黑料网爆吃瓜

Session 5: Hermeneutics and Mediation in Virtual Objects and Code

Building on sessions #2 and #3, the first meeting of the winter term will explore the creation of digital objects and environments as acts of interpretation and mediation. More often than not digital humanists have focused on the presentation and analysis of digital content. However, designing both hardware and software are acts of interpretation that influence what the content will be, how it will be experienced, and the ways in which it will be understood. Code mediates between the architecture, infrastructure, and digital content; it is usually invisible, but its writing sees the creation of virtual objects. From the encoding of a text in TEI, to the creation of a class of objects in PHP or Python, to a Youtube video, the digital world is reducible to text that is interpreted and read: content by users; code by cyberinfrastructure. Unlike the binding of a book, the digital humanist is faced with the real task of creating the virtual paper and glue that presents their content. This process of artifice is only just beginning to be appreciated for its hermeneutic implications.