Pleasure-seeking scholarly primitives
HuCo500 – Weekly questions
According to Aristotle, scientific knowledge (episteme) must be expressed in statements that follow deductively from a finite list of self-evident statements (axioms) and only employ terms defined from a finite list of self-understood terms (primitives). [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy] (Unsworth)
In his article, Unsworth uses the notion of “primitives” as a way of understanding how humanities researchers can put digital methods into practice. More specifically, he looks at how Aristotle’s “episteme” could be applied as a method in interface design. In reading the article, it seemed that the “scholarly primitives” (our finite list of self-understood terms) stood in for the basic needs of the “scholarly” user. Could we alternately frame Unsworth’s “scholarly primitives” by defining the user’s basic needs as the starting point in designing interfaces (for humanities scholars)?
From a theoretical perspective, the exploration of online browsing environments can be situated wihtin the design of new digital affordances… As Frascara (xvii) points out, such affordances are particularly attractive when they exist in a context of an environment specifically inteneded to support and extend communication: “We need so much to see what surrounds us that the sheer fact of seeing a wide panorama gives us pleasure.” (Ruecker)
Is “pleasure” a goal of humanities research? Is this perhaps where we can situate the previously discussed element of “play” and its role in digital humanities methods (e.g. Sinclair’s Hyperpo, Ramsay’s ‘Algorithmic Criticism’, Manovich’s ‘Cultural Analytics’)?
Readings:
Ruecker, Stan. “Experimental Interfaces Involving Visual Grouping During Browsing.” Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research. 1(1). 2006.
Unsworth, John. “Scholarly Primitives: what methods do humanities researchers have in common, and how might our tools reflect this?” part of a symposium on “Humanities Computing: formal methods, experimental practice” sponsored by King’s College, London. 2000.
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