Research into the nature, varieties, and social forms of literacy, past or present, print- or media-based.

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Included in this category of Objects for Study are hardware inventions or devices that bear thinking about for their possible impact on online reading practices. Also included for historical perspective are some hardware innovations of past media revolutions (e.g., vellum, the codex book).

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Interesting objects bearing on digital reading interfaces, especially where text is adapting (and vice versa) to networked and multimedia communication environments. Included are innovations in such fields as human factors inferface research (HFI), text-encoding, text visualization and art, etc.

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Objects of interest bearing on the relation between recent networked reading technologies/practices (e.g., email, blogging, text-messaging, instant-messaging, open tagging or editing, new portable digital devices) and the formation and conduct of social groups. Another way to phrase this topic is “collective reading” in the age of the network.

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Cumulative list of “objects for study” in the Transliteracies Research Clearinghouse, sorted chronologically by date of entry with the most recent first.

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Interesting historical objects that bear on the current exploration of online reading practices, where “objects” refers to the equivalents of hardware, software, protocol, media, design, and usage conventions of the past—with their attendant psychological, social, and cultural implications.

The “history of the book,” “history of print culture,” and history of “oral culture” fields have witnessed vigorous growth in recent years as a historical extension of the contemporary focus on media and technology.

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Research reports focus on high-priority items in “Objects for Study.” Reports are written in a standard format designed both to synopsize the topic and to offer a preliminary evaluation of the opportunities it suggests for Transliteracies’s goal of improving online reading.

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where items with reports are indicated by an icon:

Summary:  World Without Oil was an alternate reality game developed by Ken Eklund and Jane McGonigal, ITVS (Independent Television Service) Interactive and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  Originally played between April 30 and June 1, 2007, World Without Oil was conceived as both an ARG and a “serious game,” in the sense of  the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars 2002 Serious Games Initiative.  The game’s tag line—“Play it before you live it”—emphasized the what-if nature of the game: players were encouraged to explore what would change in their own realities in the event of a massive oil shortage.  Game makers provided rough parameters for the in-game reality (the price of oil, fuel availability) as well as character content (blogs, videos), but the game was aggressively user-driven.  The gamers’ task was to imagine the consequences of a massive oil crisis, communicate about their experience and explore creative strategies for dealing with the attendant difficulties.

Description:  After game designer Jane McGonigal dropped hints about her next project far in advance of its start date, ARG players at Unfiction.com discovered the site www.worldwithoutoil.com.  The website showed the text of a chat between eight “team members,” as well as descriptions of each of them.  Players learned the eight characters’ (known as “Eight To Save Our Country,” or 8TSOC) backstory:  they had met while stranded in a Denver airport during a blizzard, and struck up a friendship.  While at the airport they also encountered a character named Nico, who gave them reason to believe a serious oil shortage would strike the U.S. on April 30th (the game’s start date).

Given access to the characters’ screen names, players soon found their livejournals, blogs, and AIM handles, and began to make contact.  Players who communicated with the characters often found themselves pointed toward real-world, out-of-game articles and websites about energy shortages, survivalism, and oil dependence.  When the game officially started, on April 30th, the worldwithoutoil.com site went live in earnest, with links to character and player blogs, fictional in-game news stories, player-submitted videos and images, and an oil price counter.  It became apparent that the game world would run on an accelerated timeline:  one real-world day would equal a week of in-game time.

Much of the game’s content was player-produced; the website featured links to videos, stories, diary entries and images submitted by players who were countenancing, however virtually, the disruption of an energy crisis.  Players were also encouraged to come up with their own game missions, and the best ideas were awarded points in the form of carbon offsets. Adopted player missions included activities like “ped parties” (social events planned to occur within walkable/bikeable distances from homes), guerilla gardening, local food meals and finding commuting solutions for friends.

According to its own published FAQ, by the game’s end it had more than 1900 players.

Research Context:  Like most ARGs, World Without Oil forges a somewhat de-centralized network of participation, leveraging social networking sites, blogs, chat applications and image and video sharing services in order to connect its geographically diverse players.  Perhaps unlike classic ARGs, however, World Without Oil began with a conspicuously open-ended objective.  Its goal was playful; rather than the solution to a mystery or the accomplishment of a defined task, the object of WWO was to exercise imaginative power.  In contrast to some ARGs’ harnessing of collective intelligence in order to solve puzzles with pre-defined answers, players of WWO generated what the game makers called (in the game’s own FAQ) “the wisdom of crowds”:  a large collection of musings and ideas from which effective solutions could rise.  In WWO, the game was not to find what was hidden, but to imagine the virtual.

