Life poetry
told by
sensors
Opening keynote // ELO2014: Hold the light // Milwaukee, June 18, 2014
Jill Walker Rettberg!
Professor of Digital Culture, University of Bergen
Image by stAllio! (http://stallio.tumblr.com/image/87127357349)
Life poetry
told by
sensors
Opening keynote // ELO2014: Hold the light // Milwaukee, June 18, 2014
Jill Walker Rettberg!
Professor of Digital Culture, University of Bergen
Image by stAllio! (http://stallio.tumblr.com/image/87127357349)
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trixietracker.com
Sunday at home with the kids.
Monday at work.
Tuesday - walked to work, used
standing desk, more aware of not
just sitting still.
Fitbit
as
diary
The Shine Misfit
uses badges to
represent your
activity through the
day.
(the moment the
Shine first
detected
movement - i.e.
was picked up -
becomes read as
my wakeup time)
Chronos: Find your
time. See how you are
spending your time
without lifting a
finger. chronos runs in
the background on
your phone and
automatically captures
every moment.
The more
automated
the better.
Our technologies track us in many ways we don’t even
consider.
There are no digital natives but the
devices themselves; no digital
immigrants but the devices too. They
are a diaspora, tentatively reaching out
into the world to understand it and
themselves, and across the network to
find and touch one another. This
mapping is a byproduct, part of the
process by which any of us, separate
and indistinct so long, find a place in
the world.
http://booktwo.org/notebook/where-the-f-k-was-i/
James Bridle
Machine vision - new aesthetics
And of course, often we can’t see the data
about us. But others can.
Action Figures
Animated Films
Arts & Entertainment
Autos & Vehicles
Babies & Toddlers
Banking
Bicycles & Accessories
Billiards
Building Toys
Business & Industrial
Cats
Celebrities & Entertainment News
Computer & Video Games
Computers & Electronics
Consumer Electronics
Consumer Resources
Custom & Performance Vehicles
Die-cast & Toy Vehicles
Dodge
Interest
Apartments & Residential Rentals
Baby Care & Hygiene
Baby Food & Formula
Chicago
Clip Art & Animated GIFs
Computers & Electronics
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
Education
Fitness
Games
Mobile Phones
Movies
Music & Audio
News
Office Supplies
Online Video
Parenting
Photo & Image Sharing
based on my searches
My interests according to Google,
based on websites I visit
“Numerical narratives”
— Roberto Simanowski in his
keynote to Remediating the
Social, Edinburgh 2012.
709. Hard winter. Duke Gottfried died.
710. Hard winter and deficient in crops.
711.
712. Flood everywhere.
713.
714. Pippin, mayor of the palace, died.
715.
716.
717.
718. Charles devestated the Saxons with great destruction.
719.
720. Charles fought against the Saxons.
721. Theudo drove the Saracens out of Aquitaine.
722. Great crops.
723.
724.
The Annals of St Gall
1976-2001 2003-2007 2008-2013
Our ideas of electronic literature
change
Feral Hypertext Hypertext
Jill Walker, Dept of Humanistic Informatics, University of Bergen
ACM Hypertext 2005

Salzburg, 6-9 September
escapes
When
Literature
Control
Feral (a): Of an animal: Wild,
untamed. Of a plant, also (rarely),
of ground: Uncultivated. Now
often applied to animals or plants
that have lapsed into a wild from
a domesticated condition.
(Oxford English Dictionary)
“Author announces mortal work of art.”
Shelley Jackson: Skin
Flickr
The Impermanence Agent
Michel Foucault, 1969
“How can one reduce
the great peril, the
great danger with
which fiction threatens
our world?”
Michel Foucault, 1969
“The author allows a
limitation of the cancerous
and dangerous
proliferation of
significations within a world
where one is thrifty not only
with one’s resources and
riches, but also with one’s
discourses and their
significations. The author is
the principle of thrift in the
proliferation of meaning.”
it seems evident that various web/net/code
artists are more likely to be accepted into an
academic reification circuit/traditional art
market if they produce works that reflect a
traditional craft-worker positioning.This
"craft" orientation [producing skilled/
practically inclined output, rather than
placing adequate emphasis on the conceptual
or ephemeral aspects of a networked, or
code/software-based, medium] is embraced
and replicated by artists who create finished,
marketable, tangible objects; read: work that
slots nicely into a capitalistic framework
where products/objects are commodified
and hence equated with substantiated worth.
(Breeze 2003)
http://
www.thatssotrue.com
http://
www.thatssotrue.com
Disciplined.
Scumbag Steve
Grumpy Cat
Seeing Ourselves
Through
Technology
How We Use
Selfies, Blogs
and Wearable
Devices to See
and Shape
Ourselves
Parmigianino: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524)
Three modes of self-representation:
Written	

