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May Shelfie: Ellen Gillooly-Kress

Ellen Gillooly-Kress is a first-year PhD student in Theatre Arts, in her third year here at the University of Oregon after receiving her MA in Linguistics in 2016. Her research has focused on “the intersection of cognitive processing of language in performance, specifically with actors and memorized lines. My focus was on cospeech gesture—what the actors were doing with their hands while speaking—and how it manifests when actors are trying to recall memorized speech. I’m fascinated by how our spontaneous behaviors we do when we are speaking every day manifest in certain kinds of “realistic” performance that is taught as part of the American theatrical tradition. I’m interested in using empirical data to reinforce the pedagogical discoveries made in the creative classroom.”

What drew her to the New Media and Cultural Certificate is her research interest in “the performance of theater in a society that is now heavily digital.”

In Algorithms and Automations with Prof. Seth J. Lewis in Winter 2017, Ellen was introduced to “the idea of algorithms as socially constructed artifacts. This in many ways is a direct reflection of how theatrical production can be, namely an ethereal object that many people must collaborate on and shape. These ethereal objects have a symbiotic relationship with their creators; both object and creator are constantly interfacing and changing one another. I credit Prof. Lewis with introducing me to the philosophies of Bruno Latour and the social construction theories of algorithms by Tarleton Gillespie.

I plan on using the knowledge from this class and others in the program to look at digital spaces as a kind of performance spaces for groups of individuals. I also enjoy bursting the perceived dichotomy between practices in theatre and practices in digital space.

Some of my favorite theatre companies have experimented with using digital space in their performances. For instance, Ferry Play by This Is Not A Theatre Company invited individuals to download a “podplay” to be listened to on the Staten Island Ferry. Collectively listening on individual devices while sharing a physical space engages the personal vs. public question of performance in a very dynamic way that is interesting to me not only as a researcher but as an artist myself.”

Ellen’s new media related recommendations:

  • http://lingthusiasm.com (podcast, blog): For those with a love of language and who want an introduction to linguistics
  • http://howlround.com (blog, theatre commons): A news source for theatre people, written by theatre people. Also features simulcasts of performances, along with weekly twitter chats and other wonderful partnerships.

Favorite performance pieces:

 

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2017 University of Oregon Grad Forum

On May 12, 2017, the University of Oregon Graduate School will host the 8th Annual Graduate Student Research Forum. Last year over 100 students from graduate programs representing every UO school and college participated in the Grad Forum.

The Grad Forum is an excellent professional development opportunity for students to share their work with an interdisciplinary audience of faculty, other graduate students, undergraduates, and members of the public. We appreciate the support you have offered over the past 7 years and look forward to your ongoing support this year.

Students can participate in ONE OF THREE WAYS:

* POSTER SUBMISSIONS: Submit a title; a 150 word abstract describing
your research; and a 140 character thumbnail summary to be used for the
promotional materials (about 25-28 words). Details about poster size
will be available soon. Posters previously developed or to be developed
in the future for presentation at other conferences are welcome.

    * THREE MINUTE THESIS SUBMISSIONS: Submit a title; a 150 word abstract
describing your research; and a 140 character thumbnail summary to be
used for the promotional materials (about 25-28 words). Presenters will
have 3 minutes (no more!) to present their research at the forum and
they can use one static slide. Winners have the opportunity to compete
in the state finals for Three Minute Thesis, held here in Eugene on
Saturday May 20, 2017

    * SYMPOSIA SUBMISSIONS: Symposia are comprised of talks by three to
five graduate students (total presentation time is 1 hour). At least two
different fields must be represented, and the talks should share a theme
or topic. Submit a symposium title and a 300-word abstract describing
the symposium theme and how each of the talks relates to it. In
addition, for _each_ individual presentation, submit a title and a 140
character thumbnail summary. Please designate one symposium participant
as a contact person, who will also serve as the panel’s moderator.

