My Project Idea

I think that perhaps for my project I will do a twist on our own class project. If I can get all the people I'm going to contact to consent, I think that perhaps I can do a collaborative video presentation about the significance of the digital humanities. I can ask a specific question to each "guest speaker" and have them record their response on video and send that to me. Then, perhaps, I can combine each segment together into one larger project. It can be all fancy and digital and pretty and...several other adjectives I can't htink of

Does that sound like a good idea?

And I think that perhaps if I can get more of the general publice (students/people interested in the digital medie, etc.) to accept my inquiries, I can do something similar with them. That way I can observe the different viewpoints and address the struggles and questions people may have about digital humanities.

Maybe make this a web series or something?

What do you guys think?

Market Research Study/People I Want to Contact:

Okay. I 've been working rather hard to figure out who I will be able to contact and how I will contact them. I've decided that I want to display the community building power of the digital humanities as well as the learning power you can gain from employing digital means. I want to show how digital humanities enhance traditional studies and how beneficial they are to our current age.

I've noticed a few problems with the digital studies that I'd like to address:
-Why aren't the digital humanities more widely available to a more general audience?

And

-How can we promote the digital humanities to show to skeptics that this method/genre of study is significant and beneficial?

I've mulled over these questions and I've figured out that perhaps if I focus my attentions on a more informal audience and promote the digital humanities to them perhaps popularity will win over the more skeptical audiences. I also want to extend my feelers out to audiences who are studying the digital humanities in the digital world and interrogate (or simply question) their motives for studying the digital humanities as well as their desires for the future of digital studies, etc. Sound like a plan?

Well I like this plan anyway.

And here's who I plan to contact (so far anyway):

I stumbled across a blog from a woman/ professor who has devoted a great deal of time studying the digital humanities:

http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/

In this blog the creator, Lisa Spiro, hopes to study the digital humanities and the affect that they have on studies. She also hopes to promote digital scholarship and display the significance of the digital humanities to a wider audience.

Pretty cool right?

I hope that I can contact her and get her insight on how she hopes to achieve these things. I'm working through her blog right now, but I would love to do an interview with her through e-mail.

And as a added bonus, her blog led me to several other blogs with people who are hoping to achieve similar things! I haven't worked through all of the individual blogs yet but I have a few that are extremely promising:

http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/

This blog, created by David Perry (a professor at the University of Texas), and he discusses his hope to cultural transformation brought about through the digital humanities. In his own words he states: " Particularly I am interested in how traditional institutions-libraries, higher education, even democracy itself-will be altered in a post print society. To see some of my work visit the research page."

He mentions that he has a twitter, so I'm hoping to follow him and start questioning him (okay maybe stalk him) in hopes to better understand his motives and insights. I'll also be perusing his blog and gaining a better understanding of his research.

Still another blog that I've come across is this:

http://www.dancohen.org/

This blog run by Dan Cohen (A professor at George Mason University) delves into the "impact of new media and technology on all aspects of knowledge, from the nature of digitized resources to twenty-first century research techniques and software tools to the changing landscape of communication and publication."

He teaches this at George Mason University and his blog is merely an extension of that reasearch. I'm also hoping to get an interview with him and propose several questions to him about making the technology for the digital humanities more cost effective and available to the the more general public.

And like I said there are many more blogs that I'm going through and I'll be sure to update another list of people when Iget more information on the creators and credibility of the blog list.

But, I do have a small problem that I'm not sure how to overcome. I keep thinking of ways to promote the digital humanities to people on a more common level, i.e. not professors or researchers, but people in general. I'm trying to get specific people/groups that I can interview, but I'm not quite sure how to go about things.

Any suggestions?

"By my penny of observation"-Review of "Love's Labour's Lost"

Well I realize this post is a tad late in being posted. I've been super busy this week with various projects and while I haven't shirked my duties with assignments, I just haven't posted anything yet! Forgive me dear blogites and Shakespeare friends.

I hope you enjoy reading the next few posts!

To start off this blog-fest I would like to discuss my views on the amazing play we finished this week. Didn't you guys just adore "Love's Labour's Lost"?! I did! It had me giggling constantly and I absolutely loved the word play and the sparring of 'wit' between the characters. Plus, the sheer amount of humor woven through the interactions was fabulous.

I still maintain my preference for Biron as my favorite character with Armado coming in a close second. Both of these men were humorous to read/watch. I really got a kick out of Biron's humor and wit and sharp minded remarks. It was amazing to read his comments and justifications for everything. One of my favorite parts was the following passage because I absolutely love the word play here. I love how each character adds to the rhyme of the other. It's wonderful! Enjoy.

BIRON

I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.

FERDINAND

No devil will fright thee then so much as she.

DUMAIN

I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.

LONGAVILLE

Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see.

BIRON

O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
Her feet were much too dainty for such tread!

