Media and the Mind

Art, Science, and Notebooks as Paper Machines, 1700-1830

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

699 kr

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A beautifully illustrated argument that reveals notebooks as extraordinary paper machines that transformed knowledge on the page and in the mind.We often think of reason as a fixed entity, as a definitive body of facts that do not change over time. But during the Enlightenment, reason also was seen as a process, as a set of skills enacted on a daily basis. How, why, and where were these skills learned? Concentrating on Scottish students living during the long eighteenth century, this book argues that notebooks were paper machines and that notekeeping was a capability-building exercise that enabled young notekeepers to mobilize everyday handwritten and printed forms of material and visual media in a way that empowered them to judge and enact the enlightened principles they encountered in the classroom. Covering a rich selection of material ranging from simple scribbles to intricate watercolor diagrams, the book reinterprets John Locke’s comparison of the mind to a blank piece of paper, the tabula rasa. Although one of the most recognizable metaphors of the British Enlightenment, scholars seldom consider why it was so successful for those who used it. Each chapter uses one core notekeeping skill to reveal the fascinating world of material culture that enabled students in the arts, sciences, and humanities to transform the tabula rasa metaphor into a dynamic cognitive model. Starting in the home, moving to schools, and ending with universities, the book reconstructs the relationship between media and the mind from the bottom up. It reveals that the cognitive skills required to make and use notebooks were not simply aids to reason; rather, they were part of reason itself.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2023-07-11
Mått152 x 229 x 46 mm
Vikt966 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor512
FörlagThe University of Chicago Press
ISBN9780226183862

Tillhör följande kategorier

Historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Bibliographic NotePrologueIntroduction1. Recrafting NotebooksThe Tabula Rasa and Media InterfaceNotebooks as ArtifactsNotekeeping as ArtificingNotekeepers as ArtificersThought as a Realtime ActivityScience as a SystemBook OutlinePart I: Inside the Tabula Rasa2. WritingWriting as a Knowledge-Creating ToolThe Place of Writing within LiteracyScript and Observational LearningGrids and Verbal PicturesCopies and the Exercise of Memory3. CodexingPaper Machines as Material ArtifactsPaper as an Informatic MediumQuires and Knowledge ManagementBooks and Customized Packaging4. AnnotatingRevisibilia Made through AnnotationMarginalia as Scribal InterfaceParatexts and Editorial TrainingCiphers and the Acquisition of NumeracyPart II: Around the Tabula Rasa5. CategorizingHeadings as Realtime CategoriesHeadings as Mnemonic LabelsHeadings as Visual CuesHeadings as Coordinates for Scanpaths and Sightlines6. DrawingDescription and Movement across a PageLearning to Draw a PictureFigures as Developmental ToolsScenes as Observational TrainingObservation and the Utility of Perception7. MappingMapkeepers and Knowledge Systems on PaperMap-Mindedness and Embodied ExperienceDesk Maps as Crafted ConstructionsField-Mindedness in the ClassroomField Maps and Visualized DataMaps as Mnemonic DevicesPart III: Beyond the Tabula Rasa8. SystemizingThe Syllabus as a System and a MachineLecture Notebooks and Knowledge FormationThe Syllabus and Its Organizational TechnologiesScroll Books and the Strategies of Realtime LearningTranscripts and the Extension of MemoryLines and the Media of the Mind9. DiagrammingPaths and Diagrammatic KnowledgeSchemata as Useful Mnemonic AidsShapes as Repurposed Perceptual DevicesPictograms and Visual JudgmentTables as Kinesthetic DiagramsTraces and Realtime Observation10. CirculatingLocal and Global NetworksPersonal and Institutional LibrariesCommodities within Knowledge EconomiesCourts of Law and Public OpinionConclusion11. Rethinking ManuscriptsThe Tabula Rasa and ManuscriptsManuscripts as Dynamic ArtifactsManuscript Skills as ArtificeManuscript Keepers as ArtificersAcknowledgmentsBibliographyAbbreviationsPrimary SourcesManuscripts and EphemeraPrinted Primary SourcesSecondary SourcesIndex

“Roughly fifteen pages into taking notes on Eddy’s extraordinary Media and the Mind, I realized that the very practice this book unveils was in effect at my fingertips and right before my eyes. I was doing what Eddy describes almost by habit. My notes, his book, and this review, are best described as ‘paper machines.’ I say best described because what’s so fascinating about the work done in Eddy’s text renders explicit and visible, maybe for the first time, what goes missing when we read written works and create them. What’s missing is ‘work,’ which is defined here as an active and generative process, rather than a text in some static sense. . . . There is lots to learn and even more to enjoy in Media and the Mind.”