Literary and digital humanities scholar Stephen Ramsay advocates that we acknowledge the distinctive hermeneutics — or, modes of interpretation — afforded by “screwing around” in a library or another media collection: by browsing, surfing and stumbling; by simply following a “bundle of ‘interests’ and proclivities;” by allowing ourselves to be pulled along a “highly serendipitous journey.” This week we’ll consider what we can learn by “screwing around” in collections, perhaps even as part of collaborative research collectives; and what platforms are particularly good at inviting such serendipitous exploration. These lessons will, ideally, help us recognize the methodological and epistemological values of sharing and play; and to recognize how different platforms structure various modes of exploration and improvisation.
Monday April 1: DEMONSTRATION + WORKSHOP
Today we’ll explore some exemplarily expansive, exploratory collections and consider how their particular platforms support their epistemological and aesthetic goals, and how they cultivate a particular kind of “user [or researcher… or explorer] experience.” We’ll then invite you to choose an idiosyncratic digital collection and offer your own analysis in our next class.
To Do Before Today’s Class:
- Read Leslie C. Atzmon, Mindy Seu, and Laura Coombs, “The Cyberfeminist Index Project: A Critical Exploration of its Evolution, as well as the Development of the Website and Book that Support It,” Dialectic 5:1 (Fall 2023).
- Read Laurel Schwulst, with Charles Broskoski, “Charles Broskoski on Self-Discovery that Happens Upon Revisiting Things You’ve Accumulated Over Time,” Creative Independent (October 25, 2017) to learn about the collection logics and aesthetics behind Are.na.
- Now, explore some “channels” on Are.na. Go down those rabbit holes! I especially recommend Mindy Seu’s and Everest Pipkin’s collections. I’ve got some, too 😀 I find it helpful to choose “Index” view to see a list of each contributor’s channels.
- Can exploratory collection attune us to the materiality of our media — or to the mediating properties of our material environments? Read Jon Chen’s essay, “On Elemental Computation,” Are.na (August 22, 2023), which took form around his eponymous Are.na channel OR Morgan Strahon’s “The Instability of Stone” (April 13, 2023), which was likewise inspired by their own Are.na channel on memorial design. Both of these pieces foreshadow our lesson for next week.
- Optional, for those of you interested in the economics of these platforms: Meghna Rao, “Taking Business Personally” [on Are.na], Reboot (September 12, 2023).
Wednesday April 3: SHARING OUR WORK
Today, you share what you’ve discovered! 🌈 What collections invite exploration and experimentation? Which prompt wonder and delight… or perhaps some other provocative and generative but less “pleasant” emotion? 🙂 We’ll be splitting into small groups, then sharing our insights on a shared slide deck.
We’ll be meeting on Zoom today; check your email for the link!
To Do Before Today’s Class:
- Choose a single favorite digital collection – an Are.na channel, a Notion, an index, a library catalog, a Tumblr, an Instagram, whatever — that brings you joy, that makes you think, that delights you with its unpredictability, that makes connections that never would’ve occurred to you, that keeps coming up in conversation with your friends — and explore it deeply.
- Share what you’ve found! Please be prepared to take us on a five-minute tour during class! Tell us what appeals to you, what the aggregation of its material offers that its individual components could not offer individually. Tell us about the platform: how does it structure the development and exploration of collections for creators and visitors? What are the tool’s affordances and limitations? What else is uniquely relevant to your particular case study? Please add your URL – by 3:15pm, please! — to this shared doc so I can organize you into groups.
Supplemental Resources:
- Salome Asega with Mindy Seu, “An Index of Indexes,” Broadcast (December 1, 2022).
- Charles Broskoski, “Here for the Wrong Reasons,” Are.na (December 29, 2023).
- Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, “Modern Art Collection Audit,” Knowledge for Collections (2012).
- William Freudenheim, “The Network and the Classroom: A History of Hypermedia Learning Environments,” MIT Thesis (2021).
- Natalie Kerby, “Screwing Around and the Value of Alternative Knowledge Platforms,” Masters of Media (October 3, 2021).
- Annette Lamb, “Collection Analysis,” Acquisitions & Management of Knowledge and Information.”
- Shannon Mattern, “Delicious: Renovating the Mnemonic Architectures of Bookmarking” in Trebor Scholz, ed., Learning Through Digital Media: Essays on Technology and Pedagogy (Institute for Distributed Creativity, 2011).
- Noa Mori, Meghna Rao, and Njari Anderson, “Are.na’s Arena,” Byline.
- Northwestern University, “Collection Assessment” (2023).
- Stephen Ramsay, “The Hermeneutics of Screwing Around; or What You Do with a Million Books,” in Kevin Kee, ed., Pastplay: Teaching and Learning History with Technology (University of Michigan Press, 2014).
- Brian Sholis, “Are.na,” Artforum (June 25, 2018).
- Zhexi Zhang, “The Aesthetics of Decentralization,” MIT Thesis (2019): 54-9.