New this year! – To continue the excitement of last year’s popular “blitz” talks, we are holding the Three Minute Thesis competition in conjunction with the Grad Forum.

Three Minute Thesis presentations will be one of the presentation formats:

* Symposia need to include only TWO different departments this year
(although we encourage you to indulge your interdisciplinary desires to
the maximum extent!). If you have an idea about a symposium and need
help fleshing it out or finding other participants to complete your
symposium, please contact Sara Hodges at sdhodges@uoregon.edu.

Grad Forum is open to new presenters whose research is ready to go public. We also encourage more seasoned participants to take advantage of this lively exchange of ideas. Please consider applying!

DEADLINE: WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017

LINK FOR SUBMISSIONS

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February Shelfie: Jason Lester

“I am a second-year PhD student in the Comparative Literature department. I am interested in transnational modernism, media studies, aesthetics, critical theory, poetry, and film, among other things, and I am currently preparing a conference paper for the 2017 University of Michigan Comparative Literature Graduate Conference. My paper will be titled, “Chinese Slow Cinema in the Time of the Network.”
Jason has found that NMCC courses complement his focus in Comparative Literature quite well due to the fact that both the certificate and the are “committed to interdisciplinarity — not only in terms of focus on national area studies and commitment to critical and theoretical perspectives, which originate from a variety of disciplines, but also in understanding of  [media and literature] as an object of critical inquiry”
After reading Andre Bazin’s What Is Cinema (1967) in Professor Michael Allan’s “Transmedial Aesthetics” course in Fall 2015 – both a foundation course in Comparative Literature and an NMCC methods course – Jason became interested in the claim of Bazin “that it is the quality of mise en scene which is most fundamental to cinema — in opposition to Eisenstein’s privileging of montage editing and the cut. [And his prioritization of] long takes and deep focus, believing that technical advances in film production help move us closer to a teleological “myth of total cinema.”
In the NMCC core seminar class, taught by Professor Bish Sen last spring, Jason was introduces to Manuel Castells’ The Rise of the Network Society (1996). “For my seminar paper, I conducted a literature review of the way that time has been engaged and socially conceptualized in the modern and contemporary period, and became interested in how Castells argues that in the network society there has been an emergence of new social formations of space and time, organized into what he calls the space of flows and timeless time. Although Castells is often cited within the social sciences and architecture, he has rarely been employed within the Humanities. I am interested in teasing out how his observations can be meaningfully employed towards a phenomenological investigation of cinema and everyday life on the level of the aesthetic.”
Jason’s Primary Interests:
“Within the last decade, there has been a considerable amount of critical work applied towards what has been labeled contemplative or slow cinema. In particular, I am interested in the films of Sixth Generation director Jia Zhangke and Taiwanese Second New Wave director Tsai Ming-Liang. It is my contention that a formal analysis of the aesthetic qualities of these films reveals how time is socially formed in the network society, being phenomenologically experienced as instantaneousness in the dynamic, nodal space of flows and as interminable slowness or stillness in the static, contiguous space of places.
Beyond my work in contemporary film and the network society, I am currently researching the aesthetics of vitalism in and between the United States and China in the modernist period. I am interested in the incipient role of affective vitalist philosophy in American encounters with Chinese literary texts, beginning with Ernest Fenollosa’s The Chinese Character as a Medium for Poetry and its employment in the thinking and poetry of Ezra Pound. Moreover, I am also interested in how western vitalist philosophies are presaged and transfigured within Chinese literature and film, as seen in key works such as Wild Grass by the preeminent Chinese modernist writer Lu Xun, as well as The Big Road by 1930s Shanghai director Sun Yu.
I’m also very interested in questions of exploration, immersion and diegesis in video games, particularly in walking simulator games — first person games which prioritize exploration and affective relationships to space instead of merely shooting other people with guns.”
Film Recommendations:
Book Recommendations:
Video Games:
The Beginner’s Guide (2015) — Programmer Davey Wreden
Slave of God (2012) — Programmer Stephen Lavelle
Music Videos:
“Cranes in the Sky” — Perf. Solange Knowles, Dir. Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson
“Don’t Touch My Hair” — Perf. Solange Knowles, Dir. Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson
“Both of Solange’s music videos feature long takes, long shots, and slow or or static camera movement — all of which is antithetical to what we expect from a music video.”
Poetry:
Art:
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Winter Top Ten

