Past Projects in the Humanities
Digital Stereography in the Classroom (2007)
Roger Ulrich, Classics
Support from the Venture Fund is requested to introduce stereographic images (also known as "virtual 3D") of ancient Greece and Rome into the classroom to enhance my courses in archaeology and ancient technology (CLST 24-26; CLST 11). Every course I teach at Dartmouth employs projected images. The introduction of 3D imagery adds a dynamic new element to the classroom, and for certain kinds of images offers a perspective that has previously been possible only by on-site visits. Stereographic imagery is the best way to replicate normal binocular vision and to restore the "space" to architecture and the volume to solid three-dimensional objects. It is this very concept of space -- of buildings as spatial envelopes and how these voids are populated with inanimate objects and human beings -- that is so elusive and difficult to convey in the classroom. I would like to create some images and projection technology that I can use in my History of Ancient Technology course (CLST 11: W08), and then regularly in classes from then on (first in S08 Late Roman Archaeology, CLST 26).
Capturing Rome (2004)
Adrian Randolph, Art History
This proposal aims to furnish students participating in the 2005 Art History Foreign Study Program with the opportunity to study Roman art and architecture in a manner that heightens their visual awareness of the objects they examine, while simultaneously prompting them to reflect critically on the manner in which they present the results of their examinations. Digital video as a medium can help me achieve these pedagogic goals.
Working in groups, students will produce short videos addressing major monuments and/or themes. Their projects will require that they pursue supervised research on the subject at hand, plan out their campaign of 'filming' in concert with the development of a voice-over, and then edit their work into a short video for presentation to the entire class. This form of directed research matches the study of visual culture with a medium that emphasizes visual attentiveness. For in planning out their camera angles and sequences, and in contending with the vagaries of weather and light, students confront fundamental issues at stake in all interpretation of visual materials. Demanding that students spend time on-site, grappling with the physical circumstances and context of the object they are examining, they are compelled to ponder the contingent and diachronic nature of spectatorship. What is more, in grafting their own explanatory texts onto a visual stream, students are made acutely aware of the dynamic relation between word and image.
Russian Linguo-Chat (2004)
Mikhail Gronas, Russian
Students of "less commonly taught" languages (such as Russian, Arabic, Asian Languages) have fewer opportunities to practice outside the classroom than their peers in more popular languages. The main idea behind Russian Linguo-Chat is to address this problem by introducing a new venue for language practice both within Dartmouth and among those who study Russian at other universities. Russian Linguo-Chat will enable students of various levels of Russian to communicate with each other outside the classroom, to connect with their peers on the same proficiency level at other participating colleges, and, finally, to practice with native-speakers. This project proposes to use a new type of language exercise: a chat-room assignment. Periodically, students will be asked to engage in a chat-room conversation in 2 a controlled environment with one of their own (or with a parallel student at another school, or with a "guest" native speaker), and then to submit the log of the chat session to the instructor.
Islamic Videos (2003)
Kevin Reinhart, Religion
With the advent of technology, both the process and the products of undergraduate scholarship are changing.
Students have vivid images Middle East and Islamdom, most derived from television, some from movies. Many of the most significant moments in Islamic history have happened in the full glare of the newsreel and the television camera - the Iranian revolution, the 1967 war, rise of Gamal Abdul Nasser, the Turkish War of Independence, the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X.
To balance students' limited recollections, we have begun collecting video clips that illustrate Modern Islam's recent past. The idea is to give Modern Islam a history, so that it is not just Bin Ladin, but also Ataturk, and Hasan al-Banna who is vivid in students' minds, not just the World Trade Center attacks, but also the First World War in the Middle East and the end of the Ottoman Empire. The archives of British Pathé, and the Lumiere Brothers have recently become available and images from these will be selected first for in-class presentations, and then later on a web site so that students may refer to them after lecture.
