Twine and the Challenge to Reading

The article considers the Twine story-game platform in relation to important critiques of earlier forms of electronic literature (specifically hypertext) from which it descends. Arguments for the significance of Twine are made based on aesthetic approaches (the fusion of literature and game culture) and the refinement of writing itself. Play this paper in Twin

Pathfinders: Documenting the Experience of Early Digital Literature

The Pathfinders project records performances by authors and ordinary readers of key early works of electronic literature, and develops presentation strategies to make these recordings accessible and useful to scholars and teachers. In the process we 1) preserve vanishing cultural material; 2) develop new strategies for recording and disseminating that material; and 3) provide prototypes for similar work on other digital texts

Twining

Hypertext is now commonplace: links and linking structure nearly all of our experiences online. Yet the literary, as opposed to commercial, potential of hypertext has receded. One of the few tools still focused on hypertext as a means for digital storytelling is Twine, a platform for building choice-driven stories without relying heavily on code. In Twining, Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop lead readers on a journey at once technical, critical, contextual, and personal. The book’s chapters alternate careful, stepwise discussion of adaptable Twine projects, offer commentary on exemplary Twine works, and discuss Twine’s technological and cultural background. Beyond telling the story of Twine and how to make Twine stories, Twining reflects on the ongoing process of making

Twining : Critical and Creative Approaches to Hypertext Narratives

Twining is both a critical consideration of Twine and works made with it during the first decade of the software; and an exploration of concepts and techniques for making things with Twine.https://dc.uwm.edu/english_facbooks/1000/thumbnail.jp

Reading: Stuart Moulthrop

Audio/Visual recording of Stuart Moulthrop reading at the 41st Annual UND Writers Conference on Friday, March 26, 2010. In this recording, Moulthrop plays the video “Shorewood Lip Dub” posted on Youtube on December 17, 2009, Radio Salience (2007), Under Language (2008), and a series of recently created hypertext fiction works including Slow Food. Introduction by Tyler Stolt. A transcription of this recording is available here

The Hypertext Years?

Play the talk at: http://smoulthrop.com/talks/HT2020/ This talk begins with the crazy notion that we might think of hypertext as a signature for the period 1985-2020. The claim is more plausible technically than culturally, but the talk is perversely addressed to culture. Among other things, the discussion revisits Moulthrop\u27s previous ACM Hypertext keynote in 1998, in which he distinguished between exoteric hypertext – the then-novel adaptation of the World Wide Web by Amazon and other online retailers – and esoteric applications in things like hypertext fiction and digital art. The talk updates this insight with reference to later developments such as Jill Walker\u27s feral hypertext thesis, the rise of social media, and the recognition of computer games as legitimate channels of ideas. While these phenomena have arguably displaced hypertextuality in the popular imagination, Moulthrop points to the major interest in complex narratives, counterfactuals, and multiverses as places where the hypertext aesthetic survives. Turning from aesthetics back to the technical, the talk focuses on Twine, the popular text-gaming application that marries what Alexander Galloway would call the proctological openness of web technologies with the structure-mapping affordances of graphical hypertext systems. In some ways portraying Twine as a second coming of hypertext is a clear and perhaps intentional misreading. The talk ends by wondering what this misreading might reveal

Twining

Hypertext is now commonplace: links and linking structure nearly all of our experiences online. Yet the literary, as opposed to commercial, potential of hypertext has receded. One of the few tools still focused on hypertext as a means for digital storytelling is Twine, a platform for building choice-driven stories without relying heavily on code. In Twining, Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop lead readers on a journey at once technical, critical, contextual, and personal. The book’s chapters alternate careful, stepwise discussion of adaptable Twine projects, offer commentary on exemplary Twine works, and discuss Twine’s technological and cultural background. Beyond telling the story of Twine and how to make Twine stories, Twining reflects on the ongoing process of making

Twitchy Twine Tales: Building a Text Game Live in Online Teaching

This session showcases Dr. Malone\u27s use of Twine on the Twitch live-streaming platform in one of her game-design classes at University of Wisconsin. It offers an occasion to consider Twine as a teaching tool, a demonstration of live design as a teaching method, and a view of Twitch as an academic platform. Malone and Moulthrop will each speak for about 5 minutes at the beginning of the session to set context for the video, which will run about 30 minutes. The presenters will take questions for 15-20 minutes after the video. No special technology will need to be downloaded or used by participants for the presentation, however if anyone is interested in knowing more here are links to various relevant sites: The home and download site for Twine: http://twinery.org/ K.L. Malone\u27s streaming channels on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/profgameranthro https://www.twitch.tv/gameranthro The Twitch channel of Serious Play, which includes both presenters: https://www.twitch.tv/serious_play Site for the Digital Cultures Collaboratory at UWM: https://sites.uwm.edu/digital-cultures-collaboratory/sample-page/ Malone\u27s blog: http://kristaleemalone.blogspot.com