Without a concrete goal, and presented with an issue that had no absolute solution, players were free to imagine the proportions of an unmanageable crisis—and free to offer and practice micro-solutions.  The game was undertaken in a spirit of optimism, and while players were encouraged not to discount the sobering enormity of the problem it supposed, attention was focused (via character rhetoric and mission content, for example) on the creation of small strategies.  Game designer Jane McGonigal has written and spoken repeatedly in support of the idea that games and the power of play can be harnessed to address serious problems, and that perspective was clearly in evidence in WWO.  While many games that take on serious subject matter do so in order to heighten awareness of a threat or an injustice, WWO asked its players to investigate practical changes that might be effective during a debilitating oil crisis.  It is perhaps for this intersection—of serious game subject matter and ARG-like strategy—that the game is most notable.

Technical Analysis:  The technologies used by World Without Oil were largely the same as those leveraged by more traditional ARGs—blogging services, Twitter, photosharing services, etc.  Players communicated with each other and with game characters through multiple channels.  The game’s homepage—www.worldwithoutoil.com—served a more central hub than is available in many ARGs; that is, a single site that linked to almost all game content.

Evaluation of Opportunities/Limitations for the Transliteracies Topic:  World Without Oil  is notable for its divergence from traditional ARG structure and style.  Though ARG-like in its convergence of real-world and game-world realities, the game’s “serious game” credentials and lack of conventional puzzle-solving activity mark it as distinct from other ARGs. ARGs in general are player-directed to the extent that, though the general structure of the game is outlined by gamemasters, play itself is performed and made actual by the gamers themselves, and is subject to their own logic or desires; in WWO, there was perhaps even less guidance or expectation on the part of gamemasters, and more latitude given to gamers to construct their own experience(s).  Designer Ken Eklund described it this way:  “In World Without Oil, the players pretty much wrote the story collaboratively. As a result, in WWO there is no abstraction, no external reward, no comfort zone of  ‘Oh good, I found what the gamemasters wanted me to find.’ There is only the person directly inside the ‘what if?’ reality, and the journey is inward.”(1)   Put another way, ARG experience often centers on finding or uncovering points in an already-sketched (though mutable) plot, though the path through the plot-points are undecided.  WWO more closely resembled an improvisation:  players were asked to invest in a set of hypothetical circumstances and act accordingly, urged to create their own plots rather than asked to uncover those intended by the gamemasters.

ARGs conventionally ask for this sort of investiture in the game world, one that recalls Coleridge’s  willing suspension of disbelief (TINAG, an acronym for “this is not a game,” is a common watchword within the genre).  However, in WWO this engagement with the game’s premise required and empowered players to direct the game itself, rather than to do the more traditional work of uncovering a mysterious narrative. While ARG players are always both producers and consumers of game content and game experience, WWO displayed an innovative emphasis on players as cooperative producers and co-designers.  Most ARGs can be said to offer authorship to players primarily in terms of execution and performance, and only secondarily in terms of design.  In WWO, however, gamers were the ones doing the informing, reporting to gamemasters from a fictional present they themselves devised, inventing and giving account of the particulars of life inside an oil crisis.

Finally, in WWO, player action was part of a consideration of a pressing environmental, political and social issue.  “Acting accordingly,” then, provided an opportunity for changes to everyday practice more pointed than those prompted by conventional ARGs.  Part of ARGs’ appeal is their use of objects and practices that exist both in-game and out-of-game—for example, an actual poster for an upcoming movie contains a secret message or a puzzle clue for game players even as it fulfills its function as a piece of “real world” advertising.  In World Without Oil, the practices and objects splitting the in-game/out-of-game boundary were not only related to an issue of tremendous import, but involved the minutiae of everyday lives—highlighting, certainly, the problematics of oil dependence, but also allowing the game access to the intimate area of quotidian praxis.

