tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140083312011-11-06T11:07:04.506-08:00I'm exploring media in transition. My research encompasses film, video, print, digital arts, and the Web. I'm interested in what artists and writers are doing and in what critics and scholars are saying.Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.comBlogger671100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-11388257846284388332011-04-23T14:59:00.000-07:002011-04-23T15:07:59.662-07:00

The updated version of of "Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming 'Dear Diary'" is now available on Amazon.com.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-11921687186495342642010-11-27T18:38:00.000-08:002010-11-27T18:41:41.257-08:00

Video-Graphic Alchemy represents my attempt to connect the dots: a retrospective metanarrative across platforms. I'd welcome your comments.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-990139426745280392010-10-30T17:53:00.000-07:002010-10-30T18:04:23.709-07:00

You can now preview Leah's Belated Hurrah online. This multi-volume text can be read in a variety of ways: as a linear narrative; as the early stages of a script for film, video, or interactive digital platforms; and as the basis of a choreographed dance performance. The entire piece contains separate chapters/performances for selected time periods in the main character’s life, from

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-40787893113485957762010-03-21T11:36:00.000-07:002010-03-21T13:52:02.996-07:00

I'm planning to revive this blog, VirtualDayz, and continue the explorations of personal and cultural memory that my earlier posts addressed. (Entries from June 2005 to July 2006 are documented in the book VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories and in a Kindle edition.)I'm looking for projects to critique, so please feel free to recommend innovative approaches to personal or cultural

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-25834479359808411052010-02-13T15:47:00.000-08:002010-02-13T16:48:46.356-08:00

My novel, Arella's Repertoire, is undergoing another transformation. A Time Traveler En Route: Leah’s Belated Hurrah, the latest incarnation of this hybrid text, can be read in a variety of ways: as a linear narrative; as the early stages of a script for film, video, or interactive digital platforms; and as the basis of a choreographed dance performance.The entire piece contains separate chapters

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-15620442310023918572009-09-04T11:24:00.000-07:002009-09-04T11:48:23.953-07:00

"Video-Graphic Alchemy," an illustrated retrospective of my multimedia and literary work, can now be viewed in the book mode on Scribd. Try the full-screen option, and then zoom in (+).While you're there, explore some of the other documents I've posted, including a work-in-progress that features scripted dance performances introduced in "Arella's Repertoire," my novel. "A Child's Space: Leah's

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-90875554828090372182009-07-22T00:53:00.000-07:002009-07-22T01:24:39.600-07:00

For an overview of my literary quartet, click here.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-62913627593288162492009-06-14T13:43:00.000-07:002009-06-14T15:17:12.036-07:00

I've been uploading selections of my writing to Scribd, a document-sharing site that resembles a YouTube for texts. Click on my Scribd badge to access my documents -- a mix of fiction, essays, and reviews.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-69443316852356046392009-06-07T13:32:00.000-07:002009-06-14T15:06:35.153-07:00

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-37950471670582319372009-05-25T12:35:00.000-07:002009-05-25T13:01:54.754-07:00

You're invited to read the prelude of my novel, Arella's Repertoire, online. Please contact me directly if you have any questions about the book.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-30522734870426891332009-05-17T13:21:00.000-07:002009-05-17T14:15:23.740-07:00

Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming "Dear Diary," my multimedia artist's book, can now be read online in its entirety on Scribd, a social publishing company that allows writers to share their work. Hard copies of the 52-page book are available on Amazon.com.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-49768354403299770852009-03-29T13:43:00.000-07:002009-05-25T12:32:07.449-07:00

See the public view of my Facebook photo album devoted to RECYCLED MEMORIES: A MULTIMEDIA QUARTET:Arella's Repertoire (novel)Vagabond Scribe (Leah's Backstory) (experimental fiction)Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming "Dear Diary" (multimedia essay)VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories ("blook" based on this blog)

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-19862307850335552172009-02-15T15:37:00.000-08:002009-05-25T12:34:39.896-07:00

Now that Amazon’s Kindle 2 will soon be released (on Feb. 24), I wonder whether demand for the Kindle version of my book VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories will increase. The paperback version of that book—which is based on entries I wrote in this blog from June 2005 to July 2006—is also available on Amazon.com. (In addition, the text can be downloaded from my storefront on