Mapping Music (2003)
Steven Swayne, Music
While music is fundamentally an aural art, much of the sound and history of any particular piece is inextricably linked to the time and place of the piece's creation. One can distinguish various pieces of classical music by recalling the features of a map and remembering the music associated with various places on a map. What Swayne hoped to explore in this Venture Fund project is how to link the sounds of music more closely to the locales of its production. He wanted his students to be able to look at a map of the world and instantly think of the sounds associated with the places they see. Call it a musicalized map.
His project began rather simply, as students created websites about musicians, technologies, histories and philosophies that interested them. In these websites, students made links to visual and audio files that help illustrate their chosen topic. In addition, students were encouraged to "locate" their topic, that is, their website would take into account that their musician lived somewhere (or several somewheres), their technology was developed somewhere, and so forth. Parallel to the development of these student websites was the development of interactive maps that direct a user to this information about music. For example, a user who clicks on Paris would find text and audiovisuals about the composers who were active in Paris at various times. Indeed, the maps are designed to be time-sensitive; borders and music information change based on the century (or decade) chosen.
Given that the history of music covers a great span of time and that the world is a big place, Swayne has limited his attention to nineteenth-century Europe. There is the desire, however, to encompass more locales and more history over time, with the concept of the musicalized map being one more gateway for students to master the history of music.
Music 33: 18th and 19th Century Western Art Music
Student Center for Research, Writing, and Information Technology (RWIT) (2003)
Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition and Chair of English 2-3
With the advent of technology, both the process and the products of undergraduate scholarship are changing.
Our students are now faced, while composing, with a plethora of research challenges, and so need to develop information literacy skills that enable them to identify their information needs; to locate information sources; to assess the credibility of information; and to use information for their own academic interests and purposes.
Furthermore, student scholarship is no longer limited to composing "papers." Increasingly, faculty have been asking students to produce multi-media scholarship that incorporates images, audio, and video, or that uses advanced applications in the sciences.
Because the scholarly challenges put to our students have become increasingly demanding and complex, our students require a more ambitious and comprehensive student support service. Accordingly, the Composition Center, the Library, and Academic Computing have collaborated to create RWIT: the Student Center for Research, Writing, and Information Technology. RWIT is a centralized service that integrates writing, research, and IT tutoring to produce a complete and systematic support effort for Dartmouth students. Such a service is the first of its kind, thereby establishing Dartmouth as a leader in what is sure to be a trend in multi-media composition and integrated student support services.
Student Center for Research, Writing, and Information Technology (RWIT)
Japanese Prints (2002)
Allen Hockley, Art History; Mayumi Ishida, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures
The Hood Museum of Art possesses a collection of Japanese prints, which Hockley uses on a regular basis in courses he teaches every academic year. The Hood makes every effort to accommodate classes for viewing and study sessions, but access is limited in several ways. Hockley and Ishida would like to produce a website that would circumvent the limitations of the study-storage facility and thereby increase student access to the Hood Museum's print collection. The website will be designed to meet specific pedagogical needs. In particular, its interactive and self-study components will offer students learning experiences that are impossible to replicate in the classroom.
The website will have four components, each of which will feature material and activities that will enhance users understanding of various aspects of the Japanese print tradition. The components include: (1) Print production, to acquaint the students with the process of Japanese woodblock print; (2) The Tokaido Highway, offering students a way to 'navigate' the highway and examine the ways print artists conceptualized its famous places and spectacular views; (3) materials to assist the study of the Kabuki version of Chushingura: The Tale of The Forty-Seven Ronin; (4) annotated versions of illustrations of the interior of a kabuki theater.
Courses in which this material will be used include: Art History 16: Special Topics in Art History or the senior seminar Art History 83; Art History 60: The Arts of Japan; Art History 3: Monuments of Asian Art; intermediate Japanese language courses (31-32-33 sequence or the 41-42-43 sequence).
