What is the future of literature? of reading and writing, ink on paper, pixels on screens? The image above is a still from The Hawtplates Visual EP "Make Me Down" (2020), a video that combines song, poetry, dance, typography, and cinematography.
Will we always be tapping out letters to make words on a qwerty keyboard? Will we always use handwriting? Will we desire different ways of telling and receiving stories, poems, and songs? Are we, in fact, going back to the oral tradition of story-telling that existed for millennia before the invention of writing? Or will there always be some basic and primordial need for traditional alphabetic literature that we read to ourselves or others without multimedia technology?
In some ways, history has already answered this question. Movies, television, popular music, video games, and the internet itself are far more popular than books, magazines, and newspapers.
Here are four links to get ready for the new module. The first three have been selected (curated) by me, and the last link is kind of the "open-source" choice for those of you who don't want to write about "video-literature" or vidlit. You can not choose an artist or writer that isn't one of the three selected choices or one that appears on ubuweb.
1) The Hawtplates with DCAD alumni, Breck Omar Brunson, Make Me Down
2) Claudia Rankine and John Lucas, Situations
3) Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, Assorted Videos
4) Ubuweb: This is probably my favorite site on the internet. You could live your whole life and not get to all the content. Some of the pages are slow to load, so be patient.
For your final paper, write a sharp and insightful essay that gives your reasoned and well-argued position on this issue. Is traditional literature dead, dying, hanging on but insignificant? Or is there something truly enduring and irreplaceable about the old ways of accessing literature? The act of reading a book is really different from the act of watching a video or listening to an audio track. Different parts of our brains and imagination are activated. What do you think and why? Engage your ideas directly with the work on one of the links above (Hawtplates, Rankine/Lucas, Trecartin/Fitch, ubu.com. Have fun with this essay. You are an authority on this subject, each of you.
We're back to our two-column, single-spaced format that we used earlier this semester. Remember to put an image in the top left quadrant. You are free to continue your essay on a second page. Go for it. Don't neglect to revise and proofread your essay carefully before uploading it to Populi. I am not requiring a preliminary draft for this essay, because the training wheels are off at this point of the semester. However, if you would like me to look over a draft, you can send it to me as an attachment. You can also set up an appointment with Emma Lena at the DCAD Writers Studio.
Due: No later than noon on Tuesday, December 8
Questions: csmith@dcad.edu
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