Digital Stories: Multimedia Narratives, Cultural Resources, and Humanities Knowledge
This spring’s Washington DC Area Forum on Technology and the Humanities, which will focus on new ways of representing humanities knowledge through short multimedia narrative. Authors of these multimedia narratives combine images, music and sound from personal and cultural archives, cultural institutions, popular culture, and their own research and interviews to produce short pieces, sometimes called digital stories.
Questions raised by this panel include:
– In what ways can humanities knowledge be expressed in short, multimedia-enabled, narrative forms?
– What are the advantages and disadvantages of this form?
– How can we represent cross-cultural and cultural understanding in these forms?
– What is the relationship between issues in multimedia literacy and the development of these new ways of making and presenting humanities knowledge?
– What is the role of cultural institutions and their archives (especially digital) in this work?
– What does it mean to have “amateurs” making this knowledge? How does this work relate to the work of “professionals” in the humanities academy, cultural institutions and public work?
Panelists Cecilia O’Leary (History, California State University-Monterey Bay), Bernie Cook (American Studies, Georgetown University), J.P. Singh (Communication, Culture & Technology, Georgetown University) and Michael Coventry (Communication, Culture & Technology & Visible Knowledge Project, Georgetown University) will show and discuss student-authored multimedia narratives from their courses, followed by vigorous and engaging discussion with the audience. Student authors may also be present to discuss their work in light of these issues.
The forum will be held on Wednesday, April 27th from 4pm to 6pm in Lauinger Library on Georgetown’s campus. There will be an informal dinner after the forum, at a cost of $10 per person. You must RSVP online for dinner at http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/surveys/683/ by April 22.
Directions and Parking information for Georgetown University can be found at http://otm.georgetown.edu/. Parking can also be found on the street. The nearest metro station is Rosslyn, across Key Bridge. For more information, please contact Michael Coventry (coventrm@georgetown.edu).
Co-sponsored by the Center for New Designs in Learning & Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University and George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media (CHNM), the DC Area Technology and Humanities Forum explores important issues in humanities computing and provides an opportunity for DC area scholars interested the uses of new technology in the humanities to meet and get acquainted.