(1) “The Future of Alternate Reality Games.” WWO Lives.  July 19, 2007.  August 28, 2008

Resources for Further Study:

World Without Oil

WWO lives:  Ken Eklund’s ongoing WWO blog

Jane McGonigal at GDC:  “Reality is Broken” (and how games can fix it)

Summary: The Lost Ring is an alternate reality game developed by Jane McGonigal and San Francisco-based advertising agency AKQA in partnership with the International Olympics Coalition and the McDonald’s Corporation.   Developed both to celebrate and to advertise the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the game is a massively multi-player, multi-national, intensely collaborative adventure in which players engage with a fictional game mythology through puzzle-solving and “real world” experiences. (more…)

Summary:
Between seasons two and three of the television show Lost, ABC launched “The Lost Experience,” an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designed to maintain viewer interest in the show. “The Lost Experience,” like many ARGs, incorporated a variety of media into its implementation. Players were encouraged to watch commercials that aired during the last episodes of season two in order to be notified of relevant websites that would provide clues to the game. In addition to websites, users watched mini-movies, read advertisements, and a tie-in novel. They were also directed towards recordings and podcasts over the course of “The Lost Experience.” While the game itself is a multi-media experience, this report will focus on the textual elements that played a crucial role in the game. (more…)

Between seasons two and three of the television show Lost, ABC launched “The Lost Experience,” an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) designed to maintain viewer interest in the show. “The Lost Experience,” like many ARGs, incorporated a variety of media into its implementation. Players were encouraged to watch commercials that aired during the last episodes of season two in order to be notified of relevant websites that would provide clues to the game. In addition to websites, users watched mini-movies, read advertisements, and a tie-in novel. They were also directed towards recordings and podcasts over the course of “The Lost Experience.”

Starter Links: Interview with creators | Wikipedia article | Lostpedia

Transliteracies Research Report By Renee Hudson

“Three years ago, we set out to design and build an entirely new class of device—a convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers. The result is Amazon Kindle.

We designed Kindle to provide an exceptional reading experience. Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology, reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper—and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen. Kindle is also easy on the fingertips. It never becomes hot and is designed for ambidextrous use so both “lefties” and “righties” can read comfortably at any angle for long periods of time.

We wanted Kindle to be completely mobile and simple to use for everyone, so we made it wireless. No PC and no syncing needed. Using the same 3G network as advanced cell phones, we deliver your content using our own wireless delivery system, Amazon Whispernet. Unlike WiFi, you’ll never need to locate a hotspot. There are no confusing service plans, yearly contracts, or monthly wireless bills—we take care of the hassles so you can just read.

With Whispernet, you can be anywhere, think of a book, and get it in one minute. Similarly, your content automatically comes to you, wherever you are. Newspaper subscriptions are delivered wirelessly each morning. Most magazines arrive before they hit newsstands. Haven’t read the book for tomorrow night’s book club? Get it in a minute. Finished your book in the airport? Download the sequel while you board the plane. Whether you’re in the mood for something serious or hilarious, lighthearted or studious, Kindle delivers your spontaneous reading choices on demand.

And because we know you can’t judge a book by its cover, Kindle lets you download and read the beginning of books for free. This way, you can try it out—if you like it, simply buy and download with 1-Click, right from your Kindle, and continue reading. Want to try a newspaper as well? All newspaper subscriptions start with a risk-free two-week trial.

Kindle’s paperback size and expandable memory let you travel light with your library. With the freedom to download what you want, when you want, we hope you’ll never again find yourself stuck without a great read.” (Amazon.com)

Starter Links: The Kindle on Amazon.com | Wikipedia article on the Kindle

Transliteracies Research Report By Renee Hudson

Summary:
On November 19, 2007, Amazon released their electronic reading device, the Amazon Kindle. Within five and a half hours of its release, the Kindle sold out. In the following months, customers frequently had to wait 5+ weeks before a Kindle was ready for shipment, though at the time of this writing, the Kindle is in stock and ready to go. The Kindle store boasts over 115,000 titles for download, from blogs to books to online newspapers, all of which are ready for download in less than a minute. The Kindle differentiates itself from other electronic readers by offering Internet access free of charge and not requiring additional software in order to use.

