A Note on the Schedule
Each week there are readings listed under Core and Penumbra. The core readings are just that: central to the week’s discussion and lab. Everyone should read these closely and prepare to discuss them as described in the “Class Preparation” assignment.
The penumbral readings try to capture a broader set of brilliant readings pertinent to each week’s theme that I could not require because time is, sadly, finite. Each week you should choose (at least) one of the penumbral readings, based on your own interests, to read and be prepared to reference as a means of expanding our conversation together. The penumbral readings are organized by publication date, not priority, so you should not feel compelled to choose the first one each week. Find one to read that genuinely sparks your interest!
Chapter 1: Substrate
Our first unit introduces Whitney Trettien’s framework for comparative historical media studies, “Substrate, Platform, Interface, Format,” which structures the rest of the syllabus. We then consider the substrate—the base material layer—from the print to the digital age.
¶ January 22 ☞ Media
Core
- Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Rant about ‘Technology’” (2004), external link
- Whitney Trettien, “Substrate, Platform, Interface, Format” (2023), library link
Penumbra
- Marshall McLuhan, “The Medium is the Message” (1964), library link
- Lisa Gitelman, “Introduction: Media as Historical Subjects,” from Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture (2006), library link
- Alan Liu, “Imagining the New Media Encounter” (2008), external link
- Tara Brabazon, “Dead Media: Obsolescence and Redundancy in Media History” (2013), external link
- N. Katherine Hayles and Jessica Pressman, “Making, Critique: A Media Framework,” introduction to Comparative Textual Media (2013), library link
- Mark Alan Mattes, “Media” (2018), library link
Book Lab: Knew Media
¶ January 29 ☞ Page
On Location: Meet at Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Main Library for a session with Cait Coker
Core
- Bonnie Mak, “Architectures of the Page” from How the Page Matters (2012), library link
- Hannah Alpert-Abrams, “Archaeology of a Book: An Experimental Approach to Reading Rare books in Archival Contexts” (2016), external link
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Object” from The Book (2018), library link
Penumbra
- Herman Melville, “The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids” (1855), external link
- Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Awareness of the Mechanism” (2007), [library link]
- Lisa Gitelman, “Near Print and Beyond Paper: Knowing by *.pdf” from Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents (2014), file on Canvas
- Jonathan Senchyne, “Introduction” and “Conclusion: Reading Into Surfaces” from The Intimacy of Paper in Early and Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2019), library link
- Ryan Cordell, “Material Cultures of the Digital” (2022), external link
Book Lab: Rarely Reading
Chapter 2: Platform
Our second unit focuses on the platform, or the linked systems of technology and people that circumscribe the affordances and limitations of distinct media.
To prepare for our labs in the coming weeks, you should choose one of the definitions of “the book” Amaranth Borsuk compiled from scholars, artists, writers, and many others when writing The Book. Find a definition that resonates with your own understandings of and ambitions for the book: one that feels somehow meaningful to you. The https://t-h-e-b-o-o-k.com/ website does not work well anymore, but is archived through the Wayback Machine, where the collected definitions are easier to browse.
¶ February 5 ☞ Print
Core
- Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Chapters 2-7 (mostly skim, but read the sections describing the print shop, which are spread through these chapters, closely), external link
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Content” from The Book (2018), library link
- Watch videos 2-9 in this orientation playlist from my previous press (watch from “Investigating a Composed Form of Type” to “Woodcuts”). These will explain the basics of typesetting with a close-up video of the process and allow us to jump into our lab more quickly. This should take 30-40 minutes in total, but please pay close attention—the details are important.
Penumbra
- “Learning to Set Type” vocational film (1940s)
- Robert Darnton, “What is the History of Books? Revisited” (2007), library link
- Donald F. McKenzie, “The Book as an Expressive Form” from Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts (orig. 1986), library link
- Marcy J. Dinius, “‘Look!! Look!!! at This!!!!’: The Radical Typography of David Walker’s Appeal” (2011), library link
- Corinna Zeltsman, “Defining Responsibility: Printers, Politics, and the Law in Early Republican Mexico City” (2018), library link
- Marcy J. Dinius, “Press” (2018), library link
- Juliet S. Sperling, “Image” (2018), library link
- Sarah Werner, Parts 1-3 Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800 : A Practical Guide (2019), library link. Note: Werner’s book is a valuable reference I recommend several times in this syllabus, but is in “Penumbra” because only one electronic copy of this book is available at a time from the library. If you would like to consult her descriptions of printing and book production, start early and check back if someone is reading when you first try.
