distinction between deep and hyper attention, the L-L spectrum charts a work’s relative emphases on reading and gameplay. Ensslin applies this analytical toolkit to close readings of selected works, moving from the predominantly literary to the primarily ludic, from online hypermedia fiction to Flash fiction to interactive fiction to poetry games to a highly designed literary “auteur" game. Finally, she considers her innovative analytical methodology in the context of contemporary ludology, media studies, and literary discourse analysis.

Endorsements

“In this wise and insightful book, Astrid Ensslin makes a good start on a new literary criticism, one that sees beyond the mere facticity of digital mediation, deep into the substance and operations of important works. The book is exemplary, both in its keen grasp of textual theory and, perhaps more crucially, its smart and sensitive engagement with demanding, often baffling texts. Perhaps close reading is no longer possible for works so nontrivial in their configurative requirements. Ensslin offers an intriguing substitute, call it deft reading, a criticism answerable to the great, protean demands of texts relentlessly in play.”
—Stuart Moulthrop, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

“It is easy to say games contain narratives and easy to say that narratives are playful. Saying so does little other than repeat existing rather poor metaphors for games and narratives. Astrid Ensslin does something much harder and more rewarding: she takes on all the works occurring on the spectrum from games to literature (what she calls the L-L spectrum) and provides the first rigorous descriptive vocabulary for reading these works. I was surprised and informed by the diversity and invention found in the works examined. More than this: I was persuaded and even amazed by the rich and fine-tuned readings Ensslin offers. Literary Gaming sets the standard for understanding literary ludicity.”
—Sandy Baldwin, The Center for Literary Computing, West Virginia University 

“Literary Gaming moves beyond tired debates as to whether the playful and poetic are compatible, and instead offers detailed readings of specific projects, illustrating a range of ways that compelling artistic experiences combine the ludic and literary.”
—Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Expressive Processing

AHRC Reading Digital Fiction project up and running

Alice Bell and I have been awarded about £243k by the AHRC for a 29-month empirical project looking at Reading Digital Fiction. The project has two core aims. Primarily, as keen readers of digital fiction, we want to introduce more readers to digital fiction. To achieve that aim, we are organising various public events including workshops, exhibitions, and writing competitions to introduce people to this exciting new form of literature. Secondly, as cognitive stylisticians, we are interested in how readers process particular linguistic and multimodal features within digital fiction. We are therefore running several reader-response studies, collecting data from readers in order to understand how digital literary reading works cognitively.

We've now got a website and regularly tweet @ReadDigFic, @AstridEnsslin and @AliceBellTweets #elit. I presented our first poster, on how to test our theories on textual 'you' in digital fiction with actual readers, at Bangor University yesterday. Here it is:

Jen and I will give this poster as a full 20-min presentation at Nottingham University's forthcoming 'The Reader in Stylistics' conference on 24th June.

Analyzing Digital Fiction out

Another piece of good news: Analyzing Digital Fiction is now out with Routledge. It contains a chapter on functional ludonarrativism in The Path, and I've co-authored the Introduction, which discusses the types of games and gaming we consider to come under the remit of digital fiction. Here's the website.

News from MIT Press

The index for Literary Gaming is now done, the proofs have been submitted, and the cover image finalised. Here it is:

I'm really pleased with the way the screenshots from The Path and Loss of Grasp show the breadth and diversity of literary gaming.
The book is scheduled for release in April 2014 - very exciting. I've also just received the first endorsement, from Prof Sandy Baldwin, which I'm very flattered by:

It is easy to say games contain narratives and easy to say that narratives are playful. Saying so does little other than repeat existing rather poor metaphors for games and narratives. Astrid Ensslin does something much harder and more rewarding: she takes on all the works occurring on the spectrum from games to literature (what she calls the L-L spectrum) and provides the first rigorous descriptive vocabulary for reading these works. I was surprised and informed by the diversity and invention found in the works examined. More than this: I was persuaded and even amazed by the rich and fine-tuned readings Ensslin offers. Literary Gaming sets the standard for understanding literary lucidity. 

Book manuscript submitted

After a four-month extension from MIT Press I've now submitted the full manuscript of Literary Gaming to the publishers. The contents are as follows (although they're likely to change following the reader comments):

Chapter 1       Introduction

1.1                   Ludicity and literariness in the digital age
1.2                   Ludic books and literary "games"
1.3                   Methodology and structure

Chapter 2       Playing with rather than by rules

2.1                   Introduction
2.2                   Ludology and its philosophical foundations 
2.3                   Playfulness as aesthetic tool and weapon
2.4                   Games, play and literature
2.5                   Literature born digital
2.6                   Art games versus Game Art

Chapter 3       Between ludicity and literariness

3.1                   Introduction
3.2                   Cognitive frameworks for reading and gameplay
3.3                   Viewing Axolotls - approaching the ludic in digital literature
3.4                   The literary-ludic spectrum
3.5                   Approaching functional ludo-stylistics

Chapter 4       "The pen is your weapon of choice": ludic hypertext literature and the play with the reader

4.1                   Introduction
4.2                   Alea: Deena Larsen's Firefly
4.3                   Ilinx: Richard Holeton's Figurski at Findhorn on Acid
4.4                   Mimicry: Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl
4.5                   Agon: Robert Kendall's Clues
4.6                   Discussion

Chapter 5       "Love poem or break up note?" Ludic hypermedia fiction and Loss of Grasp