Japanese Prints at the Hood Museum of Art
Representations of Latinos in the Media and the Arts: An on-line multimedia resource and discussion forum for LATS 41 (2002)
Doug Moody, Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies
The design of this project consists of an interdisciplinary approach to a social science program (LALACS), and presents collaborative opportunities between the humanities and social science divisions at the college. LATS 41, "Representations of Latinos in the Media and the Arts," focuses on three electronic media -- radio, film/video and the internet -- and several art forms associated with the Orozco Project and exhibition, which will occur in the spring term of 2002 -- mural art, performance art and museum installations. Another objective of the project is to investigate the viability of synchronous internet-mediated communication for courses (MOOs), wherein students communicate with experts and professionals, who are involved in these art forms and media, and yet who are located at remote sites. Ultimately, the students will co-produce digital video archives and ethnographic webpages, which showcase their final projects for LATS 41.
Jewish Sound Archive (2002)
Lewis Glinert, Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures
As Jewish and Hebrew studies and the study of music develop at Dartmouth, Jewish musical and spoken voice recordings must figure prominently in the curriculum. For example, the Hasidic melody was at the heart of Hasidism and its profound influence as a modern Jewish revivalist movement. In addition, Israeli folk music has played a central role in the creation of the new Israeli identity, and Yiddish and English Jewish humor are a core element in American Jewish identity.
The goal of the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive is to provide students and scholars, both within the College and outside, with (1) Web-based access to recordings that are not commercially available; (2) related information that can aid in the study of Jewish music and culture, Jewish society, and the history of Jewish recording. The archive will span some 70 years of recording, with the oldest records dating from around 1910-1920 and the most recent material coming from LP's issued in the 1970's.
The Sound Archive will be a major element numerous courses and in the regular Hebrew language program: (a) HEBREW 10 'Intro to Hebrew Culture'; (b) AMEL 7 'Jerusalem: Vision and Reality'; (c) HEBREW 61/JEWISH STUDIES 40: 'Intro to Israeli Culture: Literature, Music, Film'; (d) HEBREW 1, 2, 3, 21, 31.
In addition, the Sound Archive will make it possible to include Jewish music/spoken voice as a major element in the Jewish Studies and music curriculum, and possibly in history and anthropology courses: (a) JEWISH STUDIES 11 'History and Culture of the Jews'; (b) HISTORY 58/JEWISH STUDIES 37 'Representing the Holocaust'; (c) MUSIC 4 'Music of non-Western peoples'; (d) MUSIC 41 'Music, ceremony, ritual and sacred chant'; (e) JEWISH STUDIES 15 'Jews and Hollywood'.
Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive
Computer-aided Instruction in Design and Seminar Courses (2001)
Marlene Heck, Art History; Karol Kawiaka, Studio Art
The Studio Art and Art History departments (where the College's architecture courses are taught) are searching for appropriate ways to introduce computer-aided instruction to their course offerings. Architectural instruction -- both in design studios and the history and theory of building design and use -- is an obvious place for both departments to begin. We propose a joint project between the Studio Art Department and the Art History Department to introduce computer-aided instruction to course offerings in both departments. Specifically, with the support of Academic Computing, Karol Kawiaka will incorporate computer modeling into her Winter Term 2001 architectural design studio, Studio Art 65. In the Spring Term 2001, Marlene Heck will offer a freshman seminar, Art History 7, on museum history and design that will use computer models to study the physical and ritual spaces of museums and how they communicate social identities and cultural values.
Writing in Images: Crafting the Short Film (2001)
Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition and Chair of English 2-3
This past year, I had the opportunity to write a screenplay with a young director and Dartmouth graduate, Serguei Bassine '94. Together we produced his short film, Because of Mama (18 minutes). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and continues to be accepted into festivals worldwide. Working in the film medium taught me many things about writing. Especially interesting were the lessons I learned concerning editing and revision. So powerful were these lessons that it occurred to me that perhaps I could use my experiences in the film-making process to teach the writing process in new ways.
I began to envision a Web site that would serve not only my own writing classes, but that would offer useful exercises to students taking courses in screen writing and film production. In talking with members of the film department, I have discovered a common enthusiasm for the possibilities of such a site. Students can be given opportunities to edit and revise a "real" screenplay and "real" film footage. The final product would also be available to students via video streaming. Along with the film are the actual publicity materials--graphic and written text--that we produced for Sundance. All of these materials together present interesting writing challenges (both creative and critical) and are very instructive for students interested in producing and later marketing their work.
