Clio Wired (History 696)

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September 30, 2005

Good vs Bad--Liz

BAD: The Feather Trade
GOOD: Tudor History

BAD: The Feather Trade
I wanted to like this site, but there were several flaws. This site was an online version of a 1999 exhibit at the National Museum of American History. The site strives to be basic—and it is … too basic. There is no great analysis; I thought I was merely walking through the exhibit. This would have been fine, if the design were better. On the home page, the font is small and hard to read (the main text on that page is an image, and appears a bit blurry). All pages on the site have huge white spaces, with images and text aligned left on the page. I would have liked to know more about the birds (their characteristics, etc), as well as had some sort interactive game or quiz.

GOOD: Tudor History
Although this site is privately maintained, it is comprehensive and well organized. To begin, the home page is relatively simple. It has an image of a stained glass window, a title, and a comprehensive table of what is available on the site. The font is consistent (Arial), although she includes .gif that reads “Tudor history,” recalling Renaissance-era lettering. She has updated the site recently (20 August 2005), indicating that she takes this site seriously. The rest of the site differs from the home page, but the design is consistent (textured wallpaper, overlaid with a white page and black lettering). The site contains a lot of information about Tudor times—I spent too much time in the section detailing Tudor words.

Posted by ejonese at 09:17 PM | Comments (1)

Web Design - Ammon

Good:
Achievement.org

Bad:
WorldWar1.com

Ugly:
HELLFIRE CORNER

Well, where to begin.....

First off, I'd like to add an OK site to the list. It happens to be the site where I found the three above. While looking for the best history sites, I figured I might find the worst as well. So I searched for "history" and found a link to the "best history sites" on the net. The site itself is decent, and it does have a pretty neat list of sites (I found all of the above from there). That's BestHistorySites.net incase the other link wasn't noticed. :)

Anyhow, the good was good because it is well laid out. You can get to any aspect of the site from any page you are on (ie, the navigation works well, and is well accessible). The color scheme is nice, text on background is easy to read. Just well done.

The bad and ugly suffer from similar ailments. They both employ the "put everything on one long page with no side by side column type of layout" technique. This is common among beginner and novice web page creators. Heck, I probably did the same with mine so many moons ago. Another problem faced by new commers (and portraid beautifully by the ugly site) is the "use a repeated image for the background" error. That's just not a very good practice. It's hard to read the text on such images, and it takes away from the other aspects of the site.

Anyhow, I've tried to keep things nice and clean on my site. Everything is well spaced, the menu is available throughout, there are only a few colors, which are consistent, etc.. (this is of course only talking about the part of my site after the GMU in the URL).

Anyhow, that's what I seen!

Ammon

Posted by ashephe1 at 08:35 PM

Comments are welcome

If anyone is interested, I just revamped the splash page of the online museum I run. It's much cleaner one than I had but I'm sure there is much room for improvement. If anyone has suggestions please send them on to me at: kknoerl@gmu.edu.

There is only one exhibit up at the moment and it's an old one but I have two new ones that are almost done that are much better. If you look at the current exhibit and compare it to the new splash page you'll see the difference in style. If anyone gets REALLY interested I'll show them the link to the test site for a children's exhibit and one for the shipwreck CSS Alabama. I've got thick skin so let me know what you think. I'm here to learn. Thanks.

If you look around the site you'll see the old logo on the underlying pages. I'll slowly replace those as I get time.

Here is the old splash page:

Here is the new one: http://www.uri.edu/mua

Posted by kknoerl at 01:19 PM | Comments (1)

Mills's Really Bad Designs

Hi:

Okay, here are some really bad examples of design from my own personal archive. I had to reload some of these because I'd taken them down long ago (thank goodness):

The oldest is a website from 1998 when I taught at Grinnell College.

Next on the list, in order of newness is a Western Civ syllabus from the fall of 1998 when I'd moved to Texas Tech. Some of the images are long gone from my site...sorry about that, you'll just have to visualize them in your mind...Notice the cool use of colors as you scroll down the page!

Worst of all--an online archive project I tried to do at Texas Tech in 1999. Note the frames!

Next comes another Western Civ syllabus from TTU. Note that attempt to get away from the straight down the page scrolling syllabus. I swear I had more images than just Chuckie Marx.

Next comes a freshman seminar syllabus. At least my images are getting more vibrant. But I'm still addicted to red/blue links.

Then I went through a very unfortunate black screen/white text phase.

I also tried a slightly annoying entry page for one syllabus.

Last, but not least are the more recent syllabi for my Western Civ and Eastern Europe courses. They're better, but still need a lot of work. What I really need is someone who knows what they're doing to clean up my act.

But, as I look back at the progress since 1998, it's not all bad.

Posted by mills at 10:32 AM | Comments (1)

September 29, 2005

Matt's use of good & bad design

Like Meghan, I've added examples of good and bad design from the websites I looked at. Click here to go to my Design page for discussion of what I did.

Posted by mhobbs at 04:27 PM

Amy's Design Finds

Good: http://texashistory.unt.edu/
Needs Work:http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
Needs Work (not history, but notable): http://www.queencityclub.com/home.htm

I'll be adding this to my website on a page modeled after my "good" example; it should be set up this weekend.

The Portal to Texas History (http://texashistory.unt.edu/site) is quite appealing visually and easy to use. The site is really a “portal” to Texas history archival collections, but shows that a database-type site can be attractive and maintain some of the design ideas suggested in reading. The designs keeps scrolling to a minimum (even on a laptop) and the navigation bar is consistent. There is visual interest without graphics that take a long time to load or are distracting. Further, the red/white/blue color scheme is consistent throughout, especially on the “young scholars” page, which has small (and cute!) bullet graphics that are related to the link, for example cowboy boots and hat for the social life and customs section. Also, the design is clean and simple (therefore easy to replicate), which is especially nice after looking through other eye-straining source search sites.
The Avalon Project (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm) is not a design worth repeating. The internal links are set in a table, which is not a problem in itself, but the background of the table is a rainbow (the analogy I can think of is that it has that anti-freeze look…). This background makes the text difficult to read…and the text is hot linked and creates unnecessary movement on the page. Other text on the page is italicized and also difficult to read. Further, the pages require lots of scrolling. Especially problematic is on the Papers of Andrew Jackson (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/presiden/jackpap.htm) where the useful “search” function is at the bottom of the page, necessitating lengthy scrolling to reach this all-important feature. Even though the design is consistent from page to page, that design is inconsistent and generally unappealing.
And for fun, a Cincinnati business community club, the Queen City Club Restaurant (http://www.queencityclub.com/home.htm) page breaks a few rules too. Check out the graphic effect at the bottom of the page…yeah, that’s stylish.
Amy

Posted by alechne1 at 03:58 PM

My Personal Examples of Good and Bad Web Design

So I guess we're also supposed to show examples of good and bad design on our own sites, so mine can be found here.

I've created a blog to serve as my coursework repository because I figured that's the easiest way to keep with updating stuff. There's a link to it from my Clio page.

Meagan

Posted by mhess3 at 02:44 PM

Examples of good and bad design. -Kurt

Here is an example of a well designed site:

http://www.monitorcenter.org/

Here is a not so well designed site:


http://www.anmm.gov.au/

My example of good design:

The USS Monitor Center web site was produced for the Mariner’s Museum by a professional design shop. While I expected it to look good it quickly struck me as an effective site. It incorporates many of the elements that were mentioned in this week’s design readings. For example the viewer can quickly see who is responsible for the site. In this case the Mariner’s Museum logo is clearly displaced. The site is organized into 3 main sections: Life Aboard An Ironclad, 1861 – Present: The Interactive Story of Monitor, and Preserving An American Icon. Other supporting elements are also present but not in a manner that confuses the viewer. The design clearly indicates what path the designers suggest the viewer should take without forcing them into it. Other useful elements such as a site map and credits are available from this splash screen. And while not available from this first screen updates are posted with regard to the Monitor project.

The supporting pages maintain a consistent look and feel by using the same pleasing color schemes. Navigation around the site is fairly straight forward. Visual clues make it fairly obvious where one is within the site. Despite a being a little busy, the flash animation in the interactive story section actually presents useful information and helps fulfill the mission of educating the viewer rather than just dazzling them. The layout for the Life Aboard an Ironclad section was very attractive and workable though the depth of the content was a little disappointing. The Preserving an American Icon section used the same layout and generally provided much more content. I also appreciated the fact that despite having corporate sponsors and the obligatory gift shop, those elements are not thrust into the foreground to compete with the subject matter.

My example of poor design:

Sigh….where to start. I decided that to be fair I wouldn’t pick any site that appeared to be run by a small group of volunteers trying to get something up on the web in their spare time because I am one of those people and I know that you don’t learn if you don’t do. Not that any of them will read this review but still, that would be too easy. So, I looked for a professional organization of some sort and, trying to stay with my maritime theme here, I picked the Australian Maritime Museum.

The first page literally made me jump back in my chair. I was too close to the monitor and wasn’t prepared for the onslaught. I don’t mind black backgrounds; I’m using one myself for our class website. In this case, however the wavy lines of bright blue and black combined with 4 different colors, sizes, and fonts of text and the other images combine for a total of 8 different colors blazing forth in all their glory.

I was somewhat at a loss as to where to start due to the competing internal links and the graphics shouting out their offer of free entry. And if you were uncertain what they mean by free entry it is repeated to the right in large text. Just why they use the green symbol as a link to the “WHAT’S NEW” page is unclear. Below that is a dotted line with two arrows separating the top of the page from other internal links. I’m not sure why.

The visual roller coaster ride continues when selecting a link as we go from the dark front page to this:

I counted 4 different internal styles of background for this site which breaks any sense of being on the same site. Internal navigation links while present were often only available at the bottom the pages despite some of them scrolling for extended periods. Some sort of navigation at the top would have been helpful. To be fair they did do a few things well. They do allow you to exit the site, that’s a plus. (ok that was snotty) They do clearly state who they are (perhaps they shouldn’t?) and when the site was last updated. Considering this a site for the Australian government I was surprised how poorly it was designed.

