Human Computation in Electronic Literature

Abstract

This chapter situates and considers several different facets of human computation in electronic literature and digital art. Electronic literature encompasses works in literary forms that are particular to the computer or the network context. Human computation is examined as an element of the development of collective narratives online, in which different roles are defined in architectures of participation. The form, structure, and common features of notable human-computation based artworks are identified. The human computation processes of collectively written and internet-harvested haiku generators are contrasted with each other to reveal their different models of situating the relationship between computational process and human authorship. Literary meta-critiques of human computation technologies such as Google’s machine reading of Gmail and reCAPTCHA’s use of human language recognition are discussed as electronic literature is positioned in a critical, if symbiotic, relationship to human computation.