i. Why Electronic Scholarship?

Willard McCarthy of The University of London claims that the practice of electronic scholarship in the Humanities is an ‘experimental practice’. [1] However, in accordance with some of the Libertarian excesses of Internet discourse, ‘experimental practice’ could be misunderstood as ‘anything goes’. [2] Experimental practice simply means that the parameters that the researcher works within have to be broader and more flexible to accommodate a dissonance of shifting focuses. This is because it is hard to predict the direction of technological advances; in fact we wish them and benefit from these advances.

 

Experimental practice is perhaps more familiar to a technologist than a humanist and inevitably it means more mistakes, more branching paths of inquiry, and ultimately more extravagant research. However, without experimentation, there is little innovation and if the archive is the ‘bread and butter’ of the Historian, then innovation is the staple of technological advance.

 

Experimentation often requires a much more self-conscious, reflective path as opposed to methodological approaches that have become ‘natural’ and unreflective approaches. Experimentation assumes an outsider’s perspective as outsiders are often forced to reflect upon their positioning within more mainstream academic culture.

 

 

My own motivation for undertaking this particular example of electronic scholarship is directly linked to previous research. In this research I explored concepts of history and hypertext authorship through the ideas of interactivity, non-linearity, and ‘criss-crossed’ narrative structures. [3]

 

However, during this research I did become quite frustrated with the lack of authoritative online history projects to use as case studies. Thus I decided that it would be a fruitful research undertaking to employ some of the materiality of online media and build a project for the Humanities. [4] There is still a serious lack of electronic Humanities projects that push the potentiality of new media tools either conceptually or technically. This contention is discussed in Chapter Two, especially the question of how Milkbar.com.au is positioned within this claim.

 

 

There are countless historical problems that could possibly be addressed through new media tools and we do need to engage with the tools to discover what they can offer. However, it would be unwise to uncritically embrace them for uses that may undermine our craft. It is up to people working within the Humanities to decide through a Humanities-derived process of applied experimentation. There is a finely tuned balance between driving technological processes and advancing the intellectual content which the processes seek to communicate. Electronic scholarship in the Humanities usually leans towards the latter but often at the expense of the former. [5]

 

The tension between technological discourse and the Humanities is a complex one, especially considering that most computer technology is manufactured in a social context that is indifferent to Humanities research. All multidisciplinary endeavours are hard but they are valuable because they foster innovation. This important clarification is discussed in depth in the last reflective chapter of this exegetical-thesis.

 

 

 

Electronic scholarship is a practice of converging mediums that have their own particular political economies and histories of engagement with the world. It is the history of film meets the history of the computer, where the history of the academic codex meets the history of technical education. [6] It is where the history of design meets the history of photography. These practices have their own raison d’etre, all of which come together within the contested space of the computer screen. It is inherently multidisciplinary.

 

In Melbourne, this space is often controlled by the major broadcasters who interpret the use of the medium through the management of nearly all the city’s new media funding bodies. [7] In the Southern states of the US, electronic Humanities is more common, whilst in Sydney it is interface designers. Amsterdam has a history of new media activism whilst in Vienna there is an active streaming audio community. [8] Electronic scholarship is the convergence of the complex histories of media forms and their interests within geographically specific communities.

 

Mediums move knowledge at different speeds and in different forms and ‘book speed’ is perhaps a better vehicle to address particular historical questions where the ‘grand narratives’ and meta-structures move more slowly. In more stable areas of knowledge, such as ancient history, or even core national histories, it makes sense to work within the academic codex. However, in more contemporary histories where there are many more sources to choose from (and within numerous media forms), the potential of new media can be utilised.

 

The post Second World War period is a media-rich time and thus, new media tools can effectively communicate some of the historical traces of this period. Part of this record is the oral record where individuals can be recorded and actually be seen and heard.

 

Milkbar.com.au is an oral history of every-day people and every-day experience within a medium where individual and eclectic voices are championed. It is a local history within a global medium of ‘small pieces loosely joined’. [9] more>>

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Authored by Craig Bellamy© 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

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