SPRING EVENTS CALENDAR INSIDE, PAGE 31 Comparative Media Studies|Writing In Medias Res cmsw.mit.edu spring 2014 “The Paradoxical Arts of CMS/W” Digital Learning in the Humanities Joe Haldeman’s “Work Done for Hire” Faculty and Alumni Updates Comparative Media Studies|Writing SPRING 2014 3 TO OUR READERS “What they’re writing about science and ABOUT IN MEDIAS RES A Focus on the Arts technology is astoundingly prescient and Edward Schiappa true,” Williams says. “They could see over the Comparative Media Studies/Writing horizon.” Taking an approach Williams has Massachusetts Institute of Technology 4 FEATURES used throughout her career, “The Triumph E15-331 and 14E-303 The Paradoxical Arts of CMS/W Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA 02139 of Human Empire” employs fictional works William Uricchio 617.253.3599 / [email protected] / cmsw.mit.edu as a window into the human response to rapid cmsw.mit.edu/magazine 8 INTERVIEW social transformation.” People of the Book: Whitney —Peter Dizikes on Rosalind Williams’ latest Trettien, CMS ’09 Head book, p. 12 “When I first moved to Durham, I had 28 Edward Schiappa, John E. Burchard Professor boxes of books and no furniture; I had to get of the Humanities creative.” “Although we do not meet under one umbrella called “Digital Humanities,” our 12 HistorY AND TECHNOLOGY projects contribute new programs, technolo- Research Managers Adrift in a Sea of Change gies, and pedagogy in a wide variety of areas. Federico Casalegno, Mobile Experience Lab Literature faculty use MIT-designed tools Sasha Costanza-Chock, Center for Civic Media 16 DIGital HUMANITIES I Class on Digital Humanities like Annotation Studio (digital marginalia), Kurt Fendt, HyperStudio Premieres with Tech-Savvy Locast (digital mapping), and MetaMedia Fox Harrell, ICE Lab Approaches (multimedia archives), as well as an array of Nick Montfort, The Trope Tank open-source programs in their classes.” Scot Osterweil, The Education Arcade 18 DIGital HUMANITIES II —Wyn Kelley, p. 15 Philip Tan, MIT Game Lab How MIT Is Addressing the Sarah Wolozin, Open Documentary Lab Challenges of Digital Learning in “Chelsea Barabas, Heather Craig, Alex the Humanities Gonçalves, Alexis Hope, and Jude Mwenda Staff 18 EXCERPT are exploring the role citizen monitoring can Jessica Dennis “Work Done for Hire” play in holding elected leaders accountable Financial Assistant for promises they make about infrastructure. Jill Janows 19 Academic PUBLISHING They are designing and piloting a mobile- Grants Developer and Administrator Historians Look to Preserve based tool called Promise Tracker.” Shannon Larkin “The Way Things Are in Digital Graduate Administrator —Center for Civic Media update, p. 28 Publishing” Karinthia Louis “The question is to what degree academic Administrative Assistant associations, universities, and university “In my journey as a storyteller and war Michael Rapa presses should continue to find ways to correspondent, the OpenDocLab at the Technology Support Specialist protect the logic of how they operate today MIT has been key in opening my mind to Alexandra Sear in a changing climate or how deeply they unknown technological possibilities and to Administrative Assistant, should push their profession into where the start implementing tomorrow’s interactive Writing Across the Curriculum world is headed.” and immersive techniques for my current Becky Shepardson Academic Coordinator 20 PEOPLE, places, THINGS project ‘The Enemy’.” Sarah Smith “She Became a ‘Crowd-Sourced’ —Open Documentary Lab update, p. 30 Celeb” Administrative Officer Jessica Tatlock 21 RESEARCH Group updates Events Coordinator The Latest from Our Groups Andrew Whitacre Communications Director EVENTS Cover image: The Babbling Brook, 2014. By Catherine 24 cmsw.mit.edu/people Spring 2014 Talks D'Ignazio and the Institute for Infinitely Small Things. TO OUR READERS A Focus on the Arts By Edward Schiappa, Head of CMS/W “This issue of In Medias Res features the role of the arts in CMS/W. Anyone spending time on the MIT campus will soon realize that in addition to being the world’s finest science and engineering school, MIT has a vibrant arts scene. By the time you finish reading this issue, you will have a good overview of the ways in which CMS/W participates and contributes to the arts.” reetings! As the new Head of Next up is an exciting excerpt from Reader collects and comments upon classic Comparative Media Studies/ Professor Joe Haldeman’s newest novel, Work work on sound in the human sciences. Writing, I welcome you to Done for Hire. Though this book will be far Also featured in this issue of In Medias this issue of In Medias Res. from his last, it will be the last published as Res is an overview of Professor Rosalind GProfessor James Paradis stepped down this an MIT professor as Joe has decided to retire William’s fascinating new book, The Triumph past September after many