EROICA, a hypermedia fiction
some acknowledgements and a little history

The following introduction to Eroica was written in 2014, when the work was first mounted on the web. Since then much has appended in the world of Electronic Literature, but we are pleased to let the original introduction stand. Though dated, it is accurate and reflects the historical moment of Eroica’s appearance.

What is this thing called hypermedia fiction? Illustrated novel? Opera staged within a monitor? Try hyperlinking Pavarotti. Virtual theater? Close, but HF's equivalents of auteurs and cinematographers. HF is unique. You have to experience it from the inside. HF is the contemporary genre par excellence that deploys all the artistic tools we have- images, texts, motion, unique soundscapes, forking paths, interactivity. In a world glutted with matter-particulates, effluents, ink, polymers, flesh-there is much to be valued in the virtual arts. They may not be absolutely immaterial or spiritual, but they are truly Protean. HF is to the traditional arts as quantum physics is to Newton.

Eroica, the work presented here, is hypermedia fiction. The impetus for its creation came from the 21st edition of The Little Magazine, an anthology of hypermedia works published on CD in 1995 at the University at Albany (NY). TLM's pioneering editors included Ben Henry, Belle Gironda, and Chris Funkhouser. The selections in the CD edition were short, but they offered an irresistible invitation to explore hypermedia for larger works. Ben Henry and Gene Garber developed a rough idea of what such a work would look like. They enlisted Lynn Hassan, a painter and sculptor of mythical works that would clearly enrich their vision. Cort Winters was enlisted to lead the team in digital design. Jose Halac, an Argentinian composer, provide a rich mix of synthesized and acoustical music. And so was Eroica born, a lively infant hardly conscious of anything more than the desire to create something in a new hypermedia genre and the mutual respect and admiration of its makers. Later, five actors worked very hard to produce expressive readings for the work-in-progress, with minimum guidance of image and sound. And finally, when the time came to compile the work for web installation, the programming skills of Gabriel Davis were indispensable. In 2021 a rework was required to sate the hunger of the demons of technology, though we hope this version to last in arctic code vaults for years to come.

The creators of Eroica were early admirers of the work of Michael Joyce, Shelly Jackson and the hypertext artists of Eastgate. Eroica artists also studies with profit the elegant multimedia CD Ceremony of Innocence based on Nick Bantock's novel Griffin and Sabine. By the late 90's the "genre" of Eroica was pretty well set, to some extent in relation to similar works but more as an outgrowth of process-the scene by scene, episode by episode dynamic transactions among artists-all conducted within a three-part structure of mise-en-scenes that provided for spatial, temporal, psychological and mythical dimensions. The 2006 conference of &Now organized by Davis Schneiderman and colleagues at Lake Forest College provided the creators of Eroica feedback from and audience interested in hypermedia work.

By the end of the 20th century Robert Coover and colleagues had founded the Electronic Literature Organization, which has done much to stimulate practice and theory in the new medium. Steve Tomasula's enormously ambitious work TOC: a new media novel was released in 2009. And no doubt there are many other hypermedia works that Eroica would wish to call companions. Eroica was long in the making. Its creation spans almost completely the birth and growth of the new genre(s) for which we hypermedia artists struggle to find a name. If it succeeds in making a contribution to this new art, it's creators will be pleased.

There are three related novels which you can learn more about at The Eroica Trilogy