WRT: Writer Response Theory

(This is the first of a collection of profiles of New Media programs around the globe. If you would like to contribute a profile of a program, even your own, please send it to Mark Marino. Use the format below as a template.)

Uni with a view (nearby).
Photo: Marino

University of Hawai’i–Manoa
Location: Oahu, Hawai’i, USA
Type: University
Undergraduates: 14,481
Graduates: 6,298
Reviewer: Mark Marino
The skinny: University of Hawai’i has a gem in the visual culture philosopher and artist John Zeurn, who teaches electronic literature theory and practice course out of an English Department. University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s program features programs in Multimedia, English, Communications, and, of course, Computer Science. The program also offers courses through the Pacific Media Center.

Researchers of Note:
John Zuern, English (Eliterature)
Kim Binstead, Computer Science (bots)
(Pacific New Media)
Peter Chamberlain, Art
Kaveh Kardan, Chief Technologist (game environment)
Jonathan Lillie, Communications (multimedia)
Colin McDonald, Communications (multimedia)

Labs: Media Lab, director Greg Ambrosius

Programs: Production oriented Academy for Creative Media, offering degrees in:

• Cinematic & Digital Narrative PRoduction
• Animation & Computer Games
• Critical Studies.

School of Communications

Highlights:
Zuern’s “Digital Literature Theory and Practice” course. This course, which uses House of Leaves, First Person, and Writing Machines has a strong eliterature bent, strengthened by Zuern’s own theorectical interventions and material specific critiques. One of Zuern’s current graduate students is developing a nextgen stortelling program out of Propp’s archetypes.

Zuern’s beautiful and evocative Flash piece “Ask me for the moon” has also been recently featured in the Iowa Review Web. See his essay “Matter of Time: Towards a Materialist Semiotics of Web Animation” in Dichtung Digital which adds file transfer time to the material-specific semiotic analysis of Internet-deliverable New Media art. In this article, he recommends a “material aesthetics,” which builds well on the call for material considerations in both N. Katherine Hayles’ and Mark Hansen’s writing.

Fluent in high theory, Zuern’s own elit theoretical bent is in keeping with Hayles’ project, while his aesthetic leans towards Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries and Morrissey and Talley’s “My Name is Captain, Captain.”

Additional Stats:
Ethnicity: 41 % Asian, 26% Caucasian, 15% Mixed, 8%Hawaiian, 4% Other, 3% Pacifici ISlander, 2% Hispanic, 1% African American
Student/Faculty Ratio: 15:1