Posted by kknoerl at 01:50 PM

Tai on Design

Disappointing Design: Powersource Native American Art and Education Center
Admirable Design: American Indian Nations

As encouraged by Paula Petrik, the Powersource site has relatively small images and does not take long to load. There aren’t any flashing animations or excessively long pages. However, as discussed by Mike O’Malley, the author of the site seems to have done little with design after loading a basic text document onto the website. On the first page of the site, you can see the haphazardly placed images of organizations who have awarded this website (why, I don't know). Although it does contain information on American Indian art/symbolism, individual pages have less design development than the page you see here. With most of the information though, users interested in learning about any topics discussed would prefer more information and/or links to other sites with more information. Pages appear to be uploaded text documents, with little formatting for web-use. There is not a maintained navigation bar and the only link provided is to return to the main page.

In the American Indian Nations site, it appears a team of designers are involved. The navigation bar remains constant on all pages. Organizations or topics are linked even within paragraphs to direct readers to further resources within the site. One is easily able to see what the resources provided on the site include. Contact information is made clear, as well as tabs on the top-right of the screen for easy movement to involved organizations/sponsors. The site is quick to load while maintaining visual aesthetics. Graphics indicate an experienced designer, who understood how to bolster the text and appeal of the site, without detracting from the information sharing.

Posted by tgerhart at 11:23 AM | Comments (2)

Hit with the Ugly Stick

Don't push the button! The Ugly Love Triangle The Good

Hyperhistory Online

Hyperhistory Online, how do you suck? Let me count the ways. Firstly, the navigation is excreable. There are egregious brown navigation buttons on the left-hand side that, when pushed, bring up information, not in the center frame (frames, ugh) where you would think that information would appear, but in the small frame on the right of the screen. If brown's not your color, you can push on the lovely pastel "color coded" buttons at the bottom of the screen--check out the awesome rollovers!--that will actually make information appear in the center frame. But get out those reading glasses! Hyperhistory online has "over 2,000 files covering 3,000 years of world history" and unfortunately, they present these files in the form of charts and timelines that are not only ridiculously confusing-looking with their miniscule text and their Easter egg color combinations, they also scroll from left to right!

Wait, it gets worse! When you click on one of the tiny timeline cells, it brings up further information--where? you guessed it! The right frame!
Okay, ugliness aside, the structure of this site is just all wrong. Even though the author tells you if you're lost you can "simply click on one of the five round navigation buttons on the left," the buttons make no sense and the left frame and bottom frame buttons both take you to different places so you can't find your way back (or forwards) for that matter. The text is hard to read, not only because it's so small, but because the colors make your eyes bleed. Having information pop up in the right frame instead of the center has the viewer confused, thinking that the link doesn't work because nothing is changing on the main screen.
The author (an architect, haha) explains that "the original concept for a synchronoptic timeline dates back to the time of our journey throughout Asia when I was writing about the histories of Asian cultures for a Swiss newspaper." Well congratulations to him because he has come full-circle; understanding this site is about as easy as reading about Asian cultures in French.

The Triangle Factory Fire
From Cornell University

The Triangle Fire web site's design, as Mike O'Malley would say, harmonizes with its content and with the message it tries to convey. The design is elegant, yet engaging. The text is easy to read and is presented in easy-to-chew chunks. The site is very navigable (is that a word?) with an easy search function and is a fully-functional hypertext, with links to resources interspersed throughout (but in a way that complements the site without distracting). The images are integrated into the text in a way that makes sense and doesn't detract; clicking on the images will bring you into a javascript window slideshow. The one suggestion I would make would be to switch the link color from default blue to a "hot color" (ala O'Malley)--this would fit in not only with the design scheme, but also obviously with the content of the site.

Posted by mhess3 at 10:27 AM | Comments (1)

September 28, 2005

amanda's narrative on Cronon

William Cronon’s article in JAH, “A Place for Stories: Nature, History and Narrative” tells the story of postmodern environmental history and postmodern historian’s various methods of narrative discourse. What Cronon is saying is sublimely simple; that history can be told from different viewpoints and that narrative form often breathes life into otherwise meaningless chronologies by pitting human against Mother Nature. Without the human element of the story, we aren’t all that interested in the natural elements. Storms like Rita and Katrina come and go, but without people in the story, who cares? It’s how you tell the story that has some people distressed. But I think history, not just environmental history, has always struggled with the dilemma of how to represent the evidence in such a way that one can be accurate and still show that the facts mean something deeper. Everyone has their own truth to tell.

I believe it is in our nature as humans to create an act, or scene, as Cronon writes, with a beginning, middle, and an end. We humans don’t seem to like things without conclusions, even if they are unfortunate ones, such as Bonnifield’s down spiralling story of the Dust Bowl. We are therefore compelled to create history in some capacity. We cannot simply repeat the dates or order of events and then dismiss them. We need context and conclusion in order to care. We choose what to leave in, what to leave out, with care, sympathy, accuracy and necessary detail. We each paint the picture we want our audience to see.
It has been said, however, that as historians we must earnestly try not to impose ourselves; our political views, personal grievances, preclusions, etc., on history such as to “create” it. But this avoidance of creating our own history is not really possible, and it negates the “humanness” of history. As sensitive creatures in a dynamic world, our viewpoints alter over time. As generations pass we can no longer hold fast to ideas and mores that were preferable, if not fashionable, some time ago. We can only see history through our own unique and time appropriate lens. Therefore, we have something original to offer in the making of history; another monograph to be considered along with the many versions and viewpoints of the same subject. In telling our own stories, we are history.
Ideally each historian is able to arrive at a new conclusion; one that has been carefully researched and thought out, and is well written. My version will certainly be no better or worse than another’s, but will be unique and should stand together proudly with the others. I’m not saying it will be easy, and perhaps it will take me four drafts as it did Cronon, but I’m looking forward to telling my own story.

Posted by avonargy at 07:48 PM

For Tai - a diagram of my CSS

If you stripped all the text and images from my site, you'd have something that looks like the above. The container called "nonFooter" holds everything except the container "Footer." Inside "nonFooter" are two containters - "mainbox," which is floated left, and "rightimage," which is floated right. Inside "mainbox," there are two more containers - "nav," floated left, and "content," floated right.

Red = nonFooter
Yellow = mainbox
Blue = nav
Purple = content
Green = rightimage
Gray = footer

When I was playing around with the CSS, before I typed anything in, I gave each container a different, bright background color so I could see the website as just blocks of color. It helped a lot.

Posted by mhobbs at 06:30 PM | Comments (1)

I'm Famous!

From Rosenzweig and Cohen, chapter 2:

"Stephen Railton’s Mark Twain in His Times website received similar nonmonetary support from within the University of Virginia (UVA), including designated graduate research assistants to update it."

That was me! (or, I was one of them, I guess is the technical way to say it) Look at some of the fun stuff I had to do:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/marketin/spiel.html Recognize my voice?

You never know where I'll pop up next,
Meagan

Posted by mhess3 at 05:18 PM

"Stop! My eyes!" - Matt on website design

My example for bad website design:

The Media History Project

Good website design:

The Journal of American History

The Media History Project, hosted by the University of Minnesota’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is a web design train wreck. For starters, the entry page consists of a Flash animation composed of cheesy clip art, complete with ridiculous soundtrack, which lasts almost a minute. To have your eyes and ears abused, click here. For those of you with a dial-up connection, or if you prefer to take my word for the quality of the Flash, you can go directly to the index page here.

Once you (finally) arrive at said index page, the reader is a assailed by the layout and colors of the site. The header is a competently composed image, but the main article on the page (a story about the “Dick and Jane” primer) is titled with plain Times New Roman text on a block of turquoise background color. The surfer is confused by dual navigation bars, on the left and right of the main content. Note that the first three buttons on the left nav bar don’t even match – “Search the Project” and “About the Project” are both white-on-black buttons, but “Advisory Boards” floats by itself as a simple link. The layout method appears to be based upon tables, although the site does use a CSS file.

On my browser, the menu on the right hand side overlaps the right-hand column of text from the Dick & Jane article. That article also has a very annoying bunch of blue borders at seemingly random places. The “meat” of the site are the Net links in the right-side menu, giving the surfer resources elsewhere on the Web that deal with the history of various media, such as television, comics, print, and computing. Each media type has its own webpage, but the layout and design between these pages are not consistent. Overall, a very flawed site. To be fair, the copyright notice is from 1996, but some content was updated as late as 2002, and the University of Minnesota is still maintaining the site.

A site with very good design belongs to the Journal of American History. The clean, elegant layout is complemented by well-chosen, muted colors and limited use of graphics.

The HTML code reads well, and although the site has a hybrid layout composed of both tables and CSS, it works well and never clogs the browser. A horizontal navigation bar across the top, beneath the header image, guides the user through the site. Pages with self-explanatory names such as “Issues,” “Web Projects,” and “About the JAH” provide information on the site’s structure without guesswork on the part of the user. New pages maintain the same header and color scheme, with left hand menus opening that allow the user to go further into the site. The main navigation bar stays in place so the surfer is never lost. All images also have alt tags that let a browser surfing without images to still navigate the site easily. It’s clear what everything does and where to find what you’re looking for. None of the windows ever require the user to scroll down more than a few clicks of the mouse, as well. A very good site.

Posted by mhobbs at 05:16 PM | Comments (3)

Matt's Web Design Diary, Part the second

Finally got that pesky footer problem licked. Cleaned up the CSS some more, removed some things I had hidden as comments, etc.

Click here to see the latest version of the site.

Click here to see the CSS. Warning: if you have Dreamweaver installed, clicking on my CSS link will launch the program. Plan for any processor slowdowns accordingly.

My thanks to Ammon, who gave me some suggestions on positioning of the footer.

Posted by mhobbs at 10:47 AM | Comments (1)

Non-happy hour

For those who might not have seen this:

The next meeting of the Washington Area Group for Print Culture Studies will take place on Friday, October 7, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in the Woodrow Wilson Room (LJ-113), in the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Michael Dirda will offer opening remarks and lead a discussion entitled "Reading in the Age of the Internet." The presentation and discussion will treat the topic broadly, spanning reading and issues related to reviewing, publishing, and journalism in our electronic age. Members are encouraged to come with questions.

