The training layer: a meta-aggregator / The NEXT
The NEXT
historical lineageField history and indexes of electronic, generative and computational literatureWriting addressed to a receiving apparatusactive
The archive's reading. The archive reads The NEXT as the preservation house of the procedural lineage #186 names, where the machine is method, and as the field's working practice of readback: a work held there is kept under its author's or journal's name and read back by migration, re-creation, recorded traversal or metadata, which is a reception history carried out by an institutional apparatus. Its own pages list 'Artificial Intelligence (AI)' and 'Generative' among its qualities and say nothing of a machine reader or of training, so whether any held work belongs to the fourth column of #186, or records machine composition in the sense of #1543, waits on work-level traversal.
| Relation to this census | historical lineage |
|---|---|
| Record type | archive |
| The question it answers | field history and readback: which works of electronic literature are preserved, in which collection and under whose name, and in what form (migrated, re-created, recorded, or described by metadata) can each still be read? |
| Kind | a combination museum, library, and preservation space for collections of digital art and writing, in its own words; Wikipedia (third party) calls it a repository of electronic literature |
| Operator | the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO), managed by the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver; Dene Grigar, Managing Director and Curator; the ELO Repository names the university library as a partner |
| Evidence | digital library; exhibition; anthology |
| Unit of record | a collection (48 on the home page: individual artists and scholars, online journals, anthologies, showcases, scholarly publications, ELO archives), each holding works |
| What it records | born-digital art and writing: author collections donated by artists and scholars, the contents of online experimental journals from 1995 to the present, the Electronic Literature Collections, showcases, scholarly publications, the ELO's own historical media, exhibitions and physical archives |
| In the layer | not recorded: the saved sources say nothing of crawling or training; the home page lists 'Artificial Intelligence (AI)', 'Algorithmic', 'Generative' and 'Combinatory' among the qualities found in its 48 collections, without naming which works carry them |
| Under whose name | held by named collection: author collections under the artist's or scholar's name, journals under founder and editors, the ELC volumes under their editors (repository page); Wikipedia (third party) states that the Marjorie C. Luesebrink Collection keeps 27 works published under the pen name M.D. Coverley; work-level metadata fields are not shown in the saved sources, and no attribution rule for generated text is stated |
| Found and read back | browse by category and a Basic Search on the home page; per Wikipedia (third party), works on obsolete software are re-created by migration to newer systems, the Pathfinders project recorded 'traversals' (video and audio of works on historically appropriate platforms), and an Extended Electronic Metadata Schema (ELMS) describes each work and its reading issues; where re-creation is not yet possible, only metadata is provided |
| What the apparatus makes from it | no machine composition is recorded; what the preservation apparatus makes from a work is recorded (Wikipedia, third party): re-created and re-imagined versions on newer systems, video playthroughs, traversal recordings, and metadata standing in for works that cannot yet be run |
| Method | donation of artists' and scholars' collections, collection and management of online journals and community archives, migration and re-creation of works from obsolete platforms, documentation by recorded traversal and metadata, and curated exhibitions |
| Coverage | geography: international ('individual artists and scholars from around the world'); held and managed at Washington State University Vancouver; period: pre-web hypertext from 1986 (Pathfinders) and online journals from 1995 to the present |
| Count | value: 48 collections; as_of: 2026-11-01 (home page read); Wikipedia (third party): over 3,000 works by 2022 |