Diary: (CC) Ellen Thompson http://www.flickr.com/photos/eethompson/2142754337	

Selfie: (CC) TempusVolut http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmorodo/11230014075	

Nicholas Fultron:The Fultron Annual Report, 2007. http://feltron.com/ar07_01.html
Visual	

 Quantitative
To photograph is to appropriate
the thing photographed. It means
putting oneself into a certain
relation to the world that feels like
knowledge—and, therefore, like
power.
Susan Sontag: On Photography (1977)
Image (c) Chris Felver http://www.chrisfelver.com/portraits/writers2.html
Germaine
Krull: 

Self-Portrait
with Cigarette
and Camera
(1925)
Look at the
intimacy of the
selfie; the
outstretched
arm embracing
the viewer.
(http://www.makingselfiesmakingself.com)
Katie Warfield
What is a work of art if not
the gaze of another person?
Not directed above us, nor
beneath us, but at the same
height as our gaze.
Karl Ove Knausgård, My Struggle
Text
jilltxt

on Twitter
jilltxt.net Blogging 

(Polity Press, 2013)
Read more:
Rettberg, Jill Walker. Seeing Ourselves Through
Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable
Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. Forthcoming,
Palgrave, October 2014.
AND CHECK OUT MY BOOK! (IT’S OPEN ACCESS)