Because of Mama: Creating a Short Film
Kanji Practice (2001)
Mayumi Ishida, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures
The Japanese language utilizes three writing systems. Two are phonetic alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, and a third known as Kanji. Dartmouth students are introduced to all three writing systems in the introductory language sequence (Japanese 1, 2, and 3). Students are required to learn to read and write both phonetic alphabets and 375 Kanji by the end of Japanese 3. In general, they master the phonetic alphabets quickly - usually by the sixth week of Japanese 1. Kanji, on the other hand, are more complicated and, therefore, more difficult to acquire. Introducing Kanji is the responsibility of the drill instructors. The students are required to practice them on their own. Typically, students make flash cards. This method helps them recognize Kanji, but it is not an efficient way to learn to write them. It is also important for students to learn how to pronounce Kanji.
The purpose of this project is to provide students with a better tool with which they can learn to read, write and pronounce Kanji more efficiently and effectively. "Kanji Practice" will be a web-based Kanji character practice tool designed to meet the needs of Dartmouth's introductory language sequence. "Kanji Practice" will contain QuickTime movies which show stroke orders of Kanji. By viewing the movies several times, students will learn how many strokes the Kanji has and how it is written. This will also help them remember the kanji for reading purposes. Audio accompaniment will help students master the two pronunciations used for each Kanji.
Digital Linguistics Analysis (2001)
Ioana Chitoran and Lindsay Whaley, Program in Linguistics and Cognitive Science
Any student of linguistics can attest to the gulf that separates an understanding of linguistic theory and the ability to undertake one's own analysis of language data. For this reason, the stronger linguistics programs around the world include significant hands on experience in carrying out linguistic analysis for their students.
To date, most of these opportunities have come in the form of doing problem sets in various classes. While these exercises are valuable, they are impractical to create for some sub-fields of linguistics (e.g. acoustic phonetics), and even when they can be created, they are extremely artificial. The solution to these shortcomings is for students to be doing their own linguistic fieldwork and dealing with data that they themselves collect from native speakers, in its 'raw' state. We want to be able to assign class projects which employ computer-based tools, and make the tools available to all of the students who take these classes, rather than just the self-selected few who choose an independent study or an Honors Thesis. Support from the Computing Technology Venture Fund permits us to increase our laboratory capabilities, which in turn enables us to take these next steps.
The Brothers Karamazov Web Site (2001)
Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition and Chair of English 2-3
Fyodor Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov is often taught at Dartmouth. In English 2-3, the program which I chair, three out of six professors use the book to teach our first-year students reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. One first-year seminar (ENG 7) teaches the book as its primary text, and several courses in the Russian department list it as required reading. We have long felt that we would like to create a Web site in which we could consolidate existing materials and develop new ones that will assist our students in their writing and research. We also plan this site to be an evolving teaching tool. Students taking courses in which the Brothers Karamazov is required reading would have the opportunity to assist in developing materials for the site. We envision a Web site that would grow to be the definitive site on the novel, linking to other relevant sites, providing a bibliography, and excerpting and annotating sections of the text, both in Russian and in English (akin to what Tom Luxon has done on his Milton Web site). Finally -- and perhaps most important to meeting Venture Fund requirements -- is that we will attach to the site a MOO that professors and students can use to enhance their understanding of the novel.
