Jekyll2022-07-07T20:46:04+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/feed.xmlInformation Overload!Write an awesome description for your new site here. You can edit this line in _config.yml. It will appear in your document head meta (for Google search results) and in your feed.xml site description.Workshop 7: Search Algorithm2021-05-25T14:00:00+00:002021-05-25T14:00:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/05/25/search<p><strong>Complete by: Thurs. 27 May</strong></p>
<p>For class this week, you read part of Safiya Noble’s <em>Algorithms of Oppression</em>, which explores racism and bias in search algorithms. Noble provides lots of examples of the biased output of search algorithms; in this tutorial we’ll take a look at a (greatly simplified) version of a search algorithm.</p>
<p>Work through the Python code in <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1W8q7PmqyWOYi9q0Wq4DA3wtiHFm7OI5g?usp=sharing">this Google Colab notebook</a>. You’ll also need to download the zipfile by going to: <jrladd.com/inauguralspeeches.zip>.</p>
<p>What does it mean for an algorithm to be biased? Is it only about the data that goes into it, or are there other ways algorithms can skew results? You might reflect on these questions, on the Noble reading, and on your own experiences with search algorithms in this week’s Canvas response.</p>
<p><em>n.b. The point of this assignment is <strong>not</strong> to learn how to program, so don’t worry if some of the code is inscrutable to you! We can’t go into detail on exactly how all parts of the scripts here do their work—instead the purpose of the workshop is to give you a better a sense of how code works so that you can think critically about the results you get. If at any point you feel lost, just reach out to me for help. And don’t forget the <a href="https://jrladd.com/info_overload/groundrules/">ground rules</a>!</em></p>Complete by: Thurs. 27 MayWorkshop 6: Poetry Chatbot2021-05-18T18:50:00+00:002021-05-18T18:50:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/05/18/chatbot<p><strong>Complete by: Wed. 20 May</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1RCb5ExWgUIu0BX4E4cJTPUCj7SMtD70j?usp=sharing">Click here for the Google Colab notebook!</a></p>
<p>In last week’s workshop, you explored text as an interface by learning how to give commands to a computer and get results back. This week you’ll have a chance to talk to your computer, and you’ll explore ways of making it talk back.</p>
<p>Work through the Python code in <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1RCb5ExWgUIu0BX4E4cJTPUCj7SMtD70j?usp=sharing">this Google Colab notebook</a>.</p>
<p>This notebook is a <em>deformance</em> poetry project that takes the poems of Emily Dickinson and uses them to build a chatbot. Like <a href="https://nickm.com/montfort_strickland/sea_and_spar_between/">Sea and Spar Between</a>, this small project reconfigures and reorders someone else’s writing to make something new, something interactive. The term <em>deformance</em>, a portmanteau of “deform” and “performance,” comes from Jerome McGann’s book <em>Radiant Textuality</em> and describes any kind of activity (computational or not) that reconfigures texts into new meanings.</p>
<p>In recent years, many writers, artists, and critics have taken up this practice: the <a href="http://counterpathpress.org/articulations-allison-parrish">poet</a> and <a href="https://www.decontextualize.com/">computational artist Allison Parrish</a>, the <a href="http://tinysubversions.com/">twitter bot artist Darius Kazemi</a>, the <a href="https://www.robinsloan.com/">novelist Robin Sloan</a>, and the <a href="https://medium.com/@samplereality/a-protest-bot-is-a-bot-so-specific-you-cant-mistake-it-for-bullshit-90fe10b7fbaa">digital studies scholar Mark Sample</a>, just to name a few. This week’s workshop will give you a small taste of how these new artists are doing their work. You might reflect on the different emotional payoffs of computational work. How does this “deformance” change the way you think and <em>feel</em> about Emily Dickinson?</p>
<p><em>n.b. The point of this assignment is <strong>not</strong> to learn how to program, so don’t worry if some of the code is inscrutable to you! We can’t go into detail on exactly how all parts of the scripts here do their work—instead the purpose of the workshop is to give you a better a sense of how code works so that you can think critically about the results you get. If at any point you feel lost, just reach out to me for help. And don’t forget the <a href="https://jrladd.com/info_overload/groundrules/">ground rules</a>!</em></p>Complete by: Wed. 20 MayWorkshop 5: Text as Interface2021-05-11T17:50:00+00:002021-05-11T17:50:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/05/11/interface<p><strong>Complete by: Thu. 13 May</strong></p>
