Coding Codices

Episode 9: Biocodicology: From Dust to Data

James and Aylin talk to Sarah Fiddyment and Timothy Stinson about their work in the emerging field of biocodicology, the study of the biomolecular information found in manuscripts. Sarah Fiddyment received her PhD from the University of Zaragoza in 2011, working in the field of proteomics in cardiovascular research. She moved to the University of York in 2012, where she developed a non-invasive sampling technique that has enabled her to establish the emerging field of biocodicology. In 2019, Sarah joined the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge as part of the ERC funded Beasts to Craft project. Timothy Stinson is Associate Professor of English at North Carolina State University. He is co-director of the Medieval Electronic Scholarly Alliance, director of the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts, co-director of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, associate director of the Advanced Research Consortium, and editor of the Siege of Jerusalem Electronic Archive. He has also collaborated with colleagues in the biological sciences to analyze the DNA found in medieval manuscripts. Music credits: Intro / outro: TeknoAXE, “Chiptune Nobility” (CC BY 4.0), interludes: Random Mind, “Rejoicing” (CC0). Transcript and more information at https://codingcodices.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/episode-9-biocodicology-from-dust-to-data/. Recorded 17 September 2021. Edited by James Harr.

Episode 8: Material Manuscripts in a Digital World

Dr. Johanna Green speaks with Aylin Malcolm and Caitlin Postal about manuscript materiality, digitization projects, and increased access to physical objects. Dr. Green is a lecturer in Information Studies at the University of Glasgow and co-director of the University of Glasgow Digital Cultural Heritage lab. In addition to her work on manuscript studies via social media and in light of the COVID-19 remote learning circumstances, she has been thinking about how to interact with the medieval book during lockdown. In this episode, she shares her experiences with sensory cues and digital manuscript studies. Music credits: Intro: TeknoAXE, “Chiptune Nobility” (CC BY 4.0), interludes: Shane Ivers, “The Medieval Banquet” (CC BY 4.0) and Alexander Nakarada, “Marked” (CC BY 4.0). Transcript and more information at https://codingcodices.wordpress.com/2021/11/05/episode-8-material-manuscripts-in-a-digital-world/. Recorded 12 November 2020. Produced and edited by Aylin Malcolm.

Episode 7: Facsimile Narratives

Mateusz Fafinski discusses his work on the theory of digital humanities, in particular his notion of facsimile narratives and the nature of historical sources in the digital sphere, as well as his work on the adaptations of the post-Roman worlds in early medieval Britain and remediations of the past in computer games. He is an assistant lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin and published his book Roman Infrastructure in Early Medieval Britain: The Adaptations of the Past in Text and Stone in March 2021. Music credits: Intro: TeknoAXE, “Chiptune Nobility” (CC BY 4.0), interludes: TeknoAXE, “Lowly Tavern Bard – Fall is Upon Us” (CC BY 4.0), outro: Random Mind, “King’s Feast” (CC0). Transcript and more information at https://codingcodices.wordpress.com/2021/10/01/episode-7-facsimile-narratives/. Recorded 24 July 2021. Edited by Tessa Gengnagel.

Episode 6: Digital Archive & Materiality

In this episode, Caitlin Postal and James Harr talk to Eric Ensley and Matthew Kirschenbaum about the archive, both digital and material. Eric Ensley is a curator of rare books and maps at the University of Iowa. He received his PhD in English from Yale University in 2021 and holds an MLS from the University of North Carolina. Among his current projects is a digital edition of a Piers Plowman manuscript held in the Beinecke library, which he is co-authoring with Ian Cornelius of Loyola-Chicago. Matthew Kirschenbaum is a professor of English and Digital Studies at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination and Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing. His next book, Bitstreams: The Future of Digital Literary Heritage, will be published in the fall by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Music credits: Intro / outro: TeknoAXE, "Chiptune Nobility" (CC BY 4.0), interlude: Random Mind, "The Old Tower Inn" (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TMBF4zq4LQ). Transcript and more information at https://codingcodices.wordpress.com/2021/06/04/episode-6-digital-archive-materiality/. Recorded 26 March 2021. Edited by James Harr and Aylin Malcolm.

Episode 5: Global Medieval Studies

Dorothy Kim speaks about her work at the intersection of medieval studies and digital humanities, highlighting issues of race, globality,  and national identity and relating her research to work in other fields like bioarchaeology. She is co-director of the Archive of Early Middle English, a PI for the Global Middle Ages Project, and the medieval editor of the Orlando project. Recent and forthcoming publications discussed in this episode include Disrupting the Digital Humanities (2018), Alternative Historiographies of the Digital Humanities (forthcoming spring 2021) and Global Medieval Digital Humanities (tba). Music credits: Intro / outro: TeknoAXE, “Chiptune Nobility” (CC BY 4.0), interlude: “Suonatore di Liuto” by Kevin MacLeod (link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4440-suonatore-di-liuto, license: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license). Transcript and more information at https://codingcodices.wordpress.com/2021/05/05/episode-5-global-medieval-studies/. Recorded 27 November 2020. Edited by Aylin Malcolm and Tessa Gengnagel.