Noah Wardrip-Fruin: Expressive Processing: On Process-Intensive Literature and Digital Media (2006)

From the author: “This work represents my initial take on a set of topics that I currently wrap up under the heading “expressive processing.” There are two things I particularly mean to get at with this phrase:

• First, I’m pointing toward a sort of generalization of Michael Mateas’s Expressive AI. In essence, by this I mean that the definition of computational processes is an important aspect of the authoring of digital work (it is a site for authorial expression) and that undertaking this definition from an authorial perspective (rather than through a mysticism of the computer or a particular group of techniques) is a powerful approach.
• Second, I’m hoping to make clear that the computational processes of digital works express things about their relationship to the wider society — and, especially, the subcultures and materials of science and technology — that simply aren’t visible on the surface. Given this, interpretation of digital works that focuses only on what is visible to (and experienced by) the audience misses an important avenue of investigation.”

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Special Graduate Studies at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, May 2006

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