<h3 id="text-as-interface-the-command-line">Text as Interface: the Command Line</h3>
<p>So far in this class we’ve been exploring text as mainly a medium of communication: the text (whether spoken, written, printed, or online) is intended to communicate some piece of content. For this workshop, we’ll explore what it means for text to become an <em>interface</em>. What are the implication of typing a certain word as a <em>command</em> for a computer, and expecting something to happen?</p>
<p>If you have a Mac or a Linux computer, you can begin by opening up the Terminal application (if you can’t find it, search your system with Spotlight or a similar tool). If you are a Windows user, you’ll have to download an application called Git Bash. Follow the instructions in this tutorial: <a href="https://programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/intro-to-bash#windows-only-installing-git-bash">https://programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/intro-to-bash#windows-only-installing-git-bash</a>.</p>
<p>Once you have a terminal open on your computer, follow the step-by-step exercise in this slideshow: <a href="https://jrladd.com/slides/commandline/">https://jrladd.com/slides/commandline/</a>. Don’t worry: nothing you will do in this exercise will harm your computer. You’re simply learning a new way of interacting with your computer.</p>
<p>As always, <strong>don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or run into any problems</strong>. It’s possible that not every command will work exactly the same on everyone’s computer, so if something isn’t working right just let me know right away and don’t stress about it. We’ll work together to fix the problem.</p>
<p>When you’re done, write a reflection on this exercise for the Canvas discussion board. Give special attention to the difference between text as <em>communication</em> and text as <em>interface</em>.</p>Complete by: Thu. 13 MayWorkshop 4: Networks2021-04-27T19:00:00+00:002021-04-27T19:00:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/04/27/networks<p><strong>Complete by: Thu. 29 Apr.</strong></p>
<p>Begin by reading this post on Scott Weingart’s blog that introduces the concept of networks: <a href="http://scottbot.net/lets-talk-about-networks/">http://scottbot.net/lets-talk-about-networks/</a>. Then look through <a href="https://jrladd.com/network-glossary.html">this glossary</a> of basic network terminology.</p>
<p>Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the basics, you’ll use the Network Navigator site to explore some datasets. (Because <em>Network Navigator</em> isn’t out of beta testing yet, the link is posted privately on the Canvas discussion board for this workshop.) Follow these steps:</p>
<p>1) Choose two of the <a href="https://github.com/melaniewalsh/sample-social-network-datasets/tree/master/sample-datasets">sample network datasets</a> from <a href="https://github.com/melaniewalsh/sample-social-network-datasets">Melanie Walsh’s Github repository</a>. Select one dataset that describes a real world social network, like the dataset of Quakers or one from the Modernist Journals Project, and select a second that describes a fictional social network, like Marvel or Game of Thrones datasets.</p>
<p>2) Download the appropriate edgelist for each chosen network and drag-and-drop it into Network Navigator, or copy-paste the data right into Network Navigator’s input box. (Every dataset contains multiple files, but for this exercise you should only need the file that ends in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">-edges.csv</code>.)</p>
<p>3) Explore Network Navigator’s results for each network. In your explorations, pay special attention to the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Which node/person in the network has the highest degree? And which has the highest betweenness centrality? What does this tell you about their “importance” to the network?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Look at all three types of visualization: force layout, arc diagram, and adjacency matrix. What do each of these visualization types allow you to see about the networks?</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>How does your “real world” network compare to the one drawn from fiction? What are the similarities and differences between the two networks, both in the way they <em>look</em> in their visualizations as well as in their <em>mathematical differences</em>?</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>4) Write a reflection for the discussion board on your exploration of the two networks you chose (and remember to tell us which datasets you chose!). You don’t need to answer all of the above questions fully, but you can use them as guides. In general, what did this exercise teach you about how social networks see the world? How is this similar or different from other ways of understanding relationships?