Harmon,+Kenny+R.

__Overview__
===Utterback begins her discussion by stating that "all forms of 'interactive text' demand a body with which to interact" and draws attention to N. Katherine Hayles' //How We Became Post Human// (1999). Uttterback claims that the interfaces of the mouse, keyboard, and computer screen have forced us into "unusual positions" where we must rethink the human body's relationship to the symbolic spaces of the electronic world. She points out that practical interfaces, such as the mouse and the keyboard, privelege user control, and she bemoans the lack of a proper interface that meaningfully engages the human body with the information and codes of machines. The remainder of her essay goes on to explain and explore works, including her own, that incorporate what she calls "poetic" interfaces that interact with the human body rather than rather than forming some type of unequal power relationship betwteen human and machine. She discusses David Small and Tom White's (1997-98) //Stream of Consciousness: An Interactive Poetic Garden//, a work by herself and Romy Achituv titled //Text Rain// (1999), her works //Drawing from Life// (2001) & //Vicissitudes// (1998), a work completed with Adam Chapman titled //See/Saw// (2001) as well as //The Legible City// by Jeffrey Shaw (1989). In her article, Utterback describes each work and discusses the physical interaction between machine/technology and human bodies within the real space of the installations. Her central point is that each of these unique interfaces allows us to rethink and "re-embody" the "position and status of bodies as they are increasingly represented on screens, or in the virtual space of our machines."===

__Commentary__
===Utterback's straightforward discussion further explores ideas presented in Chapter 3 of N. Katherine Hayles' //Electronic Literature: New Horizon's of the Literary// in which in which the author asks, "Should the body be subjected to the machine or the machine to the body? In that work Hayles claims, "A fuller understanding of our contemporary situation requires the articulation of a ... position focusing on the dynamics entwining body and machine together" (88), rather than a struggle for dominance or subjectivity of human over machine or vice versa. Each of the works that Utterback presents in an exploration of this idea of intwining the body and the machine, and her commentary is insightful and facscinating. Her descriptions of the works, however, are often difficult to visualize, and this can make her commentary difficult to follow. Links to videos of individuals interacting with the works would help clarify.===

__Discussion__
===1. Utterback refers to herself as an artist that creates interactive video installations and reactive sculptures, what specific characteristics of her work can we say validate her inclusion within the category of Digital Literature?===

2. Thinking about Janet Murray's ideas concerning immersion from //Hamlet on the Holodeck//, in what ways does Utterback create an immersive experience? Is this immersion a public or private one?
===3. How does one of Utterback's works form a critical conversation with the other works of digital literature that we have examined this term such as Pullinger's "Inanimate Alice" and/or Shelley Jackson's "My Body?"===