Description:
Launched November of 2007, the much anticipated Kindle features E Ink technology and easy online access to the Kindle Store where users can purchase books and subscribe to magazines, newspapers, and blogs for a fee. Because these texts are downloaded to the Kindle, they can easily be accessed offline. Moreover, Amazon keeps a copy of all purchases on each user’s Amazon account in addition to the copy on the Kindle. The Kindle is equipped with a headphone jack and allows users to download both audiobooks (though this must be done as a download to a computer then to the Kindle via USB cable) and MP3s. For another small fee, users can wirelessly send documents to their Kindle email address. The Kindle currently supports unprotected Microsoft Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI files. Though the PDF format is not fully supported at the time of this writing, the Kindle team is working on it. Alternatively, documents can be downloaded from a computer onto the Kindle using a USB connection.

Users navigate books using buttons on either side of the Kindle to move to the next page or back to the previous page. The select wheel on the right hand side allows users to scroll up or down the cursor bar. For instance, should a user wish to highlight a selection of text s/he would use the select wheel to move to the line of text to be highlighted, then click the select wheel to mark that line. A box will open from which the user can either close, lookup a word using the dictionary that comes with the Kindle, add a highlight, or add a note. Selecting “add highlight” will mark the beginning line of the section to be highlighted. Another click to the appropriate line will complete the highlighted section. A qwerty keypad enables users to type in searches for texts in the Kindle store as well as specific phrases within texts already downloaded. For a given text, a user can easily look up all highlights and notes s/he has made to the text by choosing “my notes and marks” from the menu.

Pages within the Kindle are not numbered probably due to the fact that text size can be adjusted along a range of six different sizes. Because the screen is smaller than most book pages and text size varies according to one’s personal settings, users will often turn pages more quickly than in a typical book. However, after prolonged use with the Kindle, this aspect becomes rapidly unnoticeable. Additionally, the small size of the Kindle makes it less cumbersome to read over a long period of time than a typical book.

Navigating to a particular page (say in class or in a book club) can be challenging because of the lack of pagination. However, the Kindle makes navigation easier by allowing multiple bookmarks. A user can go to the menu and select “go to bookmark” to select from all their bookmarks. A handy trick for anyone using this in a classroom or professional setting would be to bookmark each chapter to allow for quicker navigation. Alternatively, a user can simply search for the phrase that begins the selection they are looking for. However, it should be noted that the delay between typing a letter on the keypad and it appearing on screen is longer than what one usually encounters with a keyboard.

Users can access the Internet to check email and search websites from their Kindle. Using the Kindle for such usage can be difficult because the interface does not appear to fully support web pages; consequently, pages are cluttered and difficult to navigate.

Research Context:
Because the Kindle is the latest manifestation of electronic readers, it is an object of interest for anyone interested in the development of reading interfaces, particularly as they stem from the printed page. With the goal of improving on printed books, the Kindle team at Amazon have created a number of features that reflect functionalities important to users / readers. Readers can highlight, search, add comments, and store documents on the device; all of these actions illustrate the way readers interface with texts while also demonstrating how this device streamlines the process.

Technical Analysis:
Like the Sony Reader, the Kindle uses E Ink technology in order to replicate the appearance of paper while eliminating the eye strain that other electronic displays cause. Electronic paper can be read from a variety of angles and in different lighting without the user suffering from glare or backlighting. Additionally, the technology allows for a display that minimizes power usage as power is only used to change pages, not maintain them.

The Kindle also utilizes Amazon Whispernet, which employs Sprint’s EVDO data network (the same technology used in cellular phones), to allow for wireless access to the Kindle Store. Unlike WiFi, users do not have to rely on hotspots in order to connect to the Internet. Moreover, the wireless service is free. Within seconds, they are online and able to download content from the Kindle Store.

The Kindle weighs in at a mere 10.3 ounces, features a six inch electronic paper display, and is 7.5” x 5.3” x 0.7.” Its resolution is 600×800 pixels at 167 ppi, with a 4-level gray scale.

The battery life depends on usage. Amazon estimates that users can expect to recharge (which takes no more than two hours) every other day if the wireless is left on, and about once a week if the wireless is kept off. Strangely, if the Kindle has not been used in a while, it needs to be recharged again before it will turn on.

The Kindle can store over 200 books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs. It has an SD memory card slot, which would allow users to store even more material.

There are not any system requirements as the Kindle does not need to sync to a computer, though users can use the USB cable that comes with it to hook up to their computers, similar to a flash drive.

