Syllabus

iMac G4 Blueberry “Bubble,” circa 1999

Day 1: Preserving Born Digital Media through Recoverying, Restoring, and Reconstituting

The morning session will be spent with an overview of the course and examples of projects that recover, restore, and reconstitute outmoded born digital media, including the Telidon art recovery project, Deena Larsen’s “Kanji-Kus,” and the trAce Online Writing Centre’s website and web journal, frAme. The afternoon will focus on web archiving projects where participants will use Rhizome.org’s Webrecorder tool to  preserve a work of electronic literature. Participants are encouraged to bring their own emulation projects to class.

Foci:

  • Advantages & disadvantages of using emulation in place of, or in addition to, period hardware
  • Side-by-side comparison of emulated systems and the same systems/software running on the original hardware
  • Emulated systems running on single board computers/microcontrollers driving hardware reconstructions really early computer interfaces (i.e. blinking lights and switch panels)

Morning Session

  • Welcome
  • Project planning
  • Presentation about emulation: John Durno

Afternoon Session

  • Affordances of migrating, emulating, & collecting: Dene Grigar
  • Preserving legacy media with Rhizome.org’s Webrecorder: Greg Philbrook
  • The Wayback Machine: Dene
  • Emulated Systems: John Durno

Readings:

Resources:

 

5.25-inch floppy disk from Judy Malloy’s database novel, “Uncle Roger,” 1986-8

Day 2: Digital Forensics and Digital Preservation

The morning session will be spent with an overview of digital forensics, looking specifically how tools like BitCurator can be used for digital preservation. The afternoon will be spent learning how to move data from floppy disks and CD-ROMS to digital storage sites. Participants are encouraged to bring their own migration projects to class.

Foci:

  • Accessing a work of e-lit or a video game published on floppy disk/CD-ROM
  • Analyzing digital data through various recovery tools (e.g. BitCurator & FRED (Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device)
  • Terminology
  • Hardware and software basics

Morning Session

  • Disk imaging, Bitcuator tools, preservation demo: John
  • Porting files from legacy to contemporary computers: Greg

Afternoon Session

  • Impact of platforms on media

Readings:

  • Durno, John. “Digital Archaeology and Forensics: Working with Floppy Disks from the 1980s.” Code{4}Lib Journal 25 Oct. 2016. https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/11986.
  • Kirschenbaum, Matthew. “Every Contact Leaves a Trace”: Storage, Inscription, and Computer Forensics.” Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 25-71.
  • Rumsey, Abby Smith. “Memory on Display.” When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future. NY, NY: Bloomsbury Press, 3-14.

Resources:

 

Electronic Literature Lab, Washington State University Vancouver

Day 3: Designing and Outfitting a Media Archaeology Lab

The morning session will be spent with an overview of media archaeology labs and how various ones are organized and used. The afternoon will be spent conceptualizing and laying out a lab. Participants are encouraged to bring plans and ideas to class.

Foci:

  • Purpose of a media archeology lab
  • Space needs
  • Maintenance routines
  • Hardware and software resources
  • Designing a workspace for accessing legacy software
  • Lab activities and processes

Morning Session

  • Media Archaeology Labs, Purposes & Processes: Dene & John

Afternoon Session

  • Planning Session: Dene & John

Readings:

  • Parikka, Jussi. “Introduction: Cartographies of the Old and the New.” What is Media Archaeology?Cambridge, England: Polity Press, 2013. 1-18.
  • Davies, Robin, and Michael Nixon. “Digitization Fundamentals.” Doing Digital Humanities: Practice, Training, Research. Ed. Constance Crompton, Richard J. Lane, and Ray Siemens. Routledge Press: London, England, 2016. 163-175.

Resources:

  • Media Archaeology Lab sites: ELL, MAL, The Trope Tank, R-CADE
  • ELL-Catalog

 

Richard Holeton giving a Traversal of “Figurski at Findhorn on Acid,” at WSUV

Day 4: Documenting Interactive, Multimedia with a Traversal

The morning session will be spent preparing and hosting a Traversal of a work of born digital media, such as a game or work of electronic literature. The afternoon will be spent organizing the data for documentation in various scholarly databases and public media channels. Participants are encouraged to bring suggestions for a work to document in a Traversal.

Foci:

  • The Pathfinders methodology and the Traversal process
  • Documenting participatory, interactive, and experiential media

Morning Session

  • Why Traversals on Legacy Hardware and Software?: Dene
  • Planning for Traversal: John and Dene

Afternoon Session

  • Live Traversal: Dene & John

Readings:

  • Grigar, Dene and Stuart Moulthrop. “Traversals: A Method of Preservation for Born Digital Texts.” The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities. Ed. Jentery Sayers. NY, NY: Routledge Press, 2016. 351-362.
  • Schiller, Nicholas and Dene Grigar. “Born Digital Preservation: A Live Internet Traversal of Sarah Smith’s King of Space.” International Journal of Digital Humanities. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42803-019-00004-w.

Resources:

 

Day 5: Creating New Work with Retro Tools

The morning session will be spent creating a work of born digital media, such as a game or work of electronic literature with retro tools. The afternoon is devoted to DHSI’s activities, including the exhibition of participants’ work.

Foci:

  • Hands-on projects creation with Storyspace 2.0, HyperCard 2.0, and Microstar Graphics Editor
  • Introduction to tools, their constraints and affordances

Morning Session

  • Making Contemporary Work with Legacy Hardware and Software: Dene & John

Reading:

  • Marecki, Piotr. “Textual Demoscene.” Feb. 2015. https://nickm.com/trope_tank/TROPE-15-01.pdf.
  • Bolter, Jay David. “Hypertext and the Remediation of Print.” Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, 2ndEdition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, 2001. 27-46.

Resources:

  • Manuals for Storyspace and HyperCard
  • Various works of e-lit created with hypertext authoring tools