HYPERFICTION NARRATIVE WORKSHOP

The Project:

The Derry-Dublin-Poughkeepsie Hyperfiction Narrative Workshop is a new project that began in late January 1997. The project, designed by Irish hyperfiction authors Noah Pivnick and Rachel Buswell, helps participants to learn, use, and promote the concept of hyperfiction authoring, and trans-border (as in the Northern Irish border)/trans-atlantic collaborative writing. The workshop sessions themselves meet in person, but are linked via the Web to each site, one in Derry, Northern Ireland, one in Dublin, Ireland, and one in Poughkeepsie, NY. The project also features eminent hyperfiction pioneer, Michael Joyce, heading the Poughkeepsie site.

What's It All About?

The best way to describe the project is to quote its Website:

" IN THEORY...
The stuff of this venture is not techno-evangelism; there will be no pretense to instruct. The intuition was fairly straightforward, if not a little naive -- simply put: a narrative whose telling is simultaneously connected and disjointed and a cultural circumstance which is described by its particular pattern of cleft and affinity may in fact be well-equipped to inform one another. Hypertext offers one modality with which to map the void that exists, despite absolute proximity, between the two estranged Irelands. In doing so, perhaps contemporary Irish writers are in a position to shape the course of hypertext narrative and in refining the aesthetic, to contribute to its authentication.

IN PRACTICE...
The workshop will consist of two groups of Irish writers, one in Derry and the other in Dublin. Writers will explore narrative applications of hypertext cooperatively, both groups contributing to local, cross-border, and trans-Atlantic networked communities via internet connectivity. The third party in the ensuing polylogue will be an electronic composition class at Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, New York) conducted by hyperfiction author, Michael Joyce. The workshop will be fourteen (14) weeks in duration, beginning the last week in January and running through the second week in May. There will be a limited number of places available in each location. Groups will meet weekly on Thursday nights for a three hour session. Each week, two of the three participating groups will congregate on line to confer in real time in a text-based virtual environment. Gatherings will follow a triangular circuit, resulting in the relay-like effect of the unfolding dialogue. "

What's Going On With It Now?

As noted, the project began in the last week in January 1997. The team has encouraged writer to participate, whether technologically savvy or not. Ownership of a computer is recommended, but not required. HTML knowledge is also not required. The team will provide the facilities for the on-line composition, as well as the software (with the understanding that the software must be purchased or returned at the workshop's end). The Hyperfiction Narrative Workshop's Website provides a form for interested persons to fill out to join the workshop. They note, however, that spaces are limited. The website also provides mailto:s so interested persons may e-mail the project's leaders.

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