Using this Schedule
Accessing Readings
All our readings will be available online or through a digital course packet in Leganto, which can be found through Canvas’ left-hand navigation. If there’s not a link directly to a text in the schedule below, check Leganto.
Weekly Structure
Though we will mostly meet virtually in Fall 2020, I still consider this a studio course, and most weeks—with marked exceptions—will include class discussions; virtual “book labs” exploring book technologies; and open-format studio sessions. Depending on whether you are on-campus or remote, you might decide to host your studio sessions virtually or in person; if you choose the latter, your group must follow all COVID safety precautions.
With a few marked exceptions, our schedule each week will follow these formats:
Early Semester
- Wednesdays: discussion of readings, which must be prepared—and discussion prep submitted—in advance of the session
- Fridays: applied book labs in a particular textual technology, sometimes synchronous—and very occasionally in-person, if public health allows—and sometimes asynchronous
Mid- to Late-Semester
- Wednesdays: discussion of readings, which must be prepared—and discussion prep submitted—in advance of the session
- Various days: documented meetings of studio groups, for at least 90 minutes each week, to support final project development
- Biweekly: brief check-ins with the professor, either during scheduled student hours or another arranged time
A Key to the Schedule
Following each day on the schedule are two letters in parentheses, which indicate our primary modalities for that day. The first letter indicates the class’ location, physical or virtual; the second indicates its temporal dimensions. As you likely know by now, by default NUFlex courses are expected to be synchronous and allow students to join in-person or remotely, but there will be some variation in this course. Here’s a full rundown:
- R = Remote. I will join the class remotely, likely through Zoom, or we will complete an activity remotely. If you are on campus, you should be able to join these classes from our NUFlex-enabled classroom, though to be directly, the kinds of discussions I hope to foster are likely easier to facilitate through Zoom than if some of your are online and some of you are spread out across a large classroom. The technology in NUFlex classrooms primarily supports lecture rather than discussion, and this course will include virtually no lecture. In other words, you should feel free to join classes designed “R” from wherever is most convenient to you.
- I = In-person. If public health allows, students will have the option to meet in-person to complete an activity on campus. We will reserve these moments for high-impact course activities and we must be prepared to shift online if public health guidance changes.
- I/R = In-person/Remote. Technically all in-person activities could be designated I/R, as students always have the option to join remotely under NUFlex. However, the I/R designation will appear on studio sessions, as each studio group can choose to meet together on campus—while following safety guidelines—or to meet remotely.
- S = Synchronous. We will meet together during our regularly-scheduled course time.
- A = Asynchronous. We will not meet during our course time, but instead will complete an activity or brief assignment, posted on Canvas, within a particular window of time.
- S/A = Synchronous/Asynchronous. This hybrid designation means I will walk through the day’s activity live, at our usual scheduled course time, but am happy for you to either join me live or watch the recording and complete the activity within the designated window (for our book labs, typically 1 week).
So, by way of example, the designation R,S would mean, remote synchronous, in which case you would expect to meet at the same time as your classmates in a virtual platform, such as zoom. I,A would mean in-person asynchronous, in which case you would expect to be scheduled to participate in an on-campus activity, such as in the letterpress studio, individually or in small groups.
Schedule
Week 1 ❧ Introductions
Wednesday, September 9 (R,S)
Prep:
- Ken Liu, “The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species” (2012)
- Browse Kit Davey’s Instagram
Friday, September 11 (R,S)
Guest Lecturer: Molly Brown, Reference and Outreach Archivist, Northeastern University Libraries
Book Lab 1: Virtual visit, Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections
Week 2 ❧ What Is a Book?
Wednesday, September 16 (R,S)
Prep:
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Content” and “The Book as Object” from The Book (2018)
- (Watch) Allie Alvis, “Volvelles: Movable Book Machines!” (2020)
Thursday, September 17: Course Grading Contracts DUE
Friday, September 18 (R,A)
Book Lab 2: Preparing to Print
Week 3 ❧ Print
Wednesday, September 23 (R,S)
Prep:
- (Watch) Stephen Fry, The Machine That Made Us (2008)
- Note: This video is about 1 hour long; plan accordingly!
- Ellen Lupton, “Letter” and “Text” from Thinking With Type (2010)
- Lindsay Lynch, “How I Came to Love the En Space” (2016)
- (watch) Allie Alvis, “Myth Busting Metal Type” (2020)
Friday, September 25 (I,A)
Book Lab 3: tiny-group activity at Huskiana Letterpress Studio. Use the first sheet on the sign-up sheet here to claim a spot for 9/25. Please note:
- You must complete Book Lab 2, “Preparing to Print,” prior to arriving for your appointment in order to minimize close contact while you are in studio.
- You must wear a mask to the studio.
- Sanitizer will be provided at the entrance, as will gloves, which must be worn throughout the workshop.
