via Frederike Neuber

CfP Deadline: 17 April 2016

Digital Scholarly Editions as Interfaces

Dates: 23-24 Sept. 2016
Venue: Centre for Information Modelling – Graz University
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Dot Porter (University of Pennsylvania); Stan Ruecker (IIT, Institute of Design)

Scholarly editions intermediate between the texts and their readers, which does not change with their transfer to digital media. Over the past two decades, research on digital scholarly editions (DSE) was deeply engaged with the impacts of the digital medium on the critical representation of texts and the changing conditions for the editor. However, less research has been done on the roles of the readers, or – as they are called in the digital environment – the users. A critical examination of the topic has already been demanded by Jerome McGann in 2001, it was repeated by Hans Walter Gabler in 2010, and was taken up more recently by Patrick Sahle (2013) and Elena Pierazzo (2015). User studies are rare, and systematic considerations of principles of Human Computer Interaction are still marginal in theory and practice of DSE. In addition, the conceptualization of the DSEs as interfaces between machines could be intensified. However, the discourse on DSEs benefits from considering paradigms of interface design, from reflecting on the cultural and historical context of the visual appearance of scholarly editions and their affordances, as well as from examining the interactions between user and resource.

The symposium will discuss the relationship between digital scholarly editing and interfaces by bringing together experts of DSEs and Interface Design, editors and users of editions, web designers and developers. It will include the discussion of (graphical/user) interfaces of DSEs as much as conceptualizing the digital edition itself as an interface.

For the complete description of the conference and its CFP, please visit the original conference website.