Reflections and Feedback from England Presentation
taylorcate opened this issue · comments
Compiling reflections and feedback from my presentation, "Creating the Digital Variorum of Wordsworth's 'Nutting'" given at the Wordsworth Trust on March 6, 2019.
Some Thoughts...
Presenting at such an early stage on this project was extremely helpful because it has opened up the potential for collaboration and the integration of feedback immensely. Had I gone when the project was near "completion"—I use quotes to suggest the nonexistent finality of digital projects—I wouldn't have been able to mold the project around the desires and needs of, perhaps, the most critical actors in Wordsworth's history. I was also lucky to have met Jenny Dickinson, illustrator and current resident of the Lake District, who will be working with me to illustrate the poem.
While the tone and response to the presentation was generally very positive, I noticed a feeling of uncertainty throughout the beginning of my presentation as I described the failures of Iteration 1.0 and the technical peculiarities of the GitHub environment. Once I started breaking down Bryant's definition of a "fluid text" and began describing the particulars of the "flipbook" the response in the room turned from one of confusion to excitement. As I originally thought, the "flipbook" is the most intriguing and critical—despite being the most creative—element of the edition because of its interactive and multi-modal approach. Jeff advised me to think of the "gist" or "hook" for my project—a quick way of describing the significance of my project to various audiences without overwhelming them. From a marketing standpoint, this is very sound advice. I want to improve my methods for presenting this project to nonacademic audiences and for those audiences to arrive at my project—when I am not able to intervene and answer questions—with confidence in their abilities to have a meaningful interaction with the work. Another great reason to have practiced presenting on this project before my capstone presentation in April.
Below I've compiled pictures, taken by my wonderful mother, from the brief moments after the presentation when Jeff took us back to the the manuscript library to view the Dove Cottage Notebook wherein early versions of "Nutting" are contained. We discussed ways of calling upon the material bibliography of the manuscripts in the variorum illustrations (the whole of which Jenny and I will determine in Issue #23 and succeeding Issues).