ELO 2014 Keynote: Life Poetry Told by Sensors

  • 1.
    Life poetry told by sensors Openingkeynote // ELO2014: Hold the light // Milwaukee, June 18, 2014 Jill Walker Rettberg! Professor of Digital Culture, University of Bergen Image by stAllio! (http://stallio.tumblr.com/image/87127357349)
  • 2.
    Life poetry told by sensors Openingkeynote // ELO2014: Hold the light // Milwaukee, June 18, 2014 Jill Walker Rettberg! Professor of Digital Culture, University of Bergen Image by stAllio! (http://stallio.tumblr.com/image/87127357349)
  • 3.
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  • 5.
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  • 7.
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  • 9.
  • 10.
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  • 12.
  • 13.
  • 14.
  • 15.
  • 16.
  • 17.
  • 18.
  • 19.
  • 20.
  • 21.
  • 22.
  • 23.
  • 24.
  • 25.
    Sunday at homewith the kids. Monday at work. Tuesday - walked to work, used standing desk, more aware of not just sitting still. Fitbit as diary
  • 26.
    The Shine Misfit usesbadges to represent your activity through the day. (the moment the Shine first detected movement - i.e. was picked up - becomes read as my wakeup time)
  • 27.
    Chronos: Find your time.See how you are spending your time without lifting a finger. chronos runs in the background on your phone and automatically captures every moment.
  • 32.
  • 33.
    Our technologies trackus in many ways we don’t even consider.
  • 34.
    There are nodigital natives but the devices themselves; no digital immigrants but the devices too. They are a diaspora, tentatively reaching out into the world to understand it and themselves, and across the network to find and touch one another. This mapping is a byproduct, part of the process by which any of us, separate and indistinct so long, find a place in the world. http://booktwo.org/notebook/where-the-f-k-was-i/ James Bridle Machine vision - new aesthetics
  • 35.
    And of course,often we can’t see the data about us. But others can.
  • 36.
    Action Figures Animated Films Arts& Entertainment Autos & Vehicles Babies & Toddlers Banking Bicycles & Accessories Billiards Building Toys Business & Industrial Cats Celebrities & Entertainment News Computer & Video Games Computers & Electronics Consumer Electronics Consumer Resources Custom & Performance Vehicles Die-cast & Toy Vehicles Dodge Interest Apartments & Residential Rentals Baby Care & Hygiene Baby Food & Formula Chicago Clip Art & Animated GIFs Computers & Electronics Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Education Fitness Games Mobile Phones Movies Music & Audio News Office Supplies Online Video Parenting Photo & Image Sharing based on my searches My interests according to Google, based on websites I visit
  • 37.
    “Numerical narratives” — RobertoSimanowski in his keynote to Remediating the Social, Edinburgh 2012.
  • 40.
    709. Hard winter.Duke Gottfried died. 710. Hard winter and deficient in crops. 711. 712. Flood everywhere. 713. 714. Pippin, mayor of the palace, died. 715. 716. 717. 718. Charles devestated the Saxons with great destruction. 719. 720. Charles fought against the Saxons. 721. Theudo drove the Saracens out of Aquitaine. 722. Great crops. 723. 724. The Annals of St Gall
  • 41.
    1976-2001 2003-2007 2008-2013 Ourideas of electronic literature change
  • 44.
    Feral Hypertext Hypertext JillWalker, Dept of Humanistic Informatics, University of Bergen ACM Hypertext 2005
 Salzburg, 6-9 September escapes When Literature Control
  • 45.
    Feral (a): Ofan animal: Wild, untamed. Of a plant, also (rarely), of ground: Uncultivated. Now often applied to animals or plants that have lapsed into a wild from a domesticated condition. (Oxford English Dictionary)
  • 46.
    “Author announces mortalwork of art.” Shelley Jackson: Skin
  • 47.
  • 48.
  • 52.
    Michel Foucault, 1969 “Howcan one reduce the great peril, the great danger with which fiction threatens our world?”
  • 53.
    Michel Foucault, 1969 “Theauthor allows a limitation of the cancerous and dangerous proliferation of significations within a world where one is thrifty not only with one’s resources and riches, but also with one’s discourses and their significations. The author is the principle of thrift in the proliferation of meaning.”
  • 55.
    it seems evidentthat various web/net/code artists are more likely to be accepted into an academic reification circuit/traditional art market if they produce works that reflect a traditional craft-worker positioning.This "craft" orientation [producing skilled/ practically inclined output, rather than placing adequate emphasis on the conceptual or ephemeral aspects of a networked, or code/software-based, medium] is embraced and replicated by artists who create finished, marketable, tangible objects; read: work that slots nicely into a capitalistic framework where products/objects are commodified and hence equated with substantiated worth. (Breeze 2003)
  • 56.
  • 57.
  • 59.
  • 64.
  • 65.
  • 67.
    Seeing Ourselves Through Technology How WeUse Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves Parmigianino: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524)
  • 68.
    Three modes ofself-representation: Written Diary: (CC) Ellen Thompson http://www.flickr.com/photos/eethompson/2142754337 Selfie: (CC) TempusVolut http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrmorodo/11230014075 Nicholas Fultron:The Fultron Annual Report, 2007. http://feltron.com/ar07_01.html Visual Quantitative
  • 69.
    To photograph isto appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power. Susan Sontag: On Photography (1977) Image (c) Chris Felver http://www.chrisfelver.com/portraits/writers2.html
  • 70.
  • 71.
    Look at the intimacyof the selfie; the outstretched arm embracing the viewer. (http://www.makingselfiesmakingself.com) Katie Warfield
  • 72.
    What is awork of art if not the gaze of another person? Not directed above us, nor beneath us, but at the same height as our gaze. Karl Ove Knausgård, My Struggle
  • 73.
    Text jilltxt
 on Twitter jilltxt.net Blogging
 (Polity Press, 2013) Read more: Rettberg, Jill Walker. Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. Forthcoming, Palgrave, October 2014. AND CHECK OUT MY BOOK! (IT’S OPEN ACCESS)