- Linc Kesler, “Indigenous People and the Written Word” from The Unfinished Book (2021), external link
Book Lab: Compose Yourself
¶ February 12 ☞ Information
Core
- Ann Blair, “Information Management in Comparative Perspective” from Too Much To Know: Managing Scholarly Information before the Modern Age (2010), library link
- Lindsay Rose Russell, “Walking Dictionary, Sleeping Dictionary” from Women and Dictionary-Making (2018), library link
- Rachel Sagner Buurma, “Indexed” from The Unfinished Book (2021), library link
Penumbra
- Vannevar Bush, “As We May Think” (1945), external link
- James Gleick, “Two Wordbooks” from The Information: A History, A Theory, a Flood (2011), Canvas link
- Lisa Gitelman, “Print Culture (Other Than Codex): Job Printing and Its Importance” from Comparative Textual Media (2013), library link
- Molly O’Hagan Hardy, “‘Black Printers’ on White Cards: Information Architecture in the Data Structures of the Early American Book Trades,” from Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016 (2016), external link
- Matthew P. Brown, “Blanks: Data, Method, and the British American Print Shop” (2017), library link
- Andrew Piper, Chad Wellmon, and Mohamed Cheriet, “The Page Image: Towards a Visual History of Digital Documents” (2020), library link
Book Lab: A Pressing Matter / Many Happy Returns
February 16 ☞ Bonus Riso!
Optional workshop on Risograph printing with Prof. Will Arnold. Check out his zines and comics here: https://www.twarnold.com/portfolio/category/books-zines-cat/. Hosted at Skeuomorph Press from 10am-noon. More info and signup here.
¶ February 19 ☞ Network
Core
- Benjamin Lee, “Compounded Mediation: A Data Archaeology of the Newspaper Navigator Dataset” (2021), external link
- Sandeep Soni, Lauren F. Klein, and Jacob Eisenstein, “Abolitionist Networks: Modeling Language Change in Nineteenth-Century Activist Newspapers” (2021), external link
- Ryan Cordell, “Viral Textuality” from Going the Rounds: Virality in Nineteenth-Century American Newspapers (2023), external link
Penumbra
- Stuart McKee, “How Print Culture Became Indigenous” (2010), external link
- Lara Langer Cohen, “Notes from the State of Saint Domingue: The Practice of Citation in Clotel,” from Early African American Print Culture (2012), library link
- Paul Erickson, “The Business of Building Books” (2017), external link
- Brigitte Fielder and Jonathan Senchyne, “Introduction: Infrastructures of African American Print” from Against a Sharp White Background: Infrastructures of African American Print (2019), library link
- Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, “Bibliologistics: The Nature of Books Now, or A Memorable Fancy” (2020), external link
- Derrick R. Spires, “Order and Access: Dorothy Porter and the Mission of Black Bibliography” (2022), library link
- James Dobson and Scott Sanders, “Distant Approaches to the Printed Page” (2022), external link
Book Lab: A Pressing Matter / Many Happy Returns
Chapter 3: Format
Our third unit focuses on format, or the particular material arrangement of media forms that enable them to interact—or conflict—with particular platforms.
