The Generative Literature Project Mia Zamora Ph D

The Generative Literature Project Mia Zamora, Ph. D @miazamoraphd Presented at the University of Bergen, Norway Electronic Literature Organization Conference August 6, 2015

Writing Electronic Literature

What role might Electronic Literature play in transforming pedagogic practices for both reading and writing?

In what ways does a networked learning context transform reading and writing methodology?

Answering a CFP from Hybrid Pedagogy

The Generative Literature Project ● Crowdsourced Gamified Digital Story about a murder. ● A cyber “who dunnit” - a networked Agatha Christiestyle mystery puzzle.

ge d lle ge Co an lis Ch ! po at rld eo Th Wo Th ms he t u Al Amazing Alumni Theopolis College is an exclusive private liberal arts institution located in a leafy suburb 25 minutes outside Washington D. C. This year, as part of their centennial celebration, The alumni magazine featured their nine most distinguished alumni. A day later. . .

The President of Theopolis College is found dead

The only clue? Am Al azing um ni e Colleg polis Theo That Will ! s Alum e the World g Chan A copy of the alumni magazine placed deliberately at the murder scene.

Each writing class is assigned of one of the distinguished alumni of Theopolis College. Each student creates character who knew that distinguished alumnus. Photo by cdorobek on Flickr CC Share Alike

Students were charged with making “clues” or digital artifacts. They were asked to leave traces of alibis and red herrings through these artifacts for readers on the internet. Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr CC Share Alike

Writing-As-Making: digital artifacts #Netprov: Breathing life into fictional characters in social worlds

Writing-as-Making finding the right tools peer learning & co-learning taking time-to-tinker the value of flexibility & recursive adjustment

#Net. Prov a new aesthetics of the unexpected a narrative theory of emergence participatory-playful culture for writing anarchic/democratic

But what do these pedagogical methods have to to do with Generative Literature?

Generative Fiction The generative writer is “un rat qui construit lui-même le labyrinthe dont il se propose de sortir. ” (Trans: “A rat who builds the maze he wishes to escape. ”)

In this understanding of art and literature, the idea of creation, especially literary creation, is one of wordplay and gameplay. And it is inherently open.

Generativity ?

GENERATIVE: The word carried the meaning of a guiding spirit, present with every individual from birth: literally, a spark of the divine. The word engine derives from Old French engin, from the Latin ingenium, which is also the root of the word ingenious.

Genius/Engine -A changing notion of authorship and writing -From the genius to the generating system that yields unanticipated and unforseen text

Generativity = Combinatorial Creativity -we riff, we remix, we take a hunch and play off (and with) each other - Creativity as the original open source code.

The Generative Literature Project : -privileging the emergent and unforeseen -embracing practices of openness -placing a premium on interconnectedness -practicing unsystematic networked storytelling

For further reading on the #Gen. Lit project: HYBRID PEDAGOGY: A digital journal of Learning, Teaching, and Technology