A Transliteracy Conversation

Presented at the Transliteracy Colloquium,Institute of Creative Technologies,

De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.May 15, 2007.

Featuring the PART Group and IOCT guest speakers.

Programme11.00 Welcome and Introduction11.30 Presentations12.30 Summing up12.45 Lunch (served here)13.30 Responses from the floor14.00 Small groups15.00 Break15.15 Plenary Discussion16.00 End

Introducing the Book

Working Definition

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools

and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to

digital social networks.

The Qualities of Transliteracy might be:

• Awareness of historical and cultural context

• Ability to understand and use a range of tools

• Multimodal sensibility

• Participation in collective behaviour

• Sense of physicality / spatiality / lifeworld

Howard Rheingold

Visiting Professor, IOCT

&

Production and Research in Transliteracy group

Transliteracy as a Cognitive Tool

Simon Perril

Image from Alan Halsey ‘This Problem of Script: Essays in Textual Analysis’, Marginalien. Five Seasons Press, 2005

Kate Pullinger - Producing transliteracy

Production in transliteracy:

How are particular transliteral forms created?

Analysis of - tools and methods

- structures and forms of outputs- types of productive communication, collaboration; 'creativity'?

and/or

Why are particular transliteral forms created?

- Social, economic, political and cultural analyses of production

Chris Joseph

Transliteracy as Multimodality

The slide on transliteracy as multimodality used several reveals to demonstrate multimodality in action. Problems with embedding mean that we have had to split the original single slide into several different ones.

Jess LaccettiJess Laccetti

Transliteracy as Multimodality

• With the digital environment in mind (as an obvious example but not limited to it):

• We need to know how to read• Text

• Sound

• Images

• Video

• Haptics (interaction)

SIMULTANEOUSLYJess Laccetti

Transliteracy as Multimodality

Jess Laccetti

Transliteracy as Multimodality

As this screen slowly appears, first the text then the image, the sound of buzzing flies emanates. Jess Laccetti

Transliteracy as Multimodality

Clicking on “FLIES” changes the view through the window to show a flurry of flies.

Jess Laccetti

Transliteracy as Multimodality

Ways to Navigate: •Click on the “up” and “down” arrows to move through this section of the story•Click on links in the side-bar•Click on links within the story•Click on the sequence of images•Click on chronological lexia•Listen to a reading (the whole text or sections)

Jess Laccetti

Transliteracy as Multimodality

Bruce Mason

I do not think it means what you think it

means.

Sue Thomas

Simon Mills

Musical Transliteracies

‘Literate’ musicians read 5-line lattice notation, whereas ‘illiterate’ musicians (the majority) do not

Digital musicians work directly with sounds (rather than notes) whereas traditional musicians work with instruments (including the voice)

Some musicians start from pitch (e.g. classical, folk)Some musicians start from rhythm (e.g. rock, pop)Some musicians start from timbre (e.g. electronic, technological)In digital music, though, it doesn’t matter where you start!Transliteracies of style, practice, culture, techniques…

Andrew Hugill

Transliteracy

• Cross-discipline research needs common vocabulary with clear grounding

• Especially true for human-centred activity– Humanities & Natural Science

• Examples– Design, Creativity, Innovation, Invention– Interactivity– Context

• Applications– Digital Human & Artificial Life

Mohammad Ibrahim

Michael WeschThe Machine Is Us/ing Us