¶ February 26 ☞ Experiment
On Location: Meet at Rare Books and Manuscripts in the Main Library for a session with Cait Coker
Core
- Ken Liu, “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species,” (2012), external link
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Idea” from The Book (2018), library link
- Kadin Henningsen, “Making Mary Ann Waters is a Free Black Woman: Critical Fabrication as Bibliographic Method” (2022), library link
Penumbra
- Ulises Carrión, “The New Art of Making Books” (1975), external link
- learn about William Gibson’s “Agrippa” (1992) at “The Agrippa Files”
- Joseph Viscomi, “Illuminated Printing” exhibit from the William Blake Archive, external link
- Charity Hancock, Clifford Hichar, Carlea Holl-Jensen, Kari Kraus, Cameron Mozafari, and Kathryn Skutlin, “Bibliocircuitry and the Design of the Alien Everyday” (2013), external link
- Meredith L. McGill, “Format” (2018), library link
- Emily C. Friedman, “Amateur Manuscript Fiction in the Archives: An Introduction” (2020), library link
- Lindsay Rose Russell, “Dictionary, Shaped: Artists’ Books and Lexicography” (2020), library link
- Caroline Wigginton, “An Indigenous Pipe Bibliography” from The Unfinished Book (2021), library link
Book Lab: Weird (Library) Science
¶ March 4 ☞ Remediation
Core
- Ellen Gruber Garvey, “Introduction” from Writing with Scissors (2012), external link
- Zine Librarians’ Code of Ethics (2015), external link, and also browse the Queer Zine Archive Project blog and its zine archive
- Lori Emerson, “Media Archaeology Lab as Platform for Undoing and Reimagining Media History” (2023), external link
Penumbra
- Leah Price, “Introduction” from How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain (2012), library link
- Catherine Coker, “The Margins of Print? Fan Fiction as Book History” (2017), external link
- Jessica Marie Johnson, “Markup Bodies: Black [Life] Studies and Slavery [Death] Studies at the Digital Crossroads” (2018), library link
- Aaron Kashtan, “Introduction: Comics, Materiality, and the Future of the Book” from Between Pen and Pixel: Comics, Materiality, and the Book of the Future (2018), library link
- Tyler Shoemaker, “Error Aligned” (2019), external link
- (Listen, ~1 hour) RadioLab, “The Wubi Effect” (2020), external link
- Adam Hammond, “Books in Videogames” from The Unfinished Book (2021), library link
Book Lab: I Feel Zine
March 9-17 ☞ Spring Break
March 14 ☞ Optional Guest Lecture in RBML
If you are free and interested during spring break, Adrian Johns will be giving a virtual lecture on his book, The Science of Reading and the Making of the Information Society, that clearly intersects with our course and could provide context for one of your Book Reports. There’smore info and a sign up link at RBML’s site.
¶ March 18 ☞ Process
Core:
- Dennis Yi Tenen, “Reading Platforms: A Concise History of the Electronic Book” from The Unfinished Book (2021), library link
- Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Archives without Dust,” from Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage (2021), library link
- Choose 2-3 works from the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 3 (2016) or Volume 4 (2022) to read and share with the group
Penumbra
- Alan Galey, “The Enkindling Reciter: E-Books in the Bibliographical Imagination” (2012), library link
- Melissa Terras and Julianne Nyhan, “Father Busa’s Female Punch Card Operatives,” from Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016 (2016), external link
- Library of Congress Format Blog posts:
- Kate Murray, Marcus Nappier, and Liz Holdzkom, “Fun with File Formats” (2021), external link
- Jacob Kowall and Hillary Szu Yin Shiue, “All Hyped Up for HyperCard: Further Adventures with an Apple Legacy Format” (2021), external link
- James A. Hodges, “Forensic Approaches to Evaluating Primary Sources in Internet History Research: Reconstructing Early Web-Based Archival Work (1989–1996)” (2021), library link
Book Lab: Thoroughly Entwined
Friday, March 22 ☞ Book Proposal DUE
¶ March 25 ☞ Binding
Visiting expert Professor Bea Nettles
Core
- Charles W. Chesnutt, “Baxter’s Procustes” (1904), external link
- Élika Ortega, “The Many Books of the Future: Print-Digital Literatures” (2020), external link
Penumbra
- Sarah Werner, “Binding” from Studying Early Printed Books, 1450-1800 : A Practical Guide (2019), library link
- Barbara Heritage and Ruth-Ellen St. Onge, “Bookbindings Before 1800, “Bookbinding Tools, Stamps, Dies, Leather, and Cloth,” and “Bookbindings After 1800” from the “Building the Book from the Ancient World to the Present Day” Exhibition, external link
Book Lab : A Stitch In Time
Chapter 4: Interface
Our final unit focuses on interface, or the contact zones between media, their creators, and their users.
