Technologies of Text (S12)

So Brian Croxall recently tweeted, “.@ibogost: Now talking about his own game, Fatworld. http://fatworld.org/“. The title of the game sounded pretty ridiculous, so I decided to follow the link to its site. It turns out that the game FATWORLD isn’t based around teaching people healthy eating habits. The game is supposed to explore “the relationships between obesity, nutrition, and socioeconomics in the contemporary U.S. The game’s goal is not to tell people what to eat or how to exercise, but to demonstrate the complex, interwoven relationships between nutrition and factors like budgets, the physical world, subsidies, and regulations.”

Two minutes later, Croxall tweeted, “@ibogost: Fatworld was a miserable failure. No one played it and no one talked about the issues it raised.” I’d have to say that I am not surprised that it failed. Why would anyone want to play it? From what I saw from the screenshots, the graphics weren’t that great, and it’s not a happy or exciting game. I think that if the creators of this game wanted to teach people about the many aspects that affect the country’s nutrition or fitness levels, they should give seminars on it. Even better, they could host an event encompassing educational talks and demonstrations with physical activities. This would get people to exercise, learn about what affects national fitness levels, and learn about healthy eating habits much more than playing a video game. People would probably retain the information better in this way as well, because they would be active participants in physical events instead of a digital game.

I have nothing against video games that promote healthy habits, such as recipe apps, Wii Fit, or running apps. I think that they can supplement your daily routines. But, FATWORLD isn’t really like that. What do you think? Would you play FATWORLD?

If you want to try a fun and exercise promoting game, this one looks interesting: https://www.zombiesrungame.com/

Does anyone know why Brian Croxall is talking so much about games? Did something happen in the Digital Humanities news recently?

Bill Wolff posted this tweet a little while back that talked about the use of Twitter during the Super Bowl XLIII in 2009 (Cardinals vs. Steelers).  However, I thought this would be a nice transition into digital mapping.  I found this link to be extremely interesting and fun, at the same time.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/02/sports/20090202_superbowl_twitter.html?emc=eta3

The map allows you to observe several things.  First, you are able to observe what the most common words are in certain parts of the country during the time of the Super Bowl.  The more popular the word, the bigger that word was on the map.  Additionally, people are able to view when these words were most popular throughout the course of the entire game… very much like a time line.  Another nice feature of this website is that readers can select certain genres to follow, whether it be all tweets relating to the Super Bowl game, players’ names, commercials, emoticons, etc…

This interactive website reminds me of Word Clouds from Wordle.  As a word appears more often on Twitter, that particular word becomes larger in that region of the nation.  When analyzing text in Wordle, the same thing occurs.  The only differences between the two are that Wordle randomizes the order of the words and does not repeat any words, while the Super Bowl website organizes the words by region and may repeat certain words.  Nevertheless, the first thing I thought of when I saw this website was Word Clouds.

I was really interested by our conversation this week about the exposition. Looking at the people riding the moving sidewalk or walking around looking at all the inventions I tried imagining what they were thinking. Probably something along the lines of “this is as good as it gets”. They looked so impressed by things that we take for granted on a daily basis. It makes me wonder what people 50 years from now will think about our technology. Will they laugh when they know we don’t have a cure for cancer or think we were really primitive for not having flying cars? Every generation thinks that their ideas are the most innovative and modern but do we ever really think about our lives in perspective to the rest of time? We talked about how Adams transitioned from being comfortable knowing how everything in his world worked but then he moved into discomfort with the new technology he could not fully comprehend. Sometimes it is frustrating to me know I rely so heavily on things I can’t explain. I have to trust that people much smarter than me are making new technology that I can use and appreciate but just like Adams not fully understand.

I disclaimer to fellow bloggers:  I promise there is a point, but it might take me awhile to get to it.  Please bear with me.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the old will always be afraid of the new taking power from them.  My favorite illustration of this concept is the ancient Greek myth of Kronos who killed his father to attain power and (unsuccessfully) tried to kill his children to keep control.  Kronos believed he had swallowed up all of his children.  Unfortunately, his wife and sister Rhea was able to hide the strongest away (Zeus) until the time came when Zeus would kill his own father.

Every industrialized generation and escalation of each society will go through purges. Surplus and debt. Hamilton throws all the State’s individual money into the Federal bank in order to pay off the debt of the war and establish credit. Things got better then worse. A few years later, the Feds did the same thing to pay off the debt of the war (of 1812), which led to the Panic of 1819, the first major US financial crisis. Same thing happened after the civil war. The US enters WWI, then the the depression in the 30s. things got better then worse then better. Same with WWII. Same with the Cold War. Same thing with Vietnam. Same will happen with the Iraq war.  Obama certainly isn’t the best president, but these “financial bubbles” aren’t his fault. They’re the policy of the federal government that has been around much longer than he or Bush or Clinton.

With an agrarian society, the same thing happens, but it’s a very slow rise and a very slow fall. It still scared the crap out of Malthus. With Industry, is a quicker rise and a quicker fall (hence, the media’s bubble-pop analogy). With technology the extreme rise of technology comes the extreme concern of governments and their people trying to figure out how their X right can exist since Y is now in the equation.

