Introduction to Pathfinders
Pathfinders begins the necessary process of documenting early digital literature, specifically pre-web hypertext fiction and poetry, from 1986-1995. These literary works were produced with programming languages like BASIC or authoring systems like Storyspace and HyperCard and required a degree of interactivity between the reader and the work. They were also among the first computer-based works of literature to be sold commercially in the U.S. and, because of their availability through commercial distribution, were influential in shaping literary theory and criticism that, today, are used to discuss born digital writing. They are also literary works in danger of becoming inaccessible to the public because they were produced on and for computer platforms that today are obsolete.
From among the many “hypertexts” we could have selected to document, we decided on four:
1. Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl, considered the culmination of the high art of hypertext generating from the “Eastgate School” and an important work of cyberfeminism from the mid-1990s
2. John McDaid’s Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse, a novel created in Hypercard 2.0 and sold as an artist box with artifacts from the estate of the titular Uncle Buddy
3. Judy Malloy’s Uncle Roger, programmed in Basic as a serial novel published on the WELL in 1986 and, later, sold on 5 ¼ floppies via the Art Com catalog
4. Bill Bly’s We Descend, a hypertext novel created on the Storyspace platform
We chose these works because they are long-form works that represent a specific individual contribution unique to the field as well as a reflection of a wide range of experimentation taking place during this period. For example, Malloy’s Uncle Roger, the first commercial work of electronic literature to be sold in the United States, was first published in 1986 as a serial novel delivered to an online audience on the Whole Earth ‘Lectric Link (WELL). Later iterations of it expressed on floppy disks and the web speak to its enduring popularity and gives rise to its status as a classic work of the period. John McDaid's Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse was produced with HyperCard, a software application available on early Apple computers for creating hypermedia. Like Malloy's Uncle Roger, Uncle Buddy's is a novel, but one that includes sound and printed elements as part of its storytelling strategy. Bill Bly's hypertext novel We Descend was produced with Storyspace, a hypertext authoring system created and sold by Eastgate Systems is ideal for long-form, complex writing like Bly's. With the affordances of this tool, Bly experimented successfully with the multi-temporal narrative and intricate narrative structure. Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl, also produced with Storyspace, is a long work of fiction and is viewed by many as the high point of hypertext literature generating from the pre-web period of the early digital age. Its recent re-release on flash drive, 20 years after its first publication, demonstrates its on-going status as an important work of contemporary fiction.
Our method of documentation is unique in that we videotaped each artist and two additional readers interacting with a work on its original computer platform––a methodology, which we call “traversal.” When watching the traversal for Uncle Roger, for example, scholars can hear the crackle of the Apple IIe as it boots up and see the words “Bad Information” appear a few seconds later on the screen. Neither of these two elements is part of the story, but they are important cultural and artistic features lost in the migration to the web version that came later.
We see our work with documentation as a form of digital preservation, one that builds on the method of “collection,” as opposed to the other two more common methods, “migration” and “emulation,” by providing scholars wanting to experience the work in its original format access to video documentation of the works in performance on a computer with which the work would have been originally experienced.
Besides videos of traversals, Pathfinders also includes videos of interviews with the artists and readers of the four main works; photos of physical artifacts such as floppies, folio covers or boxes containing floppies and other media; sound files from traversals and interviews; and commentary about the works and media. For example, John McDaid’s Uncle Buddy’s Phantom Funhouse consisted of five floppy disks packaged in a black box. Nowhere is it documented that the box also contains two music tapes, a paper copy of a science fiction short story marked up by an editor, and a letter from the editor. All of these additional materials also make up Uncle Buddy’s and, so, are crucial to one’s understanding of the work. Pathfinders provides a video of McDaid opening the box and discussing each item found inside; certainly, an experience that scholars will see as helpful for understanding the breath of McDaid’s vision. In total, Pathfinders features over 100 video clips, over 50 color photos, and three audio files.
This open-source, multimedia book, is funded by The National Endowment for the Humanities through a Start Up grant from the Office of Digital Humanities. Many individuals also provided support for our research. Madeleine Brookman, served as Grigar's research assistant and was funded through fellowships and grants provided by Washington State University. She was responsible for final edits for and the management of all of the videos found in the book, the production of the Pathfinders trailer, and uploading, tagging and describing media for the book. We acknowledge the videography of Aaron Wintersong and early organization by Amalia Vacca, who served as Grigar's first research assistant and who helped to organize the traversals and interviews. Greg Philbrook provided tech support for most traversals and interviews. We also thank the Modern Language Association assisted as technical support and worked with us on the exhibition of our Pathfinders research at the 2014 conference in Chicago. We appreciate the support of Will Luers who helped us design the book and Tara McPherson, Erik Loyer and others at the University of Southern California's The Alliance for Networking Visual Culture for the development of the Scalar platform on which the book is built. We thank Matthew Kirschenbaum and the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities at the University of Maryland College Park for sharing The Bly Collection with us for our project. We want to recognize Grigar’s Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver, which provided access to her collection of computers and works for this project. We thank Mark Bernstein for access to images and information needed for the book. Finally, we thank the four artists who provided their time and insights into their work. Literary history is better for it.
The development of this project is documented at the Pathfinders blog managed by Grigar. Also of note is the Pathfinders YouTube channel where rough cuts of videos were made available, early on, for scholars to use for their research and the curated Vimeo channel where all videos are now hosted.
An exhibit showcasing these authors and their works as well as contemporary expressions of experimental writing was mounted for the Modern Language Association 2014 convention held in Chicago, IL. Titled Pathfinders: 25 Years of Experimental Literary Art ran from 9-11 January and was curated by Grigar and Moulthrop. Literary scholars were able to preview the videos and photos developed for the project and access some of works on Grigar's vintage computers, though it should be noted that three of the computers shipped to Chicago were destroyed en route to the exhibit.