Loss of Grasp

Loss of Grasp
AuthorSerge Bouchardon, Vincent Volckaert
LanguageFrench, English
Genreelectronic literature
Publication date
2011
AwardsNew Media Writing Prize

Loss of Grasp (Déprise in the French) is an online interactive digital narrative by Serge Bouchardon and Vincent Volckaert. It was first published in 2010. Loss of Grasp won the New Media Writing Prize in 2011, and has been analyzed in several scholarly works.

Serge Bouchardon is an author and professor at the University of Technology of Compiègne in France.[1] The work was included in the ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature, where the editors write that "Loss of Grasp, in French Déprise and in Italian Perdersi, plays with its readers’ expectations of how electronic texts are read."[2] The New Media Writing Prize noted this work for its " ability to give the reader that sense of losing control as events unfold."[3]

Work description

Six separate scenes feature a character who is losing grasp.[4] At the same time, this play on grasp and loss of grasp mirrors the readers’ experience of an interactive digital work.[4] The reader moves the mouse to uncover texts.[4]

For instance, in the second scene, the narrator is reading an ambiguous note from his wife. He speaks plainly about his loss of control. The readers can read the text either as a “love poem or a breakup note”. The reader can experience this double interpretation with gestures. If the readers move the mouse cursor to the top, the text will unfold as a love poem; but if the cursor is moved to the bottom, the order of the lines is reversed and the text turns into a breakup note. In the sixth and final scene, the narrator is determined to regain control. A text input window is then proposed to the readers wherein they can write. But whichever key the readers press, they do not control the text displayed on the screen. The readers are thus facing a manipulation based on a difference between their expectations and the display on the screen. The readers experience interactively the feeling of loss of grasp of the character. In this interactive narrative, the gestures fully contribute to the construction of meaning.[5]

This approach to interactivity is based on the figures of gestural manipulation as defined by Serge Bouchardon himself.[6]

Anthologies, presentations, and performances

This piece has been the subject of numerous selections, presentations and performances, for example:

  • European Literature Communities (Bergen, Norway, Sep. 2010)[7]
  • Repurposing in Electronic Literature (Kosice, Slovakia, Nov. 2013)[8]
  • Escenarios de la literatura electrónica (Mexico, Oct. 2015)[9]
  • Hyperrhiz 15 (Fall 2016)[10]
  • ICIDS Exhibition (Bournemouth, UK, 2020)[11]
  • I love E-Poetry[12]
  • Répertoire NT2[13]

The piece has been anthologized in the ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature (2013),[2] and the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4 (2022)[14] from the Electronic Literature Organization. It is cataloged in the ELMCIP Knowledge Base[15] and the Electronic Literature Directory.[16]

Presentations

Scholarly reception and analysis

Davin Heckman, associate professor of mass communication at Winona State University. He is managing editor of the Electronic Book Review and member of the board of the Electronic Literature Organization analyzed this work in his article Technics and Violence in Electronic Literature.[4]

Steve Hummer in Necessary Fiction, explains how the digital elements of this piece illustrate the everyday engagement with our modern digital devices.[1]

It has been taught at universities as an example of electronic literature. The work is being taught for Digital Literature in French secondary schools[17] and included in the curricula for the open education resource from the Digital Arts and Culture.[18]

Publication, translations, and versions

An initial version was developed in Flash in 2010,[4] then a new version was recreated in HTML/JavaScript in 2018 and a smartphone application in 2019.

The piece exists in 12 different languages: “Déprise” (French) / “Loss of Grasp” (English) / “Perdersi” (Italian) / “Perderse” (Spanish) / “Perda de controlo” (Portuguese) / Griffverlust (German) / (Nie)panowanie (Polish) / Fogásvesztés (Hungarian) / فقدان السيطرة (Arabic) / 失控 (Chinese) / утрата контроля (Russian) / अस्तित्व की ढलान (Hindi).

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b "Loss of Grasp — the Multimedia work of Serge Bouchardon – Necessary Fiction". necessaryfiction.com. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  2. ^ a b Bouchardon, Serge; Volckaert, Vincent (2012). "Loss of Grasp". In Engberg, Maria; Memmott, Talan; Prater, David (eds.). ELMCIP Anthology of European Electronic Literature|. ELMCIP. ISBN 978-82-999089-2-4. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  3. ^ a b Creative, Venn; Sophie (2011-11-24). "Winners announced for New Media Writing Prize 2011". The Literary Platform. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  4. ^ a b c d e Heckman, Davin (2011). "Technics and Violence in Electronic Literature" (PDF). Culture Machine. 12.
  5. ^ Bouchardon, Serge; and López-Varela, Asunción. "Making Sense of the Digital as Embodied Experience." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 13.3 (2011):
  6. ^ Bouchardon, S. (2013). "Figures of gestural manipulation in digital fictions", in Bell, A., Ensslin, A., Rustad, H. (dir.) Analyzing digital fiction, Londres: Routledge, 159-175.
  7. ^ "ELMCIP Electronic Literature Communities Seminar on Vimeo". vimeo.com. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  8. ^ "maria mencia". www.mariamencia.com. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  9. ^ "Plataformas de la imaginación: escenarios de la literatura electrónica México 2015" (in Spanish). 2015-08-13. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  10. ^ "Index". Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures (15). 2016. doi:10.20415/hyp/015. ISSN 1555-9351.
  11. ^ Nelson, Jason. "ICIDS Exhibition 2020 ===>>> TEXTS OF DISCOMFORT ===>>>". icids2020.bournemouth.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2025-09-12. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  12. ^ ""Loss of Grasp" by Serge Bouchardon and Vincent Volckaert – I ❤️ E-Poetry". Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  13. ^ Gauthier, Joël (2013-01-07). "Déprise" (in French). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ "Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4". collection.eliterature.org. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  15. ^ "Loss of Grasp | ELMCIP". elmcip.net. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  16. ^ "Loss of Grasp | Electronic Literature Directory". directory.eliterature.org. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  17. ^ Cahen, Françoise. "Mais là, on sort un peu du cadre, non?". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ^ "DTC101: Hypertext & Hypermedia". dtc-wsuv.org. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  19. ^ "See the Selected works for The Public Library Prize for Electronic Literature and find your personal winner – Turn on Literature". 2019-03-22. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
  20. ^ "ELO 2020 Prize Winners – Electronic Literature Organization". 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2026-01-27.
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