Dr. Michael Dirda (Comparative literature, Cornell University), is a prize-wining columnist for the Washington Post Book World. His publications include Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Indiana hardcover, 2000; Norton paperback, 2003); his self-portrait of the reader as a young man, An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (Norton, 2003); and , most recently, Bound to Please (Norton, 2004).

Please join us for Michael Dirda's discussion session and for dinner afterwards.

The Jefferson Building is located between First and Second Streets, SE in the District of Columbia. Nearest metro stops are Capitol South (blue and orange lines) and Union Station (red line).
For further information, consult the Washington Area Group for Print Culture Studies website at

http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas.eng/wagpcs.htm, or contact
Sabrina Baron, Eric Lindquist, and Eleanor Shevlin at
booksumcp@umd.edu.

Posted by kalbers at 10:05 AM

Evolving Rubrics

Hi:

It seems to me we are starting to evolve some rubrics in this class and that it might be worth recording them for posterity, or at least for ourselves.

Here's what I've got so far. Feel free to add, modify, disagree, etc.

"Scholarship" must be:

Original
Based on research
Peer reviewed
Public

"Narratives" must be (as per Nona):

Coherent
Plausible
Internally consistent

Next comes "good design", no?

Posted by mills at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2005

Happy Hour?

So when is the all-class happy hour? This needs serious attention. Its part of Kelly's drinking culture research.

Posted by tgerhart at 08:09 PM | Comments (5)

I don't believe in isms......

I chose this question because I have avoided philosophy and its theoretical applications for most of my life. The language used to frighten and anger me, but in cutting through its (often unnecessary) obtuseness, I am finding many of these ideas to be very provocative. So, I’ll give this a whirl, even though I am far from confident about my grasp over the tenets of postmodernism and those of the structures it seeks to dismantle. Any comments, criticisms, pitying help would be appreciated (I’m begging here).

Keith Jenkins attempts to lay out the battlefield between traditional and postmodern historians and the respective arguments they make against each other. While Jenkins, as editor of a collection of essays on this subject, asserts that he is writing this introduction because “history students ought to be aware of this situation and ought to take seriously postmodern-type critiques of both upper and lower case histories,” his sympathies seem to be aligned with the postmodernists. He champions their cause and the possibilities postmodern offers in undercutting traditional historical narrative structure.

This would seem to be where he would focus his comments if he were to review William Cronon’s “A Place for Stories.” Cronon nakedly admits the discomfiture postmodernism has caused him, and the wrestling it took to produce his article over the course of five years. In trying to reach a final conclusion, Cronon offers that his “goal throughout has been to acknowledge the immense power of narrative [ie, acknowledge postmodernism contributions with regards to the inherent implications of narratives and metanarratives] while still defending the past (and nature) as real things to which our storytelling must somehow conform lest it cease being history altogether.”(1372) Cronon appreciates some of postmodernisms critiques, but fears to join them he must accept that the past is infinitely malleable, thereby undermining the entire historical project.”(1374)

Jenkins would counter that Cronon’s fears are unfounded, and that postmodernism’s deconstructive qualities present exciting possibilities rather than a devaluation into relative nihilism. He admits that postmodernism deliver son its promise to destroy, in the words of Robert Berkhofer, “the legitimating authority of factuality for history itself according to traditional premises,” and very much allows “historians to tell many equally legitimate stories from various view points, with umpteen voices, emplotments and types of synthesis.”(20) But rather than see this as a destructive force to history making, Jenkins (through Berkhofer) highlights that Cronon is worried because “normal history orders the past for the sake of authority and therefore power.”(20) Ultimately, traditional historical narratives are as constructed as fictions, and only through communal comparison can the relative merits of a historical work be judged.

Cronon would likely agree with this final point, as he himself highlights the importance of peer review. However, he might wonder, what if any, set of values postmodernism might propose to use as a community in assessing historical texts. Moreover, Cronon holds fast in proclaiming “the virtues of narrative as our best and most compelling tool for searching out meaning in a conflicted and contradictory world.” While postmodernisms deconstructions can be alluring, he would likely find them somewhat empty and impotent in presenting a new for

Posted by kalbers at 05:35 PM

Murray vs Manovich

My attempt in comparing the Murray book, Hamlet on the Holodeck, to Manovich's article on What is New Media.

Do you guys see things in hypertext, and that's why you write in it? Is it like thinking in another language once you learn and absorb it? I'm really curious because to me it looks like a lot of extra work. As it is, I use too many words to communicate...

Janet Murray writes about The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace in a creative rather analytical way in Hamlet on the Holodeck. This reflects her background and interests in creating novels, stories, television programs, and movies. She relates to the strong, yet imaginative, character of Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager as she indulges in Victorian fantasies on the ship’s holodeck. Murray earned her PhD from Harvard, and she has worked and taught in and around computers and humanities at MIT. If weighed in a balance, the humanities side would kick in heavier than the digital analog or computer side of Janet Murray’s world. Murray sees the digital world as a medium to create narratives and stories. Computers exist for the sake of their creative uses rather than for the sake of computing. She sees “the most ambitious promise of the new narrative medium is its potential for telling stories about whole systems.”

Murray takes the reader on a light-hearted journey through the art of storytelling from assembly of the first book through Shakespeare, James Joyce, the Perils of Pauline, Gilligan’s Island, and all the way to Star Trek and ELIZA, the computer therapist. The world of computer geeks turned computer gamers and the creators of online soap operas. The technical aspect is secondary to creative possibilities, and the downside of web problems is virtually ignored. She shows us what positive, well-adjusted people can create on the internet and with technology without examining the absolute lack of accountability that can result in very negative uses of the medium. Murray’s view of the future of narrative in cyberspace is partly true but not complete.

Lev Manovich writes that “today we are in the middle of a new media revolution – the shift of all culture to computer-mediated forms of production, distribution, and communication” in his article What is New Media? Manovich’s tone and purpose is very different than Janet Murray while still answering questions about the place of new media in society. Manovich’s article concentrates on the analytical aspects of the subject rather than the creative side. They both lead the reader through the history of computers using punch cards and the changes in creative expression, but Manovich looks at the effect of computer use and development on people and society. He examines the Modularity of computers and their uses and their modulating effect on people and the way they analyze situations comparing the previous method of print mode. New media transforms something into a new format, and the “computerization of culture gradually accomplishes similar transcoding in relation to all cultural categories and concepts. The book narrative is active one way, while the new media is interactive. The user becomes co-author of the work rather than just the receiver of the author’s intentions. Manovich concludes with the idea that mental processes of processing, problem-solving, and recall become externalized through new media as opposed to the thoughtful repose of a book reader. He questions the positive and negative effects of new media on society, and his article is cause for reflection and discussion rather than the rose-colored glass view of Janet Murray. Both articles have merit, but Manovich brings an analytical view that must be addressed in the midst of the revolution.

Posted by scarson1 at 03:54 PM | Comments (3)

Random thoughts on Murray: Geek Poseur?

After I wrote my "official" response, contrasting Manovich and Murray, I reflected upon what had rubbed me the wrong way about Hamlet on the Holodeck. I came up with a few points, which I'll summarize. Read on to find out why I doubt Murray's grasp on the Star Trek franchise, the difference between LARPs and tabletop RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons, and what planet really contained the Rebel base in "The Empire Strikes Back."

1. She chose the wrong Trek! "Voyager" was by far the worst of the post-Roddenberry series. ST:TNG may have had its goofy episodes (Bev Crusher falling in love with a Scottish ghost, anyone?), and ST:DS9 walked a little too close to moral relativism to hold true to Roddenberry's socialist utopia, but ST:V was just ridiculous. The characters were unlikable, the military discipline even more non-existent than in previous shows, and Janeway can't hold a candle to Picard, let alone Kirk. Of course, we won't speak of ST:Enterprise. It is not to be named.

2. In a discussion of deconstructivist narrative, how could she possibly fail to mention Choose Your Own Adventure books? The narrative was already divorced from the linear arrangement of the pages, requiring the interactor to select from certain actions/responses. My favorite was "Space Patrol."

3. Why the preoccupation with MUDs? I remember when they were hot stuff back in the late 1980s, in the bad old days of 2400bps modems and local BBSs you actually had to dial up and log into. From what I recall, the NoVA area had quite to BBS scene - I was a member of several prominent boards, mostly Metaconcert, the Time Zone, and The Flat Earth as Quantum Man and Johnny Realityseed. But MUDs were a very collegiate experience, which may explain Murray's obsession with them. They usually required a better network connection, and so university students had an easier time. They also demanded more programming skill than a kid with a little PASCAL and LOGO under his belt could muster.

4. I'm not sure Murray has a solid grasp of the difference between tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs, such as Dungeons & Dragons or Shadowrun) and Live Action Role-playing Games (LARPs or LRPGs, such as Mind's Eye Theatre, which is itself a spin-off from a TRPG called Vampire: The Masquerade.) Now, I'll be honest - after comics books, my second biggest hobby is the collection of TRPGs. I have over 250 pieces taking up an entire bookshelf, a collection worth almost $3000. I've even written a short scenario booklet (soon to be published) for the GODLIKE RPG from Arc Dream Studios. Thus, Murray's backhanded attack on RPGs on page 82 took me off guard. How can she argue that reading about being locked into the subterranean world world of Zork is a more immersive experience than either a TRPG or LARP? I would guess that Murray has never been involved in a tense session of Cyberpunk:2020, with nothing between her netrunner character and the goons from the Arasaka Corporation but the cruel imagination of her gamemaster. Not immersive, my eye.

5. Finally, Murray blows whatever geek cred she may have earned by misspelling the name of the planet Hoth on page 265. I'm not sure where "Hath" is, but I know for a fact that Han Solo rescued Princess Leia from the ice-planet Hoth while Luke Skywalker led Rogue Squadron in battle against the Imperial AT-ATs.

