Location

KIPJ EF

Session Type

Event

Start Date

29-4-2015 3:25 PM

End Date

29-4-2015 4:10 PM

Abstract

One of the challenges of teaching digital humanities or digital based scholarship is overcoming the seeming disconnect between digital and analog. This is especially evident when students struggle to transfer their scholarly work into a hypertext environment. In part, their struggle is due to a lack of awareness concerning the structure and mechanics of all texts, whether they are analog or digital. Their other hurdle seems to be the false notion that the move from analog to digital is a discontinuous leap. In my presentation I will address this seeming analog/digital gap and how teaching students about the history of the book, in particular the history of the page, may help to bridge it.

My discussion will first address the connection between medieval manuscripts, early modern texts and hypertexts. During this time I will illustrate how the page of the codex went from being a plain sheet of parchment with a block of handwritten text to a dynamic matrix of ornamentation, illustration and punctuation. I then will discuss how these textual elements function similarly too and sometimes the same way as information architecture and wayfinding techniques used in hypertexts today. The latter half of my discussion will address the way in which I have presented this information to classes, most notably in The Digital Eighteenth Century, a Fall 2014 English course, during which I conducted instruction in Loyola Marymount University’s Department of Archives and Special Collections.

It is my belief that through an understanding of the mechanics and structure of medieval manuscripts and early printed books, one can gain a greater understanding of hypertexts. Equally so, as one sees the similarity between these various formats, one can see how there is in fact continuity between the material text and the seemingly ethereal digital text.

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Apr 29th, 3:25 PM Apr 29th, 4:10 PM

Materializing Hypertexts: Bridging the 'Gap' Between Digital and Analog

KIPJ EF

One of the challenges of teaching digital humanities or digital based scholarship is overcoming the seeming disconnect between digital and analog. This is especially evident when students struggle to transfer their scholarly work into a hypertext environment. In part, their struggle is due to a lack of awareness concerning the structure and mechanics of all texts, whether they are analog or digital. Their other hurdle seems to be the false notion that the move from analog to digital is a discontinuous leap. In my presentation I will address this seeming analog/digital gap and how teaching students about the history of the book, in particular the history of the page, may help to bridge it.

My discussion will first address the connection between medieval manuscripts, early modern texts and hypertexts. During this time I will illustrate how the page of the codex went from being a plain sheet of parchment with a block of handwritten text to a dynamic matrix of ornamentation, illustration and punctuation. I then will discuss how these textual elements function similarly too and sometimes the same way as information architecture and wayfinding techniques used in hypertexts today. The latter half of my discussion will address the way in which I have presented this information to classes, most notably in The Digital Eighteenth Century, a Fall 2014 English course, during which I conducted instruction in Loyola Marymount University’s Department of Archives and Special Collections.

It is my belief that through an understanding of the mechanics and structure of medieval manuscripts and early printed books, one can gain a greater understanding of hypertexts. Equally so, as one sees the similarity between these various formats, one can see how there is in fact continuity between the material text and the seemingly ethereal digital text.