Forthcoming Events
Digital fiction workshops in Aberystwyth, Wales.
More details coming soon. Watch this space!
Previous Events
Off the Shelf Reading & Writing Digital Fiction Workshop
This masterclass will provide a two-hour workshop on reading and writing digital fiction by digital media artists/writers Andy Campbell and Judi Alston of One to One Development Trust with Dr Isabelle van der Bom.
We will begin with a short introduction to digital fiction stories, followed by an exploration of how digital storytelling is different from writing forthe traditional print medium. Participants will then be introduced to digital writing software and get the opportunity to write somethemselves. The workshop will conclude with a short exposition of what has been achieved.
No prior knowledge of digital fiction required!
Organised by Sheffield Hallam University in association with One to One Development Trust.
Booking details:
FREE Workshop
Saturday 21 January 2-4pm
Charles Street building 12.3.10, Sheffield Hallam, S1 4RB.
Admission free but booking advisable. To book: Eventbrite Booking – Reading & Writing Digital Fiction Workshop.
Email for questions to Isabelle at i.v.bom@shu.ac.uk.
Organised by http://dreamingmethods.com/ and https://readingdigitalfiction.com/.
WALLPAPER: hope, fear and digital fiction events
17th November, 23 November, 22 & 25 November. The Art House, Drury Lane, Wakefield. Admission free. Booking required: http://beinghumanfestival.org/event/wallpaper-hope-fear-and-digital-fiction-launch-event/.
We have a series of upcoming events on WALLPAPER: hope, fear and digital fiction, as part of the Being Human Festival 2016. Come and experience the new VR version of WALLPAPER, and discuss your hopes and dreams for the future of (digital) fiction.
Organised by Sheffield Hallam University in association with One to One Development Trust and Dreaming Methods as part of Being Human 2016.
Thursday 12th November 2015: Launch of WALLPAPER Exhibition
Press preview, 6pm-6.30pm and launch 6.30pm-8.30pm, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
To mark the launch of the WALLPAPER exhibition (commissioned as part of the Opening Up the Book programme), please join us for late night opening and a celebratory reception at Bank Street Arts. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is necessary due to the size of the room. Please register here.
This event is funded by Sheffield Hallam University‘s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), with support from the Reading Digital Fiction project.
13 November – 5 December 2015: WALLPAPER Exhibition at Opening Up the Book at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
WALLPAPER is an ambitious and immersive work of digital fiction with a storyline that interweaves 19th and 20th century history with futuristic technology and a satire on social media and advertising. It is a new work by Dreaming Methods at One to One Development Trust funded by the Arts Council England and Sheffield Hallam University‘s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), with support from Bank Street Arts and Bangor University.
19 November 2015, 5.30pm-7.30pm: WALLPAPER Artist’s Talk at Opening Up the Book at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
Please join us for this opportunity to hear creators of WALLPAPER talk about the work.
Andy Campbell (Director of Digital Media) and Judi Alston (Creative Director/CEO) of One to One Development Trust, an arts/media charity in Wakefield, have a formidable track record of creating unique digital fiction collaboratively. Their joint work includes: Inside: A Journal of Dreams, Joyride, Clearance and Nightingales Playground, all available to experience on One to One’s website Dreaming Methods a showcase of International digital fiction collaborations since 2000.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is necessary due to the size of the room. Please register here.
This event is funded by Sheffield Hallam University‘s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), with support from the Reading Digital Fiction project.
25 November 2015, 6pm-8pm WALLPAPER Pop-Up Book Club at Opening Up the Book at Bank Street Arts, Sheffield
Join us for an informal reading group session, focusing on the WALLPAPER installation at Bank Street Arts, and help the Reading Digital Fiction project with their reader response research. You’ll have the opportunity to experience WALLPAPER in the gallery beforehand and then discuss this piece of digital fiction in a friendly and relaxed environment.
The event will be hosted by Alice Bell (Sheffield Hallam University) and Astrid Ensslin (Bangor University) who will contact you before the session with a little more information about the reading group and the WALLPAPER installation. No previous experience with digital fiction is necessary. Light refreshments will be provided.
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Please register here.
This event is funded by Sheffield Hallam University‘s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), with support from the Reading Digital Fiction project.
We are also keen to organise WALLPAPER reading group sessions for established reading groups as part of our reader-response research. If you are part of a reading group and are interested in being involved, please contact Alice Bell via readingdigitalfiction@gmail.com to discuss possibilities.