Posted by mhobbs at 02:56 PM | Comments (1)

Jenkins and Cronon

If Keith Jenkins read William Cronon's article, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative," he would probably criticize Cronon’s choice of the word “story” to connote the narratives produced by historians. Jenkins’ own essay on the historical practice, “Introduction: on being open about our closures,” argues that even the most careful narrative of the past is inseparable from present and personal ideology. Cronon also flirts with this idea, citing the challenge of postmodernism to historical scholarship, and Jenkins would nod in agreement with many of Cronon’s concessions. But Cronon stops short of accepting postmodernism as the new and absolute standard of truth (or nonexistence thereof). His reply to Jenkins would be to point out that the past was at one time real, regardless of how one represents it, and narrative is an intrinsic part of the way humans perceive existence. Therefore narrative is impossible to ignore and, “rather than evade it [historical narrative]… we must learn to use it consciously, responsibly, and self-critically.” (p. 1376)

Taken to their logical conclusion, Cronon would not dispute many of Jenkins’ assertions—that historians interpret history on their own terms and according to their beliefs and experiences, that histories and even the documents they are based on cannot be viewed outside of their contemporary context, that history is inherently self-referential, etc. However, the difficulty of Jenkins’ position is that the brand of extreme postmodernism he uses to challenge the “bourgeois” assumptions of academia offers no allowance for imperfection. Cronon, on the other hand, accepts that he cannot separate himself from the narrative he produces, but still finds validity in an imperfect narrative form that acts as a tool of communicating ideas and finding meaning (even constructed meaning) in the past.

Cronon’s argument raises a key aspect of scholarship and emphasizes the major point of our last class discussion. Without conscious reexamination of the past and its meaning, and continued reevaluation of previous histories, Jenkins’ critique of history as ideology gains more weight. Thus argument, criticism, and debate are at the heart of historical validity, not the false objectivity that haunts Jenkins view of historical narratives.

Posted by miles at 02:52 PM

Matt's Narrative: Manovich v. Murray: FIGHT!

Lev Manovich and Janet Murray both address the future of the narrative form in relation to emerging technologies. Both authors are also eminently well-equipped to do so. Manovich, who has work experience in computer animation along with an M.A. in experimental psychology and a Ph.D. In Visual and Cultural Studies, teaches classes in new media at the University of California, San Diego. Murray earned her Ph.D. from Harvard, and taught humanities and interactive design theory to the engineering students of MIT. For their similarities, however, the two authors reach divergent conclusions on the future of the new media.

Murray argues in Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace that the advent of the new media will allow for the cyberbard of the future to tell entirely different kinds of stories, as distinct from print and film as the capabilities of those two media are from each other. Breathlessly peddling the innovative aspects of storytelling in cyberspace, Murray leads the reader through her theme using examples as disparate as Star Trek: Voyager, the graphic sequential art of Mike Baron and Art Spiegelman, the science fiction of Willaim Gibson (originator of the term "cyberspace"), and of course Murray’s own realm of literary criticism. To carry forward Murray’s preoccupation with role-playing and masks, her tone makes her the high priestess preaching to the masses, foretelling not omens of doom but prophecies of a bright, glorious future. In this future cyberdramas will turn the audience into interactors, free to use the flexible technology of the new media to explore the virtual worlds designed for them and find/construct their own plots and resolutions.

Lev Manovich’s approach is different, and certainly more cautious. He examines apparent dichotomies relevant to the new media – information access vs. psychological engagement, data vs. algorithm, database vs. narrative – and reveals their similarities rather than their differences. His sources and topics are strikingly similar to Murray’s; they both address the game TETRIS, for instance. This common ground only serves to throw their differences into relief, however. Where Murray, as the literary analyst, reads the 1990s popularity of the falling-block game as a metaphor for the chaotic lives of postmodern, late twentieth-century players who use their agency within the game to express their inner conflicts, Manovich sees the game “playing” the players by teaching them the algorithm to be successful.

Both Manovich and Murray acknowledge that a new form will emerge. Murray stresses the supremacy of the narrative, confident that above all the new media will be an outlet for storytelling. It will likely be interactive storytelling, but there will be plot nonetheless. Manovich doubts the preeminence of the narrative and lends much weight to the database, the syntagm that Murray largely ignores. For Manovich, the power of the new media is not in the unique forms of expression it may allow, but in the breadth and depth of information available to the narrator/audience/interactor.

While initially quit taken with Murray’s proposal, her argument lost steam for me as I progressed through her book. I read Manovich’s piece with roughly one hundred pages to go in Murray’s book, and found myself siding more and more with the theory of the primacy of the database. Perhaps I am merely an unconverted heathen, too cold of heart to listen to Murray’s gospel of an entirely new media art form to be born out of my desktop. I am more swayed by the weight Manovich places on the database over the narrative. One is not superior to the other, but Murray ignores the database at her own peril. Her experience with IBM punchcards and core dumps may have soured her on the true advantage that vast amount of data storage and collation the new media can lend to narrative, for the positive influence of both.

Posted by mhobbs at 01:20 PM

Kurt: Question #1

All of us are products of our culture and cannot escape the impact our own personal experiences have on our perceptions. Postmodernists argue that because of this we cannot truly write objective history. Historians cannot place themselves into the past and hence can never know what the truth is. William Cronon’s article acknowledges this, to a degree, and its impact on his work as an environmental historian. His article relates the story of his own “struggle to accommodate the lessons of critical theory without giving in to relativism.” It tells the story of his struggle to overcome this. He is uneasy with the shifting theoretical ground he occupies and speaks of frustration and his need for help from the historical community. And yet from the very fact that he does struggle comes the safe harbor he seeks wherein lies the answers to his own questions.

Cronon illustrates how several historians can write about the same event and arrive at different conclusions. For example some historians wrote about how some residents of the Great Plains persevered despite the ecological disaster of a devastating drought. Others wrote about how man may have caused the problem and were short sighted in choosing to farm in that region to begin with. How can one event spawn two different stories? This seems to support the postmodernists’ claim that if events can be seen from so many perspectives then we can never know which one is accurate if any of them are.

Further complicating matters Cronon points out that the historian’s use of narrative imposes a human way of organizing reality onto the natural world such that an event has a beginning, middle, and end. As an environmental historian he is especially concerned with how different people have lived in and used the natural world and is aware of the mechanics of nature. Nature does not have beginnings, middles, and ends, “things in nature just happen.” Many events are not linear such as the cyclical motion of the planets. After acknowledging these problems Cronin begins to find his way back to firmer ground.

He examines narrative and its use in history and suggests that it is so basic to our cultural beliefs that we automatically impose it on reality. It provides a way to defining were we come from and how we arrived where we are. Narrative, Cronin argues, is, “our best and most compelling tool for searching out meaning in a conflicted and contradictory world.” Postmodernism looses sight of what makes narrative valuable to historians namely that the difference between narrative and a chronology is that good stories make us care about the subject. Thus environmental historians can use narrative to tell how man has interacted with nature in the past and perhaps see lessons for the future.

Cronin’s own story arc began with his own doubts and questions about his own theoretical outlook as raised by the postmodernists. Dissatisfied with their direction he examines the nature and use of narrative and found value there but questions about bias remain. Cronon explained how he circulated versions of his article to colleagues and received several different responses and suggestions. “Each new version of the essay, and each letter and conversation that critiqued it, returned me to where I began: each became a different story about the meaning of stories, a different argument about how narrative does and does not ground itself in nature and the past. The essay, in other words, recapitulated the very problems it set out to solve.” But in this situation he found his answer, or something close to it.

Cronon suggests three ways to help restore confidence in narratives. First, good historians do not knowingly lie. Their stories cannot contravene known facts about the past. Secondly environmental historians’ stories must make ecological sense. They cannot obscure or exclude ecological facts when writing about man and his responses to the natural world, to do so would be another form of lying. Finally Cronin reminds us that scholars are members of a community and must circulate their work as he did with his essay in order to have objective viewpoints to aid him in weeding out errors as well as identify excluded facts. These are not simple objectives and can be frustrating but he points out, “the resulting text is…unquestionably better as a result.”

Having reached what Cronin calls his safe harbor his faith in narrative is secure and his belief in the value of environmental history sound. He encourages other historians to tell stories not only, “about nature but stories about stories about nature.” To him they are capable of great impact and keep us, “morally engaged with the world by showing us how to care about it and its origins in ways we had not done before.” Cronin ends his story by positing that man can not avoid story telling. It is within our nature and so narrative should be used responsibly, consciously and self-critically. He poses questions about man’s relationship to the world and notes that they are starting points for new stories.

Posted by kknoerl at 12:18 PM

The Stories We Must Tell (ques. #1-nona)

The Stories We Must Tell

Cronon, William. "A Place for Stories: Nature, History and Narrative." Journal of American History, 78 no. 4. (1992): 1347-1376.

William Cronon spins a web, concerning the nature of the narrative, that is at once complex and intricate, but yet untangled. Cronon asserts that man by design of nature is a storyteller. It is part of his core, central to his very existence. And, that history is a discipline in which we satisfy this essential yearning and do what we have to do; we tell stories. Because we tell stories to make sense of the world, our chief protagonist and antagonist are more than likely ourselves (human being or human kind).1369) Thus, historians are tasked with the privilege and the duty of telling the stories that shape experiences and frame mankind’s existence.

Most prominent in the intricate web woven is Cronon’s “stories about story-tellers.” (1374) Cronon uses as his running motif, the tales told about the Great Plains. From Turner’s tales of the frontier and the heroic frontiersmen to the New Deal’s saga of man’s limitations and nature’s frailty, Cronon details the power of the narrative. Faced with the same pearls of facts and events, it is the job the story-teller, the historian, to lace them onto the string of narrative in order to assure their value; in order to make them mean something. These narratives, though based on the same evidence, have the undercurrents of the author’s biases and political positions and result in entirely different stories being told.

Although Cronon admits that the narrative form has the potential to be manipulative, he points out three ways that our story telling is bounded. Our stories cannot contradict fact already known about the past. Secondly, environmental historians are bound by natural facts of ecology. This can be extrapolated to suggest that all historians need to place the tale within the context of a larger picture be it economics or ecology. And, finally, there is a community of scholars by whom our stories are evaluated. We do not tell stories by ourselves; it is a tandem effort that involves our peers. These boundaries are vitally important because as is illustrated by the stories of the Great Plain, “we can achieve no neutral objectivity” in writing the story (1370). Decisions as simple as “separating story from non-story,” or choosing where the narrative starts and where it ends point to a subjectivity--to a bias--that is impossible to overcome (1349). This is the post-modern critical theorist’s “assault on narrative,” which calls into questions our stories. Cronon addresses this in another thread of his story, one that is more personal to him.

