How does technology influence
the way we write and think?
The interdisciplinary class, HIST 4332: History of the Book, uses the approaches of history, studio art, and art history to explore the influence that changing technologies of writing—from cave paintings, to Gutenberg, to digital e-readers—had on the intellectual, political, and social formation of world cultures.
We also question whether a similar revolution is taking place in the digital age. In a seminar format, we focus on major developments in the technologies of representation—image-making, writing, printing—against their relevant social and historical backgrounds.
In addition to seminar-style discussions, practical workshops explore the physical technologies of the written and printed word through hands-on paper- and parchment-making, calligraphy and illumination, woodcutting, engraving, etching, lithography, letterpress printing, bookbinding, and digital publishing.
The course culminates in a final book-making project that uses one or more of these technologies to explore the boundaries between the oral and written, manuscript and print, self and “other”.
The projects featured here showcase creative student responses to the central question of the course:
History of the Book @ UNT 