Willson Center Co-hosts Symposium on "Futures of the Book" April 27
“Futures of the Book” takes place Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Building. This spring symposium is sponsored by the Willson Center, Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE), the Department of English, the Department of Theatre and Film Studies and the University of Georgia Libraries. Brian Croxall, emerging technologies librarian and CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, will deliver a plenary talk titled ”Harder Better Faster Stronger: Books from the Future.” The symposium will also include a workshop on futurist books led by Jed Rasula, Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English at UGA, a UGA faculty panel featuring Eileen Wallace, Mark Callahan, Elizabeth Davis, and Christopher Eaket, and an exhibit in the gallery curated by doctoral students in English.
This interdisciplinary seminar aims to explore the nature of the book in all its forms, across time and space. The goals are twofold, to pose fundamental questions such as: what makes a book a book, how have cultural attitudes toward books and book making changed, are digital media recuperating or killing print media? And to investigate and analyze the various media that contribute to the production of books such as ink, e-ink, paper, screen, manuscript, print, pixels, binding, and book arts, as well as the production processes themselves. A symposium on “History of the Book: More than Words” was held in December 2012.
SCHEDULE
- 9:00-11:00: Faculty panel moderated by Dr. Toby Graham (UGA Libraries) with presentations by Eileen Wallace (Art), Elizabeth Davis (English), Mark Callahan (Ideas for Creative Exploration), and Christopher Eaket (Theatre & Film Studies and English).
- Refreshments
- 11:15-12:30: Plenary talk by Brian Croxall.
- Lunch break
- 2:30-3:00: Presentation of exhibition by its curators, Maria Chappell, Joshua King, Laurie Norris, Dorothy Todd, and Ben Fuqua, all graduate students in the Department of English.
- Refreshments
- 3:15-4:45: Futurist books workshop led by Jed Rasula (English).
- Wrap-up