The reader is like one eavesdropping as Cronon questions whether it is possible to form narratives, relevant and honest ones, that at their heart cause the audience to care about the story’s characters, plot and scene. Stories that “keep us morally engaged with the world by showing us how to care about it and its origins in ways we had not done before.” (1375) Is it possible to create such narratives when post-modern thought threatens to make historical narrative impotent? It is, if like Cronon, historians come to the conclusion taht we must “accommodate the lessons of critical theory without giving in to relativism” (1374) Not only is it possible it is necessary.

“Historians, like prophets” Cronon says, “share a common commitment to find meaning of endings.” (1375) Cronon ends this story with questions, all of which are simply beginnings to countless other stories and with an admonition to use the narrative “responsibly and self-critically” and to not try to escape the moral judgments that inevitably come with telling a narrative. (1376) Cronon leaves us with a moral. The moral is that the stories we can tell as historians are important, even vital to society and its preservation. We must carefully craft our narrative because these are stories we must tell. We must not underestimate the power of the narrative, and above all, we should not be afraid to tell the story.

Posted by nmartina at 09:09 AM

Web Review Proposal

After much thought, I have determined to review a group of websites that deal with the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. I debated whether it would be more appropriate to review a group of sites with common subject matter or if it would be useful to select a group of sites that shared intended audiences, methodologies, and presentation goals. The latter option would allow the reviewer to compare technical aspects and evaluate the potential power of new media to communicate ideas (or circulate knowledge), but differences in subject could complicate efforts to point out advantages and disadvantages for scholarship. Therefore, I decided that a common historical theme was necessary.

I have been interested in the 1900 American Negro Exhibit at the Paris fair for a number of years now, and I searched for potential sites to review on this topic first. I found a number of possibilities, but all but one or two were short and poor in quality, and lacked sufficient argument. However, during my search, I began to find sites that deal with the Chicago Fair. Many of these sites were well designed and useful, although scholarly argument still seems to be the difficult aspect of finding potential sites for review.

The Chicago Columbian Exhibition has been a source of much historical inquiry and there have been countless traditional texts devoted to the event. Most historians agree that the exhibition was one of the key American cultural events of the Gilded Age, although debates persist regarding its exact meaning. Because of the near universal recognition of the fair’s significance, many, many primary documents and contemporary artifacts and sources have been preserved, offering a wealth of potential for scholarship as well as appropriate materials for aspiring digital historians hoping to create a dynamic web presentation of the fair.

Yet, the options for Columbian Exhibition sites worthy of a web review are limited. I decided this lack of digital scholarship raises a question of why such a defining historical moment would have so little coverage. I picked the best group of sites I could find that deal with the Chicago Fair and, in addition to reviewing the sites themselves, I will access the state of quality online history resources that address this important topic in U.S. history.

The sites named below are the initial list of sites I will consider.

The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893
(http://columbus.iit.edu/)

This site is an archive of four digitized texts and their illustrations regarding the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago maintained by the Illinois Institute of Technology. The site was designed to serve teachers and researchers. In addition to the texts, the site also provides two introductory essays that argue the importance of the fair and its literature.

The World’s Columbian Exposition: Idea, Experience, Aftermath
(http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/WCE/title.html)

This project attempts to document many aspects of the fair and argues that the exhibition was actually a celebration of American culture and society. The site includes an introductory essay, short history, narrative tour, contemporary reactions, and an analysis of the fair’s legacy.

Interactive Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition
(http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Columbian/columbian.html)

I included this site because I found it early in my search, and it is cited by almost all the other sites, but it was created by a sixth-grade teacher and is basically a list (a very long list) of historical information without much argument or analysis. So, I might decide to omit it from my review.

Women's Art at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893
(http://members.cox.net/academia/cassattxx.html)

This site includes a large amount of information on one part of the fair—the women’s building and their art and literature at the fair. The site includes a narrative and many images and links divided between five sections: “The White City,” “The Women’s Building,” “Mary Cassatt’s Lost Mural,” “Women Painters,” and “Women Sculptors.”

Posted by miles at 08:49 AM | Comments (1)

Maureen's Narrative

Bill Cronon, in his essay "A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative," provides his readers with multiple stories within a story in order to challenge historians to consider their own historical narratives. Cronon defines the historical narrative as a story that describes "an action that begins, continues over a well-defined period of time, and finally draws to a definite close, with consequences that become meaningful because of their placement in the narrative." (1367) Cronon then illustrates, literally and figuratively, his own story about the historical narrative through a brief historiography of the American Great Plains.

This historiography, the story of the history of the Great Plains, examines the different interpretations of the Great Plains that either argue for frontier progress and human heroes in an uninhabited wilderness or, in contrast, argue for foolish settlers who became the catalyst for the environmentally disastrous Dust Bowl in the 1930s. In a third group of historical narratives, capitalism, not man, had the greatest impact on on the Great Plains' environement. Cronon provides his readers with necessary background information on the historical moments of the time that had an impact on these different interpretations. However, as Cronon also reminds us, none of these versions incorporates the Native American narrative that provides a completely different interpretation of events. After losing their homeland, one Indian described the end of their way of life in the Great Plains as, "After this nothing happened." In this story, unlike the others, the end is truly the end. (1366) Thus, these different stories are all constructed in a similar manner so that the "plot and its changing scene-its environment-flow toward the ultimate end of the story." (1370)

However, these stories do not share a common, similar, ending. Cronon reminds us that where each storyteller or historian chooses "to begin and end a story profoundly alters its shape and meaning." (1364) Different interpretations of evidence is a logical outcome. At the same time, Cronon wants his readers to examine exactly how historical narratives ground themselves in the past. He argues that the problem of historical narratives lies within the storyteller's ability to "acknowledge the immense power of narrative while still defending the past as real things to which our story telling must somehow conform lest it cease being history altogether." (1372) He reminds us that historical narratives are protected from becoming 'bad history' because specific limits are in place: history cannot contravene known facts about the past; good history does not knowingly lie (historical narratives are bounded by the evidence they can and cannot muster in their own support); and, historians do not tell stories by themselves.

The purpose of Cronon's story is to define the relevance of environmental history narratives as stories that make readers aware that "stories about the past are better...if they increase our attention to nature and the place of people within it." (1375) Cronon's story is relevant for all historians who write about the past because we also need to write narratives that engage our readers, increase their awareness and add to their own historical interests. In this multi-layered story, historical narratives are challenged to become better stories.

Posted by mguignon at 07:44 AM

The Future of Historical Narrative - Ammon

1. Bill Cronon calls his essay "A Place for Stories." What is the story that Cronon tells in his essay?

William Cronon's story is about the place of stories in historical research. Stories, or narratives, deeply impact our telling of history. History can not be told without story. History written as a list of events or chronology have little meaning for humans. We need not a list of what happened and when, but a story or narrative to make an otherwise incoherent chronology into something meaningful. A historical fact is just a mere string or thread of existence, it takes a narrative to weave that thread among others to create a tapestry, to create an image that is recognizable, understandable, and meaningful to the human mind.

Historical writings follow closely the narrative path of other literary venues. Cronon shows that historical plots seem to follow two major lines of literary convention, 'progressive' or 'declensionist.' The progressive story is an upward moving, ever increasing and ever more positive story were the protagonist starts as the underdog and ends up on top. The declension story is the opposite, a downward movement, a lineal digression of positive elements towards negative hopelessness. (7)

As in literary works, the historical narrative is greatly influenced by the choice of protagonist. Ranging from the individual (a single pioneer or settler family), to the group (the plains farmers in general), to the broad and encompassing (civilization, man). Who the story is about will have a great affect on how the story is told.

Cronon defends the position that storytelling affects not only the way we look on a historical topic, but also impacts the outcome of future events. In recounting the efforts by the US government to control the disastrous situations caused by the Dust Bowl, Cronon found that the New Deal planners argued that the 'progressive' storytelling of the past not only falsely portrayed the Great Plains, but was the cause of the disasters of the 1930's. In effect, claims Cronon and the New Deal planners, "bad storytelling had wreaked havoc with the balance of nature" (16).

Another important factor in the historical narrative is how the author begins and ends the story. "Where one chooses to begin and end a story profoundly alters its shape and meaning...refram[ing] the past so as to include certain events and people, exclude others, and redefine meaning of landscape accordingly" (19). Where the story begins or ends, greatly limits the quality of the story to be told.

Cronon, in the last third of his essay, finally delves into the reasoning why narratives are so important to humans. Stories are a uniquely human invention consisting of beginning, middle, and end. What gives a story its power is our ability as humans to compartmentalize natural events, or events in our experience of life, into narratives with a beginning, middle, and end, and thereafter, to learn a lesson from it to gain understanding. For this reason, Cronon argues, narratives and storytelling are an important part of historical research. The story provides a way for humans to debate, think, and ponder about humans interaction with nature and their own struggles with personal values.

Posted by ashephe1 at 07:37 AM

Cronon’s “story”

Cronon is an environmental historian who has raised a lot of eyebrows.

Cronon is an environmental historian who has raised a lot of eyebrows. With “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative,” Cronon demonstrates how historians put environmental changes in a narrative structure. As an environmental historian, Cronon deems it necessary to tell the story of nature’s place in man’s past. He opposes the “endless postmodernist deconstruction of texts that fails to ground itself in history.” (Cronon, 1374) These postmodernists make their subject the “least human and least storied of worlds.” (Cronon, 1374) Cronon would like the story of how humans have lived in and utilized the natural world to be heard. He also acknowledges, however, that historians should recognize nature and the past as real things, lest their works become something other than history. Historians might differ on how this relationship between man and nature co-exist, even if each has the same set of facts. To illustrate his point, Cronon discusses how historians have portrayed the Dust Bowl.

