Electronic Literature Lab

The Electronic Literature Lab holds the hardware and software that the NEXT Museum, Library, and Preservation Space depends on to show electronic literature works in their original environment.{{Cite web |title=Electronic Literature Lab (ELL) {{!}} ELMCIP |url=https://elmcip.net/organizations/electronic-literature-lab-ell |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=elmcip.net}} The lab forms the center of archiving electronic literature for the Electronic Literature Organization.{{Cite journal |last=Grigar |first=Dene |date=May 2019 |title=Archiving Electronic Literature: Selection Criteria, Methodology, and Challenges |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333126605 |journal=Journal of Archival Organization |volume=15 |issue=1–2 |pages=20–33 |doi=10.1080/15332748.2019.1609310}} Because electronic literature works were built on specific hardware, software, and platforms, these works are now largely inaccessible as hardware and software becomes obsolete.{{Cite web |last=culturalstudiesleuven |date=2018-07-02 |title=Traversals: The Use of Preservation for Early Electronic Writing |url=https://culturalstudiesleuven.net/2018/07/02/traversals-the-use-of-preservation-for-early-electronic-writing/ |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=Cultural Studies Leuven |language=en}}

As Kristin Lillvis and Melinda White note, "the Electronic Literature Lab has preserved many of these works in the collection through restoration processes involving migration and emulation to make them once-again accessible."{{Cite journal |last1=Lillvis |first1=Kristen |last2=White |first2=Melinda |date=2023-08-28 |title=Review: Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection at ELO's The NEXT |url=https://reviewsindh.pubpub.org/pub/marjorie-c-luesebrink-collection/release/1 |journal=Reviews in Digital Humanities |language=en |volume=IV |issue=8 |doi=10.21428/3e88f64f.fb0bd342 |issn=2766-9297}} The lab documents these archival processes in scholarly publications such as The Challenges of Born-Digital Fiction (2023){{Cite journal |last1=Grigar |first1=Dene |last2=Pisarski |first2=Mariusz |date=February 2024 |title=The Challenges of Born-Digital Fiction: Editions, Translations, and Emulations |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/abs/challenges-of-borndigital-fiction/D7C93C1C77F8ED920D86234E00AF1448 |journal=Elements in Digital Literary Studies |language=en |doi=10.1017/9781009181488|isbn=978-1-009-18148-8 }} and Traversals: The Use of Preservation for Early Electronic Writing (2018).{{Cite journal |last1=Stuart |first1=Moulthrop|last2=Dene |first2=Grigar|last3=Joseph |first3=Tabbi|date=2017-04-07 |title=Traversals: The Use of Preservation for Early Electronic Writing |url=https://academic.oup.com/mit-press-scholarship-online/book/30669 |journal=OUP Academic |language=en |doi=10.7551/mitpre|doi-broken-date=27 May 2025 }} As Jan Beatens explained, Stuart Moulthrop and Dene Grigar explicate the challenges in this pioneering field of preserving electronic literature in the Electronic Literature Lab.{{Cite web |date=2018-07-01 |title=Review of Traversals: The Use of Preservation for Early Electronic Writing |url=https://leonardo.info/review/2018/07/review-of-traversals-the-use-of-preservation-for-early-electronic-writing |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=Leonardo/ISASTwith Arizona State University |language=en}}

Dene Grigar founded and directs this lab.{{Cite web |title=Electronic Literature Lab {{!}} Washington State University |url=https://vancouver.labs.wsu.edu/grigar-ell/ |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=vancouver.labs.wsu.edu}} She describes her theory of preservation for electronic items in her 2025 Ted Talk Making the Virtual Real and the Real Virtual{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_v7hiLwAk |title=Making the Virtual Real and the Real Virtual {{!}} Dene Grigar {{!}} TEDxMarshallU |date=2025-04-09 |last=TEDx Talks |access-date=2025-05-26 |via=YouTube}}

The lab contains over 80 vintage computers from 1977 onwards.{{Cite web |title=The Electronic Literature Lab |url=https://dtc-wsuv.org/electronic-literature-lab/index.html |access-date=2024-05-06 |website=dtc-wsuv.org}}

The lab received an Open Scholarship Award from the Canadian Social Knowledge Institute in 2022.{{Cite web |title=2022 Open Scholarship Awards {{!}} Electronic Textual Cultures Lab |url=https://etcl.uvic.ca/2022/01/25/2022-open-scholarship-awards/ |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=etcl.uvic.ca}} Electronic literature critics, such as Astrid Ensslin and Mariusz Pisarski, have collaborated with WSUV students and professors to analyze and archive electronic literature works.{{Cite web |title=International scholars join Electronic Literature Lab |url=https://cas.wsu.edu/2020/09/09/international-scholars-join-electronic-literature-lab/ |access-date=2025-05-25 |website=College of Arts and Sciences |language=en-US}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://vancouver.labs.wsu.edu/grigar-ell/ Electronic Literature Lab official website]
• [https://the-next.eliterature.org/ The NEXT Museum, Library, and Preservation, Space website]

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Category:Electronic literature