Log 2: Thought Piece
During seminar on January 27th, you'll conduct a workshop where you circulate your preliminary ideas for the argument you want to make with a computer. You will also give feedback on other people's ideas.
In your thought piece, please include the following:
- The problem or issue you want to address and its relevance to literary or cultural criticism; ideally it is based on research you've already conducted in another course or setting; do your best to frame this problem or issue without regard to digital technologies (~50 words),
- The research question you're asking; again, do your best to articulate this question without regard to digital technologies (one or two sentences),
- How new media and computation might help you address that research question or help you express a persuasive response to it (~50 words),
- How new media and computation might help you model, prototype, or speculate about literature or culture in a way new to you; for related material, paradigms, and examples, see McCarty, Drucker and Nowviskie, and Galey and Ruecker (~50 words);
- Based on Posner's "How Did They Make That?", the type of argument (e.g., geospatial map, data visualization, text analysis, 3D model, media-rich narrative) you might want to make for your final seminar essay; of note, to Posner's list I would add games, such as "Parable of the Polygons"; I would also add hacks, bots, and "deformances," such as Hacking the Accident or Ivanhoe, and reactive document creation, such as Active Markdown,
- Why, for now, you selected this type of argument (~50 words),
- A "recipe" for your argument, or the data, materials, and tool(s) you might need to make it happen; here, include the type of media you want to study/use, the formats you anticipate using, any sources for your data, and any example projects that have informed your decision, and
- A bibliography, which includes (at a minimum) your primary sources for this research. (If you are using digital sources, then please include them.) The bibliography does not need to be annotated.
Please note: for the purposes of this course, I don't recommend creating digital resources or even prototypes for those resources. You don't have the time to make a resource and write an essay about it. Instead, you might want to stick to approaches that would allow you to embed or integrate new media and computation into the essay form. Put differently, consider building upon existing projects and resources. Also, here's some more advice (take it or leave it):
- Think small. Time is limited. The semester is short. You're busy.
- Ask a research question that can be addressed in a semester (even if it's part of a larger project or inquiry).
- Don't be overly enticed by the whiz-bang of digital technologies. Ask yourself how they can actually help you make an argument about a problem or issue that interests you.
- Consider how you can enrich or denaturalize research you've already done.
- Avoid tools that don't let you export data.
- If you are curious about making graphs or maps, then remember that visualizations are arguments, too. They demand visual literacy and interpretation; they are not transparent.
- Don't reinvent the wheel. Again, build upon or complicate what's already out there. Look for source code or repositories that are licensed for reuse and repurposing.
- Read through the balance of the course outline to see what else we're doing this semester. See if anything in particular appeals to you or seems especially relevant to your research. In other words, pursue something that interests you.
- Push your use of new media and computation beyond re-presentation (e.g., re-presenting a print text in digital form). Think about how new media plays a role in (or even change) people's relations to literature, history, and culture; how they affect the perception and interpretation of historical materials; and how they influence the production, expression, and circulation of scholarship.
- Avoid hammering a technology or tool onto your research. Just because it's neat doesn't mean it's applicable to what you're doing or want to do.
- That is, wherever possible, make the link between your research question and your choice of new media / computation persuasive, without letting the latter overshadow the former. You might think of it this way: "I'm researching the relevance of X to Y, and I just so happen to be using Z digital approach."
Please remember that this is just a thought piece. For now I am simply prompting you to consider what you might want to do in this seminar, why, and how. Things will change, especially as we review projects, conduct workshops, and continue with our discussions during the balance of the semester. All that said, please don't hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns, especially if you're looking for examples. I'm certainly happy to point you in some possible directions, with references to projects and publications that might inform your decisions.