Hi everybody! You are welcome to ELO Salon

Yohanna Waliya Joseph, at the University of Calabar in Nigeria, is a digital poet, distant writer, novelist, playwright, winner of the Janusz Korczak Prize for Global South 2020, Electronic Literature Organization Research Fellow and UNESCO Janusz Korczak Fellow.

Hi all, it would be great if you can introduce yourselves in the chat--and if you would like notifications of further chats, please put your email in a note to me.

Hi everyone, I am Jasmine, I am an MA student at Uppsala University in Sweden :-)

Welcome, everyone!

Hi, all — I'm Bill Bly, calling in from Mexico — great to see you all!

Hi, everyone! This is Vinicius from Brazil

Dene here still eating breakfast. I apologize.

Hi all, it would be great if you can introduce yourselves in the chat--and if you would like notifications of further chats, please put your email in a note to me.

Hi, I’m Ashleigh Harris. Professor at Uppsala University. Working on archiving of African ephemeral materials - both digital and material.

Caitlin - calling in from Ottawa, Canada, the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation ;)

Yohanna Waliya Joseph, at the University of Calabar in Nigeria, is a digital poet, distant writer, novelist, playwright, winner of the Janusz Korczak Prize for Global South 2020, Electronic Literature Organization Research Fellow and UNESCO Janusz Korczak Fellow.

Hi everyone, I’m Reham Hosny working on Arabic electronic literature.

How nice to see everyone. And thank you for setting this up!

A terrific turnout

Is anyone else having issues with audio?

Sound is hard to hear…

Let us know in the chat if the sound is hard to hear

definitely challenging

We have 5 to 8 different languages

let’s try t o troubleshoot sounds again - I don’t want to miss the content…

Maybe better without the headset audio?

Yes, “blurry’ audio reception

HelloSamya Brata Roy here from IndiaI am trying to explore the nature of Indian Storytelling in the online space in my masters dissertation. I want to carry it forward in my subsequent research activities.

Welcome all!

Try without the headphones?

Please introduce yourself in the chat!

@Samya Great to meet you! Do you have a link to some of your research?

Hi Samya! Welcome as we work

through multi linguistics

and maybe try without a hadset? I remember once You spoke without that and it was better.

Happy belated birthday, Samya!

very happy to join everyone and my friend Waliya here!

Better

Much better

That is better.

that sounds better! great!

Yohanna has been working on African lit since ?? and compiling data on African lit

June of last year

Johannah Rodgers, Independent Artist and Scholar, Brooklyn, NY

This year, has been focusing on literature on the What's Up app

If he has prepared notes for this talk, I would love to see him share them with us after the talk

Can see what we have

@ J Rodgers hello thanks a lot for taking interest in my work. I have just started to work and am in the process of writing my masters dissertation so my work is not really out there at the moment but it will be very soon. I have submitted an abstract at Elo as well! lets see if I get selected. I am very excited!you can read my creative work at: thepenarchist.wordpress.com where I have been writing for the last five years.

@D Grigar thank you so very much. means a lot. sending hugs.

This excel database has links to each work

@Sama Roy Thank you!

This work will go in two minutes

Naive question: is the excel database openly available?

hi, i’m live in Oceano, California; 1/2 wat between s.f. & l.a. am a visual poet, poet, writer & photographer

This is the first African literature, but the quality was not consistent

This was in 1996. Most African literature has been created by private individuals

@A Gorin welcome!

We have the game up to now only on windows

We will get the link to the MAELD Google doc

Most of the work in the database, Yohannah teaches,

Toxic Bunny Gameplay (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACCB3HrkLzI

Found link to database: https://t.co/q4zydmEXQB?amp=1

@Jennifer Thanks!

@J Rodgers do share your work as well

Unfortunately, that is the link to the form to add to the database.

MAELD : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15QtjXBbcdZnQWLfV3n0mR0cXWT883Mw14OpX3Q-TLDU/

Thank you, Serge!

This one is produced by Aassurance company

Thank you Serge - I had the request to add works link and not the database.

THANKS , Serge!

Sanlam's Uk'shona Kwelanga is entirely on Whats Up

The story comes in letters

Notes from STreets

We’re hearing you OK!

