Chris Funkhouser
Encyclopedia
Chris Funkhouser also known by the pen name
C.T. Funkhouser, is an Associate Professor in Humanities
and Social Sciences
at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
. He is the author of Prehistoric Digital Poetry
: An Archaeology of Forms, 1959-1995 (2007), Technopoetry Rising: Essays and Works (2007), and Selections 2.0, a CD-ROM eBook (2006) available online. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2006 and was sent to Multimedia University
in Cyberjaya
, Malaysia.
in 1964 and is the eldest of two siblings, Stewart and Margaret. His father John was a surgeon and officer in the US Navy and his mother Avery a homemaker
involved with fund raising for several organizations. Because of his father's affiliation with the military, his family made several relocations along the East Coast of the United States
until finally settling in West Falmouth, Massachusetts
in 1977. He graduated from Falmouth High School in 1982 and was a state champion in the half mile with his track team.
from the University of Virginia
. Originally a math major and preparing for business school, his surroundings largely influenced him in realizing the abstractions of poetry and art were much more interesting for him than those of high level math. These early-on revelations during his first year of college prompted his switch to a major in English. During his time as an undergrad at U.Va., he worked as a radio programmer at WTJU
-FM, was a staff member of the Virginia Literary Review, published his first poem Nocturnal Sands (1985), and continued his athleticism as a co-captain decathlete for the track & field team.
During the summer of 1986, Funkhouser traveled to Boulder, Colorado
for a Summer Writing and Poetics Program at Naropa Institute (now Naropa University
). His interactions with the faculty at Naropa, which include several American Poets such as Allen Ginsberg
, Anne Waldman
, William S. Burroughs
, Robert Creeley
, Joanne Kyger
, Jim Carroll
, Ed Sanders
, served as driving factors for his inspiration in dedicating his life to writing and poetry.
Returning to the University of Virginia
for his M.A.
in English, Funkhouser co-founded We Press with high school friend and roommate Ted Farrell in 1986. It was through We Press that Funkhouser was able to publish books and artwork within various medias. We Press also served as a tool for connecting him with poets from around the country.
Between receiving his M.A.
in 1988 and starting his Ph.D.
at SUNY-Albany in 1992, Funkhouser lived in Berkeley
and Santa Cruz
, California
. His interactions with other innovative poets and musicians within the area proved invaluable towards his sense of being a poet, performer, and publisher. Though he had not originally planned on returning to graduate school
, he learned through a friend about several multimedia
writing activities transpiring at SUNY-Albany. After attending a writing session there with Don Byrd
, Funkhouser was inspired to explore the technological possibilities for poetry. He received his Ph.D. in English in 1997 and has been applying digital
technology
to poetry ever since.
in 1995. He also spent time exploring MOO
space, a text-based system in which users can create virtual space and interact with other users online. Funkhouser's MOOAGE (2002) is a created text taken from dialogs and interactions with others from different MOO's. His first hypertext
work was based on an essay entitled Proto- Anthology of Hypermedia Poetry and re-purposed as a hyperlink
on the World Wide Web
. As WWW search engines started recognizing the link, Funkhouser was put in contact with like-minded scholars around the world.
, Chulalongkorn University
(Bangkok), and National University of Singapore
. He worked on an extensive multimedia project 13 States of Malaysia, composed of various poems, audio recordings, and digital images. Funkhouser’s first exhibition as a visual artist also took place in Malaysia.
Currently, Funkhouser is an Associate Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at NJIT. He teaches several courses including Digital Poetry and Literature Online. He has developed courses at NJIT including Elements of Visual Design, Hypertext Design Studio, Cybertext
, Electronic Publishing Lab, and Advanced Electronic Publishing. Funkhouser also does podcasting
via iTunes
U.
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
C.T. Funkhouser, is an Associate Professor in Humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and Social Sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology is a public research university in Newark, New Jersey. It is often also referred to as Newark College of Engineering ....