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-31542904763825791012008-08-17T14:49:00.000-07:002008-08-17T14:52:00.338-07:00

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-29102496027716322452008-06-16T01:16:00.000-07:002008-06-16T14:49:26.064-07:00

Recycled Memories: A Multimedia Quartet, a DVD now available on my storefront, includes digital copies of the four interrelated books I recently published: Arella’s Repertoire—a novel that reworks archival materials across various media while exploring personal and cultural memory during the second half of the twentieth century. The text is framed as a hyperlinked blog.Vagabond Scribe (Leah’s

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-87996609333556772332008-04-12T11:43:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:11.312-08:00

VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories, the “blook” based on my blog, is now available on Amazon.com. The “search inside” feature should be activated soon. I may format the text for the Kindle, Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Transformations of my work continue. Technorati tags: blook, blog, autobiography, cultural memory, personal memory, diary, digital art, new media,

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-45300342941381895782008-03-15T23:20:00.000-07:002008-03-30T13:07:10.285-07:00

On Thursday night I attended the opening of California Video at the Getty Center, a lavish refuge nestled in the mountains overlooking L.A. After a tram ride up to the museum, I passed through a festive courtyard where hundreds of guests sampled a variety of international cuisines and schmoozed on their ways to and from the exhibition upstairs. Ascending once more, I paused to take in the

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-72137657203089394342008-02-17T16:24:00.000-08:002008-12-09T05:56:12.153-08:00

The University of Southern California (USC) sponsored the 24/7 DIY Video Summit last weekend, February 8–10. On Saturday afternoon I was able to catch the plenary session, “Envisioning the Future of DIY [Do-It-Yourself],” moderated by Howard Rheingold. Other panelists included Henry Jenkins, Joi Ito, John Seely Brown, and Yochai Benkler. For a personal response, see my new blog, “Transforming

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-11964359734169356612008-01-15T20:03:00.000-08:002008-06-16T01:59:24.376-07:00

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-50577524614822677242007-10-14T01:39:00.000-07:002007-10-14T01:57:33.743-07:00

Click here to download synopses of the four books that I wrote and designed.

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-57082901614658080342007-09-29T18:48:00.001-07:002008-12-09T05:56:12.667-08:00

I’ve finished editing the second edition of VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories, the fourth book in the collection I’m calling Recycled Memories: A Multimedia Quartet. All four books are now showcased on the same site. Visit my storefront to preview the books and to buy copies. VirtualDayz (and the other nonfictional text, Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming “Dear Diary”) can also

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-58645651136810351652007-07-26T19:42:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:13.442-08:00

Arella’s Repertoire Vagabond Scribe (Leah’s Backstory) Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming “Dear Diary" VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-2820645808911821962007-07-08T20:13:00.000-07:002007-07-18T20:06:44.393-07:00

My Lulu storefront now includes a downloadable version of Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming “Dear Diary,” an illustrated reflection on my multimedia work. The book, which I have re-edited, includes more than twenty color and black-and-white images. In the future, I may also offer print versions of the book on this site. Until then, printed copies will be available at my other storefront, where

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-27529291578981118712007-07-01T15:09:00.000-07:002007-07-18T19:15:29.316-07:00

Arella’s Repertoire, my novel, and Vagabond Scribe (Leah’s Backstory), a literary experiment (which also serves as a prequel to the novel), are now available online at http://stores.lulu.com/ezalis. Read excerpts of the books, and see what you think. These texts represent the fictional half of a quartet.VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories, my “blook” (a blog—this blog—reformatted

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-13221963595506144832007-04-18T19:25:00.000-07:002007-07-18T19:31:44.464-07:00

Check out my new books: VirtualDayz Remediated Visions... By Elayne Zalis Book Preview Video-Graphic A... Transforming "Dear... By Elayne Zalis Book Preview VirtualDayz: Remediated Visions & Digital Memories presents in book form the entries I’ve posted to this blog, along with images selected for the “blook.” Video-Graphic Alchemy: Transforming “Dear Diary” also draws inspiration from this

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1152999414313647162006-07-15T13:41:00.000-07:002007-07-18T20:09:41.264-07:00

I’ve posted on my Web site, The Memory Channel, a sampling of my work across a range of disciplines, genres, and media. From both creative and scholarly perspectives, these projects address issues related to self-representation, autobiography, and memory. When considered in relation to one another, they introduce at least a few incipient theories, although I’m still trying to figure out what

