Invitation: 7th Mellon Seminar in Digital Humanities

Just posted to a number of lists...

You are invited to attend the April 2009 Mellon Seminar in Digital Humanities: http://tinyurl.com/472nah

Topic: Info-Triage and Sticky Media: Intersections of Design Theory & the Digital Humanities
Presenter: Peter Lunenfeld
Date: Monday, April 6, 2009
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm SLT/PDT
Location:
Real Life (RL): UCLA Visualization Portal (5628 Math and Sciences Bldg.)
Second Life (SL): Entropia, the Digital Library Federation’s SL island—rsvp needed
Second Life basic accounts are free: http://secondlife.com
NOTE to SL attendees: Please rsvp to Esther Grassian estherg@library.ucla.edu to reserve a space and receive the SLURL (SL url), as well as instructions for viewing the live video feed and adjusting the audio in SL.

Contemporary theories of communication design, interaction design, and media design are important to the overall project of the digital humanities. In contrast to fine art, architecture, and film, design was slow to accrete sophisticated aesthetic and social theories; historically, designers themselves created a maker's discourse heavy on technical analysis. Coincident with the rise of design as a cultural force since the beginning of this decade, though, a more rigorous and informed theoretical attention to design emerged. 21st century design theory offers powerful ways to think about interactive technologies and creative practices. Combining strategies from design theory with the deep resonance offered by the digital humanities increases the potential for mindful downloading and meaningful uploading.

Peter Lunenfeld is a professor in the Design | Media Arts department at UCLA. His books include The Digital Dialectic (MIT, 1999), Snap to Grid (MIT, 2000) USER (MIT, 2005), and The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading (forthcoming). As creator and editorial director of the Mediawork project, he produced a pamphlet series for the MIT Press that redefined the relationship between serious academic discourse and graphic design. http://www.peterlunenfeld.com

The reading for this seminar, an excerpt from Prof. Lunenfeld's upcoming book The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: How the Computer Became Our Culture Machine, will be emailed to the mailing list for the seminar rather than posted to the website.