Location
Room 201/203 Traditional Presentations
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
24-2-2018 10:45 AM
End Date
24-2-2018 12:15 PM
Description
This paper argues that the logic of startup companies has penetrated the digital humanities, which has led the field to prioritize glossy veneer over sound construction (“skinning”), pursue grants for survival (“venture capitalists”), and conspicuously broadcast through social media to self-promote (“branding”). The result is a field centered on the performativity of a digital artifact, with little consideration of sustainability, contributing to the existing scholarly discourse, and a graveyard of abandoned projects once they have outlived their usefulness.
It is a pattern with which I am well-familiar. In 2001, I left what would become a lucrative and successful Internet startup company to pursue graduate studies. There were myriad reasons—I disliked the rancor over finances; my schoolwork suffered; but most of all, I was disenchanted by the logic of startups, which stressed interface performativity over quality. Much to my dismay, I have discovered that the same logic has emerged in the digital humanities.
This paper warns that this is untenable, both in the digital humanities and startup worlds. My company churned through projects in pursuit of angel investor funding, usually the result of a passable interface over a shoddy backend could collapse with the slightest breeze; sometimes our products were merely frontends with little else. Startup logic demands builds for funding gains and little else; sustainability isn’t prioritized because the goal is to be bought out by a larger company. Likewise, digital humanities, ruled by the same logic, highlights performativity over theoretical and critical engagement. The year 2001 also saw the Dot-com bubble burst; this paper warns that unless the model changes, a similar collapse may be in store for the digital humanities. Using the case of our building of a DH lab at the University of Utah, I explain how we attempted to circumvent startup logic from taking hold.
Included in
Startup Logic in DH: Performativity and Sustainability
Room 201/203 Traditional Presentations
This paper argues that the logic of startup companies has penetrated the digital humanities, which has led the field to prioritize glossy veneer over sound construction (“skinning”), pursue grants for survival (“venture capitalists”), and conspicuously broadcast through social media to self-promote (“branding”). The result is a field centered on the performativity of a digital artifact, with little consideration of sustainability, contributing to the existing scholarly discourse, and a graveyard of abandoned projects once they have outlived their usefulness.
It is a pattern with which I am well-familiar. In 2001, I left what would become a lucrative and successful Internet startup company to pursue graduate studies. There were myriad reasons—I disliked the rancor over finances; my schoolwork suffered; but most of all, I was disenchanted by the logic of startups, which stressed interface performativity over quality. Much to my dismay, I have discovered that the same logic has emerged in the digital humanities.
This paper warns that this is untenable, both in the digital humanities and startup worlds. My company churned through projects in pursuit of angel investor funding, usually the result of a passable interface over a shoddy backend could collapse with the slightest breeze; sometimes our products were merely frontends with little else. Startup logic demands builds for funding gains and little else; sustainability isn’t prioritized because the goal is to be bought out by a larger company. Likewise, digital humanities, ruled by the same logic, highlights performativity over theoretical and critical engagement. The year 2001 also saw the Dot-com bubble burst; this paper warns that unless the model changes, a similar collapse may be in store for the digital humanities. Using the case of our building of a DH lab at the University of Utah, I explain how we attempted to circumvent startup logic from taking hold.