¶ April 1: Modality
- Octave Uzanne, “The End of Books” (1894), external link
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Interface” from The Book (2018), library link
- Amanda Stuckey, “Access in Book History Methodology and Pedagogy: Report from the ‘Touch to See’ Workshop” (2022), library link
Penumbra
- Steven Lubar, “‘Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate’: A Cultural History of the Punch Card” (1992), library link
- Sydney Shep, “‘Smiley, you’re on candid camera’: Emoticons & Pre-Digital Networks” (2010), external link
- Lori Emerson, “Indistinguishable from Magic: Invisible Interfaces and Digital Literature as Demystifier” from Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound (2014), library link
- Craig Mod, “Future Reading” (2015), external link
- David C. Zentgraf, “What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encodings And Character Sets To Work With Text” (2015), external link
- Sarah Well, “The Forgotten History of the Blinking Curso▒” (2021), external link
- Klint Finley, “What We Can Learn from Vintage Computing” (2022), external link
Book Lab: Book artist Charlie Wisseman Visit
¶ April 8 ☞ Data
Core
- Katherine Bode, “Abstraction, Singularity, Textuality: The Equivalence of ‘Close’ and ‘Distant’ Reading” from A World of Fiction (2018), library link
- Melanie Walsh and Maria Antoniak, “The Goodreads ‘Classics’: A Computational Study of Readers, Amazon, and Crowdsourced Amateur Criticism” (2021), external link
- Lawrence Isaac Evalyn, “Measuring the Uneven Digitization of Historical Literature” (2023), external link
Penumbra
- Katie Rawson and Trevor Muñoz, “Against Cleaning” (2016), external link
- Benjamin M. Schmidt, “Do Humanists Need to Understand Algorithms?” from Debates in Digital Humanities 2016 (2016), external link
- Richard Jean So, “All Models are Wrong” (2017), library link
- Ryan Cordell, “‘Q i-jtb the Raven’: Taking Dirty OCR Seriously” (2017), external link
- Gabi Kirilloff, “Computation as Context: New Approaches to the Close/Distant Reading Debate” (2022), library link
- Rachael Scarborough King, “The Scale of Genre” (2021), library link
- Cassidy Holahan, “Rummaging in the Dark: ECCO as Opaque Digital Archive” (2021), library link
- Hazel Wilkinson, James Briggs, and Dirk Gorissen, “Computer Vision and the Creation of a Database of Printers’ Ornaments” (2021), external link
- Mia Sato, “The Perfect Web Page” (2024), external link
Book Lab: Speed Data-ing
Friday, April 12 ☞ Book Prototype DUE
¶ April 15 ☞ Generative
Core
- Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler, “Anatomy of an AI System: The Amazon Echo As An Anatomical Map of Human Labor” (2018), external link
- I couldn’t get a digital copy of Janelle Shane’s wonderful book, You Look Like a Thing and I Love You (2021), so please watch this book talk instead. BUT I highly recommend this book and also that you browse Shane’s wonderful blog AI Weirdness
- Sarah Bull, “Content Generation in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (2023), Canvas link
Penumbra
- Roberto Busa, “Why Can a Computer Do So Little?” (1976), canvas link
- Jessica Riskin “Frolicsome Engines: The Long Prehistory of Artificial Intelligence” (2016), external link
- Mark Riedl, “An Introduction to AI Story Generation” (2021), external link
- Ted Underwood, “Mapping the Latent Spaces of Culture” (2021), external link
- Stephen Wolfram, “What is ChatGPT Doing…and Why Does It Work?” (2023), external link
- James A. Hodges and Ciaran B. Trace, “Preserving Algorithmic Systems: A Synthesis of Overlapping Approaches, Materialities and Contexts,” Journal of Documentation (2023), library link
Book Lab: Automatic. For the People?
Coda: Memory
¶ April 22 ☞ Etaoin
Core
- (Watch, ~30 minutes) Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss, “Farewell etaoin shrdlu” (1978), external link
- Bethany Nowviskie, “Change Us, Too” (2019), external link
- Sonya Donaldson, “The Ephemeral Archive: Unstable Terrain in Times and Sites of Discord” (2021), external link
Penumbra
- Barnard, Megan and Gabriela Redwine. “Collecting Digital Manuscripts and Archives” (2016), external link
- Elyse Graham, “The Printing Press as Metaphor” (2016), external link
- Kandice Sharren, Kate Ozment, and Michelle Levy, “Gendering Digital Bibliography with the Women’s Print History Project” (2021), library link
- Melanie Walsh, “Where is All the Book Data?” (2022), external link