1
00:00:00,742 --> 00:00:03,325
...and sort of debate and discuss
all the things she brings up.
2
00:00:03,325 --> 00:00:05,732
- So, Tara McPherson!
- Thank you very much.
3
00:00:06,311 --> 00:00:07,976
(audience applauds)
4
00:00:10,846 --> 00:00:14,802
I told my graduate students
I was coming to the DH mothership, so...
5
00:00:14,969 --> 00:00:15,987
(audience laughs)
6
00:00:16,097 --> 00:00:17,195
It feels good to be here.
7
00:00:17,205 --> 00:00:22,036
And I've obviously followed the work
that comes out of this space
8
00:00:22,036 --> 00:00:25,146
for a very long time,
so it's nice to be here.
9
00:00:25,569 --> 00:00:30,107
I kind of break what I understand
to be protocol here a little bit
10
00:00:30,107 --> 00:00:33,245
by doing a mix of talking and reading,
11
00:00:33,245 --> 00:00:35,573
because I'm working
through some new ideas
12
00:00:35,573 --> 00:00:39,205
and I actually find writing and reading
still really useful for that
13
00:00:39,205 --> 00:00:42,006
as well as in the kind of context
of making.
14
00:00:42,236 --> 00:00:45,619
And the title has changed a little bit,
because I was supposed to be here
15
00:00:45,619 --> 00:00:51,036
last fall, doing a talk on databases,
but hurricane Sandy had other ideas!
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00:00:51,667 --> 00:00:52,715
I was not here.
17
00:00:53,332 --> 00:00:56,791
And I'm really happy to have
finally made the program.
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00:00:56,791 --> 00:00:57,995
So...
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00:00:57,995 --> 00:01:02,475
I'm going to talk in a vein
that characterizes some of the recent work
20
00:01:02,475 --> 00:01:05,196
I've been doing,
in an attempt to hold together
21
00:01:05,196 --> 00:01:06,801
my schizophrenic identities.
22
00:01:07,534 --> 00:01:13,505
And primarily that's a deep commitment
to forms of theoretical inquiry
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00:01:13,899 --> 00:01:16,734
and post-structuralist scholarship
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00:01:17,399 --> 00:01:22,205
with an interest in the making
and doing of the digital.
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00:01:22,834 --> 00:01:27,732
And I've been engaged in trying to force
these different parts of myself together
26
00:01:27,732 --> 00:01:29,003
for a little while,
27
00:01:29,003 --> 00:01:31,505
and I'm kind of continuing in that vein.
28
00:01:31,812 --> 00:01:35,435
In his very kind of purposefully
provocative essay
29
00:01:35,435 --> 00:01:39,135
that first was on the blog
and then later included
30
00:01:39,135 --> 00:01:43,172
in the Debates in the Digital Humanities
book here in its digital form,
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00:01:43,172 --> 00:01:50,451
Alan Liu really argues "the digital
humanities are noticeably missing
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00:01:50,451 --> 00:01:55,101
"in action on the cultural critical scene.
Where the digital humanists
33
00:01:55,101 --> 00:02:00,203
"develop tools, data and metadata,
critically,
34
00:02:00,203 --> 00:02:04,971
"rarely do they extend their critique
to the full register of society,
35
00:02:04,971 --> 00:02:07,032
"economics, politics or culture."
36
00:02:07,770 --> 00:02:09,769
And these debates aren't entirely new.
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00:02:09,769 --> 00:02:13,903
Liu first delivered a kind of pacifist
at the MLA in Los Angeles,
38
00:02:13,903 --> 00:02:18,239
but your own Martha Nell Smith
has for quite awhile been interested
39
00:02:18,239 --> 00:02:21,200
in variations of many of these questions.
40
00:02:21,871 --> 00:02:27,435
And Martha has narrated a particular
history of humanities computing,
41
00:02:27,435 --> 00:02:32,130
you know, as the field was known
for many years before it was rebranded,
42
00:02:32,130 --> 00:02:36,496
under the sign of the digital humanities,
as a kind of reaction formation
43
00:02:36,496 --> 00:02:40,880
to "the concerns that had taken over
so much of academic work and literature
44
00:02:41,205 --> 00:02:43,974
those of gender, race, class
and sexuality."
45
00:02:44,675 --> 00:02:48,011
Today I want to consider some recent
variations on this debate,
46
00:02:48,011 --> 00:02:50,271
which is longstanding and ongoing,
47
00:02:50,271 --> 00:02:53,709
around the role of cultural theory
within the digital humanities
48
00:02:53,975 --> 00:02:55,514
and its close analogs.
49
00:02:55,779 --> 00:02:58,581
And in order to argue
for a theoretically explicit form
50
00:02:58,581 --> 00:03:02,014
of digital praxis
within the digital humanities.
51
00:03:02,338 --> 00:03:07,112
And in doing this I also take seriously
recent claims by colleagues in the UK
52
00:03:07,112 --> 00:03:11,149
like Gary Hall, that the very goals
of critical theory
53
00:03:11,149 --> 00:03:16,681
and of quantitative or computational study
might in fact be incommensurable.
54
00:03:16,846 --> 00:03:18,743
He's recently written
a very interesting piece
55
00:03:18,743 --> 00:03:21,884
that'll be in a special issue
of American Literature
56
00:03:21,884 --> 00:03:23,783
that I co-edited this winter,
57
00:03:23,783 --> 00:03:25,875
making precisely that argument.
58
00:03:26,283 --> 00:03:29,310
And the goals of critical
theoretical inquiry
59
00:03:29,310 --> 00:03:33,481
in the humanities interpretive traditions
are not compatible
60
00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:36,509
with computational analysis
that they proceed from.
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00:03:36,509 --> 00:03:39,283
And while I don't agree with him entirely,
it's an interesting
62
00:03:39,283 --> 00:03:40,966
and provocative argument.
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00:03:40,966 --> 00:03:44,111
And he goes on to conclude
that their productive combination
64
00:03:44,111 --> 00:03:48,579
will require far more time and care
than has been devoted to that endeavor
65
00:03:49,112 --> 00:03:49,703
thus far.
66
00:03:50,672 --> 00:03:54,414
As such, I ask what it might mean
to design from the very conception
67
00:03:54,414 --> 00:03:58,279
digital tools and applications
that emerge from the concerns
68
00:03:58,279 --> 00:03:59,908
of cultural theory.
69
00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:03,716
And in particular from a feminist concern
for difference.
70
00:04:04,782 --> 00:04:07,282
This need to attend
with more time and care
71
00:04:07,282 --> 00:04:11,338
to potential intersections of theory
and the digital humanities
72
00:04:11,338 --> 00:04:15,510
has been the subject of recent
and often heated online discussions,
73
00:04:15,510 --> 00:04:20,514
conference panels, various publications,
Twitter wars, you name it.
74
00:04:22,115 --> 00:04:24,279
Groups of emerging scholars
have organized
75
00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:28,682
under such rubrics as "Transform DH",
"In DH Poco",
76
00:04:28,682 --> 00:04:32,115
in order to catalyze just such exchanges.
77
00:04:32,342 --> 00:04:35,815
And have recently formed the FemTechNet
organization.
78
00:04:35,815 --> 00:04:38,640
If you're not aware of FemTechNet,
it's a kind of anti-MOOC
79
00:04:38,640 --> 00:04:42,978
underway right now, being taught
with a very large list
80
00:04:42,978 --> 00:04:46,511
of feminist collaborators
under the leadership of Anne Balsamo
81
00:04:46,511 --> 00:04:47,879
and Alex Juhasz.
82
00:04:48,814 --> 00:04:52,613
One online forum initiated by
Adeline Koh and Roopika Risam
83
00:04:52,613 --> 00:04:56,740
on the postcolonial digital humanities
in May 2013
84
00:04:56,740 --> 00:05:01,278
fostered a lively and sometimes heated
debate in response to the question:
85
00:05:01,278 --> 00:05:03,440
is DH a refuge?
86
00:05:04,075 --> 00:05:05,690
I'm not even sure what that meant, exactly
87
00:05:05,690 --> 00:05:08,082
but from race, class,
gender and sexuality.
88
00:05:09,113 --> 00:05:12,745
I'll not attempt to summarize
the conversation that transpired here.
89
00:05:12,745 --> 00:05:16,010
If I were to scroll down
it would go on almost infinitely.
90
00:05:16,010 --> 00:05:19,881
And Adeline and Roopika have already
kind of storified it
91
00:05:19,881 --> 00:05:21,381
in a variety of ways,
92
00:05:21,381 --> 00:05:24,346
so you can find their summary elsewhere.
93
00:05:24,346 --> 00:05:28,024
Including an interesting experiment
on a shared Google Doc
94
00:05:28,024 --> 00:05:34,773
where folks could critique
how they summed up their own statement.
95
00:05:34,773 --> 00:05:37,861
I do want to zero in on a few points
in this exchange
96
00:05:37,861 --> 00:05:40,819
to stage the beginnings of a claim
for a particular mode
97
00:05:40,819 --> 00:05:43,077
of enacting the digital humanities.
98
00:05:43,273 --> 00:05:47,815
Or following Katie King, one might
say "re-enacting the humanities".
99
00:05:49,441 --> 00:05:51,044
Entering into the--
100
00:05:51,238 --> 00:05:52,811
I don't know if you'll be able
to read this,
101
00:05:52,811 --> 00:05:54,441
but I'll summarize some of it
for you.