Love the idea of What's App literature!

is another poem,

MarkLives #AdoftheYear2017​ #9: Sanlam case study • Making of Uk’shona Kwelanga • King James: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4wGL3FY9Iw

THe notes from the street's background is integral to the poem.

Daughters of Chibok,

Daughters of Chibok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmfOvvAkZWg

Tells the story of Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boku Haram

It was included in the Venice Biennale

IN Virtual reality and in VR360stories.com

Absolutely fascinating stuff!

Can here you clearly now -

The database has 247 works from about 87 countires

The majority of the works are in English.

There are 38 languages, English dominates

(abour 206 works in English, Arabic is second, and French

There are works in local languages that are trasnlasted into other languages as well (polyglot_

This is great.

Fantastic work brother mine @Waliyawe can hear you

This is so impressive to have such a wide range of works... and I wonder... where there is one work, there will be others. HOw do we recognize these works?

That´s a really fascinating project!

African diaspora literature (Canada, UK, US

Mauritius ins one small island--with 11 works, I wonder how many artists.

Why so many from Nigeria?

including a wide range of genres...

…and platforms

Go ahead and ask questions in the chat and I'll collate them for Yohanna

@illya Nigeria has 206 million inhabitants, huge cultural production.

This is absolutely amazing!

beautiful. How is digital literature defined? (As against interactive/immersive etc.?)

Wonderful work!!!

Wow! Thank you!!

And I think technologically Nigeria is also one of countries with a lot of innovative initiatives

Inspiring work. Thank you for sharing!

Wonderful collection, Waliya, this is SO USEFUL.

There is so much of this material out there, I think that it’s too large to draw too many conclusions about numbers. Nigeria and South Africa dominate all literary production, but I have a similar project on Southern African e lit and we got lots of hits from Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland

Can you say something about the 360 degree piece? It seemed absolutely amazing -

Thank you! A really terrific databasse!

*database

Nigeria has a lot of infrastructure, actually

Use two langugages to collect data --query google using French and English

There are many works in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria

Sometimes use Google Chrome to deal with language barrier (do you want to read in English)?

How can we get a multi lingual search for these works

South Africa, Ghana, Senegal are also very active in digital culture

Really interesting and important insight

Also, sites need to be working to be in the database--and the Nigerian links are not dead.

Thank you for talking about this

There are movements and language against terrorists, This reminds me about Rhemy's Dictionary of the Revolution... it is important to discuss and share these painful experiences--and elit is a great multi vocal way to do this.

Virtual REality provides an experience beyond the screen

Agreed Deena

You are immersed in it, you are experiencing it as reality

Absolutely stunning! Thank you so so much for sharing your research and soldiering through the sound issues! I wanted to ask if everything in the database are things you have found in your research or if authors and creatives are reaching out to you directly? I was also wondering if you would be kind enough Yohanna to share your email address for any follow up questions later? There is so much to take in from your work that I think I will end up having more questions later!

Immersion surrounds you.

Any idea of the gender breakdown of authors in the database?

this is incredible research! I really look forward to going through the database and experiencing them

@Alex - hard same

Can the link to the database be shared again? Thank you.

Criteria for database--check game review websites, CNN?? works?

Much needed research and collection of works! Thank you. What do you think is the best way to share e-lit in different African countries-that is what kinds of platforms are most accessible for various African readers/users?

Hero games from Cameroon are also in this

Yohanna is currently writing a paper about the database construction process

Excellent! I look forward to reading it

Thanks Wlliya for your great work. In 2017 I created a database for Arabic e-lit and happy to see it included here in your work. What e-lit definition you adopted in this database?

https://www.aurionthegame.com/aurion-shop?nextLocale=en

AFrican contintent has smartphones. Everyone has a smartphone, even small kids at 5 years old.

So the highest percentage of works are games or apps on Andriod

a few iPhone programs.

is it fair to say that elit in africa has emerged from the game industry? Or is that a reflection of your selection process?

Best way to spread elit in Africa is to develop mobile elit

You can find more on Arabic e-lit here:https://arabicelit.wordpress.com/posts/

Thanks reham - also a beautiful and important project!

Yohanna: if you haven't yet been in touch with Eugenio Tisselli about his work in Tanzania, you might find something there... as I recall he was working with/teaching farmers to make stories with mobile phones. I don't know exactly what became of this, but likely something

We have been working with Jason Neilson and Dene Grigar and Davin Heckman to advise on the technical aspects of sharing database. And SErge!!

