This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Rebooting Electronic Literature Volume 3: Documenting Pre-Web Born Digital Media

An Afternoon with "afternoon": 30th Anniversary Celebration of Michael Joyce's "afternoon, story"

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon: a story, the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver held a world-wide reading via Zoom of the work and launched an exhibition that provided visitors with detailed information about the 13 editions of the work. The event took place on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, during both the ACM Hypertext ’20 and ELO 2020 virtual conferences, which allowed participants from both communities to attend. The event, which features 10 scholars and artists, along with Joyce, performing for a 5-minute session and the Q&A with Michael Joyce moderated by Dene Grigar, was captured via Zoom's recording feature. Readers include J Yellowlees Douglas, Stuart Moulthrop, N. Katherine Hayles, John McDaid, Mariusz Pisarski, Walter Vannini, Arnaud Regnauld, Maria Engberg, Matt Kirschenbaum, and Heather Malin. Astrid Ensslin served as Chat Archivist. Also captured are the podcast produced from the audio captured from the performance and the robust discussion that took place in the Zoom Chat by the 100 participants in the audience, as well as a screenshot of each reader performing the work taken by ELL Project Manager, Holly Slocum.

Resources

Event Website: https://dtc-wsuv.org/afternoon-with-afternoon/event.html
Exhibition: https://dtc-wsuv.org/afternoon-with-afternoon/
Curatorial Statement: https://dtc-wsuv.org/afternoon-with-afternoon/curatorial-statement.html

Video Clips from the Event

Below are the video clips from the event in order of their performance beginning with the introduction to the Q&A and concluding remarks that followed. The raw video file captured by Zoom was edited by Madeleine Brookman, and the sound was prepared by John Barber. The full video can be seen in its entirety here.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, Introduction by Dene Grigar**

This video clip shows Dene Grigar, the event organizer and the curator of the exhibition that accompanied it. She directs the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver, which hosted the event.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by J Yellowlees Douglas**

This video clip shows the 1st of 11 readers, J Yellowlees Douglas, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Douglas is the author of the hypertext narrative, "I Have Said Nothing" (Eastgate Systems, Inc., 1993), which, like Joyce's afternoon, a story, was excerpted in W. W. Norton and Co.'s Postmodern American Fiction: An Anthology.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Stuart Moulthrop**

This video clip shows the 2nd of 11 readers, Stuart Moulthrop, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Moulthrop was a member of the hypertext collective TINAC and author of numerous born digital works, including Victory Garden (Eastgate Systems, Inc., 1991), also included in this book.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by N. Katherine Hayles**

This video clip shows the 3rd of 11 readers, N. Katherine Hayles, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Hayles, one of the most prominent scholars of electronic literature, has written extensively about afternoon, a story.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by John McDaid**

This video clip shows the 4th of 11 readers, John McDaid, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. McDaid was a member of the hypertext collective TINAC and author of Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse (Eastgate Systems, Inc., 1992) and other hypertext works.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Walter Vannini**

This video clip shows the 5th of 11 readers, Walter Vannini, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Vannini is the translator of afternoon, a story into Italian, which was published in 2007 in the 11th Edition of the novel.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Mariusz Pisarski**

This video clip shows the 6th of 11 readers, Mariusz Pisarski, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon: a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Pisarski is the translator of afternoon, a story into Polish, published in 2015.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Arnaud Regnauld**

This video clip shows the 7th of 11 readers, Arnaud Regnauld, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Regnauld is one of the translators of afternoon, a story forthcoming into French. The translating team includes Anne-Laure Tissut and Stéphane Vanderhaeghe, as well as Gabriel Tremblay-Gaudette and Alban Leveau-Vallier for technical support.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Maria Engberg**

This video clip shows the 8th of 11 readers, Maria Engberg, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Engberg has collaborated with Joyce on many creative works.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Matt Kirschenbaum**

This video clip shows the 9th of 11 readers, Matt Kirschenbaum, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Kirschenbaum as written extensively on the novel, including his book Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination (The MIT Press 2008).

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Heather Malin**

This video clip shows the 10th of 11 readers, Heather Malin, performing Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. Malin served as one of the editors of the 8th edition of the novel.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, by Michael Joyce**

This video clip shows the 11th of 11 readers, Michael Joyce, performing his hypertext novel, afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, Q&A**

This video clip shows the Q&A with Michael Joyce moderated by the event’s organizer, Dene Grigar, that followed the reading of Michael Joyce's hypertext novel afternoon, a story at the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the work. During the Q&A hypertext scholar Astrid Ensslin oversaw the chat conversation and served as Chat Archivist of the event.

**Reading of Michael Joyce’s afternoon, a story, Concluding Remarks by Dene Grigar**

This video clip contains the concluding remarks by Dene Grigar, the organizer and curator of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of Michael Joyce's hypertext novel, afternoon, a story.

Podcast

This podcast, created by John Barber, was produced from the raw audio captured by Zoom. It has been edited to approximately one hour in length and includes additional sound to accompany the audio from the event.