5.1                   Introduction
5.2                   Heuristic ergodicity in games and digital interactive art
5.3                   Analyzing Loss of Grasp: fallaciousness, heuristic ergodicity and cybertextuality
5.4                   Discussion
                   

Chapter 6       "Your innocence drifts away": anti-ludicity and ludic mechanics in The Princess Murderer

6.1                   Introduction
6.2                   Antiludicity as subversive design practice
6.3                   "Clicking" damsels in distress: The Princess Murderer and its antiludic agenda
6.4                   Discussion

Chapter 7       Of windsighs and wayfaring: Blue Lacuna, an epic interactive fiction

7.1                   Introduction
7.2                   IF as the classic hybrid between adventure game and literary narrative
7.3                   Blue Lacuna - epic, novel and game
7.4                   A ludostylistic approach to analyzing Blue Lacuna
7.5                   Discussion

Chapter 8       The paradox of poetic gaming: evidence of everything exploding

8.1                   Introduction
8.2                   Digital détournement in Game Art and art games
8.3                   Pop-surrealism and poetry gaming: Jason Nelson's evidence of everything exploding
8.4                   Discussion

Chapter 9       From paidia to ludus: The Path, a literary auteur game

9.1                   Introduction
9.2                   To game or not to game: slowness, dérive and allusive fallacy
9.3                   The Path - transmediation, tragedy, trauma
9.4                   A ludostylistic analysis of The Path
9.5                   Discussion

Chapter 10     Conclusion

 References

Glossary

Literary gaming - first stage published!

The first stage of my research into literary gaming is now out in print: check out the "Computer Gaming" chapter in the new Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. Thanks very much again to Joe, Alison and Brian for all their hard work on this wonderful volume.

 

'Click = kill' article in Storyworlds is out!

The University of Nebraska Press has just published Alice's and my article, '"Click = Kill": Textual You in Ludic Digital Fiction' in its 4th volume of Storyworlds. Here's a brief excerpt from the Intro:

"Since the early days of hypertext criticism, the study of digital fiction has undergone a significant paradigm shift. Recent research has moved from a first wave of mostly theoretical and philosophical debate to a second wave of close stylistic and semiotic analysis. While the theoretical intricacies of second-wave digital fiction theory have been much discussed (e.g. Ciccoricco 2007; Ensslin 2007; Ensslin and Bell 2007; Bell 2010), the discipline and practice of close reading digital fiction require a more systematic engagement with the possibilities and limitations of the form. Similarly, the narratological tools and terminologies inherited from print scholarship need to be adapted to the medial, material, and discursive qualities of digital fiction.
In seeking to exemplify this research agenda, this article offers a close-reading of geniwate and Deena Larsen's satirical, ludic Flash fiction The Princess Murderer (2003), with a specific focus on how the text implements second-person narration and other forms of the textual you (Herman 1994, 2002) in juxtaposition with other narrational stances."

Unfortunately I couldn't attend this year's ELO Conference in person, but Sandy Baldwin and team allowed me to send a video of my presentation (thanks to Lyle Skains for running it on my behalf!). The title is 'Locating the Literary in Electronic Ludicity: Jason Nelson's Evidence of Everything Exploding'. See below. I know, the sound isn't great - apologies for that. Any questions and comments are more than welcome.

Unintentional unreliability in digital fiction - just published

I've just learnt that my article, "‘I want to say I may have seen my son die this morning’: Unintentional unreliable narration in digital fiction" has just appeared in Language and Literature. Good news.

Evidence of Everything Exploding

Today I'm looking at Jason Nelson's literary art game, Evidence of Everything Exploding. It's the sort of game you can't just play through quickly (although it's only got 10 levels). To begin to grasp what it's trying to communicate and how to navigate it efficiently you need to look at each element of its complex interface closely.

I'm working on a ludo-narrative close-reading for the ELO conference in Morgantown, WV, so watch this space. I'm hoping to put a video of my presentation online when it's done.

Welcome!

Welcome to Literary Gaming, my research blog. It'll accompany the journey of my research into games we can read and literature (novels, poems etc.) we can play. I'm currently working on a book for MIT Press called Literary Gaming, which connects the burgeoning fields of digital-born literature and indie/art game research. It explores a body of digital artefacts situated on a spectrum between ludic e-literature and literary art games and engages with hybrid receptive and interactive processes that combine reading and gaming. The analyses are informed by avant-garde modernist and postmodernist theories, such as Situationist détournement and deconstruction, and ludological concepts of chance, choice, rules, fun, forms of play, (illusory) agency and procedural rhetoric. I offer close readings and "playings" of texts that inhabit different places on the literary-ludic spectrum. The analyses follow the broad trajectory of functional ludo-narrativism (Ryan 2006), which aims to examine how elements of game design, gameplay, narrative and (poetic) textuality concur to evoke distinctive receptive and interactive experiences.

In a next step, I'm interested in how these literary games and ludic novels/poems are consumed by reader-players - especially from younger (< 25 years) age groups. Can the clash between hyperattention (typically observed in game players) and deep attention (typical of close reading) be reconciled? Can we do both gaming and close reading effectively at the same time? How can this research inform notions of digital/media literacy and methods of learning and teaching? Might it even help especially young players form a more self-critical attitude towards their gaming habits and help them (and their parents) tackle the addictive effects of commercial videogames?

If you'd like to get in touch, visit my homepage at Bangor University.