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00:05:54,441 --> 00:05:57,207
Entering into the forum's fray
by in his words
103
00:05:57,207 --> 00:05:59,011
"tapping on his cell phone"
104
00:05:59,011 --> 00:06:03,479
meaning that there weren't really
considered keyboard-linked responses,
105
00:06:03,479 --> 00:06:07,314
but still pretty hefty responses to be
doing it from your cellphone keyboard,
106
00:06:07,314 --> 00:06:12,816
Ian Bogost wrote "On the one hand
anyone who believes computational platforms
107
00:06:12,816 --> 00:06:16,380
"are transparent doesn't really
understand those platforms,
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00:06:16,380 --> 00:06:20,313
"but on the other, a blind focus
on identity politics
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00:06:20,313 --> 00:06:24,078
"above all other concerns,
has partly prevented humanists
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00:06:24,078 --> 00:06:28,349
"from deeply exploring the technical
nature of computer systems
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00:06:28,349 --> 00:06:31,308
"in order to grasp
those very understandings."
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00:06:32,275 --> 00:06:35,213
Bogost's insistence that we must
explore the technical nature
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00:06:35,213 --> 00:06:38,618
of the computer
resonates with various formulations
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00:06:38,618 --> 00:06:40,216
in the digital humanities,
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00:06:40,216 --> 00:06:44,014
even though I don't think Ian himself
would necessarily claim membership
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00:06:44,014 --> 00:06:45,616
in the tribe of DH...
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00:06:45,616 --> 00:06:48,454
Although he might, you never know
on a given day.
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00:06:48,454 --> 00:06:51,716
It aligns as well with a good deal
of digital media studies
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00:06:51,716 --> 00:06:56,042
including hardware and software studies,
where end research has been prolific
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00:06:56,042 --> 00:06:57,249
and important.
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00:06:57,851 --> 00:07:00,782
It's an insight that's also fueled
my own work.
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00:07:00,782 --> 00:07:03,677
In the conversation that then spools
throughout the thread,
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00:07:03,677 --> 00:07:04,973
as you scroll down here,
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00:07:04,973 --> 00:07:09,146
Ian goes on to observe that
"doing hardware and software studies
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00:07:09,146 --> 00:07:12,478
"sometimes requires one
to bracket identity
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00:07:12,478 --> 00:07:15,639
"even if just for a moment,
in order to learn something
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00:07:15,639 --> 00:07:17,911
"in the latter's service.
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00:07:17,911 --> 00:07:22,083
"But those of us who do that work
are frequently chided
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00:07:22,083 --> 00:07:26,244
"for failing to focus all energy
and all attention at all times
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00:07:26,244 --> 00:07:30,476
"on the accuser's notion
of what comprises the entire discourse
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00:07:30,476 --> 00:07:32,147
"of social justice."
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00:07:34,448 --> 00:07:37,410
I find two things especially curious
in this formulation.
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00:07:37,410 --> 00:07:41,717
First, it's interesting that a forum
originally framed quite broadly,
134
00:07:41,717 --> 00:07:46,180
it's about the intermingling of race,
class, gender and sexuality
135
00:07:46,180 --> 00:07:49,050
and disability in the digital humanities,
136
00:07:49,050 --> 00:07:52,053
quickly moves to a discussion
of identity politics
137
00:07:52,053 --> 00:07:56,072
as the natural or likely terrain
for such concerns.
138
00:07:56,248 --> 00:07:59,110
Later in the forum, Anne Balsamo
observes that there are certainly
139
00:07:59,110 --> 00:08:02,714
many ways to address questions
of feminism and of difference
140
00:08:02,714 --> 00:08:06,082
that do not narrowly default
to identity politics.
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00:08:06,848 --> 00:08:09,876
And she points the forum
to the work of feminist philosopher
142
00:08:09,876 --> 00:08:11,018
Karen Barad.
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00:08:11,949 --> 00:08:15,941
In her book, Designing Culture,
Balsamo builds upon Barad's theory
144
00:08:15,941 --> 00:08:17,712
of intra-actions,
145
00:08:17,712 --> 00:08:21,270
in order to develop a complex model
of design practice
146
00:08:21,270 --> 00:08:26,112
that understands the relationship
between materiality and discursivity
147
00:08:26,112 --> 00:08:28,409
between objects and subjects
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00:08:28,409 --> 00:08:30,615
and between nature and culture
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00:08:30,615 --> 00:08:34,079
to be fluid, open-ended and contingent.
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00:08:34,481 --> 00:08:38,410
In such a model, design of technologies,
of software, of code,
151
00:08:38,410 --> 00:08:42,412
proceeds from an acknowledgement
of our messy entanglements
152
00:08:42,412 --> 00:08:44,538
with matter and with each other.
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00:08:44,743 --> 00:08:48,746
For Barad, to be entangled is not simply
to be intertwined with another,
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00:08:48,746 --> 00:08:51,639
it's in the joining of separate entities,
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00:08:51,639 --> 00:08:54,781
but to lack an independent,
self-contained existence.
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00:08:56,009 --> 00:08:59,150
Given this formulation, a second element
of the forum exchange
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00:08:59,150 --> 00:09:01,581
from this website stands out.
158
00:09:02,482 --> 00:09:05,313
The notion of the bracketing of identity,
or of other things,
159
00:09:05,313 --> 00:09:08,214
other aspects of culture
that might prevent one
160
00:09:08,214 --> 00:09:12,447
from accessing properly
the technical nature of the computer.
161
00:09:13,085 --> 00:09:16,528
Similar ideas surface in a number
of moments across the discussion.
162
00:09:16,528 --> 00:09:21,009
For instance, Andrew Smart observes
the "Digital technology
163
00:09:21,114 --> 00:09:24,435
"at its lowest level relies
on the physical laws
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00:09:24,435 --> 00:09:27,409
"of how information is represented
in voltage.
165
00:09:27,409 --> 00:09:30,601
"The way computers and networks work
is determined,
166
00:09:30,601 --> 00:09:35,042
"or may be very constrained
by the laws of physics."
167
00:09:36,836 --> 00:09:38,236
Is this you, Travis?
168
00:09:39,873 --> 00:09:41,103
(Travis) Yes, it is.
169
00:09:41,103 --> 00:09:42,869
I had no idea you were here!
170
00:09:43,295 --> 00:09:46,038
Sorry, but here we're going to go
for a little bit into Lambda the Ultimate.
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00:09:46,038 --> 00:09:47,972
When you introduced yourself
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00:09:47,972 --> 00:09:49,505
my ears went PING!
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00:09:49,970 --> 00:09:55,003
The tendency to describe computation
as a series of levels
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00:09:55,003 --> 00:10:00,707
increasingly abstracted from culture,
surfaces in other online venues as well.
175
00:10:00,971 --> 00:10:04,201
A further interesting example
is found at Lambda the ultimate,
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00:10:04,201 --> 00:10:08,571
a site that "deals with issues
directly related to programming languages
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00:10:08,571 --> 00:10:11,711
"and is largely populated by programmers."
178
00:10:11,711 --> 00:10:15,940
On May 5th 2010, Travis Brown,
here in living flesh,
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00:10:16,268 --> 00:10:17,950
created a forum there
180
00:10:17,950 --> 00:10:21,600
under the heading "critical code studies",
asking the Lambda community
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00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,567
to reflect on the idea
of critical code studies
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00:10:24,567 --> 00:10:27,874
as articulated by new media scholar
Mark Marino,
183
00:10:27,874 --> 00:10:32,210
including a link to a CFP
and essay by Marino,
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00:10:32,210 --> 00:10:36,643
as well as to essays by Katherine Hayles
and Rita Raley.
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00:10:37,179 --> 00:10:39,673
The ensuing discussion
lasted several days.
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00:10:40,143 --> 00:10:42,500
While a few contributors were intrigued
by the possibility
187
00:10:42,500 --> 00:10:46,310
that cultural theory might be useful
in the study of code,
188
00:10:46,310 --> 00:10:47,637
including Travis,
189
00:10:47,637 --> 00:10:49,102
many were skeptical,
190
00:10:49,102 --> 00:10:52,539
or rejected the idea pretty much
out of hand.
191
00:10:53,105 --> 00:10:58,544
So, these are some fairly typical comments
gleaned from this forum.
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00:10:59,231 --> 00:11:03,176
This is actually an essay forthcoming
in the feminist journal Differences
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00:11:03,176 --> 00:11:08,103
and I attend to some of the other comments
from this forum in that list as well.
194
00:11:08,103 --> 00:11:10,504
But I bet you never imagined
when you posted this
195
00:11:10,504 --> 00:11:13,300
that it would end up in the pages
of Differences, right?
196
00:11:13,740 --> 00:11:14,508
(Travis) No!
197
00:11:16,344 --> 00:11:21,476
The comments begin to kind of replay
a lot of the same kind of argument I think,
198
00:11:21,476 --> 00:11:24,609
that code at the end functions
or it doesn't,
199
00:11:24,609 --> 00:11:26,839
and at some level,
if it's going to function
200
00:11:26,839 --> 00:11:30,717
it really can't have that much
to do with culture and society.
201
00:11:30,717 --> 00:11:34,604
It's functional or it's not functional,
as one commenter says,
202
00:11:34,604 --> 00:11:38,038
"what I mean is that the sociological
aspects of code
203
00:11:38,038 --> 00:11:40,141
"are not in the code itself."
204
00:11:40,141 --> 00:11:43,474
And I think that is actually something
we don't know for sure,
205
00:11:43,474 --> 00:11:45,536
and I would hold that
as an open question,
206
00:11:45,536 --> 00:11:50,166
that perhaps there are ways
that we might come to understand culture
207
00:11:50,166 --> 00:11:54,742
as quite deeply embedded
in our systems, infrastructures
208
00:11:54,742 --> 00:11:55,807
and code.
209
00:11:56,268 --> 00:12:00,377
In these examples, code functions
much as Andrew Smart imagines it does.
210
00:12:00,377 --> 00:12:04,006
In a realm determined by math, physics,
or reason,
211
00:12:04,006 --> 00:12:06,806
apart from the messy realms
of culture.