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1151185836364801122006-06-24T14:49:00.000-07:002006-08-03T16:08:57.343-07:00

To supplement Vagabond Scribe (Leah’s Backstory), an experimental work of fiction that I just revised, I re-edited with Adobe Creative Suite 2 a few of my multimedia projects from the mid-to-late 1980s: “Give-A-Show Projector,” a black-and-white computer graphics series based on a childhood diary, and “Video-Graphic Alchemy,” image-text compositions featuring transformed versions of those

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1147144690016381252006-05-08T20:14:00.000-07:002006-05-08T20:32:20.783-07:00

The schedule for Radboud University’s international conference on “Technologies of Memory in the Arts” has been posted online. Devoted to “art as a cultural and technological practice to process and construct the past in the present,” the event will take place in Nijmegen (the Netherlands), May 19 – 20. Marita Sturken, Associate Professor in the Department of Culture and Communication at NYU,

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1144113880961786852006-04-03T18:19:00.000-07:002006-04-03T18:39:42.176-07:00

Lulu, a print-on-demand (POD) company that describes itself as an “independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers,” has announced the winners of the 2006 Lulu Blooker Prize, a literary award for books that are based on blogs or Web sites. The “blook” selected as the overall winner is Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (nonfiction).

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1143771916856687252006-03-30T18:23:00.000-08:002006-04-02T16:23:04.223-07:00

Dr. Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2000, gave a fascinating interview on The Charlie Rose Show last night. With Dr. Harold Varmus (Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine 1989), who was filling in for Charlie Rose, Kandel discussed his latest book, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (W. W. Norton, 2006). Passionate about his work,

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1143089787948793672006-03-22T20:55:00.000-08:002006-03-28T07:10:01.403-08:00

It seems to me that when people think about who they are and what they’ve done, they often tend to compartmentalize. Of course there are times when this is appropriate, but too often this tactic masks synergistic relationships among the parts that are awaiting discovery. By connecting the dots, so to speak, and bringing into relation disparate elements, individuals may change the way they see

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1141359600297727512006-03-02T20:18:00.000-08:002006-03-02T20:40:22.286-08:00

I've been researching videoblogs, or vlogs. Here are some relevant links:Braintrust dv Roundtable: Video iPod, November 30, 2005"How will the new video iPod change video content in cyberspace? What does it suggest or promise as a cultural model? How will it affect independent media makers and corporate media providers? Is the video iPod good or bad for cinema—or is the term "cinema" no longer

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1140920071782657362006-02-25T18:12:00.000-08:002006-03-04T14:08:15.863-08:00

As I mentioned in my two previous posts, I've recovered from my archives the bibliography of auto/biographical webs that I maintained online from 2001 to 2003. In addition to the sections on travelogues (February 23) and self-representations (February 24) that I've introduced already, I've prepared for VirtualDayz the section on letters -- digital experiments with epistolary forms. Although the

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1140843486898076842006-02-24T20:49:00.000-08:002006-03-04T14:10:43.966-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post (February 23), I've recovered from my archives the bibliography of auto/biographical webs that I maintained online from 2001 to 2003. Yesterday, I looked at the section that covered innovative approaches to travelogues; today, I examined the section on self-representations, a term I use loosely to describe a range of hybrid texts by writers, artists, documentarians,

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1139351467707472252006-02-07T14:29:00.000-08:002006-02-07T21:55:32.810-08:00

Coretta Scott King, human rights activist, 1927–2006Wendy Wasserstein, playwright, 1950–2006

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1138856640591512922006-02-01T21:02:00.000-08:002006-02-04T14:14:52.173-08:00

Curious about the early history of online journals and diaries, I examined "The Online Diary History Project," a collaborative effort started in 2000 to "preserve some memories of what online journaling was like in the beginning." For this purpose, organizers of the study chose the three-year period from January 1995 (when, they claim, the first online diary was posted) to the end of 1997. The

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1138666433104632632006-01-30T16:12:00.000-08:002006-01-31T14:06:02.176-08:00

Nam June Paik, hailed as the father of video art, died Sunday, January 29th, at his home in Miami. For details, see obituary in The New York Times. "Moving Time," the last exhibition he participated in while alive, is on display at the Korean Cultural Service in New York City.Technorati tags: Nam_June_Paik, video_art