Weaving the Web: An online reader for Spanish 1 and 2 (2000)
Elizabeth Chamberlain, Spanish & Portuguese Department
It has been repeatedly stated in professional literature that reading authentic texts represents a difficult hurdle for foreign language students as they move from the more oral-based language courses to the more text-based bridge and literature/culture courses. Appropriately designed pre- and post-reading exercises have been shown to be effective in aiding students through this transition. This project presents six primary cultural capsules which focus on reading but bring together speaking, listening and writing skills as well. All activities carefully build on foreign language development as it is presented in the course of study at Dartmouth; at the same time, these activities incorporate authentic literary texts, art, and film as a context to support meaningful learning and communication. The design of this project incorporates the multiple possibilities which technology can offer educators and students today and transforms what was once limited to paper into a multidimensional, multifaceted cultural tool where students can engage in interactive reading, writing and listening skills. In-class oral activities complement the work students perform outside of class in the effort to provide content-based learning revolving around authentic texts and cultural icons. The institutional impact of this project is very broad in that it is being created for use by all Spanish language faculty and students. One completed, it can serve as a model and provide an infrastructure for other foreign language reading projects at Dartmouth as well.
Video Compression Resources for Student Film Work (2000)
David Ehrlich, Film and Television Studies
Film Animation has been taught in the Film Studies Department every year since Spring, 1993, with an average class size of 15. In 1999, a course in Advanced Animation was also introduced, with a class of 8 students. I am requesting Venture funding for the G4 platform, camera and peripherals that will be housed in the Clement animation studios. It would be used by students in my FS35 class in Winter '01 and Spring '02, by students in the COCO class Winter '02, and by the Independent Study and Senior Fellowship students that work throughout the year. I am further requesting a Lunchbox Sync from Animation Toolworks. Linked with the G4, it would permit higher quality capture than is possible with our present Lunchbox system, and used individually, would yield presentational quality VHS tapes. It will be used continually throughout the year, both linked to the G4 for Quicktime compression and separately for VHS capture, by the 15 FS35 students, the 50 CC8 students and by the Senior Fellows and Independent Study students I have throughout the year. As our courses in video documentary and creative video stabilize, it is also probable that students will wish to develop animated titling and animated special effects for their videos and will utilize the Lunchbox Synch.
GerDrill (2000)
Bruce Duncan, Joan Campbell, German Department
For 30 years, Dartmouth students of German language have been writing much of their homework with the help of computers. Experience has shown us the efficacy of such drills when they are used to supplement regular classroom instruction and other, more playful activities. While some pedagogues disparage "drill-and-kill" activities, students do not experience these exercises as tedious; rather, they see them as providing a safe space in which to practice and even experiment with forms that must be mastered. Our task is to create a program in Java that permits German language students to do their written homework on either Mac or Windows machines. Students should be able to download the program and accompanying data files easily from a server onto their own Macs or Windows machines. They would also be able to download the program temporarily onto a public cluster machine when not using their own. Using GerDrill, a student could request any desired set of exercises, which would normally be geared to the textbook. Each set would consist of 1) instructions of any length; 2) a series of cues to which students would respond one at a time; 3) evaluation of that response by comparing it with stored correct answers; 4) acceptance or rejection of that response — acceptance would lead to the presentation of the next cue; rejection would mean a repeated presentation of the old cue.
Video Production of Speeches (2000)
Jim Kuypers, Speech Department
This project involves the production of a searchable speech bank for use by instructors and students of Speech. The goal is to digitally tape students as they give speeches in Speech 21 (Informative Speaking) and Speech 25 (Persuasive Speaking) during winter 2000. These speeches will then be edited and stored for use by future speech classes. The editing will consist of providing samples of specific modules within the speeches. Multiple examples will be available for introductions, thesis statements, connectives, hypothetical and factual illustrations, etc. The instructor will use these speeches and examples for classroom lectures, and students will be able to view these speeches as exemplars while preparing their own speeches. Importantly, these speeches will be by Dartmouth students who would have previously taken the same classes, therefore providing true classroom-specific examples.
Quicktime VR Panoramas of Ancient Greek Sites and Modern Greek Landscapes (1999)
Jerry Rutter, Classics Department
The Classics Department proposes to take advantage of Quicktime VR as a mode of graphic presentation, and of its uniquely designed Foreign Study Program [FSP] to Greece as an existing curricular venue, to design and produce a series of 360-degree panoramas of ancient Greek archaeological sites and the contemporary landscapes in which these sites are located. Dartmouth undergraduates will participate in all aspects of the production and use of these visual teaching aids.