. He is the author of Prehistoric Digital Poetry
Prehistoric Digital Poetry
Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archeology of Forms, 1959–1995 is a nonfiction book by C. T. Funkhouser. It was published in 2007 by the University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama...
: An Archaeology of Forms, 1959-1995 (2007), Technopoetry Rising: Essays and Works (2007), and Selections 2.0, a CD-ROM eBook (2006) available online. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2006 and was sent to Multimedia University
Multimedia University
Multimedia University is Malaysia's first private university. It has two campuses with one in Cyberjaya and another in Melaka. The distance between the two campuses are approximately 150 kilometers, via the North South Expressway.-History:...
in Cyberjaya
Cyberjaya
Cyberjaya is a town with a science park as the core that forms a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia. It is located in the district of Sepang, Selangor and is situated about 50 km south of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia...
, Malaysia.
Early Life and Family
Funkhouser was born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
in 1964 and is the eldest of two siblings, Stewart and Margaret. His father John was a surgeon and officer in the US Navy and his mother Avery a homemaker
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
involved with fund raising for several organizations. Because of his father's affiliation with the military, his family made several relocations along the East Coast of the United States
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
until finally settling in West Falmouth, Massachusetts
West Falmouth, Massachusetts
West Falmouth is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,867 at the 2000 census.-Geography:West Falmouth is located at ....
in 1977. He graduated from Falmouth High School in 1982 and was a state champion in the half mile with his track team.
Collegiate Life
In 1986, Funkhouser received his B.A.Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
from the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. Originally a math major and preparing for business school, his surroundings largely influenced him in realizing the abstractions of poetry and art were much more interesting for him than those of high level math. These early-on revelations during his first year of college prompted his switch to a major in English. During his time as an undergrad at U.Va., he worked as a radio programmer at WTJU
WTJU
WTJU is a Variety formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Charlottesville, Virginia, serving Charlottesville, Virginia and Albemarle County, Virginia, with a broadcast range of about 50 miles, as well as webcasting over the internet. WTJU is owned and operated by the University of Virginia...
-FM, was a staff member of the Virginia Literary Review, published his first poem Nocturnal Sands (1985), and continued his athleticism as a co-captain decathlete for the track & field team.
During the summer of 1986, Funkhouser traveled to Boulder, Colorado
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
for a Summer Writing and Poetics Program at Naropa Institute (now Naropa University
Naropa University
Naropa University is a private American liberal arts university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher and Oxford University scholar Chögyam Trungpa, it is named for the eleventh-century Indian Buddhist sage Naropa, an abbot of Nalanda.Naropa describes itself as...
). His interactions with the faculty at Naropa, which include several American Poets such as Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman
Anne Waldman is an American poet.Since the 1960s, Waldman has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community as a writer, performer, collaborator, professor, editor, scholar, and cultural/political activist....
, William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...
, Joanne Kyger
Joanne Kyger
Joanne Kyger is an American poet. Her poetry is influenced by her practice of Zen Buddhism and her ties to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat generation.-Overview:...
, Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll
James Dennis "Jim" Carroll was an author, poet, autobiographer, and punk musician. Carroll was best known for his 1978 autobiographical work The Basketball Diaries, which was made into the 1995 film of the same name, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Carroll.-Biography:Carroll was born to a...
, Ed Sanders
Ed Sanders
Ed Sanders is an American poet, singer, social activist, environmentalist, author and publisher and has been a longtime member of the band The Fugs. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and Hippie generations.-Biography:...
, served as driving factors for his inspiration in dedicating his life to writing and poetry.
Returning to the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
for his M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in English, Funkhouser co-founded We Press with high school friend and roommate Ted Farrell in 1986. It was through We Press that Funkhouser was able to publish books and artwork within various medias. We Press also served as a tool for connecting him with poets from around the country.