212
00:12:08,205 --> 00:12:12,106
This tendency to frame computational
technologies in "levels",
213
00:12:12,106 --> 00:12:13,803
you know, kind of nested layers,
214
00:12:13,803 --> 00:12:18,939
is also reflected in the description
of the bulk series "Platform Studies"
215
00:12:19,299 --> 00:12:23,976
published by MIT Press, with editors
Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort.
216
00:12:24,976 --> 00:12:28,274
In the website that describes
the Platform Studies series,
217
00:12:28,274 --> 00:12:32,708
Bogost and Montfort offer a chart
delineating the five stacked levels
218
00:12:32,708 --> 00:12:35,335
of analysis of new media studies.
219
00:12:35,635 --> 00:12:40,312
So, we move from "reception and operation"
to "interface", to "form and function",
220
00:12:40,312 --> 00:12:42,509
to "code" to "platform".
221
00:12:42,770 --> 00:12:45,144
And most of the cultural stuff
happens up here
222
00:12:45,144 --> 00:12:47,545
in the ways those descriptions
are understood.
223
00:12:47,545 --> 00:12:49,775
Some of you may be flashing back
to Jameson,
224
00:12:49,775 --> 00:12:52,672
if you ever had that past, right?
225
00:12:52,947 --> 00:12:56,509
The nitty gritty technological,
really important stuff
226
00:12:56,509 --> 00:13:01,941
in the framing of book series
happens down at the level of platform.
227
00:13:03,102 --> 00:13:05,838
And, potentially at the level of code
as well,
228
00:13:05,838 --> 00:13:09,333
but there's a very particular
kind of system
229
00:13:09,333 --> 00:13:13,841
of privilege built in
to the way the analysis operates.
230
00:13:14,704 --> 00:13:19,845
Platform is framed as the foundation layer
"an abstraction layer beneath code."
231
00:13:20,414 --> 00:13:23,443
And even in the title of the series
Platform Studies
232
00:13:23,443 --> 00:13:25,372
it's obviously given primacy.
233
00:13:26,004 --> 00:13:29,211
A later revision of this chart
in their book Raising the Beam
234
00:13:29,211 --> 00:13:33,710
encloses these five levels,
following some critique of this diagram.
235
00:13:33,710 --> 00:13:37,309
It encloses these five levels
in a chart labelled "culture".
236
00:13:37,512 --> 00:13:38,534
(audience laughs)
237
00:13:38,534 --> 00:13:40,403
A box encloses those layers,
238
00:13:40,403 --> 00:13:44,770
and the authors stress "we see all
of these levels
239
00:13:44,770 --> 00:13:48,138
"not just the top level of reception
and operation"
240
00:13:48,138 --> 00:13:50,433
which on this website is where culture
is located,
241
00:13:50,433 --> 00:13:55,959
"as being situated in culture, society,
economy and history."
242
00:13:55,959 --> 00:13:58,599
Yet the very model of discreet
boxed layers,
243
00:13:58,599 --> 00:14:02,601
neatly enclosed in the larger box
of history puts into place
244
00:14:02,601 --> 00:14:06,499
a conceptual framework
that undervalues entanglements
245
00:14:06,499 --> 00:14:07,737
and interactions,
246
00:14:07,737 --> 00:14:13,535
encouraging a focus on individual layers
rather than a focus on the complex ways
247
00:14:13,535 --> 00:14:16,673
in which the layers themselves
come into being,
248
00:14:16,673 --> 00:14:19,631
delineate particular possibilities
and boundaries
249
00:14:19,631 --> 00:14:23,194
and foreclose potential futures
and becomings.
250
00:14:23,702 --> 00:14:27,005
Obviously we need to focus
our scholarly attention somewhere,
251
00:14:27,005 --> 00:14:30,371
on particular themes, processes
or ideas,
252
00:14:30,371 --> 00:14:32,963
but the models we work from
are important.
253
00:14:32,963 --> 00:14:39,033
To follow Barad, if matter matters,
how we focus on matter also matters.
254
00:14:40,067 --> 00:14:42,902
Despite this critique, I value
and learn from the work
255
00:14:42,902 --> 00:14:46,467
of code and Platform Studies,
in particular from Ian's work
256
00:14:46,467 --> 00:14:50,099
and careful examinations
of particular platforms.
257
00:14:51,534 --> 00:14:55,064
And from the digital humanities practices
more generally.
258
00:14:55,064 --> 00:14:57,604
I too have written at length
how hard it is
259
00:14:57,604 --> 00:15:02,129
to entangle examinations of code
with cultural critique.
260
00:15:02,562 --> 00:15:05,596
How easy it is to get into the lure
of the bracket.
261
00:15:05,596 --> 00:15:09,213
I've called for humanity scholars
to take code seriously
262
00:15:09,260 --> 00:15:11,003
and to learn to make things.
263
00:15:11,003 --> 00:15:13,583
Maybe not as vociferously
as Stephen Ramsay,
264
00:15:13,845 --> 00:15:14,811
(audience laughs)
265
00:15:14,811 --> 00:15:16,413
but certainly loudly!
266
00:15:16,413 --> 00:15:18,478
But I also worry
that the digital humanities
267
00:15:18,478 --> 00:15:20,384
code and platform studies,
268
00:15:20,384 --> 00:15:23,612
all too often center computation
and technology
269
00:15:23,612 --> 00:15:26,946
in a way that makes interaction
hard to discern.
270
00:15:27,473 --> 00:15:30,514
In fact, I've argued that this
conceptual bracketing,
271
00:15:30,514 --> 00:15:34,850
this singling out of code from culture,
is in itself part and parcel
272
00:15:34,850 --> 00:15:37,252
of the organization
of knowledge production
273
00:15:37,252 --> 00:15:42,049
that computation has disseminated
around the world for well over 50 years.
274
00:15:43,147 --> 00:15:46,082
In an essay that tracks the
entangled historical moment
275
00:15:46,082 --> 00:15:49,949
that produced new racial codes
and new forms of computation,
276
00:15:49,949 --> 00:15:53,681
I maintain that the development
of computer operating systems
277
00:15:53,681 --> 00:15:59,943
mid-century installed an extreme logic
of modularity that black-boxed knowledge
278
00:15:59,943 --> 00:16:06,211
in a manner quite similar to emerging
logics of racial visibility and racism.
279
00:16:06,211 --> 00:16:09,876
An operating system like UNIX
works by removing context
280
00:16:09,876 --> 00:16:12,319
and decreasing complexity.
281
00:16:12,912 --> 00:16:18,152
Early computers, from 1940 - 1960
had complex interdependent designs
282
00:16:18,152 --> 00:16:20,419
that were pre-modular.
283
00:16:20,784 --> 00:16:22,992
But the development of databases
would depend
284
00:16:22,992 --> 00:16:27,651
upon the modularity of UNIX
and languages like C and C++.
285
00:16:28,747 --> 00:16:30,886
We could see at work here
the basic contours
286
00:16:30,886 --> 00:16:34,815
of an approach to the world
that separates object from subject.
287
00:16:35,356 --> 00:16:38,791
Cause from effect, context from code.
288
00:16:38,791 --> 00:16:42,424
I am suggesting that there's something
particular to the very forms
289
00:16:42,424 --> 00:16:45,735
of digital culture that encourages
such a partitioning.
290
00:16:45,866 --> 00:16:49,988
A portioning off that also played out
in the increasing specialization
291
00:16:49,988 --> 00:16:51,717
of academic fields,
292
00:16:51,717 --> 00:16:56,073
and even in the formation of mini modes
of identity politics after World War II.
293
00:16:56,894 --> 00:16:59,728
We need conceptual models
for the digital humanities
294
00:16:59,728 --> 00:17:03,735
and for digital media studies
that do not rely upon the bracket,
295
00:17:03,735 --> 00:17:06,067
the module, the box,
or the partition.
296
00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:09,779
Feminist theory,
particularly theories of difference,
297
00:17:09,779 --> 00:17:11,734
has much to offer in this regard.
298
00:17:12,401 --> 00:17:15,966
Participants in both the DH Poco
and the Lambda forums,
299
00:17:15,966 --> 00:17:18,261
and in the digital humanities
more generally,
300
00:17:18,261 --> 00:17:20,899
call on humanist scholars
to learn to code,
301
00:17:20,899 --> 00:17:25,235
or at the very least, to require
advanced technological literacies.
302
00:17:25,524 --> 00:17:29,295
I agree, but I would also issue
a reciprocal call
303
00:17:29,295 --> 00:17:33,331
for coding humanists to engage
feminist phenomenology,
304
00:17:33,331 --> 00:17:37,197
postcolonial theory, and theorizations
of difference.
305
00:17:37,435 --> 00:17:41,999
Gender, race, sexuality, class, disability
might then be understood
306
00:17:41,999 --> 00:17:47,067
not as things that could simply be added
to our analyses, or to our metadata,
307
00:17:47,067 --> 00:17:50,899
but instead as operating principles
of a different order,
308
00:17:50,899 --> 00:17:54,628
always already coursing through discourse
and matter.
309
00:17:54,628 --> 00:17:58,167
And if we cannot study all discourse
and all matter at once,
310
00:17:58,167 --> 00:18:02,826
Barad offers up not the bracket,
but the agencial cut,
311
00:18:03,201 --> 00:18:05,189
a kind of movement,
a fluid movement
312
00:18:05,535 --> 00:18:10,133
as a method through which "in the absence
of a classic ontological condition,
313
00:18:10,133 --> 00:18:13,705
"of exteriority between observed
and observer,
314
00:18:13,705 --> 00:18:19,026
"we might enact a local, causal structure
among components of a phenomenon."
