Immediate Causes

In the last (first) post I never got round to explaining why I'm trying this again right at this moment--don't get excited though, it's not earth-shaking. I mentioned to a David Silver, who runs the terrifically useful Resource Center for Cyberculture Sudies that I was attending some conferences in the Netherlands on virtual communities and on digital lit. if he'd like reports for the RCCS, and he said I should just blog it. He said it in all caps. I respect his work and opinion, so I figured what the hell. I've been teetering on the edge of blogging again for months anyway.

So a brief intro on the conferences: next week I'll start with the New Network Theory conference in Amsterdam, and I'm presenting a paper there. Eventually I'll put it online someplace and you all can see it--but since my school currently only allows us upload access from campus computers, and since I won't be on campus again until August, this could take awhile. Or maybe I'll find some other place for it.... I'm excited about it though because a bunch of people whose work I like will be speaking and I look forward to that. If I were at a comic book convention (you will probably read a fair amount about comic books in this blog) I would collect autographs and sketchs from people whose work I like. I wonder how these speakers would react? The proceedings are going to be on cd, so it doesn't really offer much space for cute little notes...maybe I'll suggest that for next time. Anyway, here's who I want to see: Wendy Chun, Florian Cramer, Alan Liu (all keynotes, all rather well-known) and also Ramesh Srinivasan, Ulises Ali Mejias and Mirko Schaefer (not as well known, but should be).

Then I'll be going to Re-Mediating Literature in Utrecht where, happily, I am not presenting, so I can just enjoy myself listening to other people talk about things that interest me, including Katherine Hayles, Jan Baetens and some others. But it's late, I'm tired and I'll say more about this in my next post, along with more exciting news about my impending trip.