'Hooray!!!!

The goal is to show African literature in an African way--interactive map, and take to list of every work in that country

Do you have funding for this? Or are you looking for support?

We are hoping to have an exhibition of this work

Working for over six months --need collaborators

I have found from working with a collaborator in India that making tech accessible is really important. Oculus quest does not ship to India. How do they expect to have those voices heard? Those technologies and platforms are already being colonized by America and Europe.

Need collaborators! and support!

Caitlin and Dene are working to support the funding and support- Hooray!

We can also use donations for this effort :)

Wonderful!

I would love to be in touch, Waliya - we have a large project called Contemporary Ephemeral African Literatures based at Uppsala University and I would love to join up with you and discuss how our different projects can support one another.

Congratulations! this is fantastic

Waliya needs to be in control of it.

This is wonderful!

My email: waliyayohannajoseph@yahoo.fr

Congratulations!

Is there a place to donate to the project?

We would like to mount an exhibition at ELO 2022 or ?? unleashing in may--talk to Dene and Caitlin about mounting this exhibition

Good idea

WE need volunteers to work with Waliya and make the capacity to add to the database

We need the family of ELO to work with Waliya

We focus mostly on Eastern and Southern Africa, so it would be great to bring these two databases together.

We can amplify the call

1/ How can others donate to this project? ; 2/ How do we organize the volunteers?

Funding should go to ELO and earmark it for the African lit

I am very happy to help facilitate these donations!

I’m happy to be involved in helping with project organization and management.

Thank you for the donation information!

Donate at eliterature.org (tax deductible) and earmark it by emailing to Holy

Holly

holly@eliterature.org

ashleigh.harris@engelska.uu.se

waliyayohannajoseph@unical.edu.ng

@Serge Do you have any suggestions regarding ways to assist with the management and development of Wally’s project?

a lot of people here can't afford Oculus either -

Not just Europe and America, East Asia is also a colonial force in VR

A L AFrican VR is a community for virtual reality and extended reality

@Patrick Yes!

works integrated into database

from the African VR community--they have sponsors.

This company helps the community to work with VR.

but is VR popular within readers in Africa?

Do you find or can you point to works collected that are commenting or remediating print-based African literature?

hey..I am always happy help the fraternity and my friend Waliya here as much as I can! just putting it out there...

samyabrataroy@gmail.com

Have work in French and English --a work from Cameroon, other countries that are in the database

Waliya, Happy to help with your efforts as I can: knk@case.edu

Waliya, I'd be happy to help: chingin@uw.edu

The thing that's really interesting to me is that the Vin diagram for this intersex a .lot with the work we were doing in Arabia. #Reham Hosny

I'm using speech to text sorry for some of the typos..

@Yohanna: do you think nowadays there are cultural specificities in African elit, or is African elit part of a "global digital cultural homogeneity" (quoting Leo)?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Gabaodesign.LBVRace2

LBV Race 2

Motor racing video game in which you drive taxis from the various communes of the Estuary of Gabon (Owendo, Libreville and Akanda) and an Okoumé vehicle. Thus, in its first version LBV Race takes place in the alleys of the city of Libreville modeled in 3D, on the interchange axis of Nzeng-Ayong - Blue Lake - Roundabout of democracy.

Excellent, thank you!

A work from Gabon: https://mega.nz/file/ygUEzAIC#6w-0kfnGPS7ZGD4zP2Wb48hbW5JrgC-4OzNMP__lUI0

one thing you might want to add to the database (I didn't see it there) is J.M. Coetzee's computer poems... see https://sites.utexas.edu/ransomcentermagazine/2017/06/28/the-computer-poetry-of-j-m-coetzees-early-programming-career/

From the Arabian perspective, I would argue that there are specificities, and there isn’t a homogeneity, as much of Elit is seen from a North American/European perspective.

The chat is being saved to the York server - I’ll go in later this week and identify specific people/resource offers and make sure Waliya is provided with the information… maybe we can all share with Aliya what we can offer + then be part of an unstructured working group that waliya can call on as-needed (?)

*Waliya ;)

Fantastic.

