Digital studies is an emerging interdisciplinary field at the intersection of literary studies, cultural studies, and traditional media studies. Given that the World Wide Web is estimated to consist of some four billion "sites" with fifty times the content of the Library of Congress, little wonder many now speculate openly about the future of books, literature, and the humanities. Digital studies offers a set of critical, theoretical, pedagogical, and practical responses to such speculation. The course is designed to be broadly relevant to all students of texts, language, and literature, regardless of area or specialty. Major topics will include: writing and/as technology; theoretical approaches to electronic textuality; close readings of hypertext and cybertext literature; comparative genealogies of new (and old) media; and a survey of digital projects and initiatives in the humanities to date. We will also pay some attention to other topics, including: the digital divide and the politics of access; intellectual property; the preservation of digital content (some commentators forecast a looming "digital dark ages"); teaching and technology; and the role of digital technologies in addressing what is widely perceived as a crisis in scholarly publishing.
Texts that we will read in whole or in part will likely include: Epsen Aarseth, _Cybertext_; N. Katherine Hayles, _How We Became Posthuman_; Susan Hockey, _Electronic Texts in the Humanities_; Deena Larsen's hypertext fiction _Samplers_; Jerome McGann, _Radiant Textuality: Literature After the World Wide Web_; Lev Manovich, _The Language of New Media_; Walter Ong, _Orality and Literacy_; Charles Petzold, _Code_; and Ellen Ullman's recent novel _The Bug_. About half of the syllabus will consist of online materials for reading, inspection, and exploration.
Requirements include lively participation, an in-class presentation, online responses, a series of short papers and projects, and a final exam. NO PRIOR TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE IS EXPECTED OR ASSUMED.
The Jiménez-Porter Writers' House and MITH present FLASH artist and writer Jason Nelson.
Thursday, October 30, 7:00 p.m.
MITH, The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities
McKeldin Library, Room 6107
Out of the Oklahoma plains comes the swirling, oddly crafted, poetic world of Jason Nelson's New Media poetry and prose. He will read, click, and shudder in person and on the screen, over the speakers and through the keyboard. Join us for his electronic literature performance.
Jason Nelson was raised a Oklahoma poet, but found the allure of electronic bits far too strong to remain moored in print. His projects include Hyperrhiz, a hypermedia literary journal, http://www.heliozoa.com, and Secret Technology. His work has appeared in a variety of print and online journals including Beehive(Brown University), Boomerang (UK), Epitome (Madrid), 3rdbed (NYC), Nowculture, Blue Moon Review and others. In addition his work has been
featured in art galleries worldwide. Nelson has a B.A. in Cultural Geography from the University of Oklahoma and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Bowling Green State University. Next year he will join the new media faculty in an innovative interdisciplinary program at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
This course will explore what one recent critic has called "cybertexts": works of literature, primarily but not exclusively digital, that are meant to be played, navigated, and manipulated in addition to "read" in the conventional sense. Choose Your Own Adventure books are examples of printed cybertexts with which you might be familiar, though as we will see they only scratch the surface--quite unimaginatively--of what is possible within the form. Specific topics will include: interactive fiction; chatterbots and intelligent agents; MUDs and MOOs; writing and/as code; hypertext, both stand-alone formats and networked on the World Wide Web; literary games and simulations; and emergent literature or "smart" texts. We will read/play/explore works from all of these genres and formats, and our discussions will focus on both identifying the cybertextual traits they have in common as well as discriminating each form's unique achievements and significance. These discussions will be set within a broader consideration of textuality, including the question of what a text actually is--an old question which digital technologies now ask us to ask anew. You will leave the course with a sense of the literary and digital tradition of cybertext, hands-on experience of some of the most innovative literature being produced today, and (hopefully) some fundamentally new ways of thinking about texts and textuality.
Requirements: class participation, weekly responses, short papers, one longer paper or digital project, mid-term and final exams.
A note on expectations: there are no technical pre-requisites for this course. You do not have to be--nor should you expect to become!--a computer professional. Students seeking only practical instruction in software, programming, or Web design would be best advised to look elsewhere. We will, however, be using a computer-equipped classroom for weekly exercises and experiments to build on our theoretical understandings, and try our hands at producing some cybertexts ourselves.
In collaboration with the David C. Driskell Center for Study of the African Diaspora, MITH is pleased to announce:
Digital Dialogue with Gwen Hall, guest of the Driskell Center and
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)
McKeldin B0131
12:00-2:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
To supplement Professor Hall's lecture at the Driskell Center Colloquium
of October 14th, this presentation will discuss the _Louisiana Slave
Database_ and how it was used to solve questions about the Igbo in the
Americas. The reading is another selection from her book manuscript,
African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links (Chapel Hill &
London: University of North Carolina Press, forthcoming). A Powerpoint
presentation will be available to discuss the creation of historical
databases if there is time and if the audience is interested.
Please join us for this exciting presentation. All are welcome.
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Martha Nell Smith
Professor of English & Director
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)
http://www.mith.umd.edu
University of Maryland
301.405.8878 / 301.314.7111 FA
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Jon K. Boone
Academic Computing Services
Coordinator of Technical Services
1102 Francis Scott Key Hall
College Park, MD 20742
TEL: 301-405-2105
FAX: 301-314-9148