[en] Visualizing and Analyzing the Hollywood Screenplay with
ScripThreadsEric Hoyt, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kevin Ponto, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Carrie Roy, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract
[en]
Of all narrative textual forms, the motion picture screenplay may be the most
perfectly pre-disposed for computational analysis. Screenplays contain
capitalized character names, indented dialogue, and other formatting conventions
that enable an algorithmic approach to analyzing and visualizing film
narratives. In this article, the authors introduce their new tool, ScripThreads,
which parses screenplays, outputs statistical values which can be analyzed, and
offers four different types of visualization, each with its own utility. The
visualizations represent character interactions across time as a single 3D or 2D
graph. The authors model the utility of the tool for the close analysis of a
single film (Lawrence Kasdan’s Grand Canyon
[1991]). They also model how the tool can be used for “distant reading” by identifying patterns of character
presence across a dataset of 674 screenplays.
[en] Adobe Photoshop and Eighteenth-Century Manuscripts: A New
Approach to Digital PaleographyHilary Havens, University of Tennessee
Abstract
[en]
While research coordinator at the Burney Centre at McGill University in Montreal,
I pioneered new digital paleographical methods to support the editorial work on
Frances Burney and Samuel Richardson undertaken there. Prior to my
interventions, the primary method for reading faint, obscured, and obliterated
manuscript texts had been multi-spectral imaging, which is prohibitively
expensive, limiting its utility as a general research tool, although it is still
sometimes in use. There have not been many alternative digital paleographical
methodologies. The potential of image manipulation software, such as Adobe
Photoshop, has been noted by a few scholars, but not explored. Working in Adobe
Photoshop, I have developed a method of deciphering heavily deleted or
obliterated text through the use of layering techniques, altered color levels,
and the employment of certain kinds of filters. The method is more advanced than
simple image enlargement techniques used by most researchers. Importantly
though, it remains far less expensive than multi-spectral imaging. The technique
contributed to the recovery of nearly all of the obliterated text in the first
two volumes of The Court Journals and Letters of Frances
Burney, which were published by Oxford University Press in 2011, and
it was also used within in-progress volumes from The
Cambridge Edition of the Works of Samuel Richardson. This article
discusses the methodology and some of its key results from eighteenth-century
manuscripts.
[en] Curating Electronic Literature as Critical and Scholarly
PracticeDene Grigar, Washington State University Vancouver
Abstract
[en]
Exhibits focusing specifically on Electronic Literature have been mounted at
galleries, libraries, universities, convention spaces, and parks and other
outside venues. The Electronic Literature Organization’s 2012 Media Art Show,
for example, hosted exhibits in five different locations in Morgantown,
including a community arts center, local gallery, the university library, a
department’s conference room, and the city’s amphitheater, while the MLA 2012
and 2013 exhibits were held at the Washington State and Hynes convention
centers, respectively. The Library of Congress, the most important repository of
books in the U.S., hosted Electronic Literature & Its
Emerging Forms in April 2013 while Illuminations gallery at
University of Ireland Maymooth featured an exhibit of electronic literature in
March 2014. This range of venues suggests a flexibility and appeal of electronic
literature that is both scalable and broad. With these qualities in mind, this
article outlines the various exhibits of electronic literature that the author
has curated in order to highlight the two main challenges facing all scholars
curating digital –– that is, the challenge of availability and the challenge of
presentation.
[en] Agent-Based Modeling and Historical
SimulationMichael Gavin, University of South Carolina
Abstract
[en]
This essay discusses agent-based modeling (ABM) and its
potential as a technique for studying history, including
literary history. How can a computer simulation tell us
anything about the past? This essay has three distinct
goals. The first is simply to introduce agent-based modeling
as a computational practice to an audience of digital
humanists, for whom it remains largely unfamiliar despite
signs of increasing interest. Second, to introduce one
possible application for social simulation by comparing it
to conventional, print-based models of the history of book
publishing. Third, and most importantly, I’ll sketch out a
theory and preliminary method for incorporating social
simulation into an on-going program of humanities
research.
[en] Beyond Gutenberg: Transcending the Document Paradigm in
Digital HumanitiesDavid Schloen, University of Chicago; Sandra Schloen, University of Chicago
Abstract
[en]
Computer-aided research in the humanities has been inhibited by the prevailing
paradigm of software design in humanities computing, namely, the document
paradigm. This article discusses the limitations of the document paradigm and
contrasts it with the database paradigm. It describes a database-oriented
approach that provides a better way to create digital representations of
scholarly knowledge, allowing individual observations and interpretations to be
shared more widely, analyzed more effectively, and preserved indefinitely.
[en] Versioning Loss: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes and the
Materiality of Digital PublishingAaron Mauro, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Abstract
[en]
The recent proliferation of experimental literature has produced a critical and
creative exchange between the possibilities of print and digital distribution
platforms. Through a focused study of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes, this article confronts the difficulty
of citation as an occasion to develop a web based prototype or model of this
decidedly paper bound text. The result of this experiment produced a digitized
version of Tree of Codes that allows for a further discussion of issues of loss,
deformation, and versioning alongside a wider conversation on presentation
semantics on the web and browser capabilities. This article argues that
experimental features on the web have a great deal to gain in a reciprocal
exchange between experimental print media.
[en] Reading TodayFrédéric Clavert, Université Paris-Sorbonne
Abstract
[en]
A review of Claire Clivaz, Jérôme Meizoz, François Vallotton, et Joseph
Verheyden, éds. Lire demain: Des manuscrits antiques à
l’ère digitale [Reading Tomorrow: From Ancient
Manuscripts to the Digital Era]. (Lausanne: Presses polytechniques
et universitaires romandes, 2012). 978-2-88074-958-3.