315
00:18:19,595 --> 00:18:23,077
And here I think there are analogies
to be drawn between Barad's work
316
00:18:23,077 --> 00:18:24,866
and, say, the work of Bruno Latour.
317
00:18:24,866 --> 00:18:27,429
A lot of ways to begin to think
about theorizing systems
318
00:18:27,429 --> 00:18:29,631
that don't depend upon the bracket.
319
00:18:30,527 --> 00:18:33,794
If bracketing tends to recapitulate
the modularity of code,
320
00:18:33,794 --> 00:18:36,902
treating difference, either at the level
of content,
321
00:18:36,902 --> 00:18:40,235
and here, difference becomes the thing
we fill our archives with,
322
00:18:40,235 --> 00:18:44,832
we build neutral archive platforms,
but we have one about women,
323
00:18:45,023 --> 00:18:48,633
and one about scholars of color,
and one about Native Americans.
324
00:18:48,633 --> 00:18:51,463
Or difference functions in the background.
325
00:18:51,463 --> 00:18:55,592
i.e. that box that wraps around
the different levels of technology.
326
00:18:55,592 --> 00:18:59,861
The cut as a methodological paradigm
is fluid and mobile,
327
00:18:59,861 --> 00:19:03,524
even as it recognizes
the constituitive work of difference.
328
00:19:04,293 --> 00:19:09,503
As Barad notes, cuts are part of phenomena
that they help to produce.
329
00:19:09,503 --> 00:19:14,196
Sarah Kember and Johanna Zylinska
in their recent book Life After New Media
330
00:19:14,196 --> 00:19:18,092
have highlighted the dual ontological
and ethical dimensions
331
00:19:18,092 --> 00:19:22,565
of Barad's agencial cut, observing
that the cut is a causal procedure
332
00:19:22,565 --> 00:19:26,263
that performs the division
of the world into entities,
333
00:19:26,263 --> 00:19:28,660
but it is also a decision.
334
00:19:29,255 --> 00:19:32,757
That is, where and how we focus matters.
335
00:19:32,894 --> 00:19:37,580
This concept of the cut resonates,
if unevenly and imprecisely,
336
00:19:37,580 --> 00:19:42,050
with tension with a number of feminist
conceptual paradigms.
337
00:19:42,050 --> 00:19:46,356
Including Katie King's re-enactments,
Chantal Mouffe's articulations
338
00:19:46,356 --> 00:19:49,424
Chela Sandoval's
differential consciousness
339
00:19:49,424 --> 00:19:52,190
and Jane Bennett's vital materiality.
340
00:19:52,617 --> 00:19:56,118
While these theoretical models
are as different as they are alike,
341
00:19:56,118 --> 00:20:00,236
they each offer ways to understand
relation between object and subject
342
00:20:00,236 --> 00:20:04,254
between discourse and matter,
between identity and difference.
343
00:20:04,786 --> 00:20:08,551
So, that was very long-winded
and not very DH-y.
344
00:20:08,700 --> 00:20:12,433
How might any of this matter at all
for the digital humanities?
345
00:20:12,433 --> 00:20:16,060
Alan Liu mantains that the appropriate
unique contribution
346
00:20:16,060 --> 00:20:20,768
that the digital humanities can make
to cultural criticism at the present time
347
00:20:20,768 --> 00:20:26,167
is to use the tools, paradigms
and concepts of digital technologies
348
00:20:26,167 --> 00:20:29,835
to help re-think the idea
of instrumentality.
349
00:20:30,703 --> 00:20:32,765
If a core activity
in the digital humanities
350
00:20:32,765 --> 00:20:36,969
has been the building of tools,
we should design our tools differently,
351
00:20:36,969 --> 00:20:41,598
in a mode the explicitly engages
power and difference from the get-go,
352
00:20:41,598 --> 00:20:45,637
laying bare our theoretical allegiances
and exploring the interactions
353
00:20:45,637 --> 00:20:47,993
of culture and matter.
354
00:20:48,729 --> 00:20:52,166
And I just want to, in the background,
have some slides up
355
00:20:52,166 --> 00:20:55,537
illustrating what I think are kind of
people already engaging this work,
356
00:20:55,537 --> 00:20:58,667
including Kim Christen, who was one
of our Vector scholars years ago
357
00:20:58,667 --> 00:21:01,924
and has been funded
by the likes of the NEH
358
00:21:01,924 --> 00:21:07,599
and IMLS to do a lot of work that's
really rethinking database structures
359
00:21:07,599 --> 00:21:12,936
and ontologies from an indigenous
perspective in fairly radical new ways,
360
00:21:12,936 --> 00:21:16,603
kind of putting
her theoretical inclinations
361
00:21:16,603 --> 00:21:21,732
as a HisCon student at Santa Cruz
to practice in new forms
362
00:21:21,732 --> 00:21:25,528
of database and archiving technologies.
363
00:21:26,029 --> 00:21:27,039
This is...
364
00:21:37,917 --> 00:21:39,047
Sorry...
365
00:21:50,555 --> 00:21:54,681
This is just one out of many projects
from our practice-based PhD program
366
00:21:54,681 --> 00:21:57,851
which integrates theory and praxis.
367
00:21:58,210 --> 00:22:03,182
And this is by a young woman
Susana Ruiz, a video game designer,
368
00:22:03,182 --> 00:22:07,152
who produced years ago,
an award-winning videogame
369
00:22:07,152 --> 00:22:09,521
on genocide in Darfur,
370
00:22:09,521 --> 00:22:12,487
who's now doing a series of projects
around...
371
00:22:12,816 --> 00:22:16,318
card play, strategy games.
372
00:22:18,851 --> 00:22:22,180
This is sort of like the kids' game
Apples to Apples,
373
00:22:22,180 --> 00:22:26,572
but it's meant as a social infrastructure
to wrap around a series
374
00:22:26,572 --> 00:22:30,780
of documentaries on women, girls,
and social justice.
375
00:22:31,077 --> 00:22:34,446
So, it extends the moving
into a transmedial space
376
00:22:34,446 --> 00:22:37,353
and connects back up to social networks.
377
00:22:37,353 --> 00:22:39,911
So, she's thinking
about feminist game design
378
00:22:39,911 --> 00:22:44,276
and how game mechanics
need to incorporate activist mentalities.
379
00:22:44,814 --> 00:22:48,859
She's doing a lot of really fantastic work
with her collaborators.
380
00:22:49,147 --> 00:22:53,945
Other feminist scholars offer models
of how practice-based work might unfold,
381
00:22:53,945 --> 00:22:57,451
including Martha Nell Smith,
Anne Balsamo, Marsha Kinder,
382
00:22:57,451 --> 00:23:02,411
Sharon Daniel, Susan Brown,
Bethan Nowviskie, Alex Juhasz,
383
00:23:02,736 --> 00:23:07,305
Julia Flanders, Jackie Wernimont,
Misha Cardenas and Mary Flanagan.
384
00:23:07,843 --> 00:23:11,146
And not all those names
usually cohere under 'DH',
385
00:23:11,146 --> 00:23:15,411
but I want to argue they're all DH
in profoundly important ways.
386
00:23:15,810 --> 00:23:18,707
Now I want to shift gears a little bit
and read at you much less
387
00:23:18,707 --> 00:23:23,173
and talk a little bit about the ways
and the collaborative practice
388
00:23:23,173 --> 00:23:27,319
of my own workspace at USC.
389
00:23:27,545 --> 00:23:30,414
We've tried to think
about what it actually means
390
00:23:30,414 --> 00:23:33,437
to build feminist systems
for knowledge production
391
00:23:33,437 --> 00:23:34,702
and circulation
392
00:23:34,702 --> 00:23:36,714
and show you some examples
of that work.
393
00:23:36,940 --> 00:23:39,806
So, this is the journal that I...
394
00:23:41,342 --> 00:23:45,410
originally edited and now I co-edit
with my colleague Steve Anderson,
395
00:23:45,410 --> 00:23:46,342
at USC,
396
00:23:46,342 --> 00:23:48,517
it's a very experimental project.
397
00:23:48,517 --> 00:23:52,450
It looks almost nothing like
what we imagined a journal to be.
398
00:23:52,450 --> 00:23:57,044
And it began really as a set of
experiments at the interface
399
00:23:57,044 --> 00:23:59,815
to try to understand
how new screen languages
400
00:23:59,815 --> 00:24:03,210
might afford scholars new ways
to work with the materials
401
00:24:03,210 --> 00:24:06,540
from their evidence and archives.
402
00:24:06,742 --> 00:24:11,508
So, I'll really quickly just show you
one project from Vectors.
403
00:24:11,929 --> 00:24:15,337
It's open access,
it's available for free online,
404
00:24:16,169 --> 00:24:19,738
you can find it and
see it for yourself, but...
405
00:24:23,481 --> 00:24:27,946
We were very interested, besides looking
at screen aesthetics,
406
00:24:27,946 --> 00:24:31,308
also thinking
about multi-sensory engagement
407
00:24:31,308 --> 00:24:34,871
and what it meant
to have truly multi-modal composition
408
00:24:34,871 --> 00:24:38,941
for scholarly materials,
and what kind of impact that might have
409
00:24:38,941 --> 00:24:42,639
on how scholars understood
their relationship to their work.
410
00:24:44,914 --> 00:24:49,540
I'm at a very big screen resolution here,
so we'll see if it all fits on!
411
00:24:50,637 --> 00:24:51,979
Oh, no sound...
412
00:24:58,505 --> 00:25:00,813
Let me know if this sound is turned on...
413
00:25:00,813 --> 00:25:03,982
(audience member 1) The best thing to do
might be to crank up your laptop
414
00:25:03,982 --> 00:25:05,412
as loud as it'll go.
