Mediums Chart, 2014 (Dene Grigar; DTC 375)
Responses (Hayles, Chapter 1)
1. The concept Hayles addresses is “that we think through, with, and alongside media” (1). Although being a topic that many others have touched upon, Hayles wishes to build upon their work by highlighting the implications of media, as well as the shift from print to electronic technologies within the Humanities.
2. This idea is important when concerning the Humanities because of the changing atmosphere regarding print technologies. Having solely relied upon these technologies for generations, these individuals feel a tremendous shift occurring as the world becomes far more accessible through electronics.
3. A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in how some aspect of life is approached. Hayles specifically describes the paradigm shift from print to electronic within the areas of research and publication in her book.
4. Hayles challenges the idea proposed by Nicholas Carr. The notion that electronics are “imperiling our ability to concentrate, leading to superficial though . . . and a general decline in intellectual capacity” (Hayles 2). Hayles reasoning stems from her belief that “our interactions with digital media are embodied” (3). Embodiment then leads to the extension of ones own thoughts beyond the computer and into the outside world. This, Hayles believes, leads to extended cognition, not diminished intellect.
5. By “embodied”, Hayles points out that our interactions with digital media are physical and have bodily effects. In the same respect that you cannot function without your body, being without electronics produces the same crippling effect. Embodiment, as delineated by Hayles, then leads to extended cognition, or in other words, the electronic device becomes a part of yourself.
6. The three levels of engagement expressed by Hayles are knowledge, utilization, and conceptualization. To be specific, Hayles mentions email, web searches, and the manipulating digital files as the first engagement level. In the subsequent level, individuals utilize digital technologies to aid in the research process. Lastly, the third level of engagement deals with the implementing research projects within and around digital media.
7. The Humanities consist of a group of scholars whose academic discipline is to study human culture. Throughout most of our history, Humanities specialists have used a print-based methodology to conduct their research and publication. On the other end of the spectrum, individuals within the Digital Humanities use digital technology to reach conclusions about the human race.
Cultural Upheavals & the Myth of the End, 2014 (Dene Grigar; DTC 375)
8. By using the word “media upheaval”, Hayles refers to the extreme paradigm shift from print-based technologies to digital technologies. Unfortunately, when we ignore such a drastic change in media, consequences can occur. For one, rifts between the two media groups are created. With this comes the loss of knowledge and collaboration, something that is all-too-familiar in the Humanities realm.
9. Hayles pursuit for a “Comparative Media Studies” Program (a system in which print and digital scholars collaborate in order to explore their backgrounds) is a similar ideal being covered by WSUV’s CMDC Program. So far, lecture in this class has covered the three prominent forms of communication: oral, print, and electronic (comparing and evaluating their forms along the way). The CMDC Program is also dealing with what Hayles calls “the productive work of making”, in which theory and practice are combined in order to conceive hands-on projects (9).
10. The term “technogenesis” refers to the concept that humans and technology have co-evolved together. This is evident through the pervasiveness of technology and how it has affected our exposure to information. Neurologically, we are evolving much like our technic counterparts.
11. The three reading strategies Hayles introduces are close, hyper-, and machine reading. Close reading requires deep attention and analysis, whilst hyper- involves quicker reading and/or scanning. Machine reading on the other hand, can be seen as a Google search.
Responses (Hayles, Chapter 2)
1. A gradual shift from emphasizing qualitative competence to quantitative understanding occurred throughout the evolution of Western education. Because of this, the content continued to evolve as more subjects involving higher levels of mathematics and sciences began to surface. Trends including the emergence of music during the Renaissance and the prevalence of astronomy before the 19th century reflect that culture and education evolve together.
2. Hayles recognizes that culture and education should continue to be intertwined like before. She highly suggests that culture and education need to change together in order to fully benefit society as a whole. This is why Hayles is in pursuit of a “Comparative Media Studies” curriculum, not to mention why she is deeply interested in fostering cooperation between the Humanities and the Digital Humanities.
Reflective Essay
Finding Common Ground
Before the widespread use of electronic tools, I grew up during the transition between print and digital technologies, and became absorbed in reading in and out of the classroom. In fact, it wasn’t until high school when I started to read texts via the windows of my desktop. It felt bizarre – unnatural compared to my memories of my childhood favorites: Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. It was as if all that I had adapted to was ripped right out from underneath me. The comfort of reading with a physical text was not as common, instead replaced with the qualms of sifting through online materials. My acclimatization did not happen overnight, however. Now, literature lines my virtual shelves, embedded in 0’s and 1’s, in the very entrails of my desktop, and until recently, my Google Nexus 7. It is because of these experiences that I now embrace the two mediums that make up a heated debate in our society. The affordances and limitations of each truly made me realize just how critical the two are, and that one cannot be separated from the other.
Recognizably, print and electronic materials are inherently different. While one makes its home on the shelf, the other cozies up in the windows of an electronic device. Surprisingly, these physical distinctions create much controversy, regardless of the fact that they are just plain old texts. But even this wasn’t the element that irked me during high school. I was mainly consumed by another peculiarity: the reading techniques surrounding the two mediums.
In the grand scheme of things, physical texts require a closer read than most digital materials. Deep focus is essential for coping with the linearity of print, especially when examining a challenging literary work (Hayles 69). Strikingly enough, it is this exact fact that limits its hopes of ever acquiring a multilocal context. Whereas physical text provides access to rich focused material, electronic texts host a brimming network of interrelated texts that one could explore with ease – clicking from one to the next (Hayles 74). Praised for its flexibility, hyper-reading – the skimming or scanning of textual information – has a double-edged sword. Although it can benefit us in comprehending various sources at one given time, it cannot afford us the same depth or knowledge discovered through close-reading. As Katherine Hayles remarks, “close and hyper-reading operate synergistically when hyper-reading is used to identify passages or to home in on a few texts of interest, whereupon close reading takes over” (73).
It was upon realizing these connections that I began to intertwine my reading techniques, incorporating both close and hyper-reading in order to analyze physical and electronic texts. There is no doubt in my mind that promoting coexistence between the two mediums and their reading strategies is the key to understanding texts in the information age.
Works Cited
Hayles, Katherine. How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2012. Print.