12 O
ctober 2014, 2-3.30pm: Off the Shelf Lecture
Kate Pullinger, ‘Beyond the Book: Digital Fiction’.
“Showroom 5” at The Showroom.
Over the past decade, new hybrid forms of literature have begun to emerge as writers and artists experiment with digital technologies. As well as writing novels and short stories in print, Kate Pullinger has long been involved with thinking about what it means for writing to move off the page and onto screens. She’ll discuss her award-winning digital projects Inanimate Alice and Flight Paths as well as her WWI Centenary participatory project, Letter to an Unknown Soldier.
Free tickets are available from The Showroom Box Office (15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2BX) and can be reserved in person or by calling 0114 275-7727.
21 October 2014, 2.30-4pm: ‘Introducing Digital Fiction’ public workshop at Local Studies Library, Sheffield Central Library. SOLD OUT
If you have little or no experience with digital fiction and would like to learn more about this exciting new way of reading, come to our introductory workshop with Dr. Jen Smith. We’ll read a few stories together, and then we’ll have a chat about what makes them different from traditional printed books. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required due to the number of computers available. Book your place here.
22 October – 14 November 2014: ‘The Future of Reading? An Exhibition of Digital Literature’ at Bank Street Arts.
This exhibition, curated by Dr Alice Bell and Prof Astrid Ensslin, tracks the historical development of digital literature from experimental print antecedents through to pre-web text-based forms and current multimodal incarnations. It includes Interactive Fictions (IFs) and electronic text adventure games, hypertext and hypermedia fictions, Flash fictions, kinetic poetry, and literary videogames. The works shown in this exhibition are not e-books. Rather than existing as a digital version of a print text, digital literature is “born digital” – that is, it would lose something of its aesthetic and/or structural form and meaning if it were removed from the digital medium. Is this the future of reading?
The exhibition is sponsored by the Electronic Literature Organization.
23 October, 6-8pm: Launch of ‘The Future of Reading?: An Exhibition of Digital Literature’.
To mark the launch of the ‘The Future of Reading?’ exhibition, please join us for late night opening and a celebratory reception at Bank Street Arts. This event is free and open to the public, but registration is necessary due to the size of the room. Please register here.
25 October 2014, 12-1pm: Guided tour of exhibition at Bank Street Arts. SOLD OUT
Join one of the curators, Dr. Alice Bell, as she introduces the digital literature in the ‘The Future of Reading?’ exhibition at Bank Street Arts. The tour will include an introduction to digital literature, an overview of its historical development, and a closer look at the works in the exhibition. Book your place here.
29 Octo
ber 2014, 6.15-7.30pm: Creative Writing master class with Christine Wilks in association with the MA Writing at Sheffield Hallam University.
What is involved in writing digital fiction? How does it differ from writing for other media? Digital fiction, also known as Electronic Literature or Interactive Storytelling, is authored on a computer and intended to be read, played or performed via a computer (including mobile devices). Chris Crawford, in his book on Interactive Storytelling, describes interactivity “as a conversation between the user and the computer.” How much of this conversation does the writer author? Typically, the words on the screen or spoken by the characters, but there are other areas to consider too – how the user interacts and the meaning of that interaction, and also what the computer program contributes to the conversation. Showing examples from her own creative work and process, Christine will discuss how she approaches writing for interactivity, including storytelling in bits and pieces, writing for variability and playability, and the influence of games and game-like forms.
Christine Wilks is a British digital writer, artist and developer of playable stories. Her digital fiction, Underbelly, won the New Media Writing Prize 2010 and the MaMSIE Digital Media Competition 2011. Her work is published in online journals and anthologies, including the ‘Electronic Literature Collection, Volume 2’ and the ‘ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature’, and has been presented internationally at festivals, exhibitions and conferences. She is Creative Director of e-learning specialists, Make It Happen, and is currently undertaking a practice-based PhD in Digital Writing at Bath Spa University. See her site http://www.crissxross.net.
This event is free and open to the public. It will take place in the Owen Building (room 1025). Book your place here.
CC-BY-NC by Kaspar Metz
1 November 2014, 2-3pm: Pop-up Book Club at Bank Street Arts.
Join us for an informal “book club” session focusing on two of the digital fictions in our exhibition. After you register for the session, Dr. Jen Smith will email you some information and links to a few pieces of digital fiction to read in your own time. During the session, we’ll all have a chat together about the stories in a relaxed environment. No previous experience with digital fiction is necessary!
This event is free and open to the public. Book your place here.
Reading Digital Fiction 