This set of activities extends student work with HTML and CSS into the hypertext creative media space, with opportunities to explore existing works of hypertextual literature as well as works build in Twine.
Earlier in the semester, we explored command-line text games. Now, we’ll explore games or creative work that utilize hypertext. Founded in 1999, the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) is a group of artists, writers, and scholars who “facilitate and promote the writing, publishing, and reading of literature in electronic media.”
Volume 4 of the Electronic Literature Collection (published by ELO) came out in June 2022. The volume’s editors describe electronic literature (or “eliterature”) in this way:
“Eliterature qualities derive meaning from a fusion of computational and literary layers. This fusion shows that human literary creativity entwines technological innovation with cultural and historic context. Eliterature works invite readers to engage with texts through embedded feedback mechanisms and often require traversing a network of potential paths.”
“Twine is a free and open-source tool created by Chris Klimas for making interactive fiction and hypertext fiction in the form of web pages…Twine emphasizes the visual structure of hypertext, and does not require knowledge of a programming language as many other game development tools do. It is regarded as a tool which can be used by anyone interested in interactive fiction and experimental games.” (Wikipedia)
This activity gives students the opportunity to explore twine as an implementation of hypertext.