</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>n.b. This workshop is adapted from an in-person assignment, and it uses a website that is still experimental. If you run into anything confusing or something that doesn’t seem to work right, just reach out for help! Remember the <a href="https://jrladd.com/info_overload/groundrules/">technical learning ground rules</a>.</strong></p>Complete by: Thu. 29 Apr.Workshop 3: Digital Editing2021-04-20T18:00:00+00:002021-04-20T18:00:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/04/20/editing<p><strong>Complete by: Thu. 22 Apr.</strong></p>
<h2 id="create-a-simple-digital-edition">Create a Simple “Digital Edition”</h2>
<p>Now that you’ve investigated how books are made, we can begin to think about how books are represented visually. In this week’s workshop, you’ll examine a representation of a book as a series of <strong>digital images</strong>, and then you’ll remediate those images into <strong>XML</strong>, a markup language that gives structure to machine-readable text.</p>
<p>As usual, follow the steps below to complete the workshop exercise. Then write a one-paragraph reflection on the Canvas discussion board that connects the workshop to some element of our class discussion.</p>
<p>1) Access Early English Books Online (EEBO)</p>
<ul>
<li>Go to the Library website <a href="https://www.library.northwestern.edu">https://www.library.northwestern.edu</a></li>
<li>From the “Search” dropdown, select “Databases”</li>
<li>Type “EEBO” into the search box</li>
<li>From the search results, click on “Early English Books Online EEBO”</li>
</ul>
<p>2) Search for a Book</p>
<ul>
<li>Select a topic that interests you, and search for a book that matches that topic</li>
<li>You can choose anything you want, but here are some good general ideas:
<ul>
<li>Cooking</li>
<li>Witchcraft</li>
<li>Civil War (n.b. This will get you results on the <em>English</em> Civil War 1642-51)</li>
<li>Sonnets</li>
<li>Games</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>3) Select a book and choose an interesting page</p>
<ul>
<li>For a fun challenge, you might choose a page that has more than just a single block of prose text. Maybe your page has a poem or a song. Maybe it has multiple columns, or even a table or diagram.</li>
</ul>
<p>4) Follow the guide to create an XML representation of that page or part of the page</p>
<ul>
<li>Read over parts of the introduction to XML here (you only need to read v.1-3 and v.6): <a href="https://tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/SG.html">https://tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/SG.html</a></li>
<li>Once you have you a sense of XML, you can mark up your text in whatever way you see fit. Feel free to make up whatever elements and attributes you like. (There are official guides for this sort of thing, but we will learn more about those later on.) <em>For a good example, look over the poem in section v.3, highlighted in pink.</em></li>
<li>You could make your XML document in a word processor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, but you could also use a text editor such as Atom: <a href="https://atom.io/">https://atom.io/</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Feel free to ask lots of questions.</strong> I’m available to answer your questions over email, or we can schedule a one-on-one Zoom chat.</li>
<li>Again, the goal is to get a feel for how this works rather than create a perfect object. If your page is very long, you can choose just one part to represent. You needn’t spend more than a half hour or so creating your XML.</li>
</ul>
<p>5) Think about what is gained and what is lost in this representation vs. the digital image vs. the physical book itself (which you’ve never seen!). Post your XML snippet and your reflection to the Canvas discussion board.</p>Complete by: Thu. 22 Apr.Workshop 2: How Books Are Made2021-04-13T16:50:00+00:002021-04-13T16:50:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/04/13/bookmaking<p><strong>Complete by: Thu. 15 Apr.</strong></p>
<h2 id="rebuild-two-shakespeare-books">Rebuild Two Shakespeare Books</h2>
<p>This week we were supposed to visit Northwestern’s Special Collections to take a look at some very old books and talk about early printing techniques. Since we can’t do that, I’d like you to complete and then reflect on a few exercises related to early modern printing methods.</p>
<p>Following up on our in-class conversation about early modern book-making, watch the following 4-minute video that demonstrates the printing press.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN_KhB9SjVs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN_KhB9SjVs</a></p>
