Links  
 


This issue of ://english matters, TEXT | IMAGE | SOUND, is devoted to mixed genre writing, hypermedia, and other cross genre work and an exploration of how new media changes or contributes to developments in mixed genres. The following links highlight cross genre and new media work on the web.

  
 

Booga Holler: Alternative Art & Entertainment
http://www.boogaholler.com/

This site lacks an intro so it is hard to identify its exact purpose. It offers multimedia experiments and projects on the web such as Flash movies and animations. It also has freebies such as animations and backgrounds. Though it has the sense of an amateur site, extensive navigation revealed that the authors also sell web services. Despite the drawbacks, the projects are fun and stimulating and make the site worth a visit if you are into Flash, Shockwave, or 3D animation.

BeeHive: Hypertext/Hypermedia Literary Journal
http://beehive.temporalimage.com/

BeeHive is a hypertext/hypermedia literary journal established in 1998 and published only on the web with "content that explores the potential of network-based creativity." The journal has featured the works of over one hundred authors--publishing poetry, fiction, visual poetry, and hyptertext and hypermedia works.

Edgewise Electrolit Centre
http://www.edgewisecafe.org/

A site devoted to sharing "poetry across borders and oceans," it offers flash treatments of poems, video conferencing hosting poetry events and RealAudio presentations of live performances. Offered in conjunction with Telepoetics, Electrolit Centre offers videophone conferencing to create interactive, Internet, open mike sessions. The group meets annually at the Vancouver Videopoem Festival. The videopeom sounds like a fascinating form but sadly, as of this review, the site did not have any videopeoms on line.

The Electronic Literature Organization
http://www.eliterature.org/ 

The Electronic Literature Organization is a Chicago-based group committed to developing the potential of hypertext by offering support to electronic writers, similar to the support given to traditional writers by groups such as PEN and the National Book Foundation. In addition to scheduling hypertext readings, ELO supports electronic writers via chat rooms, writing symposiums, fund raising for electronic writing prizes, and e-publishing news.

Jessambola
http://www.jessambola.com/intro.html

Memory heavy at 865K this site reminds us of the downloading drawbacks of alternative art and media projects on the web—but—it offers a great looking, interactive exploration of the web and media. Visitors are encouraged to explore and enter various hot spots, answer questions, and read responses from previous guests.


Media / Metaphor
http://www.corcoran.org/biennial/HOME/index.asp  

The Corcoran Gallery of Art recently hosted a show entitled "Media / Metaphor." The show highligthed the ways new media is changing art. The exhibit's site is still up and contains an overview explaining how the artists both conceptualize the change and make use of the changes to their art wrought by new media. It also features photographs of the installations.

A Polyphonic Chronicle and Other Art Adventures: Michael Kaven’s @(rt)ventures 
http://www.michaelmedia.org/

Net art projects making use of Shockwave, sound--everything. Check them out.


Poems that Go
http://www.poemsthatgo.com/

A visually stimulating site "created to unite words, design, music and motion and to celebrate poetry through technology and the Internet." Features animated, illustrated poems and links to additional illustrated poems on the Internet. As someone who knows the limitations of the technology and how time intensive these projects are, I am impressed with what these visual poets have achieved. Note: Many of the poetry pieces and the short stories require Shockwave and Flash 4.

Storytelling
http://davinci.mica.edu/~story/

An exploration of the possibilities offered by the Internet as a new medium for narrative expression that challenges traditional printed methods of presentation and readerly engagement. Eschewing a table of contents, the site presents the viewer with a grid of black boxes. Each box represents a story, but there is no way of telling which story you are selecting when you click on a black box. Readers are also invited to add to the stories. The site is an intriguing twist on traditional relationships between the reader and form that comes up short. What is intended perhaps as brevity and punch translates into no directions on how to leave a story in the grid--thus raising expectations the site cannot fulfill.