Changes in society create turmoil.  People are frightened by change.  Surely these are things to be kept in mind, but think about this:  On May 2 2011, the entire world new about the death of Osama Bin Laden before the President could officially announce it.  Why?  Sobaib Athar was unknowingly live-tweeting the event.  He was on his Twitter handle (@ReallyVirtual) and was complaining about helicopters in Abbottabad at 1am.  You can read his live feed at this website.  If I went back to my 6th grade self who was intrigued over the exploding towers on tv, and tried to explain how everyone in the future would find out about his death, my brain would probably explode ala Scanners.

Famous theoretical physicist Michio Kaku strongly believes that humans have actually stopped evolving.  There are plenty of things that used to be effective but now they are no longer necessary such as the appendix.  We have reached the tipping point in science and technology where we have created solutions for almost and situation that will arise.

The natural advancement in technology whether military, agrarian, or digital does not mean the end of the world.  Humanity has thrived long before any of these advances and we will most likely continue to thrive long after.  Brace yourselves for the upcoming attack ads in the political season, and remember that it is near impossible to sink the ship of state.  Barring any apocalyptic scenarios, you will live to be 80 and your children will live to be 100 if they so choose.

Our class discussion on Tuesday about Franco Moretti’s “Graphs, Maps, Trees” as well as our lab assignment from last week really allowed me to ponder what “distant reading” actually is. Obviously it is the opposite of what most professor’s want you to do, “close reading.” I understand the ways in which tools such as Voyant, nGram Viewer and making word clouds using Wordle can be very effective in distant reading as they one to get a feel for the novel and notice different trends at a distance. However, after completing the lab from last week I think I felt more confused after performing textual analysis than before I started. Despite seeing the vague details of the book from a so-called “distance,” I find it more useful to do close reading and actually know the clear cut facts of the novel. Although I realize doing close reading on a very long novel, like the ones that were used for the lab, would take a very long time, I would just feel better about it as I would have obtained a more concrete comprehension of the novel. As for my major, I study a subfield of the sciences, I guess that is just more typical of my personality, to understand things at a deeper, more concrete level. Distant reading, textual analysis and textual mapping are very far from being concrete.

Furthermore, one thing that really stuck out to me in the class discussion on Tuesday was when Dr. Cordell mentioned that “we are at the beginning of the death of the novel.” I really had never thought of this before, but as I thought about it some more I found this statement to be very true. Dr. Cordell went on to add that sales of novels are plummeting, and I found this very relevant to my life. As a child and young adult I remember going to bookstores and buying books and reading them so much more then I do now! Sure this could result in numerous reasons as to why I do not go to bookstores and buy/read books as often as I used to, but it does support the claim that novels are “dying.” Not as many people are buying books for reasons that are far too many to name. We all know the status of the economy which could be swaying many people away from buying novels. Instead they are checking them out from libraries or buying/renting them for an even cheaper rate on their Kindle or Nook as opposed to buying them in a bookstore. This also brought my attention to the fact that many bookstores, aside from the big names, are closing or are not found in malls anymore like they used to be. It is kind of sad to see this “death” of the novel approaching us, but we must take with us what we can of it!

For the collaborative project, my partner (Erin) and I decided on ­­­­­­­­­­On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces, a work that displays Darwin’s 6-edition text, The Origin Of Man, in a new and innovative way. The project itself is done with software called “Processing”. This software allows the viewer to ‘watch’ as changes and revisions among all 6 editions file into their correct place.  Without giving too much of our collaborative project away, I decided to blog not about the Processing technology or even the project, but instead about just how truly flexible and versatile digital humanities is in its entirety. Erin comes from a Biology and Science background, while I come from a Business and Design background. These subjects are extremely different from each other, yet we are both excited and interested in our chosen subject. Digital Humanities is the backbone of our chosen project, but the tools and elements of digital humanities can aid in nearly any subject from any background. This particular project combines science, literature, history, and graphic design all into one condensed interface that is available for anyone to access. It combines countless pages of Darwinisms into one, quick, interactive image that many different people can use for many different purposes. The tools we have found and used in class can aid any researcher from any field in nearly any discovery, and I find it incredible how flexible (and time saving!) these tools are. Who would have thought I would actually kind of enjoy looking at Darwin’s 6 editions?

I recently came across a very passionate blog post by Tanya Clement that should be brought to everyone’s attention. I follow Tanya and I have come to notice that she doesn’t Tweet or blog very often, but when she does, it is definitely something you should look at.  The recent post I am referring to is titled I am a woman and I am a mother and I do DH. (Here is the link:  http://tanyaclement.org/2012/03/27/i-am-a-woman-and-i-am-a-mother-and-i-do-dh/ ). From her title alone you may be able to tell that she has faced prejudices in her career.  She gives a brief background about herself and her school years while growing up.  She was ridiculed in school for being the smart girl who took advanced classes and for being accepted to Harvard. If you think this judgment stopped after high school you are wrong.  In her professional career she has faced many snarky comments and judgments from men, and even women, about her being in DH and having three children.  She has been told not to go on the tenure track because she has young children at home. She was also told that a job she was applying for was not the kind of job where you can go home at night and kiss your kids to sleep.  It is comments such as theses that make mothers with careers feel like second rate citizens.