<p>In the video, on this small scale-model printing press, the curator prints a single page of text on a small sheet of paper. But as we discussed, early modern printers used very <em>large</em> sheets of paper and printed multiple pages at once, folding them later to create books.</p>
<p>To understand this method of making books, read the Folger Shakespeare Library’s DIY First Folio page: <a href="https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare/first-folio/diy-first-folio">https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare/first-folio/diy-first-folio</a>. When you’re done, complete the exercises in the “Virtual Printing House”: <a href="https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/first-folio/diy-first-folio/exercise1a">https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/first-folio/diy-first-folio/exercise1a</a>. This will give you an idea of how <em>folio</em> books are printed: by printing two pages at a time on one side of a sheet, and folding those sheets just once.</p>
<p>Once you’ve completed the DIY First Folio, read the page for the DIY Quarto: <a href="https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/diy-quarto">https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/diy-quarto</a>. And complete the Virtual Printing House exercises for the Hamlet quarto: <a href="https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/diy-quarto/exercise1">https://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare/diy-quarto/exercise1</a>. This will help you understand how <em>quarto</em> books are made: by printing <em>four</em> pages at a time on one side of a sheet, and folding those sheets twice.</p>
<p>This whole process (the video and both sets of exercises) should take about 45 minutes. If you have any difficulties getting the sites to work, please let me know right away.</p>
<p>Once you’ve finished, write a one-paragraph reflection for the Canvas discussion board on what you learned from the process. You might reflect on some of the following questions. How do the complexities of early modern printing inform your understanding of books and reading in this historical period? What do the differences between folios and quartos tell us about certain kinds of books? Does knowing something about printing change how you feel about the “efficiency” of printing over other forms of written communication?</p>Complete by: Thu. 15 Apr.Workshop 1: Stop Sign2021-04-06T15:50:00+00:002021-04-06T15:50:00+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/workshops/2021/04/06/stop-sign<p><strong>Complete by: Thu. 8 Apr.</strong></p>
<h2 id="design-a-new-sign-that-means-stop">Design a new sign that means “Stop”</h2>
<p>As Reinfurt says, “The new Stop sign must not rely on existing symbolic conventions such as an octagon or a raised hand, graphic conventions such as a slash or an X, or literal conventions such as the word ‘stop.’ This will make your task difficult, perhaps even impossible. Can a single graphic ever be autonomous, not relying on a system of differences in which to register its meaning?”</p>
<p>You can create your Stop sign in whatever medium you desire. It could be a hand-drawn illustration, a photo of physical objects, or a digital image. <strong>It is more important to engage with the difficulty of the assignment than it is to produce a beautiful object.</strong> Which is to say, don’t spend more than a half hour or so creating your design.</p>
<p>Upload a picture of your Stop sign along with a brief reflection on this exercise to the Canvas discussion board by Wed. 8 Apr. In your reflection, you might discuss your affective response to the exercise and/or its relationship to Chiang’s <em>The Story of Your Life</em>. What did creating a Stop sign teach you about language with/as technology?</p>
<p>(Adapted from Reinfurt, David. <em>A *New* Program for Graphic Design</em>. Los Angeles: Inventory Press, 2019.)</p>Complete by: Thu. 8 Apr.Final Project2021-03-22T15:57:45+00:002021-03-22T15:57:45+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/assignments/2021/03/22/final<p><strong>Complete by: Tue. 8 June, 8pm CST</strong></p>
<p>Your final project for the course will build on something you’ve already been doing over the course of the semester. You can choose one of the two options below.</p>
<p>By <strong>Thursday 27 May</strong>, you will send me a brief email saying which option you’ve chosen and the topic of your project.</p>
<p>On the last day of class, <strong>Tuesday 1 June</strong>, you’ll have a chance to say something about the project you’ve started. This is listed as a “presentation,” but it’s really just an informal way of telling your classmates what you’ve been up to.</p>
