FYS 73 The World in Your Hands: A Haptic and Historic Exploration of The Book
In this course we will examine the evolution of information technologies through a globally diverse and inclusive lens. From cave paintings and clay tablets to scrolls, manuscripts and the early printed codex, from paperbacks and zines to e-readers and hypertext, you will move through this history with a hands-on experience. You will make models of wax tablets, papyrus scrolls, letterpress printed sheets from handset metal type and your final project will be to bind your collected class essays into a hand sewn hardbound book. Your understanding of the material will also be exercised through readings, seminar discussions, examination of primary materials in our library’s Special Collections Department and informal and formal written essays. Topics include: the introduction of the manuscript codex, the growth of literate culture, the invention of movable type and the impact of printing on scholarship, science, and religion, the distribution and marketing of books, the rise of a reading public, the shift from hand- to machine-powered printing, and the move from printed to electronic formats