Selection and design of the panoramas, as well as the shooting of the images required for them, will be an academic activity on the Greek FSP in which students will work in teams and for which they will receive a grade as part of the off-campus courses Greek and Roman Studies [GRS] 30-31 (the Greek FSP is offered every two years). The panoramas will be used in class in Greek history (GRS 14-15, one offered every year; also GRS 11 and 19, one of which is likewise offered every year) and archaeology (GRS 20, 21, 22; all three courses are taught every two years), as well as in the introductory course in Classical archaeology (GRS 6, offered annually). By mounting the panoramas on our Web server, we would make these visual aids available to colleagues in allied departments at Dartmouth (e.g. Art History, for use in AH 21 and 22; History; Religion; Geography) as well as to interested students and faculty at other institutions.
Studio Art Teaching Cluster (1999)
Louise Hamlin (chair); Karol Kawiaka, Architecture; Brian Miller, Photography; John Wilson, Architecture
Computer technology is now a standard tool in the fields of both architecture and photography. It has broadened the frontiers and changed working methods in both, and produced work that was previously unimaginable. Professionals in both disciplines make daily use of the technology and every professor will expect to see and use it in the classroom. Computer technology is necessary as an instructional and design tool for the classroom and to enable our students to compete with their peers outside Dartmouth. Knowledge of it is required for many summer jobs, internships, graduate programs, and full-time employment opportunities. As part of their college education, we must provide students with this resource. This project proposes to set up a cluster of computers, printers, and scanners that will enable the Studio Art department to fully integrate computing into its curriculum in the fields of architecture and photography.
Composition Center Website (1998)
Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition
On the World-Wide Web, there is a unique opportunity to create a virtual community for faculty teaching writing, and to establish the fundamentals for a common first-year writing experience for students as well. This web site, by providing students and professors with a common resource for composition instruction, will:
- Provide a common "space" in which all students and professors can contribute to a growing discussion about writing;
- Delineate a common understanding of the writing process, providing students and professors with a shared vocabulary as well as with a shared sense of the challenges involved in producing good academic prose;
- Define in a very particular fashion the elements necessary to a paper's academic excellence, thereby establishing a more common criteria of assessment among professors, and a more common understanding of the institution's expectations among students.
The web site will seek to find ways to make composition more central to the campus by linking the Composition Center more fully to other disciplines, to libraries and their resources, and to other student services. The web site will not be limited to Dartmouth's first year writers and their teachers, but will provide guidance for students and for the teaching of students at all stages of their academic careers, Because Dartmouth lacks any formal writing instruction beyond the first year, it is important for the web site to provide advice on upper level writing tasks -- including writing a thesis or a culminating experience project. Finally, the web site will be used as a tool to train tutors and writing assistants, providing training materials, exercises, and "interactive" videos (one is already produced) aimed at improving peer tutoring techniques.
Milton Website (1997)
Thomas H. Luxon, English Department
One of the most annoying obstacles to studying Milton is also one of its greatest strengths: Milton's poetry and prose is highly allusive, and thus its study is intertextual. It sometimes seems as if Milton had all the learning of the ages (science, philosophy, classics, theology, rabbinics, and history) at his fingertips. Undergraduates are often snowed by the enormous learning Milton exhibits in Paradise Lost and elsewhere.
The World Wide Web and hypertext offer a virtual (though partial) solution to this problem, and thus a way to take advantage of Milton's learnedness when teaching undergraduates. Most of Milton's poetry is now available in electronic form for easy downloading. A group of scholars, organized by Richard Creamer of the University of Richmond, is transcribing Milton's prose. Soon the entire corpus will be available in electronic format.
This project will create a website that will become a study center for Milton's poetry and prose, where HTML versions of his works are 1) presented in standard formats, 2) hypertextually linked amongst themselves for ease of study and reference, 3) hypertextually linked to other sites that represent Milton's huge body of learning, and 4) searchable both as parts and as a whole.