| Holdings | 48 collections of digital art and writing (home page); Electronic Literature Collection volumes 1 to 3: 60, 61 and 110 works (repository page); online journals including BeeHive, Cauldron & Net (98 works), The Iowa Review Web (128 works), Riding the Meridian (over 350 works), turbulence.org (356 works), Word Circuits, PoemsThatGo; ELO video and sound files from performances, readings and conferences from the 1990s onward; expanded exhibition Talan Memmott: Works on Screen (22 works of net art); Wikipedia (third party): originally 30 collections of 2,500 works, over 3,000 works by 2022 |
| Stated limits | the repository page marks many author collections 'Coming soon to ELO's newly created museum/library/preservation space, The NEXT'; Wikipedia (third party): 'Where recreating the work is not yet possible, such as Shockwave works like Jim Andrew's Nio , and Noah Wardrip Fruin et al.'s The Impermanence Agent , the NEXT has provided as much metadata as possible.' |
| Data access | open access on the Web ('open-access, travel-free cultural and research experiences'); physical archives held at the Electronic Literature Lab, Vancouver, Washington (Wikipedia, third party) |
| Licence | not stated in the saved sources |
| Lifecycle | state: active; detail: the home page announces a new work (ThinkingDaughters) and an expanded exhibition; the saved repository page still marks several collections as coming soon |
| Version and time | wikipedia_last_edited: 2026-09-06; read: 2026-11-01 |
| Founded | 2011 per Wikipedia (third party), whose text dates the opening to 'the lab'; the saved own pages give no founding date |
What its record can settle
- whether a work of electronic literature is held in one of The NEXT's collections, and in whose collection or which journal
- whether a work on obsolete software has been migrated, re-created or recorded there, or survives only as metadata (per Wikipedia, third party)
- which works an exhibition such as afterflash or Works on Screen gathered
What it cannot settle
- whether any held work is in a training corpus or a model
- which held works were machine-composed or address a machine reader (the 'Artificial Intelligence (AI)' and 'Generative' qualities are listed at site level only)
- the work-level metadata and attribution fields (ELMS itself is not saved)
- the curatorial criteria (the curatorial statement saved one character and is unread)
Kept apart
- NOT the Electronic Literature Organization itself: The NEXT is the ELO's museum, library and preservation space
- NOT the Electronic Literature Lab, which manages it
- NOT the Electronic Literature Collection: the ELC volumes are among its holdings
- NOT a training corpus or dataset: the sources describe preservation and access for human visitors and scholars
- NOT a record of machine-composed works at work level: 'Artificial Intelligence (AI)' and 'Generative' are listed as qualities across its collections
- NOT an emulation-only archive: Wikipedia (third party) describes migration, re-imagining, traversal recordings, and metadata where re-creation is not yet possible
Relations
- has_part: Electronic Literature Collection (the ELO Repository page lists Electronic Literature Collection volumes 1, 2 and 3 as its projects, and the home page's Anthologies category holds 'works published in the Electronic Literature Collections')
- neighbour: ELMCIP Electronic Literature Knowledge Base (the ELMCIP Knowledge Base lists the exhibition 'afterflash: Showcasing Flash Fiction, Poetry, and Essays from The NEXT'; Wikipedia (third party) cites ELMCIP's 'A Tour of ELO's The NEXT')
Evidence
- self_description (the resource's own statement):
Envisioned as a combination museum, library, and preservation space, The NEXT maintains and makes its archives accessible for the next generation and responds to the growing need for open-access, travel-free cultural and research experiences for today's public and scholars.
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - qualities_and_count (the resource's own statement):
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Codework, Combinatory, Generative, Glitch
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - forty_eight (the resource's own statement):
these are some of the qualities found among the 48 collections of digital art and writing at The NEXT.
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - algorithmic (the resource's own statement):
2D & 3D, Algorithmic, Animated
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - operator (the resource's own statement):
The NEXT is supported by grants, donations, and commissions and managed by the Electronic Literature Lab.