415
00:25:07,308 --> 00:25:09,349
I always forget to ask about sound!
416
00:25:11,919 --> 00:25:14,115
Actually I think I'll show you
another piece, real quick,
417
00:25:14,115 --> 00:25:17,417
that we talked about in the launch,
because it doesn't need sound.
418
00:25:18,820 --> 00:25:22,014
Would not be entirely fair
to Sharon's piece
419
00:25:22,014 --> 00:25:23,647
to show it without sound.
420
00:25:26,579 --> 00:25:28,419
So, this is the very first issue
421
00:25:28,419 --> 00:25:33,122
and it included a project
called The Stolen Time Archive
422
00:25:35,218 --> 00:25:37,181
by Alice Gambrell.
423
00:25:42,512 --> 00:25:45,107
And it's probably an appropriate project
to show in the space of MITH
424
00:25:45,107 --> 00:25:47,917
since there's so much interest here
in widening technologies
425
00:25:47,917 --> 00:25:50,016
and the history of those technologies,
because this project
426
00:25:50,016 --> 00:25:51,882
is a digital...
427
00:25:54,479 --> 00:25:58,153
performance of the central arguments
of a written book project
428
00:25:58,153 --> 00:25:59,485
called Writing is Work
429
00:25:59,485 --> 00:26:02,422
that's interested
in the material practices of writing
430
00:26:02,422 --> 00:26:06,350
and the ways this practice
has changed quite substantially
431
00:26:06,350 --> 00:26:08,522
across the early 20th century,
432
00:26:08,522 --> 00:26:12,222
from being masculine
to feminine occupations
433
00:26:12,222 --> 00:26:16,118
and the kind of cultural anxieties
that were produced around that.
434
00:26:16,118 --> 00:26:19,921
So, the project is basically
an eclectic small archive
435
00:26:19,921 --> 00:26:22,785
of hundreds of documents
that somehow relate
436
00:26:22,785 --> 00:26:26,777
to this kind of material status
of writing and exchanging conditions
437
00:26:26,777 --> 00:26:30,178
that you interact with
through this interface.
438
00:26:32,318 --> 00:26:33,917
Do people know what these are?
439
00:26:35,321 --> 00:26:36,816
(a few audience members) Shorthand.
440
00:26:36,816 --> 00:26:38,114
So, these are the...
441
00:26:38,312 --> 00:26:42,719
What they mean sort of refract
the different personalities of the scholar
442
00:26:42,719 --> 00:26:44,983
and the designer she was working with.
443
00:26:44,983 --> 00:26:46,919
So, "toy" I would attribute to Alice,
444
00:26:46,919 --> 00:26:49,384
and "abuse" I would attribute
to Reagan Kelly.
445
00:26:49,384 --> 00:26:52,553
And the interface plays with,
esthetically with the tension
446
00:26:52,553 --> 00:26:54,121
between those dimensions.
447
00:26:54,121 --> 00:26:57,690
So, to clock in, because the piece
is getting you to think
448
00:26:57,690 --> 00:27:00,908
about the structuring
of employment and time.
449
00:27:00,908 --> 00:27:03,720
You have to practice your shorthand.
450
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:05,717
All those orange things are mistakes.
451
00:27:05,717 --> 00:27:07,919
You don't really have to do it,
you could just clock in.
452
00:27:07,919 --> 00:27:10,017
But people tend to do it anyway.
453
00:27:10,488 --> 00:27:13,288
And what you gradually begin to do
as you move through the piece
454
00:27:13,288 --> 00:27:16,446
is to explore Alice's eclectic archive
455
00:27:16,446 --> 00:27:20,485
that's the unacknowledged
infrastructure for her book.
456
00:27:20,485 --> 00:27:25,412
And you can read through her glosses
on the materials.
457
00:27:25,412 --> 00:27:30,348
The words on the project are probably
equivalent to a small book,
458
00:27:30,348 --> 00:27:33,786
but they're deliberate in these
kind of smaller sections.
459
00:27:36,748 --> 00:27:40,546
We quickly realize although we thought
we were interested in the surface
460
00:27:40,546 --> 00:27:43,646
of the screen, that we were working
with databases, almost immediately,
461
00:27:43,646 --> 00:27:48,451
as we meant to build these lovely
bespoke, unsustainable Vectors projects.
462
00:27:48,814 --> 00:27:53,617
So, the first iteration
of the database structures,
463
00:27:53,617 --> 00:27:57,650
we would go on to work with,
came out of these projects.
464
00:27:58,225 --> 00:27:59,823
So, you can move through the...
465
00:27:59,823 --> 00:28:02,419
I'm not going to tell you a lot
about the project,
466
00:28:02,419 --> 00:28:05,986
but it's full of everything
from didactic materials
467
00:28:05,986 --> 00:28:09,356
produced for office workers
and secretaries
468
00:28:09,356 --> 00:28:12,414
to cartoons, to contemporary zines.
469
00:28:12,414 --> 00:28:16,882
Stolen time is what you do at work
when you're on Zappo's buying shoes
470
00:28:16,882 --> 00:28:19,218
instead of the work
you're supposed to be doing.
471
00:28:19,218 --> 00:28:21,688
And that's the conceit
that organizes the piece.
472
00:28:21,688 --> 00:28:24,762
As you move through it,
if you click on Alice's glosses,
473
00:28:24,762 --> 00:28:27,184
you start to build a composite
of where you've been.
474
00:28:27,184 --> 00:28:30,589
This was very early,
this was 2004 when we built it.
475
00:28:30,589 --> 00:28:33,485
It's still pretty, I think.
476
00:28:34,451 --> 00:28:37,720
And lovely to spend time with,
but it's not doing a lot of things
477
00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:40,515
the networked web is interested
in doing.
478
00:28:41,682 --> 00:28:47,281
The early projects were all done in Flash,
so they're kind of hermetically sealed.
479
00:28:47,281 --> 00:28:50,516
The very early ones,
you can't even get the data out of.
480
00:28:50,516 --> 00:28:54,677
There were problems with the way
the work unfolded in some ways.
481
00:28:54,677 --> 00:28:58,655
But it was also an experiment
that we learned an enormous amount from.
482
00:28:58,655 --> 00:29:02,247
In terms of what we might want to do next
and where we can move.
483
00:29:02,746 --> 00:29:06,395
We learned about screen language,
but also database design,
484
00:29:06,395 --> 00:29:10,552
about open access publishing,
and I think probably most importantly,
485
00:29:10,552 --> 00:29:11,789
about collaboration
486
00:29:11,789 --> 00:29:16,655
with scholars with very particular
theoretical and activist commitments.
487
00:29:17,721 --> 00:29:21,715
Our projects were speculative in
the sense that Johanna Drucker describes,
488
00:29:21,715 --> 00:29:24,550
"committed to pushing back
against the cultural authority
489
00:29:24,550 --> 00:29:28,783
"of rationalism in the digital humanities
and in digital design."
490
00:29:29,145 --> 00:29:31,952
They were also centered on critical
and theoretical questions
491
00:29:31,952 --> 00:29:34,479
that motivated the scholars
with whom we worked.
492
00:29:34,479 --> 00:29:37,660
Humanities scholars interested
in questions of memory,
493
00:29:37,660 --> 00:29:42,885
race, gender, embodiment, sexuality,
perception, temporality
494
00:29:42,885 --> 00:29:45,022
ideology and power."
495
00:29:45,716 --> 00:29:49,684
While Vectors projects began
as experiments at the surface of the screen,
496
00:29:49,684 --> 00:29:51,616
they soon led us to building tools,
497
00:29:51,616 --> 00:29:55,752
in particular we began to grapple
with the database as an object
498
00:29:55,752 --> 00:29:58,147
to think with and to think against.
499
00:29:58,586 --> 00:30:02,352
We found that the constraints
of much relational database software
500
00:30:02,352 --> 00:30:06,355
were not particularly well-suited
to the ways in which humanities scholars
501
00:30:06,355 --> 00:30:07,649
think and work.
502
00:30:07,649 --> 00:30:11,152
And, in particular,
to interpretive humanity scholarship,
503
00:30:11,152 --> 00:30:12,851
which is often narratively-driven.
504
00:30:13,122 --> 00:30:14,452
And we wanted to think
about how the database
505
00:30:14,452 --> 00:30:18,617
might be amended somehow
to perform differently.
506
00:30:19,115 --> 00:30:21,681
Through the guidance of our
information design director,
507
00:30:21,681 --> 00:30:25,723
Craig Dietrich, the team developed
a customized database tool
508
00:30:25,767 --> 00:30:29,728
that allowed more flexibility
in how scholars could iteratively work
509
00:30:29,728 --> 00:30:30,892
within our middleware.
510
00:30:30,892 --> 00:30:34,622
The scholars each built
out their own infrastructure,
511
00:30:34,622 --> 00:30:36,994
while the designer worked
on the front end.
512
00:30:36,994 --> 00:30:41,560
This is from a project by Minoo Moallem
513
00:30:41,560 --> 00:30:43,722
looking at the function
of the Persian carpet
514
00:30:43,722 --> 00:30:45,829
in the American imaginary.
515
00:30:45,829 --> 00:30:48,005
She's a feminist postcolonial
scholar at Berkeley.
516
00:30:50,181 --> 00:30:52,358
And she did that with Eric Loyer.
517
00:30:52,358 --> 00:30:57,021
So we began to explore several things,
including the ways
518
00:30:57,021 --> 00:30:58,962
in which the interface design
519
00:30:58,962 --> 00:31:01,795
might mitigate the database's
relentless logic.
520
00:31:01,987 --> 00:31:03,961
So, the Vectors projects
were very much toddling
521
00:31:03,961 --> 00:31:06,859
between the rigid structures
of the database
522
00:31:06,859 --> 00:31:07,531
and...