World Wide Web Exercises for Foreign Language Courses (1996)
Joan Campbell, German Department
Concurrently, foreign language pedagogy has stressed the importance of cultural materials and the World Wide Web has allowed immediate access to these materials. Students are no longer limited to information that their instructors provide or authors of their texts choose to include. All sorts of cultural documents are instantly available and student interest in the particular technology is high. By developing Internet exercises which take a functional approach, directly addressing pedagogical issues in foreign language instruction, faculty at Dartmouth can transcend the physical limits of the classroom and provide their students with direct exposure to the culture they are studying. This project will develop World Wide Web exercises for German I, II, and III courses at Dartmouth. While the context for these exercises is German, the models developed are easily applicable to other foreign languages taught at Dartmouth. By making pages available as part of a larger German language teaching database via the German Department home page, the project will provide an important service to German students and the German language teaching profession.
(Des)Encounters:The Poetic Gaze of Enrique Lihn (1996)
Juan Medrano-Pizarro, Spanish and Portuguese Department
This multimedia piece, based on the work of the Chilean poet Enrique Lihn, explores the role that new technologies have in the teaching of literature, the common ground between literature , music, and the visual arts, and the possibility of reaching a wider audience through the use of the World Wide Web.
The project will consist of a bilingual, illustrated presentation of the events of Lihn's life, a recorded interview, a bilingual anthology of Lihn's work, a multimedia presentation, and a complete bibliography of his writing and a selected critical bibliography. The multimedia presentation is a production of Lihn's poem "Penas de extrañamiento" in which text, voice, images, and music will recreate the urban and cinematographic landscape of the imaginary New York constructed by Lihn's writing. (Des)Encounters is not only a pedagogical tool for the teaching of Contemporary Latin-American Poetry and a prototype for the future development of the Latin-American poets database, but also a space to explore the possibilities of the interaction of literature and digital art.
The Study of the English Language: Faces and Interfaces (1995)
Alan Gaylord, English Department
The first part of the project, the Origins of Language, will produce an HTML document that explores the current state of research in the field and includes an annotated bibliography, maps, pictures, and diagrams. The second part of the project will record and mark for Annotext two kinds of Old English and produce an HTML document on the cultural matrix of Anglo-Saxon including pictures and maps, lexical discussion, and linguistic analysis of samples of Old English. Finally, the project will record and mark for Annotext several examples of Middle English and Early Modern English. An HTML document produced in conjunction with this part will explore English dialects from Chaucer to the present in this country and in England. Annotext is a multimedia authoring tool, developed at Dartmouth College, for combining texts with annotations, graphics, audio feedback, and video interaction.
Computer Aided Drafting and Design for Theatre (1995)
Zsuzsanna-Lynda Bathory, Hopkins Center
This project will introduce students interested in design and production in the performing arts to computer aided drafting and design technology as it is currently being used in the field. The project provides accessible CADD workstations in the Hopkins Center and trains students in the use of the workstations. The student training will focus on CADD areas that are unique to the performing arts such as Technical Production, Scenic Design, and Lighting Design.
A la rencontre Philippe (1994)
Lynn Higgins, French & Italian Department
The program Philippe, developed at MIT and published by Yale University Press, is an interactive, multimedia environment intended for second year French curriculum. The French & Italian Department, with support from Computing Services and the Language Resource Center (LRC), will modify Philippe in order to make it part of the Department's curriculum. This will entail digitizing the 30 minutes of video and placing it on CD-ROM. The SuperCard stack that controls the video will be modified to use the digital video resources. Stations equipped with CD-ROM players will be set up in the Kiewit Instructional Center and the Language Resource Center. Initially, Philippe will be used in French 8, a course that combines practice in the active use of the language with an introduction to major aspects of French society. This project is being done in collaboration with MIT and Yale University Press.