<h3 id="transform">Transform</h3>
<p>Take one or more of our course texts (the first chapter of <em>Americanah</em>, or a selection of Dickinson poems, for example) and <em>transform</em> it into a different medium. This could mean creating a material version of the text (i.e. building your own book, scroll, or poster), turning the text into a series of social media posts, converting the text into a list of counts (as in the Text as Interface workshop), transferring a text to XML, or trying to express the text in a non-linguistic mode (as in the Stop Sign workshop). You’ll have a lot of freedom to think about creative possibilities. You can use techniques we learned in the workshops or bring in any other techniques you choose.</p>
<p>Here are a few examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>an Instagram account for Emily Dickinson’s poems, where each image represents a poem and the texts themselves are the captions</li>
<li><em>Areopagitica</em> as a series of words and their counts, showing how often Milton talks about books and printing</li>
<li>Ifemelu’s blog posts from <em>Americanah</em> formatted as an actual blog, or as a set of XML documents</li>
<li>A scene from <em>The Staple of News</em> as an audiorecording</li>
</ul>
<p>The main purpose of this assignment is to think about what happens to the text when it is taken from one form to another. Along with your transformed text, you’ll turn in a 750-word reflection that describes the ways the text was changed by your intervention and how these changes relate to the histories of text technologies that we covered in class.</p>
<h3 id="historicize">Historicize</h3>
<p>Expand on the historical comparison you made in your midterm assignment. Using your midterm as a first draft, you’ll add an additional historical example that sheds new light on your topic. Having three examples of the same phenomenon at different points in history will allow you to think about the <em>development</em> of certain emotional responses to technology over time.</p>
<p>You’ll also bring in one or two secondary sources that comment on the phenomena you’re describing. For example, if you’re talking about the earliest days of the printing press, you might use Ann Blair’s book <em>Too Much to Know</em> (which we discussed in class) to establish that the 16th century was a time of anxiety around information.</p>
<p>You will revise what you’ve already written as you add your new section. You should try to add about 1000 new words, for a total of 2000-2500 words.</p>
<p><strong>Requirements</strong> (for both assignment types):</p>
<ul>
<li>double-spaced</li>
<li>PDF format (you can choose “export as PDF” from Word, Google Docs, or other word processors)</li>
<li>MLA citations: <a href="https://style.mla.org/mla-format/">https://style.mla.org/mla-format/</a></li>
</ul>Complete by: Tue. 8 June, 8pm CSTMidterm Short Essay2021-03-22T15:57:45+00:002021-03-22T15:57:45+00:00https://jrladd.com/info_overload/assignments/2021/03/22/midterm<p><strong>Complete by: Mon. 10 May, 8pm CDT</strong></p>
<p>In this brief essay, you will <em>historicize</em> an instance of contemporary anxiety about communication technology.</p>
<p>First, you will locate a piece of online or print journalism that describes some technology-related fear or anxiety. I highly recommend outlets like the <em>New York Times</em>, the <em>Washington Post</em>, <em>Slate</em>, <em>The Verge</em>, or <em>The Outline</em> for good examples of these kinds of pieces. By <strong>Tue. 27 Apr.</strong>, please email me a link or PDF of the article you intend to use. If you need help finding something, don’t hesitate to contact me before then.</p>
<p>In your essay, you will connect this instance of technological anxiety to one of the historical responses to technology that we’ve discussed in class. In what ways are these fears similar or different? How do the two technologies compare to one another? Does the historical anxiety give us a different perspective on contemporary anxieties?</p>
<p>You should cite the article you chose as well as one of our course texts, but you’re not required to bring in additional sources. Remember that I will be available for office hours every Wednesday from 3-5pm and by appointment. Please feel free to use this time to talk over your ideas with me.</p>
<p><strong>Requirements</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>1000-1500 words (put the final wordcount in your document header)</li>
<li>double-spaced</li>
<li>PDF format (you can choose “export as PDF” from Word, Google Docs, or other word processors)</li>
<li>MLA citations: <a href="https://style.mla.org/mla-format/">https://style.mla.org/mla-format/</a></li>
</ul>Complete by: Mon. 10 May, 8pm CDT