VANCOUVER, Wash. – “Pathfinders: Documenting the Experience of Early Digital Literature” by Dene Grigar and Stuart Moulthrop releases today. The multimedia, open-source web-book shows the history of electronic literature. A live, online launch will take place from noon to 2 p.m. PDT and includes live tweeting and blogging.
“Pathfinders” features 173 screens of content, 53,857 words of text, 104 videos, 203 color photos and various audio files, providing readers with access to four important computer-based works of literature that were among the first to be sold commercially in the U.S.—but are now threatened by obsolescence. The web-book, created for a wide array of digital devices, is available free of charge through the open-source platform Scalar at .
“Pathfinders” captures demonstrations of four groundbreaking works, performed by their authors on vintage computer systems. All four are acclaimed works of fiction representing the cultural impact of digital technologies that resonate today in experimental writing, video games, cinema and virtual reality experiences.
Readers will watch Judy Malloy walk through her database novel “Uncle Roger,” originally published on the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link and considered by some the first example of social-media literature. They will also see a tour of “Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse,” a revolutionary hypermedia novel-in-a-box by John McDaid, and a demonstration of two classics in the early hypertext system Storyspace, Shelley Jackson’s “Patchwork Girl” and William Bly’s “We Descend.” Extensive interviews with all four authors add an important dimension of oral history to the project.
“Pathfinders” was co-created by Grigar, associate professor and director of the Creative Media and Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver, and Moulthrop, professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Its production was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The public is invited to a book launch party at 6:30 p.m. June 5 at Nouspace-Angst Gallery at 1015 Main Street, Vancouver, Wash. Copies of the book will be on view.
# # #
MEDIA CONTACT(S)
Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@vancouver.wsu.edu