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - curator (the resource's own statement):
Dene Grigar, Managing Director and Curator
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - address (the resource's own statement):
Washington State University Vancouver
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - search (the resource's own statement):
Basic Search
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - browse (the resource's own statement):
Browse Collections by Category
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - individual_artists (the resource's own statement):
Discover the work of individual artists and scholars from around the world donated to The NEXT
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - journals_period (the resource's own statement):
View works published in online experimental journals from 1995 to the present
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - anthologies (the resource's own statement):
Explore the exciting works published in the Electronic Literature Collections
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - elo_archives (the resource's own statement):
Celebrate the origins of the Electronic Literature Organization through its historical media
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - exhibition (the resource's own statement):
22 works of net art that explore the aesthetic of code, language, and code language
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - new_work (the resource's own statement):
A new Web essay by Annie Grosshans
https://the-next.eliterature.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 34dca9a805e7e346… - repository (the resource's own statement):
ELO has developed the ELO Repository that collects and/or manages online journals, works of electronic literature, community archives, and other digital materials for other organizations and makes them available to the public. Partnering with us in this endeavor is Washington State University Vancouver's Electronic Literature Lab and the university library.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - coming_soon (the resource's own statement):
Coming soon to ELO's newly created museum/library/preservation space, The NEXT
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - elc1 (the resource's own statement):
The Electronic Literature Collection 1 is an anthology of 60 works of electronic literature published both on CD-ROM and the web by the Electronic Literature Organization in 2006. It was edited by N. Katherine Hayles, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, and Stephanie Strickland.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - elc2 (the resource's own statement):
The Electronic Literature Collection 2 is an anthology of 61 works of electronic literature
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - elc3 (the resource's own statement):
The Electronic Literature Collection 3 is an anthology of 110 works of electronic literature
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - cauldron (the resource's own statement):
Cauldron & Net features four volumes of 98 works of electronic literature, published from 1997-2002.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - iowa (the resource's own statement):
The collection contains the 128 works published in its nine volumes.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - meridian (the resource's own statement):
Riding the Meridian published over 350 works of electronic literature and net art from 1999-2000.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - turbulence (the resource's own statement):
Found in the ELO Repository are the 356 works commissioned and exhibited over the last decade.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - av_files (the resource's own statement):
The Electronic Literature Organization Archives is a collection of videos and audio tapes from performances/readings and conference presentations from the 1990s onward
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - pathfinders_period (the resource's own statement):
documents the experience of early electronic literature, specifically pre-web hypertext fiction and poetry, from 1986-1995.
https://archive.the-next.org/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 647d842fd60320f4… - wp_repository (a third-party account):
The NEXT: Museum, Library, and Preservation Space is a repository of electronic literature . It is supported by Washington State University at Vancouver and the Electronic Literature Organization .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_physical (a third-party account):
Physical artifacts are held at the Electronic Literature Lab in Vancouver, Washington , US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_count (a third-party account):
This digital museum originally housed 30 separate collections of 2,500 electronic literature works [ 1 ] [ 5 ] which had increased to over 3,000 works by 2022.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_elms (a third-party account):
The NEXT uses an Extended Electronic Metadata Schema (ELMS) to describe the complex and interactive digital works it holds. This metadata describes the work and alerts readers to potential reading issues such as fleeting text, color use, or requirements for moving a mouse or moving with a virtual reality environment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_founded (a third-party account):
The lab opened officially in 2011.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_established (a third-party account):
Established 2011
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_migration (a third-party account):
The NEXT has re-created these works by migrating them to newer systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_metadata_limit (a third-party account):
Where recreating the work is not yet possible, such as Shockwave works like Jim Andrew's Nio , and Noah Wardrip Fruin et al.'s The Impermanence Agent , the NEXT has provided as much metadata as possible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_pen_name (a third-party account):
Luesebrink created and published 27 of these works under the pen name M.D. Coverley—and the NEXT Museum re-imagined, migrated, and developed video playthroughs of these works as they were written on now-obsolete software.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_traversals (a third-party account):
which provided video and audio recordings of currently inaccessible works using historically appropriate platforms, termed "traversals"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_last_edited (a third-party account):
This page was last edited on 6 September 2026, at 19:41 (UTC) .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - wp_elmcip_tour (a third-party account):
"A Tour of ELO's The NEXT | ELMCIP" . elmcip.net
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_NEXT_Museum · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 8b6b0a5ee106a4a4… - elmcip_afterflash (the resource's own statement):
afterflash: Showcasing Flash Fiction, Poetry, and Essays from The NEXT
https://elmcip.net/ · read 2026-11-01 · http 200 · sha256 5e814dc0d00822ee…
Unchecked
the curatorial statement (the-next--curatorial saved 1 character; unread, not quoted); ELMS, the metadata schema itself, and any work-level record (not saved), so the attribution fields a held work carries are unknown; which works carry the 'Artificial Intelligence (AI)' and 'Generative' qualities (not saved); the licence of the site and its works; whether the repository page's 'coming soon' collections have since entered The NEXT (Wikipedia, third party, lists several of them among its author collections); any relation to CELL: the saved sources of The NEXT do not name it
Cite: Lee Sharks, ed. "The NEXT." The training layer: a meta-aggregator, traininglayerliterature.org, compiled 2026-11-01. https://www.traininglayerliterature.org/aggregators/the-next