Writers, writing and writing programs in the information age : code, collaboration and interdisciplinary connection

This paper argues that writing programs need to consider forging more active alliance with the visual arts, on the grounds that the digital revolution is beginning to bring about changes that will see writers and artists (and technicians of different kinds) working together in collaboration more frequently than at present, and that new practices in creative research mean that we may have more in common with the visual arts than with other, traditional, disciplines when it comes to arguing politically for the value of what we do. This case is made by examining in detail selected instances of the work being written on ‘complex surfaces’ (Cayley 2005), new kinds of work being made with code, and the reconvergence of text with the visual in new media work.