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The Next 30-35 Minutes
Reflexive Narrative about My Approaches to Project Design at UVic since 2011
(across the lab, classroom, and supervisions)
My examples include work for + with various units at UVic: English, Media Studies, Visual Arts, CSPT, Libraries, and Digital Humanities.
Why?
Attend to Change over Time
Speak to What Worked and What Didn't
All with the Refrain of Sustainability (given your working group's interests)
A key finding was, for me at least, that I mostly ignored questions of sustainability for the first five or so years of my research at UVic.
2011-14
The Classroom: DH 150
A Toolbox Approach
"Gadget Humanities"
Adventure Park Education
I built the course website in WordPress. It's no longer public, but the syllabus is online in PDF.
The Classroom: DH 150
Content-Agnostic
Software-Driven
Interface Literacy
The course was intended for 38 students. There were no prerequisites.
On 150's Sustainability
Projects Practically Determined by Tools
Significant Breadth, Low Retention
Humanities Were Supplemental
Importantly, the course counted only as an elective. It was never part of a major, minor, or certificate. I experimented with a more critical approach to 150 in 2019, titled "Unlearning the Internet."
2012-20
The Lab: The Maker Lab
A Cultural Approach
"Experimental Humanities"
The Tacit Learning Model
I built this site in WordPress, too. It's now a flat site (no database or SQL).
The Lab: The Maker Lab
Public Interest in CNC
Research Interest in Media History
"Closed" Lab Fueled with Public Comms
The MLab received support from SSHRC, CFI, and BCKDF.
On the Maker Lab's Sustainability
Lack of Funding for Care and Repair
RAs Determined Project Value
The "Kit" = Public Research Repository
The MLab is now the Praxis Studio, housed in UVic's new Media Studies program.
Kits for Cultural History
"The cross-disciplinary Maker Lab in the Humanities 'remakes' technologies that no longer work or no longer exist. This work shows we can study history and culture not only by writing, but also by tinkering, coding, crafting, hacking and fabricating."
Many of our discussions were about friction and labor in media work.
On the Sustainability of Prototyping Texts
Fed Directly into Existing Research
Repo May Be Primary or Secondary Project
Open Standards + Strategic Redundancy
This project was indifferent to whether the methods or results were digital humanities.
The prototyping initiative also sparked related initiatives in games, such as "What's in a Game?" and "Paper Computers." I thus began to understand it as a foundation of sorts, where lab-like practices could unfold across campus without the need for proprietary software or the toolbox approach of 150.