Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Kim Acheson Professor Rita Raley speaks about digital media at English Fest Tuesday night in Hibbard Hall.

The digital age and its relation to literature was the focus of English Fest and its keynote speaker Rita Raley's discussion Tuesday.

Raley, an English professor from the University of California-Santa Barbara, discussed how electronic literature is becoming more present in today's world.

"There's interactivity through physical engagement, like listening, moving," she said. "There's a sense of performance given by a visual picture. The letters and words are responsive to the users in a 3D text projection of text."

Junior Stephanie Schiefelbein works at the festival as chair of the advertising committee. She said this year, the committee tried to get more involvement from the community by advertising both off- and on-campus.

"It's about digital humanities," Schiefelbein said. "It's how literature has become globalized. (English Fest) is a great week for all art, literature and writing … people don't need to be English majors to enjoy."

In Raley's presentation, she talked about a 2001 project by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin called "listening pods," located at the San Jose Museum of Art. Raley said that this electronic piece of art was a collage of words from chat rooms, and what people see is unplanned and unexpected in appearance. She said on this technological art, words are given sounds or they are shown as the exact words, making an orchestra of global media. Raley said there isn't immediacy in the projection of the messages since there is a one- to two- hour delay in receiving and posting the words.

"You can see them and hear them, but because of its delay the information sent is not complete." Raley said.

She also said that there is a "listening pod" in The New York Times' installations and people watch the words that the users search or some archives too.

"Rain on the Sea" is another digital projection that shows words at a fast speed with background music. Gloria Hochstein, faculty advisor to the English Festival, said when she saw it she mostly paid attention to the sound because it was so powerful.

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