DUMAIN

O, vile! then, as she goes, what upward lies
The street should see as she walk'd overhead

Video and short synopsis of my repurposed research

Alright. Let me just vent for a minute. I had an amazingly cool video to post for you filled with pictures and texts and all that wonderful stuff. I was rather proud of it actually. HOWEVER, like so many of my frustrations this last week, the stupid computer of mine didn't save things! Talk about frustratingly annoying.

Anyway,  I made a small video explaining, somewhat, my ideas about digital humanities. While the video isn't terrible I'm not too happy with the result and I feel as though I can be a lot more concise and tune my focus even further. That being said, this is a great jumping off point. Like I said though, my other video was much much better. Alas, 'tis not my lucky week. Oh well. Gotta roll with the punches, eh?

My main focus for the video, and I think for my research, is to focus on the benefits of digital studies. In particular I want to emphasize the ways digital humanities enhance traditional studies, as well as how the research community is more available. Because come on let's face it, it's always nice to know that there are people out there who actually CARE about what you're studying and talking about right? And I think that I'm going to take my focus away from strictly an academic community and focus more on the common, everyday people who are interested in employing digital studies into their learning. I want to show that digital studies (or studies in general) don't have to be limited to the upper crust of researchers. Everyone can study. Everyone can learn. And EVERYONE can share their ideas and become a part of the community.

Well that's what I think anyway.

Enjoy the video.

*Grumble grumble*

I've been trying ALLweekend to get my video up. Stupid computer keeps failing me. How annoying can that be right?! Seriously.

I will get my video up (hopefully today) and in that video I'll be able to discuss with you my new direction for my paper which is: The SIGNIFICANCE of Digital Humanities.

Hopefully my computer will cooperate this time. *insert angry face here*

"Our court shall be a little Academe"-Loving Love's Labour's Lost!

Wow.

I'm loving this play! I love the wit, the vivacity, and the plucky little comments woven throughout the story!

I decided after I read the text, to watch the production done at the Globe that Dr. Burton showed a clip of. And can I just say that it is awesome?! Seriously I loved having a production to observe after reading. It really made the text come alive for me. And it reinforces the idea that plays are really an EXPERIENCE not just a text. Plays are meant to be produced!

And boy did the Globe do an excellent job of producing Shakespeare's play!

My favorite characters are probably Berowne or Biron (or however else it is known) because he's so amusing to listen to/read; Costard simply because he's hilarious; and Adriano De Armado because of his obsession with love.

I loved reading the lines of these three in particular because of the language each uses (Berowne with his rhyming and wit, Costard with his simplistic absurdity, and Adriano with his lovey-dovey rationalizations)

So, when I started watching the production done by the Globe I was happily aware of how fabulous the actors portrayed these specific characters. They were IMMENSELY entertaining!

I'm not completely done watching the play but three of my favorite scenes so far are:


Talkative Prisoner

This is the moment where Costard cannot STOP talking about how he WILL stop talking
Witty Barbs

This is the scene where Biron and Rosaline spar and throw some witty little barbs back and forth.

Armado In Love

Ah Armado is in love! What more can I say? :)
* As a side note to anyone who doesn't have access to these links (because they are provided through BYU) There may be a way to e-mail links to you! Let me know if you need some help! :)

The Breadth and Depth of Digital Humanities & SHOUT OUT TO ASHLEY!

Okay!

As you may be aware from previous posts, I'm sort of addicted to the digital humanities. The whole concept to expand learning through the modern digital methods really intrigues me. And after working through my paper and listening to everyone's insight on reworking their own papers I've started to think about the different ways I can improve my own research.

One way that I thought about reworking my paper is to shift and expand my focus. I think my paper was very academically centered. My main focus was on talking to an audience of professors or researchers. I think that I need to expand this field a bit more and look at the broader scope of things.

I started by asked myself these basic questions:

Who has experience with the digital world?

-Just about everyone!

Who would be interested in digital studies?

-Students and teachers and people interested in learning.

HOW could digital humanities benefit?

-Digital Humanities can benefit people through the expansion of the knowledge base and the variety of information available. Further, studying through digital methods allow for different methods of study to present themselves providing unique opportunities for learners to understand the humanities in ways that appeal to individual learning habits and patterns as well a provide new insight into the basic foundation of studies in humanities.

So, in a nutshell, digital humanities provide a breadth and depth of knowledge and community connections that expand on traditional study methods.

Sound good?

Also, I thought that I could make my presentation more digital-friendly. How do you appeal to a digital savvy community about the importance of digital humanities unless you reach out to them through digital means? I'm not quite sure what avenue this will take just yet, but I'm starting to get things figured out slowly.

And ASHLEY,

I'd love to collaborate with you on our videos if you'd be willing. I know your ideas focus on Ophelia, but I think that there's a great many places where our ideas can overlap. Perhaps we can combine ideas in some way or present our videos as connectors to one another?

Let me know what you think!