Writing in the late 1970s, Paul Bonnifield sees the story of the Great Plains demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit. Farmers, though tested by the great dust storms that plagued the Great Plains during the Great Depression, prevailed, symbolizing the determination of rugged individualism. However, if you ask Donald Worster, man was bested by nature—in other words “The story of the Dust Bowl is less about the failures of nature than about the failures of human beings to accommodate themselves to nature.” (Cronon, 1348). To Worster, who wrote at the same time as Bonnifield, the story of the Dust Bowl showed the contradictions of capitalist expansion.

The same set of facts, two different stories. However, both versions grab the attention of readers. When people learn about history, they like to hear a good story. Indeed, few people would listen to a vague chronology, listing the history of the Great Plains that includes people fighting a lot, disappearing bison herds, and Indians living on reservations. (Cornon, 1351) To spice things up, one author might focus on how the disappearing bison herds impacted the region. Another might focus on the rise of Indian reservations. As storytellers, they have the power to report some facts and ignore others—whatever fits their overarching theme. However, they need a plot to keep their audiences interested.

Posted by ejonese at 07:36 AM

Scott's Narrative (Question #1)

While wading through the rather large numbers of readings this week, I was struck by two: William Cronon’s eloquent discussion of “stories” and Janey Murray’s Hamlet on the Holodeck. Cronon because he placed his narrative in a specialized historiographical discussion of the Plains, my childhood home and Murray because she mentioned Star Trek. Come Sunday, however, and I was still wading through Murray and barely got through Jenkins, Landow and Manovich. So I opted for question 1.

William Cronon, a historian at Yale, describes himself as an “American. . .male. . .white. . .upper-middle-class academic. . .environmentalist. . .[and a] scholar” (p. 1373) uses a specialized historiographic article that covers some of the works written on the history of the Great Plains to argue about the importance, and necessity, of the narrative and “story.” He is admittedly uneasy about criticisms put forward by post-modernists regarding the value of the traditional historical narrative. In answer to the first question posed by Professor Kelly, Cronon’s story is all about his belief of the relevance and importance of the “traditional” historical narrative. He weaves in the importance of the narrative in his particular type of history, that is, environmental, but his argument is applicable to all historical studies. As he writes “that narrative remains essential to our understanding of history and the human place in nature.” (1350)

He takes great pains to describe the form that an effective story must follow. That includes the fact that a story must have a beginning, middle and an end (1367) as Aristotle noted. Most importantly it must have a plot, “the moral of the story,” which is the heart of any good story. Also important to the story is the “scene of a story” (1354). The narrative is an effective form of communication because it, the story, “is the chief literary form that tries to find meaning in an overwhelmingly crowded and disordered chronological reality” (1449) and is a “peculiarly human way of organizing reality.” (1367) The story-telling narrative is the way humans have made sense of their place in the world.

He also acknowledges the importance of understanding the underlying political tones that every author brings to the narrative, what some have called the meta narrative. In one sense this could be called a bias, but then again we have to understand who we are and what we stand for to write effective history. It is these underpinnings to what we believe as scholars that will frame our arguments, and without arguments all you have is a straight chronology. It is our ability (or inability) as writers to place our story in an effective narrative that will ultimately determine whether or not we write “good” history or, as he puts it, a “well-told tale.” (1364) That “well-told tale” will have “organic unity, a clear focus, and only the ‘relevant’ details.” (Ibid.)

He argues that the story is a way to bring an understanding of the “meaning” of our lives based on our background, belief systems, and points of view. (1369) The Graham Swift quotation speaks volumes. And the story is our method to give us a sense of place in history and the moral of our story gives us “lessons we wish to draw.” (1370) A good narrative will make us “care” about the subject, unlike a chronicle (1374) and will be “our best path to an engaged moral life.” Long live the narrative.

STP

Posted by sprice7 at 07:22 AM | Comments (1)

September 25, 2005

Website Review Proposal (nona)

Civil Rights in the American South:
Oral History Websites

Although oral history interviewing has taken place since the Zhou dynasty of China, and was used throughout US History for government purposes (in the 1890’s by the US Bureau of Ethnography and by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930’s) the first modern archives of oral history was not established until 1948. (Ritchie 1995, 1) And, it wasn’t until 1970’s with the introduction of Social History that were oral histories focused on the non-elites. One such group non-elites on which oral history focused was African Americans, allowing the voice of a people, whose cries before fell on unhearing ears, to finally be heard. The use of “new media” makes it easier for those voices to be broadcasted to a wider audience.

In my web review essay, I propose to evaluate sites that focus on the Southern Civil Right Movement, specifically those that have an oral history component, giving special attention to the evaluation of the oral history component using the suggestions for evaluating online oral history collections given at Oral History Online. I have selected the following sites:

Race and Place
(http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/raceandplace/)
This site attempts to “connect race with place by understanding what it was like to live, work, pray, learn, and play in the segregated South.”(http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/raceandplace/about_main.html) The collection is focused on the town of Charlottesville, Virginia.

The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
(http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/index.html)
This PBS website was intended as a companion to a series by the same name by the same name. However the website is capable of being viewed as a standalone project.

Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Oral History Project
(http://162.114.3.83/civil_rights_mvt/)
This project, presented by the Kentucky Historical Society, includes an online database that allows access to several hundred audio and video taped oral history interviews.

Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archives
(http://www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/crda/oh/)
This project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services is a fully searchable database of resources that pertain to the Civil Rights Era in Mississippi. It has an oral history component.

Bibliography:

Race and Place
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/afam/raceandplace/about_main.html

Ritchie, Donald A., ed. Doing Oral History. New York: Prentice Hall International, 1995.

Posted by nmartina at 03:58 PM | Comments (1)

September 24, 2005

Amanda's personal website created for clio

My personal clio website is currently located at http://mason.gmu.edu/~avonargy/ I had it up last week at the last moment and in all the excitement, I simply forgot to tell you all where it is.

Posted by avonargy at 03:21 PM | Comments (1)

horse-ing around with a web review

Amanda von Argyriadis
Dr. T. Mills Kelly/Clio Wired
Review Essay Proposal
September 24, 2005

I propose to review the topic of equine history, in particular, the history of the equine in the Piedmont region of Virginia. I have a few reasons for choosing this topic. Those of you who have read my bio or who know me from previous courses will note that my life has been strongly centred on horses and continues to be. It is a natural interest for me to follow. Furthermore, this project follows on the heels of my article, “Spurring the Sport of Kings; Polo in the Piedmont” in the September/October 2003 issue of The Virginia Sportsman; a project for which I could find little or no reliable research material on line. I wonder if this has changed in the past couple of years and if there is a gap to be filled by someone like me with a background in both history and equine related subjects. Finally, I am in the process of creating my own website, Cyberhistorypony.com, with which I intend to explore the history of Anglo-equine cultural influence in the Piedmont. Cyberhistorypony.com may or may not become a dissertation, depending on how much information I can reliably retrieve and upload on line without facing copyright problems or how problematic the project becomes in general.
I am generally fascinated at how cultures re-create themselves in remote locations. Early settlers in the Americas, American Indian, the Spanish and English alike, were all well acquainted with the ways of the horse. New Englanders carried on their English cultural mores here in the Unites States and rode to the hounds, played polo, held steeplechase meetings and bred for speed and elegance in racing. Even the breeding of a good plow horse was pivotal to sustaining a lucrative life on the gentleman’s farm. And while other cultures were infused as time wore on in the Piedmont, English traditions and cultural mores continued to flourish. Horses and horse sports are plentiful in other parts of the country, but they lack the essence that the Piedmont region posses. I intend to research the history of these regional events and what that essence of the lifestyle is on the web.
Today, plenty of evidence of country life imported from the United Kingdom abounds, as central Virginia is a Mecca for horse related activities with more horses per person than any other state in the union. The surrounding counties of Fauquier and Loudoun host more horses than any others in the state. Why does this culture prevail, in the face of highway congestion, massive housing developments, animal rights activists, and at times, a struggling economy? What is it that attracted so many English to the Piedmont in the early years? What attracts so many Americans today?

Some would argue post haste that the supposed “refined” style of English country living is the draw for Americans. However, having been involved for many years at the grass roots level I can attest that for most it is hardly a life of refinement; rather it boasts a basic mud and dog hair-coated existence that beckons a good trip to the Laundromat. Many small scale genteel farmers spend untold hours commuting to their city jobs to be able to commune regularly with their furry friends out in the country. This is not a life for the character weak or weary; it requires early morning workouts in the dark, slippery grass, stinky barns and endless chores for the horse care taker. These people would rather eat a tomato sandwich and give the horse the better meal. Every last dime is sent on riding equipment or vet bills, trailer repairs or some other equine related expense that most people (on the outside) would find untenable. Yet so many flock to the region with baited breath to get the chance to live like this.
What is the true essence of this lifestyle? Has it changed over the past hundred years? I would argue that there is something about this lifestyle that does not exist outside of the region exactly in this way. Is it the horse itself that is the magnet? Has it always been that way? What is it about the horse, part magician, part exercise bike, part best friend that has so many people addicted? Why am I still involved, even after I have no time for anything else and my life is turning to academics?

