Gooding, Paul

Mann, Justine

Smith, Jos

English

Enlighten: Publications

  
 
 
 
 
Gooding, P., Smith, J. and Mann, J. (2018) The Forensic Imagination: Co-Developing 
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Writers' Born-Digital Archives. After the Digital 
Revolution, London, UK, 25-26 Jan 2018. 
 
   
There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are 
advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. 
 
 
 
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/168404/  
      
 
 
 
 
 
 
Deposited on: 10 September 2018 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow 
http://eprints.gla.ac.uk 
The Forensic Imagination: Co-Developing Interdisciplinary 
Approaches to Writers’ Born-Digital Archives 
Dr. Paul Gooding, Dr. Jos Smith & Justine Mann (University of East Anglia). 
Correspondence: p.gooding@uea.ac.uk; 01603 593355. 
In 2013, Matthew Kirschenbaum advocated for increased collaboration between archivists and 
digital humanities specialists to make the most out of born-digital archives (Kirschenbaum, 
2013). This call to arms has borne fruit, as researchers and archivists have experimented with 
innovative interfaces for access to writers’ archives. Jensen (2015), for instance, describes a 
potential interface that would make writers’ drafts available as a “transcription mash-up” that 
allows users to juxtapose the text, textual transcriptions and draft variants for the user to view 
on a single screen. Building on these interventions, we are also interested in the ways that work 
on born-digital archives can move beyond this “humanistic interface design” (Drucker, 2013), 
towards a model that also encompasses data-driven interventions into the interpretation of 
writers’ drafts. 
 The British Archive for Contemporary Writing at UEA is beginning to collect the work 
of young and contemporary novelists who work in inventive digital ways. We are keen to grow 
these collections with a particular research focus on: 1. understanding how authors archive their 
own work digitally, and move from draft to draft; and 2. how the archivist might best safeguard, 
investigate and organise these digital archives to best facilitate future research approaches. This 
would involve co-designing archives (and even, potentially, archive software) with researchers 
at the point of archiving, and co-developing tools for digital forensic work that would allow 
multiple modes of interpretation and criticism. These tools would aim to combine the traditions 
associated with knowledge in the humanities with tools for digital forensics and innovative 
archival design, in order to illuminate questions of creativity, collaboration, failure, and 
development in writers’ processes. In doing so, we aim to explore the implications for the 
professional practice of archivists, and the nature of the born-digital archive as a hybrid 
environment for models of use that are grounded in the intellectual push towards generous 
interfaces (Whitelaw, 2015). 
References 
Drucker, J. (2013) ‘Performative Materiality and Theoretical Approaches to Interface’, 
Digital Humanities Quarterly, 7(1). Available at: 
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/1/000143/000143.html. 
Jensen, K. (2015) Reimagining Process: Online Writing Archives and the Future of Writing 
Studies. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. 
Kirschenbaum, M. (2013) ‘The .txtual Condition: Digital Humanities, Born-Digital Archives, 
and the Future Literary’, Digital Humanities Quarterly, 7(1). Available at: 
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/1/000151/000151.html. 
Whitelaw, M. (2015) ‘Generous Interfaces for Digital Cultural Collections’, Digital 
Humanities Quarterly, 9(1). Available at: 
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/1/000205/000205.html. 
 


The Forensic Imagination: Co-Developing Interdisciplinary Approaches to Writers' Born-Digital Archives

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      Gooding, P., Smith, J. and Mann, J. (2018) The Forensic Imagination: Co-Developing Interdisciplinary Approaches to Writers' Born-Digital Archives. After the Digital Revolution, London, UK, 25-26 Jan 2018.     There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it.    http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/168404/              Deposited on: 10 September 2018                       Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk The Forensic Imagination: Co-Developing Interdisciplinary Approaches to Writers’ Born-Digital Archives Dr. Paul Gooding, Dr. Jos Smith & Justine Mann (University of East Anglia). Correspondence: p.gooding@uea.ac.uk; 01603 593355. In 2013, Matthew Kirschenbaum advocated for increased collaboration between archivists and digital humanities specialists to make the most out of born-digital archives (Kirschenbaum, 2013). This call to arms has borne fruit, as researchers and archivists have experimented with innovative interfaces for access to writers’ archives. Jensen (2015), for instance, describes a potential interface that would make writers’ drafts available as a “transcription mash-up” that allows users to juxtapose the text, textual transcriptions and draft variants for the user to view on a single screen. Building on these interventions, we are also interested in the ways that work on born-digital archives can move beyond this “humanistic interface design” (Drucker, 2013), towards a model that also encompasses data-driven interventions into the interpretation of writers’ drafts.  The British Archive for Contemporary Writing at UEA is beginning to collect the work of young and contemporary novelists who work in inventive digital ways. We are keen to grow these collections with a particular research focus on: 1. understanding how authors archive their own work digitally, and move from draft to draft; and 2. how the archivist might best safeguard, investigate and organise these digital archives to best facilitate future research approaches. This would involve co-designing archives (and even, potentially, archive software) with researchers at the point of archiving, and co-developing tools for digital forensic work that would allow multiple modes of interpretation and criticism. These tools would aim to combine the traditions associated with knowledge in the humanities with tools for digital forensics and innovative archival design, in order to illuminate questions of creativity, collaboration, failure, and development in writers’ processes. In doing so, we aim to explore the implications for the professional practice of archivists, and the nature of the born-digital archive as a hybrid environment for models of use that are grounded in the intellectual push towards generous interfaces (Whitelaw, 2015). References Drucker, J. (2013) ‘Performative Materiality and Theoretical Approaches to Interface’, Digital Humanities Quarterly, 7(1). Available at: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/1/000143/000143.html. Jensen, K. (2015) Reimagining Process: Online Writing Archives and the Future of Writing Studies. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. Kirschenbaum, M. (2013) ‘The .txtual Condition: Digital Humanities, Born-Digital Archives, and the Future Literary’, Digital Humanities Quarterly, 7(1). Available at: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/7/1/000151/000151.html. Whitelaw, M. (2015) ‘Generous Interfaces for Digital Cultural Collections’, Digital Humanities Quarterly, 9(1). Available at: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/1/000205/000205.html.  

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The Forensic Imagination: Co-Developing Interdisciplinary Approaches to Writers' Born-Digital Archives

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