Critical Making: Enchanted Things

“Enchanted things refers to hybrid physical-digital objects in the real world whose seemingly magical properties imbue them with the aura of enchantment.” – Kari Kraus

This hands-on course offers an introduction to critical making (thinking through prototyping) in digital humanities. The goal of this course is to gain practical takeaways that can be used in research and pedagogy. We will explore a variety of analog and digital technologies including but not limited to letterpress and bookmaking, 3D scanning and printing, vinyl and laser cutters, physical computing and paper circuits. At the end of the week, participants will use the technologies available to create enchanted things.

Instructor:

Emily F. Brooks received her PhD in English and graduate certificate in digital humanities from the University of Florida in 2020 and has taught a variety of courses such as Coding for Humanists, Creativity and Design Thinking for Innovation, and Digital Media and Design for Communication for Coastal Carolina University, University of Florida, and University of Tampa. As her academic persona, the “makeademic,” she emphasizes experimentation to advance knowledge at the intersections of digital humanities, book history, pop culture, and design. She enjoys teaching others how to become makers using various forms of technology including microcontrollers, laser-cutters, 3D printers, augmented reality, and more to create prototypes that span the analog/digital divide. In 2016 her work on digitizing movable books was featured in The American Scholar, in 2018 she was an invited guest speaker at the Movable Book Society Conference and a NEH Summer Scholar, and recently she’s been published on pop-up books, digital fabrication, and physical computing in B is for Baldwin (2022), Keywords in Design Thinking (2022) and Keywords in Making (2024), respectively.

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