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1136957545705775892006-01-10T21:26:00.000-08:002006-01-11T12:47:44.633-08:00

Michael Rush, author of Video Art (2003) and New Media in Art (1999/2005), published an eye-catching article in the New York Times on Sunday called “In Love With Reality Truly, Madly, Virtually. In this update on artists’ access to virtual reality, he suggests that because VR environments are now available at relatively affordable rates -- about $3,000, down from the $1.5 million they cost ten

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1134711804396894412005-12-15T21:40:00.000-08:002006-08-03T19:02:04.926-07:00

The Los Angeles Times reported today that the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles has acquired the Long Beach Museum of Art’s renowned video art collection, which is currently unavailable for public viewing and in need of preservation. The Getty will transfer the 3,000-plus tapes to a digital format and give copies to LBMA. This is good news for anyone interested in the history of video art

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1134019184695920852005-12-07T21:18:00.000-08:002006-02-01T16:32:33.406-08:00

I finally finished my novel. The search for a literary agent has begun!I’m making time now to read the nonfiction books I’ve been collecting on personal and cultural memory, the media arts, new media, and technologies of writing. Books on my list include:Memory Trade: A Prehistory of Cyberculture, by Darren Tofts and Murray McKeich, 1997.Matter and Memory, by Henri Bergson, 1908/2002Present Pasts

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1131321807585359012005-11-06T16:02:00.000-08:002005-11-06T17:22:04.396-08:00

I’m compiling a selected bibliography of new media projects that deal with personal and cultural memory. I’m considering creative and documentary approaches that explore emergent forms, as well as projects that “remediate” literary, cinematic, videographic, artistic, and performative genres. I hope to include games, software, and innovative hybrids. I'm also looking for relevant theoretical and

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1130468325032899672005-10-27T19:58:00.000-07:002005-10-28T13:07:35.050-07:00

Joan Didion gave a haunting interview on The Charlie Rose Show Monday night. Forthright yet vulnerable, she discussed her latest book, The Year of Magical Thinking, a memoir she wrote after the death of her husband of almost forty years, the writer John Gregory Dunne. The writing process helped her mourn his passing and at the same time cope with the fragile health of their only daughter,

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1128216741185186242005-10-01T18:25:00.000-07:002005-10-05T14:13:18.746-07:00

Blogger’s seventh annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts November 1. (Registration begins today.) To win, participants must write a 50,000-word novel from scratch by the end of the month. According to stats on the NaNoWriMo site, last year 42,000 writers participated and almost 6,000 finished. Blogged novels from 2004 are listed at Na-No-Blog-Mo. There’s an entry about NaNoWriMo

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127992762306569602005-09-29T03:58:00.000-07:002005-12-09T14:24:38.363-08:00

After listening to Umberto Eco discuss his latest novel with Michael Silverblatt on KCRW’s “Bookworm” last month (aired in LA August 25 and accessible online), I ordered The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana from my local library right away. Since my knowledge of Eco’s work had been limited to his theoretical writing on semiotics—and to the film based on The Name of the Rose—I was curious to see

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127711990406596402005-09-25T22:18:00.000-07:002005-09-30T15:33:30.250-07:00

I wish I could attend all the fascinating conferences and symposia I hear about. Here are a few to add to my list:(1) Several activities will be held in Nottingham, England, November 28–December 4, 2005, in conjunction with Digital Cultures Lab of Nottingham Trent University and Radiator Festival for New Technology Art. There will be an International Dance and Technology Research Lab,

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127544980655214402005-09-23T23:52:00.000-07:002005-09-25T16:14:06.070-07:00

[From Video Essays, Part 1: While rereading old Word files, I came across notes for a series of articles I planned to write several years ago on women’s experimental videos from the 1980s and early 1990s. After publishing one piece, I abandoned the project—mainly because I shifted my attention to new media—but I think the articles still have relevance, so I’ll be documenting introductions to four

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127544559115381412005-09-23T23:25:00.000-07:002005-09-24T01:46:55.216-07:00

[From Video Essays, Part 1: While rereading old Word files, I came across notes for a series of articles I planned to write several years ago on women’s experimental videos from the 1980s and early 1990s. After publishing one piece, I abandoned the project—mainly because I shifted my attention to new media—but I think the articles still have relevance, so I’ll be documenting introductions to four

