Projecting

This is a small sample of my digital projects. Some are ongoing, while others have been completed. This list does not include larger collaborative projects conducted at previous institutions For a complete list of my digital projects, please contact me.

Book by Book

 
I am unpacking my library. Yes, I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. In­stead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with me a bit of the mood—it is certainly not an elegiac mood but, rather, one of an­ticipation which these books arouse in a genuine collector. For such a man is speaking to you, and on closer scrutiny he proves to be speaking only about himself. Would it not be presumptuous of me if, in order to appear convincingly objective and down-to­earth, I enumerated for you the main sections or prize pieces of a library, if I presented you with their history or even their usefulness to a writer? I, for one, have in mind something less ob­scure, something more palpable than that; what I am really con­cerned with is giving you some insight into the relationship of a book collector to his possessions, into collecting rather than a collection. If I do this by elaborating on the various ways of ac­quiring books, this is something entirely arbitrary. This or any other procedure is merely a dam against the spring tide of mem­ories which surges toward any collector as he contemplates his possessions. Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collec­tor’s passion borders on the chaos of memories.
— Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking my Library"
 

In his 1931 essay “Unpacking my Library,” philosopher Walter Benjamin narrates the process of unpacking his book collection. All in boxes, he takes the reader through elements of his book collection: the memories attached to them and the importance he placed on the act of “collecting.”

This digital initiative delves into the profoundly personal act of collecting books and printed materials, offering a unique glimpse into both the collection and the collector. Benjamin's reflection on the intimate relationship between a collector and their books serves as the cornerstone of this project, highlighting the stories, memories, and emotions interwoven with each item in my library. Book by Book is structured into various series, each designed to provide a distinct lens through which to access and understand the collection. The project not only showcases the books and printed materials themselves but also delves into the narratives behind their acquisition, the significance they hold, and the insights they offer about the collector's life and passions. This series aims to evoke the sense of nostalgia, wonder, and discovery that accompanies the act of unpacking one’s library. By inviting viewers to engage with the library in new and meaningful ways, this project celebrates the deeply personal and transformative power of collecting books and printed materials.

Series One: Projector Poetry

Series Two: The Teaching Collection

Series Three: Book History (forthcoming)

 
 

Other Projects

Projector Poetry

 

Projector Poetry
https://twitter.com/projectorpoetry
December 2019-Present

Projector Poetry is a Twitterbot created in December 2019. The project began in the spring of 2019 when I began to digitize my personal library; in March, there were over 7,000 titles in the collection. The digitization process started with the titles categorized as “poetry.” The automated account @ProjectorPoetry randomly extracts a single line of verse from the first 400 titles digitized.

The Project is part of a series of experiments tied to the digitization of my personal library. These works question the meanings of material collections and their transformation into the digital. They also explore the ways we read, collect, organize, preserve, and share text. This part of the series might also be read as a remix project—each line of verse, a sample. It wants to see what happens when texts collide.

 

 

Revolutionary Renderings

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Revolutionary Renderings
July 2017

Revolutionary Renderings is an exercise in creating kinetic poetry using After Effects. As users click through the web-based document, text morph into a word clouds that take the shape of the author’s silhouette. The texts selected here are key documents from the American Revolutionary period.

Texts represented in this project include:

  • Francis Hopkinson’s A Pretty Story (1774)

  • Thomas Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

  • John Adam’s “Novanglus” Essays (1774-1775)

  • John Trumbull’s McFingal: a modern epic poem (1775, 1782)

  • Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis (1776)

  • Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Papers (1787-1788)

  • Philip Freneau’s American Independence, an Everlasting Deliverance from British Tyranny (1778)

 

 

Roving Eye Press

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Roving Eye Press
2012-Present

Roving Eye Press, initially founded in the late 1920's by Bob Brown and co-managed by his wife Rose, was part of a larger literary and artistic movement of small presses that served the modernist avant-garde. Those presses included Hogarth Press, Ovid Press, Shakespeare & Company, Black Sun Press, Hours Press, and Contact Press, among others. 

Roving Eye boasted an impressive circle of readers that included Kay Boyle, Marcel Duchamp, Gertrude Stein, and Langston Hughes.  The press was mobile in both geography (moving with Brown from the spa town Bad-Ems, Germany, to Cagnes-sur-mer, France, and much later, in the 1950’s, to New York City) and scope (publishing art, poetry, political pamphlets and even cookbooks).

In 2014, a small group of some of Bob Brown’s (Robert Carlton Brown II) great grandchildren together with a group of scholars re-launched Roving Eye Press. The group has, in turn, commissioned editor-scholars, artist-designers, printers, and production supervisors to start republishing the most important books from Roving Eye Press.

 

 

Maryland By Mail

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Maryland By Mail
2012-2016

MD BY MAIL was a digital archive and scholarly experiment in critical-making designed to explore the visual culture of Maryland post offices. It consisted of three components: (1) a free tour guide-exhibition catalog; (2) an augmented reality walking tour and mapping project, transforming the mundane experience of visiting the post office into a tourist attraction; and (3) a digital exhibition and archive, which included my collection of postal ephemera and memorabilia.

Sections highlight the architecture of some post offices in the region; the Works Progress Administration (WPA) post office murals commissioned during the Great Depression (and their artists); Baltimore’s streetcars and railway post offices; postal routes and other professional and bureaucratic texts; and even historic post cards depicting these sites (which include others' travels and memories).  

Here, the post office is not examined as a business, a governmental department, or even a civic institution. Instead, the project asks the question “What if we view the post office as a work of art?” While this tour addressed local history, art, and architecture, the project is intended as an interventionist work that criticized public space and memory, as well as collecting, touring, and publishing.  

 
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The ELASTIC Textbook

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The ELASTIC Textbook
2016

The Electronic Liberal Arts and Sciences Text Instruction Course (ELASTIC) was part of an orientation guide to the Digital Humanities and the Digital Publishing Lab at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

The textbook is an electronic, interactive resource and “how to” guide for those interested in the history and development of the Digital Humanities and in developing their own digital projects.

The course walked users through four different types of DH projects: (1) text-centric practices that used tagging, mark-up languages and metadata; (2) large online projects and virtual organizations dedicated to innovative new modes of learning and research that emphasize community, sharing, and open-access; (3) experimental works in the Humanities that break new ground and invent rhetorical, writing, and publishing tools and practices for the Internet—emphasizing H’MMM (Humanities, Movies, Music and Media); and (4) projects related to social media publishing and mobile devices, including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and Extended Reality (ER) technologies.