years of service after spending the past thirty years teaching of Human Empire: Verne, Morris, and Stevenson that culminated in the merger of Compara- and writing in the department. Save the date! at the End of the World (University of Chicago tive Media Studies and Writing & Human- A retirement bash for Professor Haldeman Press). Professor Williams shows that for istic Studies. After I spent most of the fall as will take place on September 12, 2014. Verne, Morris, and Stevenson, and their Interim Head, Deborah Fitzgerald — Dean Associate Professor Fox Harrell’s work in readers, romance fantasy was an exception- of our School of Arts, Humanities, and Social his Imagination, Computation, and Expres- ally powerful way of grappling with the Sciences — named me as Head on December sion Lab is a brilliant example of how work political, technical, and environmental chal- 18, 2013. Professor Paradis is a hard act to being done in CMS/W contributes to the lenges of modernity. follow, but I will do my best. arts, a fact recognized last year when his work Rounding out this issue is an update on the This issue of In Medias Res features the role was included in CTheory’s “Artforum Top important role CMS/W is playing in the de- of the arts in CMS/W. Anyone spending time 10.” This accomplishment and special events velopment of the digital humanities. From a on the MIT campus will soon realize that in are regularly featured on the CMS/W website class jointly taught by Professor Paradis and addition to being the world’s finest science (cmsw.mit.edu), so if you find the articles in Principal Research Associate Kurt Fendt to and engineering school, MIT has a vibrant this issue of In Medias Res intriguing, be sure the development of platforms such as An- arts scene. By the time you finish reading this to follow us online (CMS/W events can be notation Studio, a new way for students and issue, you will have a good overview of the followed on Twitter or Facebook, as well). scholars to annotate texts collaboratively, ways in which CMS/W participates and con- Another exciting example of an ongoing MIT is leading the way to exploring the tributes to the arts. project in the arts is the MIT Open Docu- Digital Humanities. Professor William Uricchio begins our mentary Lab’s “docubase” project (docubase. As you can see, CMS/W contributes journey with his account of Comparative mit.edu), which gathers together a fascinating in important ways to the arts at MIT and Media Studies and the arts. collection of interactive, collaborative, loca- beyond. We hope you enjoy this issue of In Whitney Trettien is now a Ph.D. candidate tion-based, and community-created projects. Medias Res. in English at Duke University, and is an Later this spring, CMS/W will feature alumna of Comparative Media Studies (SM, a visit from Professor Jonathan Sterne of 2009). Here she completed a thesis titled McGill University. Professor Sterne writes “Computers, Cut-ups and Combinatory about sound and music, communication tech- Volvelles: An Archaeology of Text Generating nologies old and new, contemporary cultural Mechanisms.” She is interviewed in “People studies, and a range of other matters. He has of the Book” by Gretchen E. Henderson, two books: MP3: The Meaning of a Format who recently completed a Mellon Postdoc- considers the mp3 as an historical, cultural toral Fellowship here at MIT. and political phenomenon. The Sound Studies spring 2014 3 FEATURE The Paradoxical Arts of CMS/W William Uricchio, Professor of Comparative Media Studies rt, like pornography in Justice Potter Stewart’s view, CMS/W encapsulates this two-sided interaction, compressing is one of those things that you know when you see. it into one department. Creative writing, especially in the hands Certainly in an era where artists, publics and markets of such luminaries as Junot Diaz, Joe Haldeman, Helen Lee, Alan have challenged traditional arbiters of taste, Justice Lightman and colleagues, speaks to artistic excellence of the known Stewart’sA logic is hard to dispute. But despite what we as individuals and widely accepted variety. Indeed, they have garnered virtually may think, the social reality of art — of producing and assessing it, every literary prize of any importance. But others in CMS/W are of circulating and preserving it — persists. It’s culture, after all, and pushing the boundaries of art through less familiar means. Consider therefore socially situated, even as it feels defined by the eye of the Nick Montfort and Fox Harrell’s work with computational media; beholder. or the courses that explore the making and expressive capacities of Scholars from Becker to Bourdieu have explored art’s social con- games, films and videos; or research projects that engage with civic tingency and institutional forms, and education invariably enters their art (The Center for Civic Media), location-based storytelling (Mobile stories.