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127542570106183272005-09-23T22:55:00.000-07:002005-09-25T16:14:56.553-07:00

[From Video Essays, Part 1: While rereading old Word files, I came across notes for a series of articles I planned to write several years ago on women’s experimental videos from the 1980s and early 1990s. After publishing one piece, I abandoned the project—mainly because I shifted my attention to new media—but I think the articles still have relevance, so I’ll be documenting introductions to four

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127540862696720942005-09-23T22:37:00.000-07:002005-09-24T16:55:54.490-07:00

While rereading old Word files, I came across notes for a series of articles I planned to write several years ago on women’s experimental videos from the 1980s and early 1990s. After publishing one piece, I abandoned the project—mainly because I shifted my attention to new media—but I think the articles still have relevance, so I’ll be documenting introductions to four of the articles as I wrote

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1127295891686425032005-09-21T02:34:00.000-07:002005-09-24T16:45:44.173-07:00

I’ve been looking at how scholars and critics from various disciplines in the arts and the humanities are approaching new media studies. Several collections of essays have served as guides, including the following books: Martin Lister, Jon Dovey, Seth Giggings, Iain Grant, Kieran Kelly, eds. New Media: A Critical Introduction. London and New York: Routledge, 2003.The contributors, all members of

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1126771856618523862005-09-15T01:09:00.000-07:002006-02-01T17:06:34.880-08:00

I’m re-editing a novel I’ve been working on several years. I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll provide a general overview:The story begins as the main character, I’ll call her “A,” prepares for 2000 and the fresh start it represents. More at home in cyberspace than anywhere she has actually lived, she reinvents herself and her life story for readers of her multimedia Web diary, a blend

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1126258973240071442005-09-09T16:20:00.000-07:002005-09-18T17:15:34.013-07:00

Writing and the Digital Life (WDL), a listserv with a blog counterpart, has selected for its topic this month “How will the digital life affect human memory?” Sue Thomas, founder of WDL, posts a thought-provoking commentary on Sept. 8 in which she mentions “Life Caching,” a phenomenon that TRENDWATCHING.COM relates to the abundance of personal content being collected, stored, and displayed in the

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1125825001703221272005-09-04T02:04:00.000-07:002006-04-10T23:31:19.526-07:00

While I was at UC Berkeley a few weeks ago for the Advanced Oral History Summer Institute (see August 23rd post), I became interested in community-based projects that adapt oral narratives to creative formats. Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens, in a New America exemplifies such an approach. Documentary artists Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan have created “a cross-media project that

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1124791319134694062005-08-23T02:57:00.000-07:002005-09-18T17:21:39.243-07:00

I spent last week at the University of California, Berkeley, where I attended the Advanced Oral History Summer Institute, the third stop on an itinerary that so far has included the Media in Transition (MIT4) Conference at MIT (see June 30th entry) and the Transliteracies conference on online reading at the University of California, Santa Barbara (see July 8th entry)—three interdisciplinary

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1123925636580902312005-08-13T02:11:00.000-07:002005-09-18T17:29:12.570-07:00

Yesterday afternoon on the KCRW/PRI radio program To the Point host Warren Olney moderated an interesting discussion called “Googled! Will the Internet Come Back to Haunt You?” Participants included Elizabeth Spiers, freelance journalist, editor-in-chief of mediabistro.com, and former editor of the blog gawker.com; Pam Dixon, writer, executive director and founder of the World Privacy Forum, and

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1122892675086839682005-08-01T03:29:00.000-07:002005-09-18T17:37:37.280-07:00

Since reading the “memory texts” Annette Kuhn published in Family Secrets (which I commented on a few days ago), I’ve been thinking about various work I’ve created that shares her concerns: photo collages, a home-movie compilation, an abandoned autobiography, a “postmodern scrapbook,” a computer graphics series based on my childhood diaries, video transformations of the computer graphics, and

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1122636234708078942005-07-29T04:13:00.000-07:002005-09-18T17:48:22.226-07:00

As I recounted a few weeks ago, I had a dream in which VR technologies were used to help victims revisit crime scenes and thus relive their experiences (see “Virtual Reality and Memory: Revisiting Crime Scenes”). After briefly researching comparable applications in real life, I wondered how VR activated subjects’ memories in a broader context, beyond criminal investigations and trials;

