ENG 3803 Summer 2023 McHale

This course is concerned with investigating how different technologies record and transmit knowledge and cultural memory. In our investigation, we will consider how various technologies shape the creation and interpretation of the very knowledge and cultural memory that they record and transmit. The most basic form of our central research question is as follows: how does form influence content? We will explore this question with a wide historical scope that includes ancient technologies such as cuneiform to recent advancements in digitization technology such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Our theorical overview will aid our investigation of how these technologies emerged from their historical moments as ways to negotiate issues of permanence, access, and functionality, as well as our consideration of how technologies are not transparent mediums but instead bear traces of attitudes and beliefs about the very content they convey. Students will work with materials in FSU’s Special Collections as part of their main projects.