For a free, digital copy of the textbook Debates in the Digital Humanities see:

http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/9

Jaime “Skye” Bianco’s article “This Digital Humanities Which Is Not One” in Debates in the Digital Humanities (96-112), is an assessment of the theoretical origins and practices of the Digital Humanities (DH).  At this current juncture, the term DH is one that cannot be easily pinned-down and may refer to coding practices, a set of methodological tools, etc.  Bianco advises caution, that in trying to figure-out what constitutes the field of DH, those involved in this process of “figuring-out” may elide other critical practices — therefore, avoid the attempt to walk down a universalizing, singular trajectory of: “This is What the Digital Humanities Are.”

At this point, I feel that the article became laden with philosophical references and begins to miss the point of Cultural Studies practice, in speaking or writing in a manner that may be consumed by a wider audience – isn’t this the point of the Digital Humanities too?  Also, I would have translated the phrase: “nach Auschwitz ein Gedicht zu schreiben” as “to write a poem after Auschwitz” – like one’s position, in attempting to do so, there is no kein here…therefore it is not translated as one cannot write a poem after Auschwitz.  Here, I am only trying to insist on communicating with clarity – or, maybe this is a question of audience that I am raising.  Perhaps, my assumption is that she is working from a standpoint of cultural studies, when in fact she is writing from her discipline on this topic.  In class today, this point was raised: is one practicing cultural studies without intention to practice cultural studies?  I would answer yes, but others may disagree and this leads to further consideration of our practices as academics.

In the later part of the essay, Bianco considers aesthetics beyond the realm of art — what a culture’s sensory perception reads as pleasing within a defined cultural framework (versus innate beauty, but isn’t this constructed as well?).  This is a really interesting concept to consider, which Bianco describes as “composing critical creative media” or simply “composing creative critique.”  She suggests one learns or feels through the process of consuming the information and not just from the information itself (Bianco 102) – the beauty of the package itself along with what’s inside.  She offers this as an alternative to the traditional process of critique as destruction or deconstruction.