Week 4 ❧ Zines
Guest Lecturers: Giordana Mecagni, Head of Archives and Special Collections, and Molly Brown, Reference and Outreach Archivist, Northeastern University Libraries
Wednesday, September 30 (R,S)
Prep:
- Pagan Kennedy, “Prologue,” “Back to Pagan,” “Pagan’s Discovered to be Seventh Partridge,” and “Epilogue” from ‘Zine (1995)
- Zine Librarians Code of Ethics (2015)
- Jenna Wortham, “Why the Internet Didn’t Kill Zines” (2017)
Friday, October 2 (I,S)
Book Lab 4: Making zines. Make sure to order your zine kit well in advance! Use the second sheet on the sign-up sheet here to claim a spot for 10/2.
Week 5 ❧ E-lit
Wednesday, October 7 (R,S)
Prep:
- read about “Agrippa” (1992) at “The Agrippa Files”
- Jon Bois, “What Football Will Look Like in the Future” (2017)
- Note: This story is a longer read—a novelette, probably—but worth the time. Plan accordingly
Friday, October 9 (R,S/A)
Book Lab 5: Twine
Week 6 ❧ Book Alterities
Wednesday, October 14 (R,S)
Prep:
- Christian Bök, “The Xenotext Works (2011) & Joshua Schuster, “On Reading Christian Bök’s ‘The Xenotext: Book 1’ Ten Thousand Years Later” (2016)
- Lisa Vollrath, “A Crash Course On Altered Books” (2015)
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Idea” from The Book (2018)
- (browse) Sarah Matthews, I Am Sarah Matthews. Artist.
Friday, October 16 (R,S)
Book lab 6: Artists’ books
Monday, October 19 Book, Proposals DUE
Week 7 ❧ Binding
Wednesday, October 21 (R,S)
Prep:
- Charles W. Chesnutt, “Baxter’s Procustes” (1904)
- Merve Emre, “This Library Has New Books by Major Authors, but They Can’t Be Read Until 2114” (2018)
- Élika Ortega, “The Many Books of the Future: Print-digital Literatures” (2020)
- (Watch) Allie Alvis, “The Cutest Books! Miniature Books” and “Book Secrets! Fore-Edge Paintings”
Friday, October 23 (I,S)
Book Lab 7: Pamphlet-stitch binding. Make sure you’ve ordered your book-binding supplies ahead of time so you can bring them to the session. Use the third sheet on the sign-up sheet here to claim a spot for 10/23. Please note:
Week 8 ❧ End Papers
Wednesday, October 28 (R,S)
Prep:
- Octave Uzanne, “The End of Books” (1894)
- Craig Mod, “Future Reading” (2015)
- Beth Driscoll and Claire Squires, “‘Oh Look, a Ferry’; or the Smell of Printed Books” (2018)
- Matthew Kirschenbaum, “Bibliologistics: The Nature of Books Now, or A Memorable Fancy” (2020)
Friday, October 30 (I/R,A)
Studio groups
Week 9 ❧ Future Books
Wednesday, November 4 (R,S)
Prep:
- Amaranth Borsuk, “The Book as Interface” from The Book (2018)
- Browse the Electronic Literature Collection Volume 2 and Volume 3 and choose one work you would like to share with the class.
- Leonardo Flores, “Third Generation Electronic Literature” (2019)
Friday, November 6 (I/R,A)
Studio groups
Week 10 ❧ Studio
Wednesday, November 11
No class: Veterans’ Day
Thursday, November 12, Prototype DUE
Friday, November 13 (I/R,A)
Studio groups
Week 11 ❧ Fabrication
Wednesday, November 18 (R,S)
Prep:
- Kendra Pierre-Louis, “3D printing is tackling what may be its biggest challenge yet: the humble book” (2017)
- Gabby Resch, Dan Southwick, Isaac Record, and Matt Ratto, “Thinking as Handwork: Critical Making with Humanistic Concerns” (2017)
- Browse the following project snapshots from Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (2017):
- Helen J. Burgess, “MashBOT”
- Garnet Hertz, “Made: Technology on Affluent Leisure Time”
- Allison Burtch and Eric Rosenthal, “Mic Jammer”
- Nina Belojevic, “Glitch Console”
- Aaron Tucker, Jordan Scott, Tiffany Cheung, and Namir Ahmed, “Loss Sets”
- Anne Balsamo, Dale MacDonald, and Jon Winet, “AIDS Quilt Touch: Virtual Quilt Browser”
- Wendy Hsu, Steven Kemper, Josef Cameron Taylor, Linda Wei, and Jacob Alden Sargent, “Moveable Party”
- Kim A. Brillante Knight, “Fashioning Circuits, 2011–Present”
- Carl Disalvo, Tom Jenkins, Jong Won (Karl) Kim, Catherine Meschia, and Craig Durkin, “Designs for Foraging: Fruit Are Heavy, 2015–16”
Friday, November 20 (I/R,A)
Studio groups
Week 12 ❧ THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 13+ ❧ Final project presentations
Wednesday, December 2 (I/R,A)
Studio groups
Friday, December 4 (I,S)
Final book presentations, group 1
Wednesday, December 9 (I,S)
Final book presentations, group 2