Some websites I will evaluate will be but are not limited to:
http://www.mfha.com/ Master Foxhounds of America, a site that looks promising regarding foxhunting and has many links.

http://www.nsl.org/ The National Sporting Library site with lots of links and archives to research.

http://www.thevha.com/main.htm the Virginia Horseman’s Association

http://www.vasteeplechase.com The Virginia Steeplechase Association with many related links and sites

http://www.horse-talk.com/Virginia.html Virginia Horse Directory

Posted by avonargy at 03:15 PM

Murray's Vision -Question 3

# 3. What is the meaning of the title of Murray’s book? What is Murray’s own narrative?

When Janet Murray named her book Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, she was referring to potential “new narrative formats” (Murray p. 280) resulting from technological innovation. By combining the reference of the Shakespearean character Hamlet with the fantasy environment made popular by a television program Star Trek she is states that narratives are a legitimate field of study no matter what their genre. Traditional high brow culture can co-mingle with low brow in a digital environment and foster in the cyberspace environment, creative, literary geniuses, on par with the great bard Shakespeare. These new bards will take advantage of the medium, perhaps through role playing, multi-user dungeons, or games, to develop new forms of narratives. She sees the “stage” of the future as cyberspace. Given the worldwide audience of the web, her thesis brings new literal meaning to “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” (Shakespeare, As You Like It. Act II, Sc. 7, Line 139)
For anyone possibly unfamiliar with Star Trek, Murray includes, in chapter one, an explanation of the concept of a Holodeck. It is a computer generated fantasy environment where stories are programmed to enable the participant to act out adventures with various scenarios. It is a place where imagination and dreams set boundaries. Murray sees the format of the Holodeck, one developed through advanced computer technology, as a very real possibility for the future and the path to using such devices as something mankind is already moving towards. She uses creative scenes derived from Hamlet to provide examples several times in the book, such as a live action role playing game scene (LARP) and has a poetic conclusion. She envisions new technologies as being supportive of variable plots where the user can manipulate the story line to produce a variety of conclusions. The concept expands on one of my daughter’s favorite book series Choose Your Own Ending. She sees the digital environment as a way to facilitate immersive environments and provide more imaginative, innovative stories than a traditionally linear narrative as described by Cronin (Cronin p. 1367)- one with the a specific beginning, middle, and end.

Janet Murray’s own narrative is a reflection on how “the narrative” has changed format and will continue to change over time. She defends the narrative as a necessary tool for communication regardless of form or genre but also as a fun aspect of the human experience. She explores the concept of the story telling genre, speculating that the audience will become the participatory author interacting in cyberspace, developing multi-variant events leading to a multitude of plots, simulations, and “do-overs” which she labels “cyberdrama.” She makes the point that the medium has little to do with the content and that it is unfair to judge TV and computer presentations inferior to the written word based solely on their medium. (Murray p. 273) I agree with her point. I think there are times when a quality multimedia production is more useful or appropriate than print materials.
One of Janet Murray’s meta-narratives is that games are acceptable as a form of expression, and she provides examples as well as a brief autobiography in her acknowledgments. As a result, her book is very readable; her references are familiar and comfortable. Technological developments and enhancements will pave the way for a revolutionary use of the narrative in a new digital form or genre. In her vision for the future, peoples’ senses are not numbed or desensitized by the new technologies. Instead she sees human emotions as a necessary agency and immersion as a way for the narrative to become so engaging, entertaining, and powerful that the medium is not even noticed.
She predicts that technology will evolve in mostly positive directions which is what I believe the critic in question #5 means when referring to her “utopianism.” While minimizes concerns over violence and pornography, (Murray p. 172) and overlooking the poor scholarship, lack of quality based on minimum editorial standards, and the current trend for just plain shlock and junk running rampant in many internet sites and games, Murray appears overly optimistic at best. While flexibility in story telling and multiple nonlinear plots may indeed have social value among the world community and do provide entertainment, Murray seems unconcerned with the potentially addictive properties of fantasy, role-playing, and computer games. Interactive games do engage the user but may promote anti-socialism as a result of interacting with technology instead of directly with other humans and Multi-User Domains (MUDS) create a networks for sharing among their members but also promote an exclusionary society. Murray’s Pollyanna-like belief in the potential of technology is a very upbeat vision of the future which I’d like to subscribe to. A more realistic vision however would be to continue to see the growth of scholarship in many forms through the ability to instantly share information with some small number of creative individuals pushing the limits. Change comes slowly in many areas of society and unless there is a financial benefit as is evidenced by popular commercial sites, the success of future technologies will still probably hinge on their affordability to the public and their use only updating more traditional forms of entertainment.

Posted by dschaef1 at 01:47 PM | Comments (2)

Narrative by Tai

In the following I will compare Manovich and Murray in tone, approach, and analysis. Specifically stating with whom I agree.

Tone

Manovich exhibits a theoretical tone in the discussion of narrative in new media while Murray displays her excitement over the potential for new media to produce a new type of narrative. Manovich defines her terms, explains the processes of syntagm/paradigm in natural language structure versus computer culture, and concludes: “New media does not radically break with the past; rather, it distributes weight differently between the categories that hold culture together, foregrounding what was in the background, and vice versa (Manovich, p. 229).” Murray also defines her terms, reveals how the new media narrative compares to old media narrative and displays her confidence in the new narrative to: “capture in cyberdrama something as true to the human condition, and as beautifully expressed, as the life that Shakespeare captured on the Elizabethan stage (Murray, p. 274).”

Approach

Both authors view the new media narrative as a form of previous narratives diverging from the linear tradition. Manovich describes at length how in natural language, the syntagmatic dimension is the written word on a page (explicit), while the paradigmatic dimension is the set of nouns or synonyms which are present in the writer’s mind and could have been interchanged with the written word (implicit). Conversely in new media, the database acts as the paradigm and is real, but the narrative or syntagm exists virtually. Because databases are interactive, they become the sum of multiple trajectories, eliminating a purely linear approach (Manovich, pp. 227, 230-232). Murray focuses on the unique ability of the digital world to communicate a multiform story, where a single plotline has multiple versions, mutually exclusive in the traditional linear progression. Linear stories must end in one place; multiform stories can have many endings allowing the reader to make choices as they move through the narrative. This agency of the reader is facilitated by the digital medium due the opportunity of the reader to enact stories rather than to merely witness them (Murray, pp. 30, 136, 170).

Analysis

Manovich presents an argument in a concise, theoretical and relatively objective manner, yet Murray’s argument is littered with ramblings of her science fiction passion and prejudice in favor of the new media’s possibilities. The ability of Manovich to present an argument through theory and scattered examples, allows the reader to remain centered on what is being proven. In contrast, Murray spends pages, nearly chapters, describing her interest in science fiction television programs and specific computer games. Therefore her argument is strung along, fractured and less than clear as she fancifully dances through her own musings on the new media. These may be examples for her argument, but they are too lengthy and divergent from the analysis to be worthwhile. Murray’s analysis presents one aspect of the new media narrative – a positive one. Manovich’s analysis provides definition while warning with the positives come many challenges in the narrative’s new media.

Posted by tgerhart at 01:02 PM

Heather's proposal

I incurred a bit of difficulty in finding web resources for many of my interests. As a service to my peers, don’t waste your time looking for web sites on 1.) Chautauqua movement 2.) Death in Early America 3.) American Transportation history 4.) American furniture in the 19th century or 5.) Cowboys and ranching culture. Some of the latter subjects do have a couple pages devoted in historical interpretation but; maybe, I was being a little too specific in subject query.

I decided on the search string Napoleon-French Revolution-Images as my focus for a web review. I like revolutions, empires, satirical cartoons, and most appropriately, the French.

Each of the websites provides a different approach to considering the history of Napoleon and the French Revolution. In the site analysis, I want to focus on content (text, graphical, presentation) and accessibility (navigability, audience).

PBS: Napoleon, is a companion site to the television special. It focuses on the life of Napoleon, his relationships, and his political career. There are many interactive features: a battlefield simulator, discussion board, and video clips.

Napoleonic Satires, is part of the Anna SK Brown Military Collection at Brown University. The site is an archive of all the images within the collection. There are descriptions for each image, and an introductory essay.

Imaging the French Revolution and Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution, are projects partially produced by CHNM. Imaging uses a series of revolutionary images as a springboard for discussion of the French revolution “crowd.” There are both scholarly essays and a discussion board. Liberty provides three paths to navigate the site: explore (read introductory essays), browse (categories of primary sources), or search (specific queries).

Posted by at 12:52 PM | Comments (3)

Amy's Reading Response

Below are my thoughts on question 6; to compare Manovich and Murray in tone, approach, and analysis. Amy

Both Manovich and Murray are concerned with developing “poetics, aesthetics, and ethics” for customizable, ever-changing new media forms (Manovich 219). They also share the question of the role of narrative in new media forms. Manovich divides new media into navigable space and the database which he correlates in his footnote to Murray’s spatial and encyclopedic categories. Beyond these considerations, the two diverge considerably.
Murray questions whether we can “capture in cyberdrama something as true to the human condition, and as beautifully expresses as the life that Shakespeare captured on the Elizabethan stage” (274). In this quest, Murray is extremely optimistic about the potential of the Internet to produce complex and beautiful narratives. Through the cross-referencing of hypertext, users can select possible plots and better think about the questions of existence (93). The new narrative medium of the Internet provides a global medium to tell stories of entire systems. She invests the Internet with the power to reflect the inner self in ways linear text has never been capable of before.
Manovich uses much of the same language as Murray, with similar interests in the role of new media, and more specifically computers, in culture in general. Like Murray who sees the Internet as a way to understand the complex workings of human thought, Manovich argues that the computer’s structure is projected on the cultural sphere in explicit manifestations (223). More specifically, the technology of the database creates a system where stories are organized according to thematic connections as opposed to Murray’s whole system narrative. In Manovich’s database system users access different elements in random order and therefore do not form a narrative (228). Murray uses similar language where users create narrative by selection, juxtaposition, and arrangement of content.
As such, both database and narrative claim to make meaning out of the world and cannot coexist. In the face of new media, narrative is not totally lost, but is to be created by focusing on how narrative and database can work together. Manovich approaches the question of narrative from an “info-aesthetics” approach as opposed to Murray’s more traditional narrative idea. This difference means that for Manovich, narrative needs to work with the computer structure whereas for Murray, narrative is of greater significance than the aesthetics of information.
While it is likely that the Internet will create a new information structure, it is unlikely that it will reflect the same type of narrative beauty of Shakespeare. It is unreasonable to hold such a different narrative form (the Internet) to the same standards as more traditional narratives. At the same time, Internet databases cannot be compared accurately to more traditional database forms. Given the greater quantities of information and the changing nature of the technology, traditional notions of the database cannot reflect the complexities that will result. It is then that narrative is necessary to make sense of it. Therefore, Manovich’s argument that a narrative’s meaning can be formed by imaginative combinations of narrative and databases is most convincing.