Thank you Caitlin! We can at least have a google doc which collates volunteer interests and allows Waliya to let us know how to help

Can you describe what goes on in the game you showed?

https://www.karlkempton.net/

Yes.

AFrican elit--work must be produced by someone of African descent

John Pierre Balpe concluded --if the computer expresses African heritage, culture, landscape, and habits--the work is charcarterized as African literature.

Also for elit--must use code of computer to mediate the language.

African Elit represents the African gestalt, Araboc Elit expresses the Arabian gestalt, etc. Brilliant

Salam Reham

How is the relaction between digital art. and digital literature in Africa?

Good plan. Please raise your hand, if you want to comment--and you can also put questions in the chat.

If we don't get to the questions and will follow up

@Reham could you share a link to the Arabic elit database?

STories and VR created by African locals which involve programming--a digital device

Involves an immersive interactive experience, with watching

@Johannah: a beautiful kinetic creation playing with Arabic calligraphy:The Dice player - لاعب النرد (2013), by Nissmah Roshdy, after Mahmoud Darwishhttps://vimeo.com/69830884

@Serge Thank you!

How is the relaction between digital art. and digital literature in Africa?What is the content? In digital art--it is a part of elit, as it uses computer

there is the intersection of the computer in both, but elit can be fiction, narratives,

I have to go prepare for another call -- thank you so much Waliya for sharing this wonderful work!!

Visual art is not interactive--it is more of a static picture

@Johannah It’s included in this study https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/mapping-electronic-literature-in-the-arabic-context/

Elit is interactive, with kinetic

@Reham Thank you!

Thank You! And what about the first work You presented? Was it mora a e-lit or just a game?

Research methods-- and thank you for this fascinating info

I’m really struck by a definition for inclusion that includes expressing African happiness ‘)

Talk about research methods--are you using social media to find these pieces or search engines

To collect datbase

“I’m really struck by a definition for inclusion that includes expressing African happiness ‘)”

Look at the mainstream media. Look at national juries.

Interesting

Which ideas, look at readers.

Recognize by people--for example, mobile game is doubtrul (2007)

A Kenyan? speak about Africa--

Doubtful talks about Lagos struggles

We have works like Adium? from Cameroon?

is there maybe an independent, experimental African elit scene, then, that is difficult to capture?

Fascinating work — thank you so much for bringing it all to our attention!

I need to leave. Thank you, Deena and Caitlin. And thank you, Waliya, for sharing your research with us.

Thank you very much for this introduction to African elit!

Thank you for sharing your research! Have to transition to another meeting now.

Thank you so much @Waliya! I have to go to another meeting, but I will look forward to talking soon regarding project organization and development.

If your work has gone mainstrame, you have readers

Are there independent scenes that might also come out of universities and not being carried by global media?

Maybe only one person is using these techniques, but would not count that in the database

Works in the database have acceptance by the readers

@ Johanna @Serge The Dice player - لاعب النرد (2013) is based on a paper poetry.

Try to get VR into the universities

efforts to bring programmers in one place

Thank you for this talk. Very interesting!

ALSO, please provide your email if you want notices of future ELO Salons--we meet every second Tuesday at 11 am Eastern time

Thank you!

to me it seems a google search in arabic is required to expand northrn africa works

u can continue the discussion in the discord. i will make a salon chat channel.

I have to go, but this was excellent! Thanks!

Hi Deena — can you add me to the email list (Scott.rettberg@uib.no)

Yes!

Thank you for showing us this incredible effort. I'm excited to see where it continues to go.Deena, I'd love to be added to the email list as well. holly@eliterature.org

First Arabic facebook novel--want to delete a lady from his own account, as he has 2,000 followers

Use google chrome to translate the novel--

okay, new channel salon-chat can be used to continue chatting

There are many Arabic works and there is the language barrier

Thank you for the new salon chat channel, mark!

There are many Arabic works, yes!

I have to leave to go to class. Thank you for this wonderful salon - I could listen all day!

Most works written in Arabic are not translated

We did an Arabic Elit conference in. Dubai.

Onlyl about 23 or 4 works are written in both Arabic and English

Need a translation project to translate these elit works

I know many people have to leave, but I can leave the zoom open until 12:30

Thanks Caitlin. Please feel free to stay and chat and we will have the whole unedited recording available

So glad you’re doing this work, Waliya. Thank you for an interesting talk

thank u for this terrific work and conversation. Thank u Yohanna and Deena!

