Comments on: “Foundational” Texts in the Digital Humanities

By: Foundational Material in Digital History

Foundational Material in Digital History — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 01:04:46 +0000

[...] This post by Rafael Alvarado has been making the rounds on Twitter and got me thinking about, more specifically, what material would be a useful introduction to digital history (as opposed to digital humanities). Here’s my list in chronological order: [...]

By: lauren’s library blog - Feeling like learning something new…

lauren’s library blog - Feeling like learning something new… — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:32:11 +0000

[...] useful lists that came through were Foundational Material in Digital History from Digital Clio and “Foundational” Texts in the Digital Humanities from The Transducer. The most interesting thing to me about these lists was that I had already read [...]

By: Foundational Material in Digital History « Digital Clio

Foundational Material in Digital History « Digital Clio — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:58:24 +0000

[...] Material in Digital History By Jason Heppler This post by Rafael Alvarado has been making the rounds on Twitter and got me thinking about, more [...]

By: ontoligent

ontoligent — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:01:32 +0000

Lincoln — that is an excellent suggestion!

By: Lincoln Mullen

Lincoln Mullen — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:54:54 +0000

I’m sure that this list will be very useful. But another list that I’d like to see is a list of groundbreaking Digital Humanities projects, that is, projects that really defined the discipline and gave an idea of where it could go. A time line of those projects could give a good sense of the history and state of the discipline.

By: Gardner

Gardner — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:26:44 +0000

Haven’t read Ramsay–clearly, it’s time that I did. Thanks for the mention!

By: ontoligent

ontoligent — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:11:31 +0000

Gardner — thanks for these. I think your point about the two cultures problem with DH is correct, although most DH folks I know would probably seek to deny it … Stephen Ramsay writes eloqeuntly about it, and argues that it’s the humanists who define science in such a s way as to distance it more than it needs to be. I also think new media readings, such as those you mention, help to mediate the divide.

By: Gardner

Gardner — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:00:29 +0000

I think part of the problem is the way “digital humanities” perpetuates a “two-cultures” model of science and the humanities that will not work very well when we try to find the *Principia* of the Age of Computers (or whatever one wants to call it–cyberculture will do, too).

So I’d add the following required readings to your list:

Engelbart, Douglas. “Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework”
Papert, Seymour. *Mindstorms*
McLuhan, Marshall. “The Medium is the Message.”
Kay/Goldberg. “Personal Dynamic Media”

I might just put Scott McCloud’s *Understanding Comics* in there as well. A radical suggestion!

Interestingly, Alan Kay referred specifically to Newton and by implication the *Principia* of cyberculture in a presentation I got some snippets of (more to come): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcZSnLYguHU