Rationale<\/h2>\n
If Stephen Ramsay argues for the importance of building things in the digital humanities, Mark Sample proposes something else entirely<\/a>, “a theory and practice of a Deformed Humanities.” This version of DH privileges breaking things and exploring their insides. He claims that the process of deforming is a “legitimate mode of\u00a0doing\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0knowing<\/em>.” I suppose there’s only one way to know…<\/p>\n Oh, and one more thing. This assignment continues our exploration of what it takes to\u00a0digitize\u00a0<\/em>the humanities. One of the things that’s important about the digital, when compared to the analog, is that the digital is infinitely transformable, manipulable, and copy-able. But it turns out that making something digital isn’t nearly as neat and easy as all that. What’s more, even objects that are digital resist manipulation due to file types that are incompatible with one another. In this project, we’ll find ourselves running into the friction of formats.<\/p>\n This assignment has eight (?!) parts. You will work in groups of two to complete the first seven parts. While it is possible to split these tasks up among group members, it’s critical that you work together on all<\/strong> of it because\u00a0that’s where the learning happens!\u00a0<\/em>\ud83e\uddd9\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\u00a0\ud83e\uddd9\u200d\u2640\ufe0f<\/p>\n As a group, pick a film that you want to digitize. It should be one that you have both seen before. (I know, I know: this\u00a0will in no way be as easy as it sounds.) You will need access to a DVD copy of it, either one that you own or that you can get from a library<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rip the DVD to the .m4v format using Handbrake<\/a>. You can do this at the HBLL’s Media Center<\/a>, which has computers with Handbrake already installed, or you can do it on your own computer. If you go to the Media Center, you should consider reserving a multimedia editing computer<\/a>.<\/p>\n For our purposes, you should rip the DVD with the Fast 480p30 setting. It will provide good enough results for our purposes and be relatively quick. You should anticipate it taking 40 minutes or so to rip a 2-hour film.<\/p>\n Handbrake is relatively easy to use, and LifeHacker provides step-by-step instructions<\/a>. If you’re installing on a Mac that you own, however, I would recommend MacWorld’s short article<\/a>. It is critical<\/strong> that you follow the instructions to make it possible to rip copy-protected DVDs; otherwise, you’ll get some distinctly unpleasant and unusable results. For Mac users running Sierra or High Sierra (probably all of you), this involves work on the command line. It’s not difficult, but, again, it’s necessary.<\/p>\n Extract frames from your ripped film at the rate of one frame for every two seconds. You can do this most easily with the free VLC Media Player<\/a>. Once you have downloaded VLC, you will need to make a few changes to its settings to get the images out.<\/p>\n For a watch-as-you-go example of these steps, watch this video by Prerit Patidar<\/a>.<\/p>\n VLC will have to play the entire film from beginning to end in order to capture the frames. You can mute VLC and let it run in the background, however.<\/p>\n Following the process that Kevin L. Ferguson explains at the end of his article in Hyperallergic<\/a>\u00a0create a summed z-projection of your frames. Since you will have already extracted all the frames of your film, you can skip step 2.<\/p>\n Once you have the summed image,\u00a0be sure to save a copy of it.<\/p>\n In addition to making a summed image, you will also use ImageJ to create a “barcode” of your film, similar to what you see at the Tumblr MOVIEBARCODE<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you have the two barcodes, save copies of them.<\/p>\n Prior to the presentation (see below), post both your summed image and your barcodes to a group member’s blog.<\/p>\n As a group, you will present your summed images and barcodes to the class on\u00a0Thursday, 16 November.\u00a0<\/strong>Presentations should be at least 2 minutes long, but no longer than 5 minutes. Both of you must participate in the presentation.<\/strong> In the presentation, you will report on patterns that your group has found and offer an interpretation of those patterns. (This is\u00a0still<\/em> our digital humanities class, after all.)<\/p>\n Finally, each of you will\u00a0individually<\/em>\u00a0prepare a two- to three-page paper in which you reflect on this assignment. Reflection papers must be\u00a0emailed to me<\/strong>\u00a0as PDFs before class begins on\u00a0Tuesday, November 28<\/strong>. Please name your file\u00a0\u201clast name\u201d-manyeyes.pdf<\/strong>\u00a0(e.g., croxall-manyeyes.pdf).<\/p>\n Some questions to consider in your reflections are:<\/p>\n For an extra 10 points, your group can create two GIFs from your film. GIFs are easy to create, thanks to these step-by-step instructions from LifeHacker<\/a>. Email the GIFs to me before class begins on\u00a0Tuesday, November 28<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Clarissa Alex Liz Sadie Elizabeth Dane Maddie Kelly As an experimental class project, you are not being graded on what you and your group find<\/em> about your film. Instead, you are being graded on (1) whether you successfully complete all of the different steps (pass\/fail), (2) how engaged you are with the work and your group, and (3) how well you apply the method of pattern recognition \/ interpretation we\u2019ve been embracing throughout the semester. And, of course, how well you’re practicing screwmeneutics.<\/p>\n This assignment is inspired first and foremost by the work of Kevin L. Ferguson<\/a>, who has shared his methods<\/a> for creating summed z-projections of films with the\u00a0world\u00a0and has also graciously answered a number of questions from me as I started exploring his methods. Two others who have contributed to this assignment\u2014perhaps indirectly\u2014include Mark Sample, who invites us to break things<\/a>, and Zach Whalen, who builds remarkable<\/em> things<\/a>, at a rate that astonishes me, and whoever is behind the Tumblr MOVIEBARCODE<\/a>. And of course, the assignment’s aggressively hopeful pun\/name points back to the work of Martin Wattenberg, Fernanda Vi\u00e9gas, and others on IBM’s ManyEyes<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summed Films Here’s an archive of all eight group’s summed films. Rationale If Stephen Ramsay argues for the importance of building things in the digital humanities, Mark Sample proposes something else entirely, “a theory and practice of a Deformed Humanities.” This version of DH privileges breaking things and exploring their insides. He claims that the … The Nitty Gritty<\/h2>\n
Select a Film<\/h3>\n
Rip a Film<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/briancroxall.net\/f17dh\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/HandBrake-1024x592.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nExtract a Film<\/h3>\n
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Sum a Film<\/h3>\n
Barcode a Film<\/h3>\n
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Blog a Film<\/h3>\n
Present a Film<\/h3>\n
Reflect on a Film<\/h3>\n
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Extra Credit: GIF a Film<\/h3>\n
Groups<\/h3>\n
\nChris<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>Amanda<\/span><\/p>\n
\nMiles<\/p>\n
\nShelbi<\/p>\n
\nTara<\/p>\n
\nMike<\/p>\n
\nPaul<\/p>\n
\nStephen<\/p>\nGrading<\/h2>\n
Credits<\/h2>\n