Evaluation of Opportunities/Limitations for the Transliteracies Topic:
As the latest manifestation of the attempt to create an electronic device for reading, the Amazon Kindle is part of a lineage of electronic readers that seek to improve upon the technology of a typical book. Like electronic readers before it, rather than re-imagining the book, it attempts to improve on the model of the book by building on electronic capabilities. In terms of the success of the Kindle (aside from Amazon’s sales figures), and other readers like it, it is interesting to note that they have yet to catch up to the ubiquity of the book.

Fundamentally, the Kindle seeks to replicate the experience of reading a book, which does little to change the actual interface of the device. Amazon sought to make the Kindle “as easy to read as your favorite book,” a statement that testifies to the relatively small differences between the screen of the Kindle and the page of the book. Despite this similarity, by virtue of its being an electronic device, the Kindle allows users capabilities and conveniences that books are not able to provide. One such convenience is the Kindle’s ability to hold several texts on one device, making it ideal for traveling or any situation that requires one to save space by taking a limited amount of reading material. The Kindle is an excellent research tool since it allows for functions that are absent from books. The main example of this is the search capability. A user seeking to compare the use of a particular word between two texts, for example, can do so much faster than if s/he were to do it by going through each book individually.

The Video Demonstration for the Kindle claims to change how one reads. While this is not evident from certain functionalities like highlighting and adding notes (all actions that readers often do), it is true in terms of other functionalities like clipping and searching the text. Moreover, the Kindle changes when and where one reads. For instance, for readers like college students who often read with a pen in hand, reading on the road is often difficult if one attempts to underline and make notes. The Kindle streamlines this process, allowing users to read and annotate in a variety of settings. The Kindle holds the user’s place in each reading item automatically, making finding one’s place a needless concern. This functionality, combined with the ability to dog-ear pages or even highlight where one left off makes it even easier to get “into” the book since users do not have to waste time searching for where they left off.

Simply because the Kindle team insists on having tools like highlighting, clipping, etc., they necessarily change the reader’s relationship to the text. While a person picking up a book may choose to read the book and leave it at that, the Kindle user, aware of the tools, knows that reading the book straight through is a possibility, but one among many other options. The Kindle user is encouraged to look up words, search for phrases; in other words s/he is expected to go beyond the basic practice of reading.

Resources for Further Study:

• Amazon Kindle
  

Summary:

CommentPress was developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book as part of their ongoing experiments with “networked books”. First instituted in 2006 as part of McKenzie Wark’s GAM3R 7H3ORY 1.1 publication, the software was developed to work with WordPress and intended to reconfigure the nature of blog discussions. CommentPress allows respondents to post comments in the margin of the text, on a paragraph-by-paragraph or “whole page” basis. This breaks down the top-down hieararchy typical of blogs whereby a main post is positioned vertically above any commentary. Instead a reader may view the text and commentary at the same time.

Version 1.0 of CommentPress was released to the general public in July 2007 and the software has been used to generate discussion around Master’s Theses, scholarly articles, and books. (more…)

Google Notebook is an annotation tool that allows users to clip excerpts of text or image from the web, comment upon them, tag them, and organize them into notebooks. Notebooks can be shared with other users or published as public web pages. The user may also use the notebook to type in their own notes.

Text in notebooks can be formatted using a rich-text editor, allowing the easy addition of links, formatting, etc. Notes can be re-organized via drag-and-drop and can be sorted according to tags. Browser extensions for Internet Explorer and Firefox allow access to notebooks from a corner of the browser window and allow the user to add content to a notebook with just a right mouse-click.

Starter Links: Google Notebook Tour | Announcement on Google Blog

Developed by the Institute for the Future of the Book, CommentPress “is an open source theme for the WordPress blogging engine that allows readers to comment paragraph by paragraph in the margins of a text. Annotate, gloss, workshop, debate: with CommentPress you can do all of these things on a finer-grained level, turning a document into a conversation. It can be applied to a fixed document (paper/essay/book etc.) or to a running blog.” (CommentPress home page)

Starter Links: CommentPress home page | Institute for the Future of the Book | Examples of CommentPress in action

Transliteracies Research Report By Kim Knight

“The web is more interesting when you can build apps that easily interact with your friends and colleagues. But with the trend towards more social applications also comes a growing list of site-specific APIs that developers must learn.

OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.