The Russian Disk Project (1994)
Lenore Grenoble, Russian Department
The goal of the project is to create a set of programs that will be distributed to every Russian language student at Dartmouth. Essentially, the project over the next year would consist of three distinct portions: (1) to create a database, which would contain complete translation, lexical, and morphological information for a basic word list of several thousand Russian words, (2) to create a package of reference software to manipulate the above-mentioned database, including such items as a dictionary, verb-conjugator, and grammar tables; and (3) to create a basic set of exercises, building (as will be described below) on some of the previous experience at Dartmouth. Beyond the obvious English-Russian vocabulary drills, students will be able to obtain their own tables showing all the forms of any word with which they are having difficulties. On a more advanced level, it will be possible for students to work on drills that test specific forms they are studying (or to review forms that they have studied earlier).
Image Resources (1994)
Jeremy Rutter, Classics Department
The Department of Classics is using its grant from the Computing Technology Venture Fund to create a series of visual image sets (maps, artifacts, scenes drawn from ancient works for art) which, by being accessible through DCIS, would enable students to undertake more challenging and rewarding coursework. Initially, these images will be employed most frequently in ancient history (Greek and Roman Studies [GRS] 20,22) and archaeology(GRS 6, 50-56) courses, but they should also be of use in courses on Greco-Roman mythology and religion (GRS 4,12) and on various aspects of Greco-Roman culture such as linguistics, economics, athletics, and warfare (GRS 11). At least four members of the departmental faculty (Rutter, Stewart, Ulrich, Whaley) are already committed to making use of these images in their courses. The initial phase of the project will make available via DCIS images of roughly 150 Greek coins for student analysis in term papers. Some twenty maps of Greece, Italy, the eastern Mediterranean, Sicily, Spain, France, Britain, and the Mediterranean basin will be made available on the PUBLIC file server. Student assignments with these maps will include illustrating the course of historical events (such as the growth of the Roman Empire, stages in the progress of a particular military campaign), illustrating the spatial distribution of a particular artifact type, or illustrating dialect differences in both grammar and orthography as part of a paper exploring the reasons for specific kinds of linguistic change.
On-Line Glossary of Art History Terms (1994)
Joy Kenseth, Art History Department
Faculty members spend a considerable amount of time explaining art history terms to students by drawing diagrams and searching for appropriate illustrations in the art historical literature. Even though glossaries can be found in textbooks, they are often less helpful, because terms are poorly defined or there are no accompanying illustrations. A far more helpful and efficient way of making this information available would be to have an on-line glossary. That is what this project will create. All entries will have a verbal explanation (including phonetic pronunciation, etymology, definition) and visual examples. The glossary will benefit students in the Art History survey courses as well as in upper lever courses.
Art History Slide Collection (1993)
Elizabeth O'Donnell, Art History Department
This project has acquired a slide scanner to begin the process of digitizing slides in the Art History collection. Using software developed by Computing Services, images for Art History 40, 50, and 52 will be made available to students in those courses. Once the feasibility of the approach has been established, other portions of the slide collection will be digitized, to be made available for specific curricular and research needs.
Music Digital Database of Music Manuscripts (1993)
William Summers, Music Department
Prof. Summers has a thorough collection of photographs of manuscript pages of music, composed in the California Spanish missions in the 18th century. Prof. Summers proposes to digitize his collection onto PhotoCD volumes and to make them available to students in Music 32 and 33.
On-line Literature Project (1993)
Ron Green (Religion), Jim Moor (Philosophy), Lou Renza, Tom Luxon (English)
This project will collect the full texts of standard works in literature, philosophy, and religion. These resources will be made available via DCIS.
Music Student Composition Project (1993)
Jon Appleton, Music Department
The goal of this project is to "provide Dartmouth undergraduates with special purpose hardware and software" that will allow the students to compose music in their rooms. A small unit will plug into a student's Mac and have a earphone jack, allowing the student to hear the results of his or her composition. This will obviate the need to go to a special cluster with limited seating. Prof. Appleton is working with a vendor in support of the project. Initial course applicability will be Music 24.
Go to top