Creativeity of the South Africans... book of Shona Calliga uses Whats App--they give you the narrative for 7 days.

they post it daily for those 7 days

Whats App literature

First Arabic Facebook novel, one millimeter away

excellent program, thanks everyone!

@Reham, can you give us that title and link, please

Uk’Shona Kwalenga

This novel was developed in a facebook account--for two months, he posted a part of the novel every two days and incorporated the feedback from the followers in the novel

https://www.facebook.com/KarlKempton108/

The plot is about a girl he met on favebook, and then develops the plot with the progression of the relationship

Abdelouahid Stitu: Only One Millimeter Away (2013)

Reham had a conference in Dubai in 2018 and we have Patrick Lichty who helped organize it

http://www.msahli.com/1mm/?fbclid=IwAR1tH5MyrdhE9ds82sFtYPlfm2WWVSN7V8lU7gAb8mrtGJBaO1ZyKXEtmD4

I have to go but this was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this.

We need to hold an ELO conference in an African and Arabic country

1mm

Collaborating with ELO in 2018--hpe to have an ELO conference in an Arabian or African country

BReaking open discourse in elit--there really isn't a global homogeniety

There are multiplicities everywhere! :-)

There are Arabic and African sensibilitieS--Variies over differet countries, different cultures

Arabic e-lit conference in Dubai: https://eliterature.org/2018/02/arabic-e-lit-conference-in-dubai-feb-25-27-commences/

Be sure to support the contributions of our first conference team from India as part of ELO 2021!

Hanafe? America?--all of her works are int he database

YES CAitlin, definitely, @Samya

Amirah Hanafi

Merci de partager ta recherche avec nous, Yohanna!

this seems to be the beginning of a much larger frame. an excellent meetinh. thanks for the invite.

Thank You for this speach, it has been a wonderful experience! And it is good to hava an introduction to African e-lit!

Absolutely - if it's not fundamentally virtual in some way, there's a HUGE divide among peoples who can participate!!! No matter where people are from -

yes - just a beginning! A fantastic one: thank you, Waliya and everyone.

YEs, there is a huge divide for all --we do need equipment, internet access, etc.

Thank you for your comments dear Reham, I learned a lot! <3

There is a significant global shaping force in East Asia

Everyone, please do introduce yourselves in the chat!

A lot of people in the Eurozone can't afford VR either -

My climatophosis just won The Best Use of DH for Fun!!

@Deena @waliya, Thanks very much, I had to follow this wonderful introduction to African e-lit to as I was driving!! But looking forward to explore all these excellent works.

@Nohelia Thanks dear!

Thank you very very much everyone, this was wonderful!!!

Thanks Waliyah and everyone!

You are welcome all

Merci Yohanna et Deena :-)

Hi Waliyah — congrats on a great presentation

Let's go for 3 am here! I'm most awake then!

oh yes coffee!

We need to eat dinner but great to see everyone.

and also thank You Deena

Thank you very much to you all, that was very interesting !

congratulations my brother Waliya again

Thank you from Madrid! Merci !

Thanks, Johanna, and Deena for hosting!

think of visual text art composed by computer also as e-lit

<3

Goodbye everybody!

Many thanks, Deena!

Thank you all for coming and for supporting elit EVERYWHERE

Thank you!!!

Merci à toi !

Thanks Deena and everyone!

Thank you.

Thank you, hope you all enjoy the rest of your days nights and mornings!

I have extended some help in the conference and have joined Elmcip. But have not been yet able to contribute at Elmcip as much as I wanted to owing my masters coursework and other stuff including my dissertation. But yes I hope contribute as I go along. Thanks a lot Deena and everyone else for the support.

davinheckman@gmail.com

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15QtjXBbcdZnQWLfV3n0mR0cXWT883Mw14OpX3Q-TLDU/edit#gid=654642310

Ah thanks, professor! And I should mention Dr S Rettberg and H Ackermans has been very helpful towards myself.

I have a meeting in about four minutes. but let's keep workng on this!@

I don’t hear you anymore

I know, I screwed up my mike. But we will keep working

Thanks and bye!

bye