Common APIs mean you have less to learn to build for multiple websites. OpenSocial is currently being developed by Google in conjunction with members of the web community. The ultimate goal is for any social website to be able to implement the APIs and host 3rd party social applications. There are many websites implementing OpenSocial, including Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING.” (OpenSocial home page)

Starter Links: Video of highlights from the OpenSocial rollout event: Google Campfire One | OpenSocial home page | OpenSocial Getting Started Guide | Sample applications developed with the OpenSocial APIs

The KNFB Classic Reader was developed by Ray Kurzweil in association with the National Federation of the Blind and Envision Technology. About the size of a PDA, the reader uses a camera to take pictures of text and and using text-to-speech technology, reads the content aloud. The user can store information for future reference and transfer the information to a computer.

The company also offers a mobile reader for the Nokia N82 phone. In addition to the reader functions, users can access the phone and PDA functions of the device.

Starter Links: KNFB Announcement on Envision’s web site | A Washington Business Journal article detailing plans to release a cell-phone based reader | KNFB Reading Technology Inc. home page | Classic Reader page on KNFB web site | Mobile Reader on KNFB web site

Partially annotated bibliography of the Transliteracies History of Reading research group. This bibliography was created by research assistants in the History of Reading working group, and will be expanded as the Transliteracies project continues. See also the Online Literacy Skills Bibliography and the Social Computing Bibliography. Objects for Study in the project’s Research Clearinghouse contains annotated citations of a wider range of related materials (including web, hardware, software, historical, and artistic resources as well as selected items from this bibliography).

History of Reading Annotated Bibliography

Knol is a new publishing platform in testing by Google. Compared to Wikipedia, Knol differs in one crucial aspect: authorial transparency. “Knols,” or pages, are created by one author who then has editorial control over the article. Other users may submit revisions to the author, but they may not edit the page on their own. Knol will include multiple pages on the same topic and will allow users to rate and comment upon individual “knols.” As of this writing, Knol is in a preliminary testing phase and there is no projected public release date.

Starter Links: Google Blog announcing Knol | C|Net Article |

History Flow is a tool created by Fernanda Viegas and Martin Wattenburg as part of the IBM Collaborative User Experience Research Group. Viegas’ and Wattenburg’s creation visualizes “dynamic, evolving documents and the interactions of multiple collaborating authors. In its current implementation, history flow is being used to visualize the evolutionary history of wiki* pages on Wikipedia” (history flow home page). The tool works by color coding edits according to the user who makes the changes. The result is a richly detailed visual overview of the life of a page. History Flow’s outputs allow visual analysis of issues critical to the credibility of Wikipedia, such as collaboration, vandalism, edit wars, etc.

Starter Links: History Flow home page | IBM Collaborative User Experience home page | Wikipedia

Summary:
A self-inscribing wall, El Muro is an installation piece designed by Willy Sengewald and Richard The in 2004 as part of the “Sensitive Skin” project at the Berlin University of the Arts Digital Media course. The large monolith of El Muro stands alone in a darkened room, and produces graffiti on its surface that appears to write itself. The project calls for the dividing lines of urban and architectural space to be read – and re-read – as built expressions of political reality and as communications media. The walls to which El Muro refers not only include the borders of Berlin, Israel-Palestine, and US-Mexico, but also the anonymous urban walls that become advertising and graffiti canvases, as well as the wall as an abstract architectural element. In each case, the support structures of the built world become self-reflexive reading interfaces. (more…)

Summary:
Moving Canvas, a combination of technologies and installations designed by Frédéric Eyl, Gunnar Green, and Richard The, involves the placement of an LED projection device (“Parasite”) on the side of a commuter subway train. The device is enclosed in a suitcase equipped with suction cups, and its projection aligned with the subway walls. The ensuing display projects words and images on the tunnel walls, viewable through the train windows. Cinematic time and commuter time combine radically as bodies and messages literally communicate through the subway tunnels.

The project was developed in 2005 as part of a digital media class at the Berlin University of the Arts, and exhibited with the university’s “Here/There” project. Moving Canvas takes another look at the problem of here and there by asking what lies between. (more…)

Suggested scholarly books and articles related to research into online reading. This bibliography was created by Monica Bulger, and will be expanded as the Transliteracies project continues. See also the History of Reading group’s bibliography and the Social Computing group’s bibliography. Objects for Study in the project’s Research Clearinghouse contains annotated citations of a wider range of related materials (including web, hardware, software, historical, and artistic resources as well as selected items from this bibliography).

A master list of this bibliography, alphabetized by author, is also a