Responses: Week of 1/29

The Last Performance is a visually appealing piece of electronic literature. When you first come to the page you hear a horse neighing very loudly unfortunately you never quite get told the purpose or significance of the horse. After the page loads you are asked to “construct a last” upon clicking that you are taken to a screen with words in a form of a circle. As you watch the words change from big circles, little circles, swirls, etc. Not only do the shapes change but the words in the shapes change as well. It is very challenging to follow along and read the words before it changes, but begins and end are repetitive throughout the whole story.

In the upper left hand corner are the words “The Dance” “The Performance Space” and “The Dome” each of these are actually links to different places.  “The Dance” is the story that you are taken to when you first click “construct a last”. I believe this is called the dance because how the words are set up almost as if they are doing parts of a dance routine. “ The Performance Space” takes you to a picture of a building, I assume, is the dance studio. You can then click on the picture leading you to a quote about the space. When you click “The Dome” you are taken to a page full of random words at first glance this seems pointless, but you can click on these words and be taken to different ‘lenses’ or perspectives of what this place means to people and their ideas on what should be done with it.
You are given somewhat of an explanation of this piece if you click in the lower right hand corner on the first page called “project blueprints” which tells you the reason of the e-literature. It is about a place called Goat Island where unfortunately decided to do a last performance after twenty years of performing. This piece is based on that last performance but with a twist. The website invites artists and writers to send in different pieces of work to help build a last performance, but at the same time with people endlessly sending in work the performance cannot really end. So in  a way this piece is to keep Goat Island alive even after they stop performing.

The electronic literature My Body a Wunderkammer is a piece by Shelley Jackson, that uses the different part of a woman's body to tell stories about her life.  The piece starts out by displaying a sketch of a woman’s body where you can pick any highlighted part to begin.  After the user initial picks where to begin a story will be displayed and throughout the story there will be hypertext that will take you to different stories that are linked to different parts of her body.

This piece of electronic literature was very interesting.  It told stories that went through the life of the authors with some actual stories and some fictional stories.  The author did a great job telling stories from throughout her life and connecting them. She uses the many stories to show and tell how she evolved as a person and also as a human.  My Body a Wunderkammer is a great piece of electronic literature.

Responce to E-Literature: Deviant

Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw is an excellent piece of e-literature. It serves as a great example as to what is the Digital Humanities. Deviant tells the story of a young Scottish girl in the 16th century, who seems to be “possessed” by demons and showed remarkable signs and symptoms. The piece itself is interactive and does not rely on text.  The “reader” will be kept on their toes while going through the story, often being surprised or shocked by the content.  

While one is going through the piece, there is not much insight given as to what you need to be doing to get to the end of the ‘game.’ You are left to just point and click, then try to make sense of what you were just seeing.  The story relies on your own inquisitive nature to make your way through to the end.  This often will lead to confusion and a whole lot of frustration, which isn’t a very nurturing way to learn something. Fortunately when you finally complete the ‘game,’ everything finally makes sense. You are lead to a page with text describing the history of the story and the symbolism of the images used are revealed.

When looking at the historical basis of the story, it is important to note the strong superstitious nature of people during the 16th century.  Fear of witchcraft and demonic possession was a real concern for many people. In this story, the author tells us how 6 people were tried for witchcraft and forcing the possession of Christian Shaw. The author also tells us that the same people may have been “bullying” her.  This possibility brings up the suspicion of ‘was this vengeance or was there actual witchcraft going on?” With matters like this, a fair trial was hard to come by. The only evidence they had against sorcery would be those who can claim to have “witnessed” the alleged performance of witchcraft. So someone could essentially bear false-witness and put them to burn on the stake out of spite. Instances like this mirror the occurrences during the infamous Salem witch trials.

Overall, this piece of electronic literature serves as an excellent example of what is produced in the Digital Humanities.  Deviant itself tells an interesting story that really gets the reader involved and interested.  The subject matter that surrounds Deviant leads to further questioning of the historical account that the story is based on.  In the end it can lead to great discussion about instances like that of Christian Shaw, while all being  introduced in an interesting, interactive manner.

What is Digital Humanities?

I personally believe that digital humanities is a wide variety of digital compilations of works, pieces, and articles across a global scale via technology. The pieces that are compiled could include pictures of things as simple as a painting done by a third grader that a mom uploaded on Facebook, to as advanced as a picture with endless sub-pictures. Some of the works that could be collected can be simple or advanced as well. They could be simple like a blog or even a Twitter post, to as complex as a book on advanced quantum mechanics or Einstein’s theory. Matthew G. Kirschenbaum has agreed with some of these statements when he stated them in his article,

Digital Humanities is a broad topic that has multiple focuses on multiple subjects. The subjects that could be involved are things like history, art, philosophy, literature, or even a computer class. These have a wide variety of complexities as well, intertwining their knowledges. For example there could be an online essay about the history and development of philosophy.

-Chris Weber

What is Digital Humanities?

In an essay done by Kirschenbaum, he says that there are many different definitions for Digital Humanities.  To me Digital Humanities is similar to any regular humanities class with a key difference.  The area of study is structured like many other humanities, but has a key focus on the digital world.  It is a different way to study humanities using new and emerging technology.  Digital Humanities is a way to use the vast technological world to study the humanities. It also opens the humanities for the digital world to use and manipulate.  Digital Humanities is a great emerging field of studies.

-Steven

Defining Digital Humanites

Digital Humanities is an emerging field that connects the traditional senses of the classical humanities with the advancements of the growing digital age. Searching for a definition is difficult.  Matthew G. Kirschenbaum’s essay What Is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments? specifically addresses the issue behind defining DH and the desperate need to do so.  When I look at Digital Humanities, I define it as the collective study of the humanities interpreted through digital means. Basically, the humanities are a group of academic studies focused around the study of topics that are human centered. The humanities however, remain are a broad category of study.  It is comprised of human interests that range from literature to language to philosophy and art. Fundamentally what makes Digital Humanities stand apart is the approach of producing something new and different using new and emerging digital tools.

- Josh

What is Digital Humanities?

What is something we know, but cannot really define?

As Kirschenbaum states there are a lot of ways one could define digital humanities and it all kind of depends on each individual's perception. Although it is difficult to define, I personally believe that digital humanities is the study of how humans interact and produce things digitally. The world is making such tremendous strides with technology it was only a matter of time before people started using technology to express themselves. Whether people are using it to create a beautiful work of art, using youtube to get their music noticed or using Facebook to angrily rant about their restaurant experience, we as humans have started clinging to digital ways of expression. So no matter what any individual considers the definition of digital humanities one thing is certain, this is a field that is developing more everyday.