katherine hayles

First off let me just say it was really funny when she started talking about SQL database servers literally. With the title of the talk being about database and narrative I thought database would be as nebulously defined as narrative, but instead she just went straight into talking about real databases.  read more »

After taking Technologies of the Book last semester with Harpold, I really enjoy thinking about the book, the codex, not just for the content that's inside of it, but as it's own artifact, as a medium of its own. It's just so interesting to think of the "laws" that govern reading and the functioning of the book as imposed by current society, which of course, has been a long time in the making.

From scrolls, to books of all sizes, to digital books and software, all media is constantly transforming... adding and subtracting... and in these days, blending with others.

But of course, is a digital "book" really a book? Is listening to an audio book the same as reading the physically bound pages of a codex.

Also, since I've worked for book presses and publication offices, I know what goes into the creation of a book -- the parts, the anatomy, how the industry works. So, it's both jarring and a breath of fresh air to see writers and artists play with the medium.

A few pictures as examples:

tennis book 1
tennis book 2  read more »

I completely agree with Dr. Hayles that narrative and data have a symbiotic relationship. Even the driest scientific paper has some narrative structure. The researcher cannot simply publish a table of values, he or she must state how and why the data was collected, what happened over the course of the experiment, and what the significance of the data is. In essence, the scientist writes a (usually very dull) story about the data that has been presented. The word "narrative" is not typically used in this context, but, in most laboratory classes, a student will not receive full credit for a report unless he or she writes at least a sentence or two about what the tables and plots mean in practical terms.  read more »

I want to clarify a few things about your reading and gaming assignment for Monday. First, you need to get a version of Zork that you can play on your computer. I gave you a link to a web version, but you should only use that as a last resort. If you're a Mac user, follow the directions here. If you're on Windows, I found that the version here works pretty well, at least on XP.

Your goal with Zork is to get passed the moment Murray discusses in the chapter. As you can infer from her quotation of it, you need to find some way to go down a trap door. This is very early in the game, so it shouldn't take you long to find it.  read more »