In need of a study breather? Look no further, here are some of our favorite fun and useful resources we have collected over the last few months –

1. Voyant – a scholarly project designed to facilitate reading, analysis, and interpretive practices for digital humanities students, scholars, and the public. Useful for analyzing text, add functionality and interactive interfaces to essays and blogs, develop your own tools. Explore this example.

2. Data & Society Podcast – audio of talks, interviews, and presentations from Data & Society, a research institute focused on social and cultural issues in data-centric technology development.

3. codeacademy.com – a free, interactive resource for new and continuing coders, just create an account and begin!

4. Small Radios, Big Televisions – through a beautiful interface that echoes the computer games and digital animation of the 1990s, this game offers a commentary on digital versus analog media, nostalgia, and the impact of industrialism.

5. The Pedagogy Project – a continually growing resource for projects and syllabi in the digital humanities classroom

6. DiscoverDesign.org – a free digital platform where anyone can learn about architecture and design through the completion of design challenges, receiving feedback from real teachers and professionals in the field.

7. Matters in Media Art – a resource for collectors, artists, and institutions caring for works of art that have moving images, electronic or digital components. Practical tools and examples for preserving this developing art form.

8. Metadata Games Project – a free and open source game platform in which players use images, video, and audio from libraries, archives, and museums, which in turn gain valuable descriptions, making it easier for the general public and scholars to discover their collections.

9. Net Art Anthology: Group Z, Belgium (Michaël Samyn)’s LOVE (1995) – a series of seven stories arranged in a navigable grid of HTML files created to emphasize the structural possibilities of the internet. Images, text, and interactive compositions map a range of experiences associated with romantic love through which the user navigates.

10. Scalar – a free, open-source, digital publishing platform from The Alliance for Networking Visual Culture that provides a simple interface and tools similar to a blog for ‘born-digital’ books and essays. Great for collaborative authoring and media-centered projects.

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NMCC Alumni Update

We caught up with two recent NMCC alumna to see what exciting things they have been up to and how their experiences in this certificate helped them on their way!

Emily McGinn received her PhD in Comparative Literature in 2014 and is currently the Digital Humanities Coordinator at the University of Georgia, overseeing the Willson Center Digital Humanities Lab (DigiLab), where she develops Digital Humanities curriculum, provides workshops and training to faculty and students, and consults on grants and project scoping. “It is an enormous job that keeps me moving,” Emily explains, where “I am perpetually learning new skills, testing new tools and applications, and finding creative solutions to complex projects.”

Taking a “non-traditional path,” Emily did not anticipate this career trajectory when beginning her PhD. She credits John Russell, now at Penn State, for setting her on this path after introducing her to the Digital Humanities.

“Through his guidance and the NMCC curriculum, I gained the skills and experience necessary to earn a CLIR (Council of Library and Information Resources) Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. Working on the Digital Scholarship Services team at Lafayette furthered the work I had begun with NMCC and propelled me to my new position at UGA.”

Looking back on her time with the NMCC, she “knew that pursuing the certificate was worth the investment. The program expanded my vision for what was possible after grad school and encouraged me to apply broadly to a variety of opportunities.”

Emily’s current projects include integrating DH projects into traditional humanities classes, “working with professors to bring DH skills and methods directly into the undergraduate classroom while also building capacity among the faculty for future DH work.” Though a career in this field is often in constant flux, she enjoys research opportunities open to her and opportunities to “push the boundaries of scholarship” and is looking forward to what the future holds.

