UVa Library Press Releases 1996 - 1997
IMPLICATIONS OF THE DIGITAL AGE FOR THE HUMANITIES TO BE EXPLORED BY ARTIST, LAWYERS, POET
Contact: Paul Jones at (804) 924-6594 or e-mail: pjones@virginia.edu
Oct. 16 -- Curious about the latest cultural developments involving new
digital technologies? Want to know how some of today's artists are exploring and
exploiting novel media? Need directions? Attend "Digital Directions," a series of special presentations at the University
of Virginia.
"Every new technology brings with it both anxiety and opportunity," says Paul Jones, technical director of U.Va.'s Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, a sponsor of the program. "'Digi tal Directions' will engage us in a Grounds-wide discussion of the anxieties and opportunities in the digital age, especially as they relate to the humanities."
The series begins on Tuesday, Oct. 29, with "Sonic Outlaws," a documentary
film about "Negativland, a band of culture jammers who send out mixed signals
to the media in order to cause a disturban ce in a system that often goes without
check." Mark Hosler, a member of Negativland and author of "Fair Use: The
Story of the Letter U and the Numeral 2," will introduce the movie, which will
be shown in Newcomb Hall Theatre at 2:30 p.m. Hosler, who employs collage techniques,
has been sued by the band U2 for improper use of copyrighted material.
Hosler will be part of a three-person panel who will discuss the concepts of intellectual property in the age of the Internet on Wednesday, Oct. 30, in Ruffner Auditorium at 3:30 p.m. The other speakers on the panel will be legal specialists James Boyl e and Anne Wells Branscomb. Boyle is the author of "Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and the Construction of the Information Society." In an article published in The New York Times, Boyle wrote, "To understand the age we have entered...we need to figu re out how the world changes when information becomes one of the most important forms of wealth and power: when everything from the pattern of purchases revealed by credit card receipts to the pattern of your DNA can become a byte of information, to be bo ught and sold in the marketplace."
In November, Craig Calhoun, professor of sociology at New York University and editor of the journal "Sociological Theory," will discuss "Solidarities on the Screen: Electronic Communities vs. Electronic Publics." The lecture will explore the diffe rences between artificial communities (such as MUDS, MOOS, and newsgroups) that have arisen on-line and traditional forms of solidarity. Calhoun's talk will take place in Ruffner Auditorium on Nov. 7 at 4 p.m.
The final speaker is poet Robert Pinsky, poetry editor of the on-line magazine, "Slate." Pinsky has translated Dante's "Inferno" and is the author of "Poetry, Computers, and Dante." He will speak in Minor Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 4 p.m.
The conference is co-sponsored by the Office of Information Technologies, the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University Libraries and the Division of Technology, Culture and Communication.
For more information about Digital Directions, contact Paul Jones at (804) 924-6594 or via e-mail at pjones@virginia.edu.
Source: U.Va. News Services
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