523
00:31:07,531 --> 00:31:13,589
a very designed, estheticized front end
that performed in ways quite different
524
00:31:13,589 --> 00:31:16,122
than most database structures.
525
00:31:16,955 --> 00:31:19,494
We were interested
in really refusing the tyranny
526
00:31:19,494 --> 00:31:20,491
of the template.
527
00:31:20,491 --> 00:31:24,499
But obviously we're still using
computational materials
528
00:31:24,499 --> 00:31:27,997
that physics still had to work,
that voltage still had
529
00:31:27,997 --> 00:31:30,060
to course through the machine.
530
00:31:30,452 --> 00:31:32,595
In exploring relations of form
to content,
531
00:31:32,595 --> 00:31:35,461
we privileged particular kinds
of content.
532
00:31:35,893 --> 00:31:39,457
Choosing to work with scholars
interested in questions of gender,
533
00:31:39,457 --> 00:31:43,096
race, affect, memory and social justice.
534
00:31:43,096 --> 00:31:45,930
And those concerns were at the core
of our research.
535
00:31:45,930 --> 00:31:47,436
Those intellectual questions.
536
00:31:47,823 --> 00:31:49,120
And they profoundly continued
537
00:31:49,120 --> 00:31:52,488
to shape the way we design
technological systems today.
538
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:57,165
Now, over the past five years,
I've worked with a number of colleagues
539
00:31:57,165 --> 00:31:59,291
from across the country,
in the UK,
540
00:31:59,291 --> 00:32:03,921
around the emergence of the new kind
of organization
541
00:32:03,921 --> 00:32:07,157
that grows out of the Vectors work,
really trying to think
542
00:32:07,157 --> 00:32:11,062
about how we might work
with digital materials held in archives,
543
00:32:11,062 --> 00:32:12,361
in new ways.
544
00:32:12,751 --> 00:32:17,530
And this work has been supported by Mellon
and by the Office of Digital Humanities
545
00:32:17,530 --> 00:32:18,493
at NEH,
546
00:32:18,493 --> 00:32:23,192
and roughly, models a new kind of workflow
for scholarly materials
547
00:32:23,192 --> 00:32:28,764
from digital archive through a set
of archive partners like the Getty,
548
00:32:28,764 --> 00:32:31,924
and Shoah
and the Internet Archive
549
00:32:31,924 --> 00:32:33,823
and Critical Commons,
550
00:32:33,823 --> 00:32:36,621
all the way through
to university press partners
551
00:32:36,621 --> 00:32:42,655
like MIT, California, Oxford, Cambridge,
Michigan, Duke and...
552
00:32:43,962 --> 00:32:45,262
I'm missing somebody...
553
00:32:45,262 --> 00:32:46,664
California, right, so...
554
00:32:46,664 --> 00:32:50,130
We're interested in how scholars
might work with digital archival materials
555
00:32:50,130 --> 00:32:53,960
and publish them in interesting
and lively new ways.
556
00:32:54,423 --> 00:32:58,198
And really begin to think about how
we can activate the archive
557
00:32:58,198 --> 00:33:02,894
as more than a neutral,
objective repository for materials
558
00:33:02,894 --> 00:33:07,359
and instead think about the archive
as a space for argumentation,
559
00:33:07,359 --> 00:33:09,193
a space for point of view,
560
00:33:09,193 --> 00:33:12,163
even while it can maintain,
under another interface,
561
00:33:12,163 --> 00:33:13,964
its own objectivity.
562
00:33:14,491 --> 00:33:17,527
So, we're interested
in theories of difference
563
00:33:17,527 --> 00:33:20,963
activated in the archive
in a variety of ways.
564
00:33:21,522 --> 00:33:25,192
And to really begin to push
toward new forums of publication.
565
00:33:25,562 --> 00:33:30,955
We also are committed to ethical issues
around open access and to fair use,
566
00:33:30,955 --> 00:33:34,121
and one of our archive partners
is Critical Commons,
567
00:33:34,121 --> 00:33:37,097
which was founded by my colleague,
Steve Anderson,
568
00:33:37,097 --> 00:33:39,926
and is a sort of YouTube
for media studies scholars
569
00:33:39,926 --> 00:33:44,295
to put commercial media
and to use it in emerging genres
570
00:33:44,295 --> 00:33:46,732
of digital scholarly publishing.
571
00:33:47,189 --> 00:33:51,459
And we mostly work through
prototyping and iteration,
572
00:33:51,459 --> 00:33:53,196
not always rapid iteration!
573
00:33:53,196 --> 00:33:55,726
I think there may be a lot
to rapid prototyping,
574
00:33:55,726 --> 00:34:00,326
but the first project was with feminist
activist scholar Alex Juhasz,
575
00:34:00,326 --> 00:34:03,398
who wanted to do a book
about YouTube
576
00:34:03,398 --> 00:34:05,294
in the form of YouTube,
577
00:34:05,294 --> 00:34:08,226
and this was peer-reviewed
and published open access
578
00:34:08,226 --> 00:34:10,765
by MIT Press a few years ago.
579
00:34:11,197 --> 00:34:13,689
And it was the prototype
through which we began
580
00:34:13,689 --> 00:34:16,195
to build the software system
that I want to talk to you
581
00:34:16,195 --> 00:34:19,197
a little bit now,
called Scalr.
582
00:34:19,340 --> 00:34:22,839
And her work has always evolved
from trying to understand with
583
00:34:22,839 --> 00:34:24,006
want and need,
584
00:34:24,006 --> 00:34:26,438
and then building systems
to support that work.
585
00:34:26,730 --> 00:34:29,633
Both conceptually and practically.
586
00:34:30,132 --> 00:34:35,795
So, Scalr is an authoring platform,
it connects to archival resources
587
00:34:35,839 --> 00:34:36,632
as well.
588
00:34:37,065 --> 00:34:39,768
It allows you to render your views
as well, in many different ways
589
00:34:39,768 --> 00:34:41,422
so it not only...
590
00:34:41,422 --> 00:34:44,539
Well it feels in some ways
when you're authoring in it,
591
00:34:45,620 --> 00:34:49,055
like Wordpress, it's radically
quite different from Wordpress.
592
00:34:49,055 --> 00:34:50,681
It's infinitely more flexible.
593
00:34:50,681 --> 00:34:53,552
It's horizontal, it's non-hierarchical.
594
00:34:54,143 --> 00:34:57,208
It also connects to archival materials
and we're building out
595
00:34:57,208 --> 00:34:58,681
that set of archive partners.
596
00:34:58,681 --> 00:35:00,788
So, when you're working
in a Scalr project,
597
00:35:00,788 --> 00:35:03,750
you could connect
to the native search function
598
00:35:03,750 --> 00:35:07,183
of the archives you're interested in
and pull the metadata
599
00:35:07,183 --> 00:35:09,280
associated with those objects
as you bring them in
600
00:35:09,280 --> 00:35:14,014
to your Scalr book or project
with the object from the archive.
601
00:35:14,214 --> 00:35:17,288
So, that careful metadata record
is not lost
602
00:35:17,288 --> 00:35:19,488
as scholars begin to work
with the material.
603
00:35:19,845 --> 00:35:22,654
And down the road,
we're interested in what you add
604
00:35:22,654 --> 00:35:26,320
in the layer in Scalr
roundtripped back to the archive,
605
00:35:26,320 --> 00:35:28,887
and that allows the archive
to build out that.
606
00:35:29,115 --> 00:35:32,311
So, really it's a kind of management
of workflow
607
00:35:32,311 --> 00:35:35,680
from archive to article,
to digital project.
608
00:35:36,148 --> 00:35:39,015
Because it's not like Wordpress,
it allows you
609
00:35:39,015 --> 00:35:42,814
to do some very funky things
with structure if you choose to.
610
00:35:42,814 --> 00:35:47,687
You could build a Scalr project
that's a linear path of 30 pages,
611
00:35:47,687 --> 00:35:50,879
1 - 30, just like a chapter,
612
00:35:50,879 --> 00:35:55,590
but you can also begin to allow
multiplicity and multivocality
613
00:35:55,590 --> 00:36:00,180
intersecting points of view
to seep into the project
614
00:36:00,180 --> 00:36:04,092
in a variety of ways,
because its structure is quite malleable.
615
00:36:04,092 --> 00:36:08,117
Scalr understands technologically
all of its components,
616
00:36:08,117 --> 00:36:14,286
a media object, a path, a page, a tag,
an annotation, to all be the same thing
617
00:36:14,286 --> 00:36:18,215
and that allows this kind
of flattening out of the structure
618
00:36:18,215 --> 00:36:22,657
which is not really possible
in a platform like Wordpress.
619
00:36:23,688 --> 00:36:26,553
So when I say we've intentionally
designed a system
620
00:36:26,553 --> 00:36:29,520
which values the cut, fluidity,
intersectionality,
621
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:33,246
that is reflected in the kind
of conscious design decisions
622
00:36:33,246 --> 00:36:35,123
made about Scalr.
623
00:36:36,015 --> 00:36:39,153
I'm going to quickly walk you
through several different projects,
624
00:36:39,153 --> 00:36:40,556
but in a little more detail,
this one,
625
00:36:40,556 --> 00:36:46,867
which is a project by Nick Mirzoeff
to extend his book
626
00:36:46,867 --> 00:36:48,118
The Right to Look
627
00:36:48,438 --> 00:36:52,917
which is a long history of visuality
and counter-visuality and power.
628
00:36:53,489 --> 00:36:57,285
And in this project,
after he'd turned his book in to Duke,
629
00:36:57,285 --> 00:37:01,154
the Arab Spring happened,
which was very relevant
630
00:37:01,154 --> 00:37:02,855
to the book Nick was writing,
631
00:37:02,855 --> 00:37:08,323
and he wanted to kind of address in some detail
that in an extension to the book.
