Electronic Literature
Write stories that live in code and interaction
Electronic Literature research in the Department of Media Study at UB explores how storytelling changes when computers become creative partners. For more than forty years, writers and artists have used digital tools to create poetic, fictional and dramatic experiences that move beyond the printed page.
At UB, electronic literature spans experimental and mainstream forms, blending writing, visuals, sound and code across multiple platforms.
Electronic Literature asks what happens when narrative becomes interactive, immersive or location based. Instead of reading a fixed text, audiences may click, move, listen, explore or even perform the story.
Projects can take many forms, including:
- Digital poetry
- Poetry installation
- Interactive fiction
- Game-based storytelling
- Intermedia performance
- Location-based media
- Virtual reality narratives
- Escape room experiences
Delivery systems are flexible and inventive, from mobile apps to physical installations to augmented reality environments. Faculty guide students through both creative production and critical theory, helping them understand how digital storytelling reshapes authorship, audience and meaning.
Great for students interested in:
- Creative writing and experimental narrative
- Interactive storytelling
- Game design and narrative systems
- Digital art and installation
- Virtual and augmented reality
- Critical theory and media studies
Research in Electronic Literature asks questions such as:
- How does interactivity change the role of the reader?
- What does authorship mean when stories are shaped by code?
- How can digital platforms expand poetic and dramatic expression?
- How do games and immersive media function as narrative forms?
- How does place, movement or environment influence storytelling?
These questions connect literary tradition to technological innovation.
Electronic Literature research blends writing, coding and media experimentation. Faculty and students create interactive works while engaging theoretical frameworks from media studies and critical theory.
Research methods may include:
- Creative coding and digital publishing
- Interactive design and user experience testing
- Performance and installation development
- Location-aware and mobile media experimentation
- Critical analysis of digital texts and platforms
Students often prototype projects, exhibit installations and present research in both artistic and academic contexts.
Electronic Literature research commonly explores:
- Digital poetry and narrative experimentation
- Interactive fiction and branching story structures
- Game-based storytelling
- Immersive and spatial narratives
- Augmented and virtual reality literature
- Critical theory and media analysis
- Cross-media and intermedia performance
Together, these approaches expand what literature can be and how it can be experienced.
Connects naturally to
Game studies, virtual reality, film and video, creative writing, digital humanities, critical theory, performance and installation art.
Students can design interactive stories, build digital poetry projects and experiment with immersive narrative systems. They work with faculty mentors to combine creative practice and theoretical insight.
These experiences build writing skills, technical fluency and conceptual depth that translate into careers in digital media, interactive storytelling, game narrative, publishing and advanced graduate study.