Dear
Readers
Dichtung-Digital has taken a
break much longer than expected… However, now it is
back with a collection of very interesting articles - and
the next issue, a guest-edition by Astrid Ensslin
(University of Manchester) and Alice Bell (University of
Sheffield), is already scheduled for Fall 2007.
A main focus of this issue
is interactive installation as Scott Snibbe and Camille
Utterback create it. Scott Snibbe tells in an
interview how he came to create interactive art, how he
collaborates with his art production company and what he
expects his audience to get out of his pieces. Roberto
Simanowski shows in a close reading of Scott's pieces
"Deep Walls" what deeper meaning one can find in such an
installation. Lisa Dorin, who curated Camille
Utterback's installations Animated Gestures, discusses the
relation she sees between Utterback's work and art history,
Roberto Simanowski ventured a further interpretation
of Utterback's work. Richard Rinehart finally talks
about interactive art from the perspective of a curator and
discusses the aspect of documenting and preserving it.
Another major subject of
this issue is computer games. Marie-Laure Ryan
investigates the relationship between games and narratives
and assembles some strong argument against the perspective
of the ludologists. Fotis Jannidis supports Ryan's
position arguing that there is a narrative aspect in
computer games by undertaking a closer analysis of two
sequences, taken from the MMORPG Everquest II and the
adventure game Black Mirror.
Rita Raley does not
search for narratives in games but for the role of code in
digital literature. Her interest lies in the use of
metaphors of software engineering in art and in the
manifestation of underlying systematics by code. Astrid
Ensslin goes back to hypertext and wonders what role it
can play in the class room and what chances such alternative
form of literature has to become part of the canon and
subsequently of the curriculum.
As always, we hope you enjoy
the collection and find interesting ideas worth further
consideration.
Roberto Simanowski,
Providence, May 2007
dichtung-digital