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1122466033015566672005-07-27T04:58:00.000-07:002009-06-20T11:59:26.054-07:00

I've been reading Family Secrets: Acts of Memory and Imagination, a memoir by British film scholar Annette Kuhn (1995/2002). A blend of cultural criticism and cultural production that engages both the psychic and the social, the hybrid text brings together a series of autobiographical case histories that use private and public images from Kuhn’s past as prompts for “memory work,” which Kuhn

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1122295312641977562005-07-25T05:32:00.000-07:002005-09-18T18:06:22.260-07:00

For weeks I’ve been planning to view Christine Tamblyn’s CD-ROM Archival Quality, but, as I was surprised to learn, it’s formatted only for a Macintosh computer, and I have a PC. I hope to make arrangements soon to view this posthumously published work. A noted media arts critic, educator, and conceptual artist, Tamblyn died of breast cancer on January 1, 1998, at the age of forty-six. As Tamblyn

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1122111550369111302005-07-23T02:34:00.000-07:002005-09-18T18:31:40.806-07:00

I’m amazed by how simply checking my e-mail often leads to interesting discoveries. Some of my best leads come from listservs and mailing lists. From a thread in empyre on networked performance, for example, I recently learned about LiveForm:Telekinetics (LF:TK), a project co-founded by Canadian artists Jeff Mann and Michelle Teran that “re-imagines the familiar objects and utensils of our

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1121652239534139272005-07-17T18:43:00.000-07:002005-09-18T18:38:34.013-07:00

I recently discovered In the First Person: An Index to Letters, Diaries, Oral Histories and Personal Narratives, a free online database of holdings in archives, repositories, and personal collections. A Top 100 list of the most popular links on the site considers usage since January 2004, when, I presume, Alexander Street Press launched the project. Dedicated to resources produced in English, the

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1121487695048134532005-07-15T21:15:00.000-07:002005-09-18T18:48:30.906-07:00

I had a dream last night in which VR technologies were used to help victims revisit crime scenes and thus relive their experiences. That’s about all I remember about the dream, although I sense that it was detailed and multilayered. Soon after awakening, I decided to see whether, in fact, VR technologies are being used in conjunction with criminal investigations and trials, for I had been unaware

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1121057753461108112005-07-10T21:42:00.000-07:002006-02-01T15:05:19.176-08:00

I saw the Merce Cunningham Dance Company perform in LA last month. After the matinee, Cunningham participated in a Q and A that gave this living legend a chance to share anecdotes from his remarkable life. His reflections ranged from Black Mountain College to computers as a choreographic tool. This session with the audience added another layer to the performances we had just seen, “Fabrications”

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1120812903830411052005-07-08T01:37:00.000-07:002006-02-02T16:48:48.380-08:00

On June 17 and 18 at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), I attended the Transliteracies 2005 conference (Conversation Roundtables on Online Reading), where theorists and practitioners from the humanities, arts, social sciences, computer science, and industry discussed “the fate of reading in the ‘new media’ age.” With MIT4: The Work of Stories still on my mind (conference held at

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1120427680314113272005-07-03T12:28:00.000-07:002005-09-18T19:57:12.723-07:00

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered the Commencement address at Stanford University on June 12. The Stanford Report posted the text, in which Jobs tells three stories from his life. Each story has a theme: “connecting the dots,” “love and loss,” and “death.” Recounting his autobiography in this way, Jobs pieces together a personal philosophy that he sums up

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1120122336247676592005-06-30T02:03:00.000-07:002005-09-18T20:05:13.466-07:00

I’m still processing impressions from two conferences I attended recently: Media in Transition (MIT4): The Work of Stories, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, MA (May 6–8), and Transliteracies: Research in the Technological, Social, and Cultural Practices of Online Reading, at the University of California, Santa Barbara (June 17–18). I’ll discuss MIT4 today.As the title

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14008331.post-1119929523931130362005-06-27T20:05:00.000-07:002005-09-18T20:09:39.316-07:00

While transferring my personal collection of artists' videos to DVD, I've been watching a retrospective that dates back to the late 1960s when independent video emerged as the next creative frontier. Boxes of exhibition catalogues, articles, books, and other documents related to the evolution of this movement fill my living room, reminding me of fragmented histories that are fading from public

Elayne Zalishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14140194823532923174noreply@blogger.com0