Posted by alechne1 at 12:47 PM

Tai's Propsal

I will be evaluating websites concerning education about American Indians, my personal area of interest. All sites will be of an educational (.edu) status. I will be utilizing the Journal of American History criteria discussed in class, specifically Content, Form, Audience/Use and New Media. Also the goal of the author(s) and the Accuracy and Accessibility Dr. McGrath employs. Additionally there will be the traditional discussion of: 1) basis on research, 2) subjection to peer review and 3) circulation of knowledge to the public. The following websites will be reviewed:

http://www.wm.edu/airc/ - American Indian Resource Center of The College of William and Mary, department of Anthropology.

http://sipapu.gsu.edu/index.html - Sipapu: The Anasazi Emergence into the Cyber World by John Kantner of Georgia State University department of Anthropology and Geography.

http://www.nau.edu/library/speccoll/exhibits/traders/ - Traders: Voices from the Trading Post by Northern Arizona University, Cline Library, Special Collections and Archives Department.

http://anza.uoregon.edu/default.html - Web de Anza: An Interactive Study Environment on Spanish Exploration and Colonization of “Alta California,” 1774-1776 by Center for Advanced Technology in Education, University of Oregon.

http://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/blackhawk/index.html - The Black Hawk War of 1832 by James Lewis, Ph.D. and the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project and supported by the Illinois Humanities Council.

Posted by tgerhart at 10:50 AM | Comments (2)

September 23, 2005

A Modest Proposal

A few weeks ago I came across a site that I found particularly fascinating: Dr. Seuss Went to War. Military history is not something I have much interest in, but I do enjoy cultural history, and this site presented an expansive collection of images which might have shaped American consciousness during World War II and happened to be drawn by an extremely famous author of books for children.

That was the part that initially caught my attention, for I was unaware of this aspect of Theodor Seuss Geisel's career. Plus it happens to be (except for the frames) a pretty good site.

So when this project came up, I wanted to develop an idea in which I could incorporate this. A review of sites dedicated to political cartoons of World War II seemed most logical. In addition to the Seuss site, I'd like to at least look at these as well.

Arthus Szyk: Drawing On War examines Szyk's work through a series of audio narratives by historians and artists about specific cartoons.

World War II Through Cartoons presents an interactive tour and movie about Canadian cartoons and their impact on fomenting support for the Allied cause.

The Authentic History Center presents a small database of images of two cartoon which are of interest because of their overt sexism. Another site claims Male Call was the most widely syndicated strip of all time, which makes it particularly compelling.

I think these sites will offer the opportunity to analyze not only on the quality of the content, but also on the presentation and method for delivering information. They cover at least some of the range of opportunity the Internet offers historians for presenting material beyond the linear, textual narrative.

Posted by kalbers at 11:14 PM | Comments (1)

Matt's Websites to Review, or: I love this class!

There is no way my wife will ever believe that I'm doing work for this class. Either that, or she'll be insanely jealous when she's slogging through readings for museum studies and I'm checking out on-line collections of comic books.

That's right, folks. Comic books. I admit it - I'm gonna let my geek flag fly. I've been a loyal Marvel Zombie since I was nine, and have dabbled a bit in DC Comics and some creator-owned series since. Thus, I've decided to enjoy my work for this class and write an essay on the state of scholarship available on-line regarding graphic sequential art. Continue on to find out what sites I'll be reviewing, and why this is the best term in my Master's yet.

I'll be evaluating the following sites:

1. Comic Studies at the University of Florida - this website contains pages for an annual conference on comics, ImageTexT (an academic journal on comics), and hosts the Comix-Scholars list-serve.

2. ComicsResearch.org is the website of a professor of English at the University of Houston-Downtown, who defended a PhD on comics.

3. The Grand Comics Database is an archive of story info, creator, writer, artist, and cover for comic books. The eventual (and likely impossible) goal is to provide a catalog containing information on every comic published.

4. The National Association of Comics Art Educators provides resources for teaching comics at all education levels.

5. Sequential Tart is a webzine specializing in gender issues in comic scholarship, but also offers a broad range of academic articles, interviews, etc.

Posted by mhobbs at 05:35 PM | Comments (2)

Review Essay Proposal...Liz

The evolution of advertising in U.S. consumer culture.

I am going to review sites that document the history of advertising. At present, I plan to look at all forms of media—from print, radio, television, and, to the extent I am able, the Internet.

As one site I am reviewing notes, “Advertising… is such a pervasive feature of American life that our culture from the late 19th century onward cannot be fully understood without studying ads and the industry that created them.” It will be very interesting to see how advertising has changed since the 18th century, and just what these changes say about our tastes and our culture as a whole. It will be intriguing to see why certain ads have worked at certain points in our history (and why others have failed miserably), as well as how advertisers have changed their tactics as different forms of media have come to the forefront.

Sites under study:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/hartman/: Extensive collection that Duke University has amassed.
http://www.adage.com/century/index.html: Advertising Age did a retrospective of the past 295 years of advertising, featuring some of our most popular icons. The contents include the 20th century's top 100 advertising campaigns, top 100 advertising people, top 10 jingles, top 10 slogans, top 10 advertising icons, and a 295-year timeline of the century's most important advertising-related events.
http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d-7.htm: Smithsonian Museum’s project on advertising. Includes a section specific to Ivory Soap, a collection of cigarette packs (foreign and domestic), and records associated with the “Pepsi Generation” advertising campaign.
http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger: A simply fascinating collection of ads. Includes those warning ads from the 50s and 60s, warning parents about the rampant sex and violence in which their children were engaging. Much of his collection was purchased by the Library of Congress (see http://www.loc.gov/rr/mopic/).
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/seusscoll.html: Library collection of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s pre-Dr. Suess ads.
http://theimaginaryworld.com/page4.html: Is this scholarship? Good question. It’s an individual’s site, unaffiliated with any institution. We should see how he stacks up. As we’re all aware, ads came in all sorts of forms.
http://www.ec2.edu/dccenter/archives/ia/history.html: Advertising on the Internet.

Posted by ejonese at 03:31 PM | Comments (2)

To Blog or Not to Blog

Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me. (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene II)

More than just a catchy title, Murray’s Hamlet on the Holodeck urges the use of the computer medium to achieve more than just an “expensive way to rewrite Hamlet for the pinball machine.”

Using the metaphor of the Holodeck (the Trekkie’s virtual reality chamber), Murray examines the way digital narratives have begun to simulate imaginary worlds in which one can become immersed and retain agency. She reminds us that:
“the computer is chameleonic. It can be seen as a theater, a town hall, an unraveling book, an animated wonderland, a sports arena…but it is first an foremost a representational medium, a means for modeling the world that adds its own potent properties to the traditional media it has assimilated so quickly” (284).

But for Murray, the play’s the thing, for theatre and performance hold a central place in her argument (lucky for me, I was an English and Theatre major undergrad). They are the basis of the new forms she envisions, serving both as model and metaphor. Murray hopes to totally remove the Holodeck’s Fourth Wall, the imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play. Drawing a parallel between audience interaction in live theater and digital “interactivity,” Murray points out that the attraction lies in inviting the audience into the realm of illusion—“Holodeck experiences without the machinery.”

Murray’s story is the narrative of the gradual toppling of the fourth wall, brick by brick. Hamlet on the Holodeck examines the technologies of narrative, from Gutenberg to role-playing MUDs (which I find rather creepy), paying particular attention to forms of storytelling that anticipate those emerging in Cyberspace: blurring the lines between fiction and reality, requiring reader participation, or providing alternative endings/plotlines.

Murray points out that Shakespeare’s use of soliloquy in Hamlet was a way to let the audience into Hamlet’s mind, inviting them past the wall, and representing “a truth about human experience that could not be told before” (280). Murray is not asking if it is possible to translate Hamlet into a cyber-narrative, she is asking if any of these new cyber-narratives will ever “mean anything” to us, the way that Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech does, if “we can hope to capture in cyberdrama something as true to the human condition, and as beautifully expressed” (274).

Acknowledging that the fourth wall has not yet been completely toppled and that cyber-narratives are not yet Shakespearean (though they are much farther along than the type-writing monkeys), Murray remains hopeful that one day this MUDing and LARPing and hypertexting will all be much ado about something...but “for now, we have to listen very, very carefully to hear, amid the cacophony of cyberspace, the first fumbling chords of the awakening bard” (213).

…but then again, it could have just been a catchy title. Alliteration works every time.

Meagan

Posted by mhess3 at 03:19 PM

Valley Web Review

The Web Review for The Valley of the Shadow at

http://valley.vcdh.virginia.ecu/choosepart.html

Edward Ayers, Professor at the University of Virginia, originally planned to write a traditional book comparing two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line in the antebellum, war-time, and postwar era of the Civil War. As his archival collection and modern computer technology grew, the original book turned into The Valley of the Shadow website created by the Center for New Digital History. The Valley is an impressive work of scholarly research presented in digital form. The website itself offers an archive of information about two communities, August County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania during the period surrounding the Civil War. Included in the website are articles written by Edward Ayers and William Thomas about the reasons to compare two communities on either side of the Mason-Dixon Line, and some conclusions to be drawn about the influence of slavery or the absence of slavery in these communities. The main emphasis of the website is to present archival information about the communities to a large audience for research and teaching.

The web designers created a master floor plan with three octagons representing the three time periods-- The Eve of War, The War Years, and The Aftermath-- as the home page and guide around the website. They refer to the website as a “research library in a box,” and the familiar octagons appear at the bottom of linked pages providing a handy visual guide for the unfamiliar user wandering around the library. The website is fairly easy to navigate with clearcut links and a help section for each area whether you’re searching through newspaper articles or census records. The help sections include suggestions, guidelines, and tools for searching the databases such as case-sensitive items and wild card options %. These are necessary as the user can get lost wandering through the shelves of the library or links in the website. The Letters and Diaries section requires several very informative links to get to the letters and diaries containing family information, but it’s easy to get bogged down or lost in the process. My computer couldn’t pull up the letters themselves, but I was able to read the summary of the letter in the link before it.

The map section, especially in The War Years, is excellent. By moving the project from traditional print to digital and web capability, Dr. Ayers is able to actively show the progression of the military units from the two counties on a map with a time line. Arrows move across the map from battle to battle in the same way the military units moved during the war. Another arrow at the bottom of the page moves simultaneously across a timeline to give a frame of reference to the battles. It’s the kind of Civil War action that te