632
00:37:08,323 --> 00:37:11,057
So, this is not really dealing
with material from the book,
633
00:37:11,057 --> 00:37:14,650
as much as it's extending the argument
of the book to the present.
634
00:37:15,078 --> 00:37:17,962
And it's actually got
a fairly complex structure.
635
00:37:17,962 --> 00:37:20,723
What I'm going to show you now
is a series of screenshots
636
00:37:20,723 --> 00:37:23,910
that are all the same page
rendered in different views
637
00:37:23,910 --> 00:37:27,187
through the technology
that's just sort of off-the-shelf,
638
00:37:27,187 --> 00:37:28,953
built into Scalr.
639
00:37:29,450 --> 00:37:32,914
So, you could explore the whole structure
of the project
640
00:37:32,914 --> 00:37:36,614
through visualizations that come
from the jQuery library
641
00:37:36,614 --> 00:37:42,652
you could see the kind of structure
of its organization, its paths and pages
642
00:37:42,652 --> 00:37:46,322
You could explore it through media
or through tags and a variety
643
00:37:46,366 --> 00:37:48,082
of different visualizations.
644
00:37:48,717 --> 00:37:51,451
You could look at the metadata
for the object you're seeing
645
00:37:51,451 --> 00:37:52,988
on the page we looked at.
646
00:37:52,988 --> 00:37:55,354
These are all the pages
rendered on the fly
647
00:37:55,354 --> 00:37:59,284
through the View button
automatically into a new dimension.
648
00:37:59,580 --> 00:38:02,519
Nick has said that this project
was really intended
649
00:38:02,519 --> 00:38:06,714
to illustrate the new possibilities
of a kind of horizontal writing,
650
00:38:06,714 --> 00:38:11,155
and the way that he's talked about that
resonates, I think quite interestingly,
651
00:38:11,155 --> 00:38:14,680
with work by both Jane Bennett
and Karen Barad.
652
00:38:15,348 --> 00:38:17,883
It incorporates a rich set
of multimedia examples,
653
00:38:17,883 --> 00:38:22,522
but it also structures the piece
along multiple intersecting pathways
654
00:38:22,522 --> 00:38:26,881
in a manner that serves to reinforce
his larger theoretical arguments
655
00:38:26,881 --> 00:38:30,918
about the value of the demonstration
or the meeting point
656
00:38:30,918 --> 00:38:32,752
as a theoretical model.
657
00:38:33,111 --> 00:38:36,824
So, here, much as in the Vectors project,
although less obviously I think,
658
00:38:36,824 --> 00:38:39,716
form and content merge
in compelling ways.
659
00:38:40,717 --> 00:38:43,519
Other scholars have used the platform
for a variety of things.
660
00:38:43,519 --> 00:38:47,388
This is a project by Matt Delmont
that is very straightforward
661
00:38:47,388 --> 00:38:49,884
and simply incorporates all the media
662
00:38:49,884 --> 00:38:52,420
that couldn't obviously
go in his print book,
663
00:38:52,420 --> 00:38:55,814
into a website
that's organized through Scalar.
664
00:38:56,254 --> 00:39:00,722
And the argument of his project
is about looking at American Bandstand
665
00:39:00,722 --> 00:39:05,218
as a way to understand the struggle
for civil rights in a particular locale,
666
00:39:05,218 --> 00:39:09,655
so there's a lot of media material
but also advertising and other images
667
00:39:09,655 --> 00:39:11,221
collected in this piece.
668
00:39:11,713 --> 00:39:14,187
Diana Taylor
from the Hemispheric Institute
669
00:39:14,187 --> 00:39:17,719
is one of our archive partners,
but also one of our scholarly
670
00:39:17,719 --> 00:39:19,620
research center counterparts.
671
00:39:19,620 --> 00:39:23,576
We're now partnered with eleven
humanities centers around the country,
672
00:39:23,576 --> 00:39:28,357
and Diana is basically using Scalar,
in this case they're doing five books,
673
00:39:28,357 --> 00:39:32,982
to remediate a book that she did years ago
that didn't sell very well,
674
00:39:32,982 --> 00:39:41,482
but it's about relatively unknown,
experimental Latin American women
675
00:39:41,482 --> 00:39:42,588
feminist performance artists.
676
00:39:43,190 --> 00:39:46,623
And what she's able to do
in the context of the Scalar book
677
00:39:46,623 --> 00:39:49,124
is incorporate all the media
of those performances
678
00:39:49,124 --> 00:39:53,054
that might allow the material
to circulate in different ways.
679
00:39:53,054 --> 00:39:55,014
It's also a trilingual book.
680
00:39:55,014 --> 00:39:56,817
Trying to reach
the different audiences
681
00:39:56,817 --> 00:39:58,551
that he works with.
682
00:39:58,780 --> 00:40:01,590
This is a project that began
as a dissertation at NYU,
683
00:40:01,590 --> 00:40:03,214
by Deb Levine,
684
00:40:03,214 --> 00:40:07,184
who, in her dissertation,
spent a lot of time and care
685
00:40:07,184 --> 00:40:11,047
theorizing the methods
of activism of Act Up in New York.
686
00:40:12,110 --> 00:40:15,918
And a lot of time in the archive
of oral history materials.
687
00:40:15,918 --> 00:40:19,416
So, this project brings together
many hours of that testimony
688
00:40:19,416 --> 00:40:21,788
of world history, activism,
689
00:40:21,788 --> 00:40:25,990
with a theoretical argument
about Act Up's model
690
00:40:25,990 --> 00:40:31,065
of affinity organizing,
which was a flat, non-hierarchical...
691
00:40:31,065 --> 00:40:34,081
differential consciousness mode
of organizing.
692
00:40:34,555 --> 00:40:37,723
So, she uses the platform
to model that flat structure,
693
00:40:37,723 --> 00:40:41,518
by allowing to tag the
key players in that history
694
00:40:41,518 --> 00:40:46,683
and see their shifting relationship
to different groups and organizations
695
00:40:46,683 --> 00:40:48,480
over a chunk of history.
696
00:40:50,952 --> 00:40:53,115
Lesbian feminist scholar Kara Keeling
697
00:40:53,115 --> 00:40:54,916
is working with one
of her graduate students
698
00:40:54,916 --> 00:40:59,182
who has a long history as an activist
in third world organizations,
699
00:40:59,182 --> 00:41:01,354
to bring together
all the archival materials
700
00:41:01,354 --> 00:41:06,459
from an early 21st century
digital storytelling group
701
00:41:06,459 --> 00:41:10,154
called Third World Majority
that was founded.
702
00:41:10,154 --> 00:41:12,086
All their archival materials
703
00:41:12,136 --> 00:41:14,035
are being collected
on the internet archive
704
00:41:14,035 --> 00:41:15,495
and pulled into a Scalar book.
705
00:41:15,495 --> 00:41:19,994
And twelve scholars are now writing
critical pathways through that archive.
706
00:41:20,361 --> 00:41:24,460
So, the book will exist at once
as the archive of the materials
707
00:41:24,460 --> 00:41:27,893
and as narrated pathways
through the material,
708
00:41:27,893 --> 00:41:30,524
when you might come
or go through it either way.
709
00:41:34,530 --> 00:41:35,065
Oops!
710
00:41:36,762 --> 00:41:39,663
This was a project that was taken live
this spring.
711
00:41:39,663 --> 00:41:42,966
It's an edited volume of essays
interacting,
712
00:41:42,966 --> 00:41:45,960
illustrating database narrative.
713
00:41:46,892 --> 00:41:52,058
And many of the pathways or chapters
are themselves database narratives
714
00:41:52,058 --> 00:41:54,893
that have interesting
information structures
715
00:41:54,893 --> 00:41:56,462
as part of their design.
716
00:41:57,297 --> 00:41:59,031
This project went live this summer.
717
00:41:59,031 --> 00:42:00,635
It's a virtual exhibition
718
00:42:00,635 --> 00:42:02,860
as part of
the College Art Association's
719
00:42:02,860 --> 00:42:05,359
CEA Reviews journal.
720
00:42:06,329 --> 00:42:09,997
It was their first attempt
to actually review an exhibition
721
00:42:09,997 --> 00:42:11,502
multi-modally.
722
00:42:11,721 --> 00:42:14,557
So, it includes photographs,
a video walkthrough,
723
00:42:14,557 --> 00:42:20,031
floor plans, very expansive
724
00:42:20,031 --> 00:42:23,263
and high-quality professional photography
of the exhibits,
725
00:42:23,263 --> 00:42:25,527
as well as a review of the exhibit itself.
726
00:42:25,527 --> 00:42:27,601
So, the platform is fairly flexible
727
00:42:27,601 --> 00:42:30,900
and could be taken
in a lot of different kinds of directions
728
00:42:30,900 --> 00:42:33,564
This project went live
about a year and a half ago,
729
00:42:33,564 --> 00:42:38,765
by the artist and activist Evan Bissell,
and our creative director Erik Loyer.
730
00:42:38,765 --> 00:42:43,568
It's an interactive exploration
of the history of imprisonment
731
00:42:43,568 --> 00:42:46,131
and incarceration in California.
732
00:42:46,532 --> 00:42:50,624
Roughly asking over hundreds of years
why California's become
733
00:42:50,624 --> 00:42:52,468
the prison capital of the world.
734
00:42:52,468 --> 00:42:57,626
And it uses a feature of Scalar
that's an open API,
735
00:42:57,626 --> 00:43:02,266
so that the front end is done
in one version for OS
736
00:43:02,266 --> 00:43:03,695
and one version in Flash,
737
00:43:03,695 --> 00:43:06,868
but the content is driven by Scalar
and you click
738
00:43:06,868 --> 00:43:10,494
through the interactive interface
into a Scalar book.
