Making Things and Drawing Boundaries

Experiments in the Digital Humanities

2017

Jentery Sayers, Editor

MANIFOLD OPEN ACCESS EDITION

A major new look at why art, digitization, and design are vital to “making” in the humanities

Foregrounding the interdisciplinary character of experimental methods and hands-on research, this collection asks what it means to “make” things in the humanities. Comprising almost forty chapters from ninety practitioners across twenty disciplines, Making Things and Drawing Boundaries speaks directly and extensively to how humanities research engages a growing interest in “maker” culture, however “making” may be defined.

"Required reading for those interested in digital humanities and in the intersection of maker culture and academics." CHOICE

In Making Things and Drawing Boundaries, critical theory and cultural practice meet creativity, collaboration, and experimentation with physical materials as never before. Foregrounding the interdisciplinary character of experimental methods and hands-on research, this collection asks what it means to “make” things in the humanities. How is humanities research manifested in hand and on screen alongside the essay and monograph? And, importantly, how does experimentation with physical materials correspond with social justice and responsibility? Comprising almost forty chapters from ninety practitioners across twenty disciplines, Making Things and Drawing Boundaries speaks directly and extensively to how humanities research engages a growing interest in “maker” culture, however “making” may be defined.

Contributors: Erin R. Anderson; Joanne Bernardi; Yana Boeva; Jeremy Boggs; Duncan A. Buell; Amy Burek; Trisha N. Campbell; Debbie Chachra; Beth Compton; Heidi Rae Cooley; Nora Dimmock; Devon Elliott; Bill Endres; Katherine Faull; Alexander Flamenco; Emily Alden Foster; Sarah Fox; Chelsea A. M. Gardner; Susan Garfinkel; Lee Hannigan; Sara Hendren; Ryan Hunt; John Hunter; Diane Jakacki; Janelle Jenstad; Edward Jones-Imhotep; Julie Thompson Klein; Aaron D. Knochel; J. K. Purdom Lindblad; Kim Martin; Gwynaeth McIntyre; Aurelio Meza; Shezan Muhammedi; Angel David Nieves; Marcel O’Gorman; Amy Papaelias; Matt Ratto; Isaac Record; Jennifer Reed; Gabby Resch; Jennifer Roberts-Smith; Melissa Rogers; Daniela K. Rosner; Stan Ruecker; Roxanne Shirazi; James Smithies; P. P. Sneha; Lisa M. Snyder; Kaitlyn Solberg; Dan Southwick; David Staley; Elaine Sullivan; Joseph Takeda; Ezra Teboul; William J. Turkel; Lisa Tweten.

Jentery Sayers is associate professor of English at the University of Victoria.

Sayers is to be commended for giving space to queer and feminist makers, who are often overlooked in favor of discussions on technological innovations. The essays on the interplay of craft and circuitry highlight how academic institutions need to look beyond monograph and journal publication as keystones to academic careers. This is required reading for those interested in digital humanities and in the intersection of maker culture and academics.

CHOICE

Contents
Introduction: “I Don’t Know All the Circuitry”
Jentery Sayers
Part I. Making and the Humanities
1. The Boundary Work of Making in Digital Humanities
Julie Thompson Klein
2. On the “Maker Turn” in the Humanities
David Staley
3. Vibrant Lives presents The Living Net
4. A Literacy of Building: Making in the Digital Humanities
Bill Endres
5. MashBOT
6. Making Humanities in the Digital: Embodiment and Framing in Bichitra and Indiancine.ma
P. P. Sneha
Part II. Made by Whom? For Whom?
7. Making the RA Matter: Pedagogy, Interface, and Practices
Janelle Jenstad and Joseph Takeda
8. Reproducing the Academy: Librarians and the Question of Service in the Digital Humanities
Roxanne Shirazi
9. Looks Like We Made It, But Are We Sustaining Digital Scholarship?
Chelsea A. M. Gardner, Gwynaeth McIntyre, Kaitlyn Solberg, and Lisa Tweten
10. Full Stack DH: Building a Virtual Research Environment on a Raspberry Pi
James Smithies
11. Mic Jammer
12. The Making of a Digital Humanities Neo-Luddite
Marcel O’Gorman
13. Made: Technology on Affluent Leisure Time
14. Reifying the Maker as Humanist
John Hunter, Katherine Faull, and Diane Jakacki
15. All Technology Is Assistive: Six Design Rules on Disability
Sara Hendren
Part III. Making as Inquiry
16. Thinking as Handwork: Critical Making with Humanistic Concerns
Gabby Resch, Dan Southwick, Isaac Record, and Matt Ratto
17. Bibliocircuitry and the Design of the Alien Everyday, 2012–2013
18. Doing History by Reverse Engineering Electronic Devices
Yana Boeva, Devon Elliott, Edward Jones-Imhotep, Shezan Muhammedi, and William J. Turkel
19. Electronic Music Hardware and Open Design Methodologies for Postoptimal Objects
Ezra Teboul
20. Glitch Console
21. Creative Curating: The Digital Archive as Argument
Joanne Bernardi and Nora Dimmock
22. Reading Series Matter: Performing the SpokenWeb Project
Alexander Flamenco, Lee Hannigan, and Aurelio Meza
23. Loss Sets
24. Dialogic Objects in the Age of 3D Printing: The Case of the Lincoln Life Mask
Susan Garfinkel
Part IV. Making Spaces and Interfaces
25. Feminist Hackerspaces: Hacking Culture, Not Devices (the zine!)
Amy Burek, Emily Alden Foster, Sarah Fox, and Daniela K. Rosner
26. Fashioning Circuits, 2011–Present
27. Making Queer Feminisms Matter: A Transdisciplinary Makerspace for the Rest of Us
Melissa Rogers
28. Movable Party
29. Disrupting Dichotomies: Mobilizing Digital Humanities with the MakerBus
Kim Martin, Beth Compton, and Ryan Hunt
30. Designs for Foraging: Fruit Are Heavy, 2015–2016
31. Experience Design for the Humanities: Activating Multiple Interpretations
Stan Ruecker and Jennifer Roberts-Smith
32. AIDS Quilt Touch: Virtual Quilt Browser
33. Building Humanities Software That Matters: The Case of Ward One Mobile App
Heidi Rae Cooley and Duncan A. Buell
34. Placeable: A Social Practice for Place-Based Learning and Co-design Paradigms
Aaron D. Knochel and Amy Papaelias
35. Making the Model: Scholarship and Rhetoric in 3D Historical Reconstructions
Elaine Sullivan, Angel David Nieves, and Lisa M. Snyder
Part V. Making, Justice, Ethics
36. Beyond Making
Debbie Chachra
37. Making It Matter
Jeremy Boggs, Jennifer Reed, and J. K. Purdom Lindblad
38. Ethics in the Making
Erin R. Anderson and Trisha N. Campbell
Acknowledgments
Contributors