Emily’s resource recommendations:

The Programming Historian – peer-reviewed, beginner-friendly source for all things DH

dataviz – fun, sleek guide for tools, resources and technologies in data visualization

_____________________________________________

Chelsea Bullock also received her PhD in 2014, in Media Studies, and currently handles UX (user experience) research and strategy at IBM with The Weather Company, where her favorite part of the day is collaborating and “grappling with big, difficult questions like:

  • How do we provide parity in technological access across the global spectrum of connectivity?
  • How do technological habits and expectations vary around the world?
  • How do we anticipate the ways technology is evolving the ways we interface with one another, with our environments, and with the changing climate?”

Chelsea credits her participation in the New Media and Culture Certificate for introducing her to “multi-faced approaches to technology…and it’s symbiotic relationship with culture,” providing “a solid foundation for thinking critically and historically about technology” and practice in asking questions and building compelling arguments – skills she now uses daily.

“As a practice,” she explains, “I sketch the borders of the big picture before diving into details; asking ‘how’ and ‘why’ serves me well at IBM and has presented a lot of opportunities.”

Expanding her vocabulary through the NMCC, in addition to work with the Fembot Collective, gave Chelsea the confidence to pursue a future in the tech world in order “to ask hard questions, advocate for all users, and strategically design meaningful solutions to real problems.”

For those eager to follow a similar path, Chelsea recommends seeking opportunities for active work in your desired field, “dedicating the labor to a project with an actual deliverable result will help you determine whether or not the work is what you want to continue to pursue.” She also acknowledges how her desire to continue learning was of immense value to her as a candidate on the professional market. “Read widely, listen to diverse podcasts, participate in free webinars, attend local industry meetups, and watch tutorials and lectures in adjacent technologies or fields than the one(s) in which you usually work.”

Her favorite thing about technology? “I love its interconnectivity and evolving algorithmic logic, but I most appreciate the sophisticated ways technology lets us think about what it means to be human. The digital humanities enable us to reflect on historical networks as ways of being and sharing, and subsequently anticipate (re-)emerging patterns and trends.”

Chelsea’s resource recommendations:

Jocelyn K. Glei – blog/newsletter on work, design, and managing a digital life

LitHub – trusted source for all things literary: news to novels, publishing houses to non-profits

Brain Pickings : “for all the things you didn’t know you needed to read to be a better human in the world”

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Cinema Studies Event: Hatsune Miku, The Crowd Sourced Hologram

Cinema Studies Presents: Hatsune Miku: The Crowd Sourced Hologram

A Talk by Tara Knight
Associate Professor of Critical Media Practices, CU Boulder
Filmmaker, Animator, and Projection Designer for Live Performance

Please join us for an introduction to the Hatsune Miku phenomenon – the singing, dancing hologram collaboratively created by hundreds of thousands of people.

––Who is this “wiki celebrity” created across cultures, languages, and artistic traditions? 
––How is her image, voice, and personality negotiated within this community? 
––Who “owns” Miku and what does it mean for copyright law, business models, and
models for participatory creative systems?

Friday, March 3, 2017     10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Graduate Student Lounge – Susan Campbell Hall

Please RSVP to attend by 8 a.m., Monday, February 20th.

Tara Knight is a filmmaker, animator, and projection designer for live performance.  Her most recent projects include video design for the world premiere of Hollywood, a new play by the author of Jersey Boys about the development of the Hayes Code in motion picture history, and the Mikumentary animated documentary series.  The series has screened at the Mori Museum in Tokyo, The Photographers’ Gallery in London, and has been bootlegged into half a dozen languages online.  She is currently working on an interactive Sound Planetarium project, and is an Associate Professor of Critical Media Practices at CU Boulder.

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Upcoming Lecture: Erkki Huhtamo

The School of Architecture and Allied Arts is excited to announce the next A&AA Interdisciplinary Lecture – Thursday, February 27, 2017 at 6:00 p.m, LA 177. 