I feel for Tanya and I am glad she has pushed through and overcome the speed bumps in her career because she is a woman and is a mother.  I know I may face similar situations in my future because of my career choice and I know other girls will too.  I am a female attempting to get my degree in a predominantly male field, physics.  Here at St. Norbert I don’t feel ridiculed or less important, but that may also be because there is only one other physics major in my graduating class.  Other places in my future may not be as welcoming and may be more judgmental, but I am already aware of this.  I may not have faced as much judgment as Tanya has, but I definitely can relate to some of the things she has felt. I have a part time job waitressing and when customers ask me what I am going to school for, I frequently recieve shocked looks when I tell them I am a physics major.  I get reactions from “Gross, why would you ever do that!?” to “Seriously?”  I know that a lot of the shocked reactions come from the fact that physics is not a first choice for many people, but I can’t help to think that some of their shock comes from the fact that I am a girl.

This blog may not relate much to our discussions in class but I still thought it was important enough to bring to everyone’s attention.  I think digital humanities, along with many other fields, have a different perception of men and women in that field.  I enjoyed the fact that Tanya spoke her mind and shared her story.  I think many female students will face gender biases as well as other judgments if they plan on being a working mother one day.

What distant reading is about? How it can help us? Is it helpful actually?….

I have never used tools like Wordle, Voyant or Ngram before. I found each tool very helpful, all of them pointed out some important moments of the text. I think  this textual analysis might be compared to the summary/annotation of the book that we read on the back of a book; both summary/annotation and analysis prepare you for the reading. I had a lot of questions after I had my novel analysis, I felt that after doing it I am much more prepared for the reading because there are specific questions that interested me.

I like the fact that I can apply the knowledge of the distant reading tools in my other classes. Recently, in my senior Human Resource Management class we had to analyze the trends in the HR. Using Ngram, I could identify when specific terms were used, when new terms came up, etc. In HR class, I could see how helpful Voyant and Ngram can be for identifying common trends, especially when you have a lot of material to compare.

I definitely agree with Moretti, when he says that we need “distant reading”, because close reading cannot uncover all important points and trends. Yes, he mixes numbers and words and yes, he says that close reading might be not necessary sometimes. However, regarding distant reading we can learn more about literature by applying statistical skills across may texts. Distant reading helps us to identify the corpora, the historical trends and political changes. ”Comparing it to the dismal science (economics), Moretti’s approach is to close reading what macroeconomics is to microeconomics.” It is nice that due to a distant reading we can have a bigger perspective on literature- a macro level, whereas close reading provides us a micro-approach.

            I felt that Wordle and Voyant were very good text analysis tools.  The Wordle tool is very useful when you want to see an illustration of how repeatedly words are used.  I feel having the ability to see the most common words as the largest words and the less common words as smaller words, really gives the user a perspective of what words are used the most and what words are not used very much.  I really like how you can randomize the words and change the colors, shapes, order, and look of how the text is displayed.  When changing how the text is laid out, it allows the user to see words that they otherwise may not have come across if not for this tool.  The tool is very useful for people who want to concentrate solely on the words used in the text and not anything too in-depth.

            The Voyant tool I felt was even more interesting.  Rather than just focusing on an illustration of the words, you have the ability to see the frequency of all of the words and even see a graph of any word you decide to look into.  The words graphed can give the user some key background on what happens in the text.  A word is typically used in great depth at certain parts of text and less in other parts.  The points where the word is used most, typically give insight into something that happens in the text.  The Voyant site also gives the user the ability to see a very similar illustration from the Wordle tool, without the ability to customize the look of the words.  Overall I really enjoyed using both tools and I would like to incorporate them into my future research and assignments.

As I work to really get a substantial move on my final project, I find myself in conflict with which forum to use. I completely understand HTML and know that I could do so much with it creatively and there are websites to help with those things I haven’t learned yet. However, as Dr. Cordell has pointed out, HTML does not translate to new media very well and therefore could become irrelevant as would my project. I don’t understand CSS or TEI very well and I find that Omeka is more of a copy and paste forum and lacks a real mode for expression of creativity. In a project, I would like my own expression to be able to show through in the design and layout instead of just using a template that someone else created and choosing left or right. I feel that when taking a work of art or literature and transferring it into digital form, there has to be an understanding of the text as art and creativity, a sort of connection between original author and new “author.” It is important to me that the design of the project emulates the work itself so it is not only my creativity, but my interpretation of the creativity of the work itself. I am looking at either archiving certain works of art or translating a few pages of one of the older books. Does anyone have any suggestions with how I could reach a happy medium? Thanks!