ALPHABET HISTORIES: FROM ANCIENT SOURCES TO GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Talk at Smith College by Johanna Drucker
Thursday, April 18th at 6:30p
Smith College Weinstein Auditorium
Reception to follow at 8p in Wright Hall Lobby and Poetry Center (one level above Weinstein Auditorium)
One of the longest - lasting technologies of knowledge production, the alphabet continues to play a major role in global information infrastructure. The very concept of “the alphabet” and its origins shift as sources broaden from texts of 5th-century BCE Greek historian Herodotus, to medieval compendia, antiquarian studies, archaeological methods, paleographic techniques, and digital analysis. These knowledge technologies inform how the materiality of sources plays a role in historical understanding.
Johanna Drucker is the Breslauer Professor of Bibliographical Studies in the Department of Information Studies at UCLA and the Inaugural Beinecke Fellow in Material Cultures at Yale. She is internationally known for her work in artists’ books, the history of graphic design, typography, experimental poetry, fine art, and digital humanities. Her recent titles include Downdrift: AnEcoFiction and The General Theory of Social Relativity.
The Enid Mark Lecture Series is presented by the Mortimer Rare Book Collection, part of Smith College Libraries' Special Collections.