19.399 VR scholarly editions

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 399.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: Pat Galloway <galloway_at_ischool.utexas.edu> (50)
         Subject: Re: 19.397 VR scholarly editions?

   [2] From: "Joseph Raben" <joeraben_at_cox.net> (7)
         Subject: Re: 19.397 VR scholarly editions?

   [3] From: Michael Hart <hart_at_pglaf.org> (7)
         Subject: Re: 19.397 VR scholarly editions?

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 07:46:55 +0000
         From: Pat Galloway <galloway_at_ischool.utexas.edu>
         Subject: Re: 19.397 VR scholarly editions?

Terrific idea for a gaming environment, Willard! You don't even need
VR. It's possible to do it now, if you go by the complexity of the
social environments multi-user game authors are now creating--we have
a PhD student who is studying them ethnographically. One participant
could take on the avatar of the implied author, another the implied
reader, another the real author, many others the real readers,
another the editor, another the stylistic analyst, another the
reception analyst.......
Pat Galloway

Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty ) wrote:
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 19, No. 397.
> Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
>
><http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/

>
> www.princeton.edu/humanist/
> Submit to:
> <mailto:humanist_at_princeton.edu>humanist_at_princeton.edu
>
>
>
> Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 07:36:01 +0000
> From: Willard McCarty
> <mailto:willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk><willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
> >
>Let us say that it were possible to construct virtually real,
>immersive environments, such as on the imagined holodeck of the
>starship Enterprise. Let's say that with such a tool, a book
>historian and editor of Victorian fiction were to construct a
>simulation of a typical environment in which, say, a gothic novel
>might have been read -- down to the flickering animal-fat candles,
>their smell, the rattling sashes, gusts of wind etc. Let's say in
>addition that other scholars of the period and genre not only could
>immerse themselves in this VR simulation but that they could also
>play with the parameters of the simulation, e.g. to put our imagined
>editor's instantiated views of the scene to the test.
>
>What would be the scholarly value of such work? Would this
>environment itself qualify in your mind as an "edition", or would it
>be a component of an edition? Is this a path down which you think we
>should go when it becomes possible to do such things?
>
>Yours,
>WM
>
>
>Dr Willard McCarty | Reader in Humanities Computing | Centre for
>Computing in the Humanities | King's College London | Kay House, 7
>Arundel Street | London WC2R 3DX | U.K. | +44 (0)20 7848-2784 fax:
>-2980 || <mailto:willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk
>www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 07:47:19 +0000
         From: "Joseph Raben" <joeraben_at_cox.net>
         Subject: Re: 19.397 VR scholarly editions?

All I can contribute to this discussion is a recollection of
rereading a portion of Pride and Prejudice (preparing for the next
day's class) by candlelight during a power outage. After many years I
still recall that it was somehow a different experience from reading
Austen by electric light or even daylight. How much this contributed
to my scholarly understanding I cannot say, but it was a different experience.

Joe Raben

--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 07:48:16 +0000
         From: Michael Hart <hart_at_pglaf.org>
         Subject: Re: 19.397 VR scholarly editions?

I think it would go down as something like a movie.

If it were done by a museum or a historical society, perhaps then as
a simulation.

I doubt if the term "edition" would be used, other than to say such as:

"This simulation was based on. . . ."

Michael S. Hart
Founder
Project Gutenberg
Received on Fri Nov 04 2005 - 03:00:14 EST