Between receiving his M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in 1988 and starting his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
at SUNY-Albany in 1992, Funkhouser lived in Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
and Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. His interactions with other innovative poets and musicians within the area proved invaluable towards his sense of being a poet, performer, and publisher. Though he had not originally planned on returning to graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
, he learned through a friend about several multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
writing activities transpiring at SUNY-Albany. After attending a writing session there with Don Byrd
Don Byrd
Donald J. Byrd is a poet, sound artist, and Professor of English at the State University of New York at Albany. His work is generally in the fields of literary analysis and information theory...
, Funkhouser was inspired to explore the technological possibilities for poetry. He received his Ph.D. in English in 1997 and has been applying digital
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
to poetry ever since.
Early Works with Digital Literature and Hypertext
Funkhouser's first digital project was We Magazine issue 17, an electronic network composed of 18 different installments via the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
in 1995. He also spent time exploring MOO
MOO
A MOO is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users are connected at the same time.The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses...
space, a text-based system in which users can create virtual space and interact with other users online. Funkhouser's MOOAGE (2002) is a created text taken from dialogs and interactions with others from different MOO's. His first hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
work was based on an essay entitled Proto- Anthology of Hypermedia Poetry and re-purposed as a hyperlink
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
on the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. As WWW search engines started recognizing the link, Funkhouser was put in contact with like-minded scholars around the world.
Recent Life and Works
In 2001, Funkhouser was introduced to Malaysia’s first digital poet Nazura Rahime. After traveling to visit her school, Multimedia University, he left with a positive impression, taken by the school and country. His Fulbright proposal Hypermedia Writing served as a way to return to Malaysia for an extended period of time. During his eight months there, he gave a series of lectures on campus as well as the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Universiti Sains MalaysiaUniversiti Sains Malaysia
Universiti Sains Malaysia is a public university with its main campus in Penang, Malaysia. There are three branch campuses: one in mainland Penang , one in Kelantan on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, and a offshore collaboration with a university in India...
, Chulalongkorn University
Chulalongkorn University
Chulalongkorn University is the oldest university in Thailand and is the country's highest ranked university. It now has nineteen faculties and institutes. Regarded as the best and most selective university in Thailand, it consistently attracts top students from around the country...
(Bangkok), and National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
. He worked on an extensive multimedia project 13 States of Malaysia, composed of various poems, audio recordings, and digital images. Funkhouser’s first exhibition as a visual artist also took place in Malaysia.
Currently, Funkhouser is an Associate Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at NJIT. He teaches several courses including Digital Poetry and Literature Online. He has developed courses at NJIT including Elements of Visual Design, Hypertext Design Studio, Cybertext
Cybertext
Cybertext is the organization of text in order to analyze the influence of the medium as an integral part of the literary dynamic, as defined by Espen Aarseth in 1997...
, Electronic Publishing Lab, and Advanced Electronic Publishing. Funkhouser also does podcasting
Podcasting
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
U.
Personal life
Funkhouser is married to Amy Hufnagel, a visual artist, photographer, and arts educator. They have two kids, Constellation Hufnagel Funkhouser (born 1999) and Aleatory Zoon Heep Funkhouser (born 2005).Other Major Works
- book review: not a b (pdp remix)
- enjoy the ride (video, 2007) with Alireza Khatami; soundtrack by Oequestra Descarrego
External links
- New Jersey Institute of Technology
- Chris's website at NJIT
- Chris's podcasting via iTunes U
- Prehistoric Digital Poetry info page
- Link to Selections 2.0
- Book review: not a b (pdp remix)
- Chris's online publications
- We Press - Funkhouser - co-founder and co-editor
- Chris's first digital project
- A MOO excerpt by Chris
- Chris's page at PennSound
- Chris's Proto-Anthology of Hypermedia Poetry essay
- Chris's Electronic Poetry Center Author Section
- Multimedia University in Cyberjaya, Malaysia
- Chris's Myspace Page