739
00:43:10,494 --> 00:43:14,193
This is a recent collaboration
which just went live last month
740
00:43:14,193 --> 00:43:17,564
in celebration of the march
on Washington, its anniversary.
741
00:43:18,131 --> 00:43:20,295
If you haven't seen this piece,
I'm not going to show it,
742
00:43:20,295 --> 00:43:21,558
because I haven't got the sound,
743
00:43:21,558 --> 00:43:23,666
please go look at it,
it's gorgeous!
744
00:43:23,991 --> 00:43:25,401
It's...
745
00:43:25,401 --> 00:43:29,851
as you enter the archival text
of the speech
746
00:43:29,910 --> 00:43:33,254
of the march on Washington,
with audio playing,
747
00:43:33,254 --> 00:43:35,789
and as the audio plays,
you can scroll down the page
748
00:43:35,789 --> 00:43:39,885
and see the improvisation
made on the fly
749
00:43:39,885 --> 00:43:43,125
that left his script
and that he chose to omit,
750
00:43:43,125 --> 00:43:46,355
and then you can click
into a variety of information
751
00:43:46,355 --> 00:43:50,653
that builds out the context in history
and lingering ramifications
752
00:43:50,653 --> 00:43:51,789
of that moment.
753
00:43:51,789 --> 00:43:53,988
There are hundreds of pieces of media
in here,
754
00:43:53,988 --> 00:43:57,123
and both this and the [?]
are meant to be teaching platforms,
755
00:43:57,123 --> 00:44:03,386
primarily to use in after-school
and in various kinds of youth groups.
756
00:44:04,427 --> 00:44:09,393
So, we're really trying hard
to think about how a platform
757
00:44:09,393 --> 00:44:13,124
might allow us to mediate
a lot of kind of binaries
758
00:44:13,124 --> 00:44:15,453
of the digital humanities.
759
00:44:15,984 --> 00:44:18,291
Within a single project,
we can glimpse research
760
00:44:18,291 --> 00:44:21,155
operating across scales,
with scholars able
761
00:44:21,155 --> 00:44:23,380
to move from the micro level
of a project,
762
00:44:23,380 --> 00:44:26,488
perhaps a single image
or video annotation,
763
00:44:26,488 --> 00:44:29,059
to the structure
of the entire project
764
00:44:29,059 --> 00:44:30,824
and its integrated media.
765
00:44:31,451 --> 00:44:34,257
The researcher can create careful
close readings within a project
766
00:44:34,257 --> 00:44:35,655
of many components.
767
00:44:36,350 --> 00:44:39,787
They could also be instantly represented
as a whole collection.
768
00:44:39,787 --> 00:44:44,389
Thus moving beyond the artificial binary
of distant versus close reading
769
00:44:44,389 --> 00:44:46,888
that often characterizes
our conversations.
770
00:44:47,721 --> 00:44:50,725
The result richly combines
narrative interpretation
771
00:44:50,725 --> 00:44:55,522
with visualizations that are automatically
generated via the semantic elements
772
00:44:55,522 --> 00:44:56,860
of the platform.
773
00:44:57,423 --> 00:45:01,186
These visualizations allow an author
or reader to see the larger structure
774
00:45:01,186 --> 00:45:04,755
of a project they have been building up
more organically, piece by piece
775
00:45:04,755 --> 00:45:09,822
while also allowing iterative refinements
to the information structure.
776
00:45:10,721 --> 00:45:13,555
They could also allow a user
to access and explore
777
00:45:13,555 --> 00:45:15,321
specific elements of a project.
778
00:45:15,690 --> 00:45:18,855
Including tags, media files
or narrative pathways.
779
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:22,352
Thus, the visualizations
are not merely illustrative,
780
00:45:22,352 --> 00:45:26,759
they're also powerful interpretations
that present a project's structure,
781
00:45:26,759 --> 00:45:29,791
evidence and interpretations
in new ways.
782
00:45:30,851 --> 00:45:34,254
They bring narrative and analysis
together with the database
783
00:45:34,254 --> 00:45:35,492
enriching each.
784
00:45:36,284 --> 00:45:39,190
This method of researching and writing
across scales
785
00:45:39,190 --> 00:45:42,448
now predominantly unfolds
within a given scale or project
786
00:45:42,448 --> 00:45:45,492
with the possibility of reporting
these modes of analysis
787
00:45:45,492 --> 00:45:49,053
back to archival partners,
larger holdings,
788
00:45:49,053 --> 00:45:55,034
in between Scalar books represents
a key area for ongoing research
789
00:45:55,034 --> 00:45:57,945
The software that underpins Scalar
was born of the frustrations
790
00:45:57,945 --> 00:46:02,179
our scholars often experience
working with traditional database tools.
791
00:46:03,112 --> 00:46:06,778
Vectors engaged intersectional, political,
and feminist work
792
00:46:06,778 --> 00:46:10,812
at the level of content,
but also integrated form and content,
793
00:46:10,812 --> 00:46:14,376
so that the theoretical implications
of the work were manifest
794
00:46:14,376 --> 00:46:17,147
in both esthetic and information design.
795
00:46:17,979 --> 00:46:20,475
Scalar is now seeking to integrate
these methodologies
796
00:46:20,475 --> 00:46:22,314
at the level of software design.
797
00:46:22,772 --> 00:46:24,512
Scalar takes our early experiments
798
00:46:24,512 --> 00:46:27,011
at hacking the database
for Vectors projects
799
00:46:27,011 --> 00:46:30,173
to a different level,
by wrapping a relational database
800
00:46:30,173 --> 00:46:32,744
in a very particular semantic layer.
801
00:46:33,773 --> 00:46:37,073
In effect, we wanted to build a system
that respected and extended
802
00:46:37,073 --> 00:46:40,740
the research methodologies
of the scholars with whom we work.
803
00:46:41,314 --> 00:46:45,040
Scalar resists the modularity
and compartmentalized logics
804
00:46:45,040 --> 00:46:49,709
of dominant computational design,
by flattening out the hierarchical structure
805
00:46:49,709 --> 00:46:51,342
of platforms like Wordpress.
806
00:46:52,017 --> 00:46:53,748
While relatively easy to use,
807
00:46:53,748 --> 00:46:56,113
it also moves beyond
the template structures
808
00:46:56,113 --> 00:47:01,374
that frequently characterize the web,
allowing a high degree of customization
809
00:47:01,374 --> 00:47:04,346
with cascading style sheets
or through its API.
810
00:47:04,940 --> 00:47:07,343
Thus it mediates a whole set
of binaries,
811
00:47:07,343 --> 00:47:10,605
between close and distant reading,
author/user,
812
00:47:10,913 --> 00:47:12,114
interface/backend,
813
00:47:12,373 --> 00:47:13,579
macro/micro,
814
00:47:13,579 --> 00:47:15,004
theory/practice,
815
00:47:15,004 --> 00:47:16,606
archive/interpretation,
816
00:47:16,606 --> 00:47:17,707
text/image,
817
00:47:17,707 --> 00:47:19,347
database/narrative,
818
00:47:19,347 --> 00:47:20,613
human/machine.
819
00:47:21,372 --> 00:47:23,907
Scalar takes seriously
feminist methodologies
820
00:47:23,907 --> 00:47:26,642
ranging from the cut to theories
of alliance,
821
00:47:26,642 --> 00:47:29,310
intersectionality and articulation,
822
00:47:29,310 --> 00:47:32,845
not only in support of scholars
undertaking individual projects,
823
00:47:32,845 --> 00:47:35,179
but in our very design principles.
824
00:47:35,513 --> 00:47:39,512
As authors work with the platform,
they enter into a flow of becoming
825
00:47:39,811 --> 00:47:42,145
through the creation of a database
on the fly
826
00:47:42,145 --> 00:47:44,981
and through an engagement
with the otherness of the machine.
827
00:47:45,515 --> 00:47:50,108
Scalar respects machine agency,
but it does not cede everything to it.
828
00:47:50,873 --> 00:47:52,911
As Anne Balsamo reminds us:
829
00:47:52,911 --> 00:47:55,880
"Every interaction that constitutes
a technology
830
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,973
"offers an opportunity
to do things differently.
831
00:47:59,579 --> 00:48:02,371
"Scalar offers a way to explore
the rich interactions
832
00:48:02,371 --> 00:48:06,383
"that link matter and discourse,
to engage the alterity of technology,
833
00:48:06,383 --> 00:48:10,243
"and to cut through plentitude
with ethical intent.
834
00:48:10,243 --> 00:48:12,742
"Our goal is to build technology
835
00:48:12,742 --> 00:48:14,673
"in order that we might
better understand it
836
00:48:14,673 --> 00:48:16,979
"and its entanglements with culture.
837
00:48:16,979 --> 00:48:19,412
"We aim to bend the digital
to our desires,
838
00:48:19,412 --> 00:48:22,377
"and to use it in our utopias,
if only in the instant.
839
00:48:23,305 --> 00:48:27,051
"In theories of difference,
we already find bountiful ways
840
00:48:27,051 --> 00:48:30,110
"in which we might rewire these circuits.
841
00:48:30,110 --> 00:48:33,980
"Feminists have long brought together
those who value hybrid practices
842
00:48:33,980 --> 00:48:39,612
"artist theorist, activist scholars,
theoretical archivists, queer failures,
843
00:48:39,612 --> 00:48:41,542
"[inaudible] cyborgs.
844
00:48:42,048 --> 00:48:46,216
"I ask you, who better to turn the digital
against its darkest logics?"
845
00:48:47,113 --> 00:48:47,746
Thanks
846
00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:50,149
(audience applauds)