Erkki Huhtamo: “Screenology, or Media Archaeology of the Screen”

“Media screens are both present and absent, both well known and unknown. Pervasive use makes them ‘vanish.’ We look through them, not at them. Even cracked smartphone screens do not attract attention to their wounded surfaces. The users read messages and “realities” through the cracks which they barely notice. Screens not only disguise themselves; they hide the history of their own becoming. The media archaeologist’s task is to make the screens visible again and to excavate the cultural contexts where they have been used and given meanings – even hundreds of years ago. This lecture is based on the author’s forthcoming book Screenology, or Media Archaeology of the Screen. It demonstrates one possible way of researching screens, suggesting a new approach for media studies.”

***

Erkki Huhtamo is known as a founding figure of media archaeology. He has published extensively on media culture and media arts, lectured worldwide, given stage performances, curated exhibitions, and directed TV programs. He is a professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Departments of Design Media Arts, and Film, Television, and Digital Media. His most recent book is Illusions in Motion. Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles (The MIT Press, 2013).

This 2nd annual A&AA Interdisciplinary Lecture is sponsored by the School of Architecture & Allied Arts with special thanks to History of Art and Architecture Department, Product Design Department, Art and Administration Program and Art and Technology Program for their support.

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PHIL 607: Seminar in Data Genealogy

Looking for an NMCC class to take this Spring? Interested in engaging with our contemporary data-driven society through a philosophical and historical lens? Try Colin Koopman’s PHIL 607: Seminar in Data Genealogy

“What makes possible the formatting of selfhood that we perform on social media?  What motivates our idyllic dreams for big and ever-bigger data?  What historical cunning informs the obsessive surveillance of today’s corporate and governmental surveillance regimes?  How new—and how old—are new media, cutting-edge information technologies, and the informatics of our present?

The course will have two aims in taking up these questions.  Firs, through the  philosophical methodologies of archaeology and genealogy associated with the work of Michel Foucault and media archaeologist Friedrich Kittler.  Equipped with this methodological apparatus, we will consider various approaches to what might be considered a genealogy (in a broader sense) of contemporary informational assemblages.  The class will draw on a variety of disciplines and read (at a relatively quick pace) texts authored by philosophers and historians of science, historians of technology, historians of literature, and a range of other critical genealogists.  Some of the books we will read from include Tung-Hui Hu’s A Prehistory of the Cloud, Bernard Harcourt’s Exposed: Desire and Disobedience in the Digital Age, and James Purdon’s Modernist Informatics: Literature, Information, and the State.”

***

Colin is currently working on a book manuscript project on these subjects, tentatively entitled How We Became Our Data: A Genealogy of the Informational Person.  The project engages with contemporary debates in new media theory and political theory in order to frame an argument around early twentieth-century informatics technologies in such domains as personality psychology, identity documentation, and the racialization of property. See more about Colin on his blog.

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Feminist Media Studies Symposium in Portland

The University of Oregon Cinema Studies Program presents the Feminist Media Studies Symposium in honor of the outstanding legacy of Professor Emerita Kathleen Rowe Karlyn, founding director of the Cinema Studies Program and internationally renowned feminist media scholar.

This Symposium will bring together the most interesting research at the intersection of the fields that Professor Karlyn helped define in ways that both engage with the intellectual questions central to her oeuvre and build on them to suggest the new directions in which feminist media studies is now moving. This will include presentations by colleagues and former students of Professor Karlyn, UO alumni, and others who have high profile careers in media production and content creation outside of academia. The symposium will also showcase graduate and undergraduate research in film and media studies at the University of Oregon.

Welcome Reception: Friday, February 10, 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm, White Stag Block

Symposium: Saturday, February 11, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm, White Stag Block

Breakfast and lunch provided 

Pre-registration is required for attendance at this event.