DH09: History and Future of the Book, three presentations

1) 'History and Future of the Book' by Christian Vandendorpe from the University of Ottawa. Author of 'From Papyrus to Hypertext.' In the discrete nature of the written word, readers want more control over their reading matter. The shift from verbal exchanges to written messages: SMS, twitter.... Nicholas Carr, 'Is Google Making us Stupid?,' he can no longer do deep readings; he is always distracted after a few pages. The capacity to concentrate should not be equated with the intimate reading of a novel. McLuhan wrote that 'the mere fact of reading is itself a lulling and semi-hypnotic experience'.(From Cliche to Archtype). Ergative reading is becoming the default mode of reading. The book as a sacred entity is disappearing, since the 1960's as theorized by Foucault and Derrida. From the reader to the wreader (Proust and the Squid). A wish list by Vandendorpe: hyperlink passages and establish relations between all the books of the Universal Library (Kevin Kelly, Scan this Book, in NY TImes, May 14, 2006). The ability to denote basic semantic relations between documents; the ability to visualize those relations in semantic maps that would allow to make immediately known perceptible mass trends.


2) 'Expanding Text: D.F. McKenzie's 'text' and New Knowledge Environments' by Richard Cunningham and Alan Galey. inke is a project designed to implement replacements for the book. D.F McKenzie, 'Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts', page 13. (read).

Architectures of the Book: ArchBook Proposal
Will consist of four research groups: Textual studies, reader studies, interface design, information management.
Goals Sought:
Accessibilityand ubiquity of Wikipedia, scholary like the 'History of the Book in Canada,' as an essential introducction to textual scholarship, and have the visual richness of digital resources like the British Library's 'Treasure in Full' (http://www.bl.uk/treasures/treasuresinfull.html) and McMaster University's 'Peace and War in the 20th Century' (pw20c.mcmaster.ca).


3) 'NewRadial: Revisualizing the William Blake Archive' by Jon Saklofske. 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience'. HyperPo , Many-Eyes tools. PaperScope (for astronomy). The NewRadial is in beta but is going to be released soon.