The Digital Literature Project di.ki starts – the virtual events introduce digital literature to audience and enhance new digital works

The major collaboration project is organized by literary society Nuoren Voiman Liitto, Elävän kuvan keskus ELKE, Aalto Studios of Aalto University, The Master’s Programme in Writing at University of the Arts Helsinki and Nokturno.fi website for digital and experimental literature. The project is supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Uusimaa Regional Fund as a Spearhead Project.

During the Digital Literature Project di.ki offers events such as an open webinar for general audience and a Digital Literature Hackathon for those interested in creating new works of digital literature. The project aims to increase knowledge about digital literature and to support creation of new works of art.

The open webinar Approaches to Digital Literature will be organized the 26th March. The aim is to give to general audience a wide view on the subject through case examples and keynotes by professionals on digital literature. The speakers of the event include Virpi Vairinen, poet and editor in chief of Nokturno website for digital poetry; Mikael Brygger, poet and professor in writing at the University of the Arts Helsinki; Saila Susiluoto, poet and scriptwriter of the groundbreaking poetry app Antikythera (2015) and Mika Taanila, director of the experimental film Mannerlaatta (2016). The program also includes a collection of works of digital literature curated by Matti Kangaskoski, poet and literary scholar and a panel discussion hosted by Kimmo Kallio, the producer at Poesia co-operative. The language of the webinar is Finnish.

For writers, programmers, graphic designers and others interested in developing new works of digital literature a virtual Digital Literature Hackathon will be organized the 16th to 18th April. The event aims to enhance networking and developing new collaborative works of digital literature. The languages of the Hackathon are Finnish and English. Five new concepts introduced in the Hackathon will be chosen to be further developed and realized with the help of mentors and both economical and productional support by the Digital Literature Project. The completed works will be introduced in the Night of Digital Literature in Cinema Orion in Helsinki the 19th August, as a part of Poetry Moon festival organized by Nuoren Voiman Liitto.

During the project, a podcast series on digital literature, the digital environment and digital reading, produced by Matti Kangaskoski will be published. Throughout the year, a series of writings about digital literature and the phenomena surrounding it, such as the algorithms of social media, experimental art and other forms of art, will be published. During the project run time the project website will grow up as a data bank of digital literature.

The Digital Literature Project is a cooperation projekt organized by literary society Nuoren Voiman Liitto, ELKE ry, Aalto Studios, The Master’s Programme in Writing at University of Arts and Nokturno, a website for digital and experimental literature. The project is supported by Finnish Cultural Foundation’s Uusimaa Regional Fund and The Promotion Center for Audiovisual Culture, AVEK.

Visit di.ki website here.