Mondays at Beinecke: Remembering “Amnesia” with Claire Fox

A talk in conjunction with the exhibition “Remembering ‘Amnesia’: Rebooting the First Computerized Novel” on view now in the Hanke Gallery at Sterling Memorial Library.

Zoom webinar registration: https://bit.ly/4gfvldd

“Amnesia”—a work of interactive science fiction by Thomas M. Disch, published in 1986—was an early attempt to bring video games into the realm of literary art by translating a novelist’s script into a medium that readers could only experience by interacting with a computer.

This exhibition traces how “Amnesia” moved from story idea to digital manifestation. Visitors can also play the game on workstations in the Hanke Gallery in Sterling Memorial Library and in Bass Library, using Emulation-as-a-Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) software. Included is the story of the library’s Digital Preservation unit’s work to bring the interactive, computerized novel to life.

Claire Fox, curator of the exhibition, is Software Preservation and Emulation Librarian in Yale Library.

Mondays at Beinecke online talks focus on materials from the collections and include an opening presentation at 4pm followed by conversation and Q & A beginning about 4:30pm until 5pm.