Hello all,
For my Rip.Mix.Feed post I decided to focus on the book. Both Bolter (2001) and Kress (2005) argue that the textual modes of representation are declining and that there is an increase in visual modes of representation. As I am wondering how, and if, physical books fit into our future, I wanted to further consider the history of reading and, in particular, historical images of the practice of reading.
I chose to use Flickr to curate a gallery of images for several reasons. In my first MET course I worked with a group to create a webpage. One person in the group found most of the images we used and I was not exactly sure on copyright rules and regulations. Along with arguments for access that I have come across in almost every MET course so far, I wanted to delve into the online world of images that have ‘no known copyright restrictions’ to ensure that I had more knowledge about this, to help in my future course work. Further, I really like the idea behind The Commons on Flickr; “The key goal of The Commons is to share hidden treasures from the world’s public photography archives” (Flickr).
I spent quite a while exploring The Commons and trying to find pictures that involved books from the past. I found myself drawn to the black and white photos and decided that my gallery would include only these. When shifting through many archives, I was particularly drawn to the images of women. I teach at an all-girls school and we just finished our unit on the role of women in both world wars, and I think all of this just came together for this gallery. I found the origins of the photos particularly interesting, and think this is a tool that I could use in my classroom. Some photos were from the Mennonite Church USA Archives, others from the Law Society of Ontario, The National Library of Wales, The State Library of Queensland and the Library of Congress – this could be a good place to find images to compare and contrast for lessons in my classroom. Also, as a keen historian, as the photos are primary sources, I found myself getting lost within these fascinating archives, which were all within the 1890-1950 date range. As a teacher, primary sources like these are not always easily at our disposal.
Photos of women reading from the first half of the 20th century is interesting. What will photos of women reading look like in the first half of the 22nd century? Will books still be around in the same format as they are now?
The link to my gallery is below:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/141467627@N05/galleries/72157693435983570/?rb=1
Thanks!
Kathryn
Bolter, J.D. (2001). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print. Routledge.
Flickr. The Commons. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/commons.
Kress, G. (2005). Gains and losses: New forms of texts, knowledge, and learning. Computers and Composition, 22(1), 5-22.
