Ernesto Priego's blog. A personal repository of stuff.

Another one from the Lost Haiku series, in a hardcover black notebook (2019-2022).

Ernesto Priego

There is no thing as total stillness sound is movement then the wind there are clouds behind the sunshine I sit in a corner and count the pebbles the shade under a tree the leaves dance imperceptibly

Untitled

Eat Out to Help Out reversed social distancing guidance and contributed to a second Covid wave. Hate to say we told you so.

T

he UK Covid-19 Inquiry was set up “to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and learn lessons for the future”. At the time of typing this, you can catch up with the developments from the coverage here, or directly from the video recordings here, if you find the time. The evidence that has been presented at the Inquiry is hugely significant, but it is, sadly, nothing truly new.

UK Covid Inquiry: EOHO, Hate to Say We Told You So

The Lockdown Chronicles 32: Eglantyne

Merry Christmas and a happy new year! I made this ‘card’ reusing a British Library Public Domain digitised image from 1868.

Season’s Greetings 1868 (2022 Remix)

Twelveth comic in an experimental series, reusing public domain images from the British Library.

Mechanical Comics #12

Fourth comic in an experimental series, reusing public domain images from the British Library.

Mechanical Comics #4

Fifth comic in an experimental series, reusing public domain images from the British Library.

Mechanical Comics #5

Third comic in what now has become a new experimental series, reusing public domain images from the British Library.

Mechanical Comics #3

Originally posted on Digital Cultures (AMM 421): Time has flown and today we have the final session(s) of our Digital Cultures modules. We have attempted to offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives that might help us to re-configure the digital media/digital culture landscape.


Week 5: Digital Societies?

The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2: Paying Dividends (Eoho!)

The so-called Nabokov Genitalia Cabinet in Nabokov’s former office at Harvard University’s Comparative Zoology department. (Photograph from Nancy Pick’s and Mark Sloan’s The Rarest of the Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History).


Nabokov’s Cabinet

This term I will be leading the Libraries and Publishing in an Information Society (LAPIS) module at City University London.  The first session is tomorrow.


Libraries and Publishing in an Information Society (#LibPub)

The workshop will be held in person in conjunction with the Hypertext 2023 conference. I share the programe here.

Web/Comics 2023 is the first in a new workshop series for the ACM Hypertext conference. The workshop will be held in person in conjunction with the Hypertext 2023 conference, 4th September, at the Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome. I am very happy to be able to share the program below.

Web/Comics: 1st International Workshop on Webcomics and/as Hypertext, 4 September, Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome – Program

I shared two first drafts of a couple of alluvial charts I made visualising a dataset of the 25 highest scoring peer-reviewed articles with the term “Africa” in the title.


The Triple A: Africa, Access, Altmetrics

I am very happy to announce the publication of The Comics Grid’s latest special collection, out now in technicolour open access.


New Comics Grid Special Collection! ‘Rapid Responses: Comics in and of the Moment’

8. Los gallitos

35. El molcajete

An online event to launch The Lockdown Chronicles. A Comic Strip Quarantine by Ernesto Priego. Panel discussion and a virtual toast!


The Lockdown Chronicles Released On Print; Book Launch (Online) on the 2nd of November 2021, 7PM GMT

New year. Starting from our own positions.


Switch It Off and On Again

I hcreated an infographic showing the three interventions adivsed by SAGE:  more people working from home, facemasks in crowded indoor spaces, and ventilation.


COVID-19 ‘Personal Responsibility’ Infographic: 3 is the Magic Number

“A credible and touching picture of lockdown life.”


A Day in Lockdown:  COVID-19 Response comic depicts a day in the life of a family with a child with a disability

Happy Easter Holidays… (You might need to zoom-in).


The Lockdown Chronicles: After-effects

You are invited to this City HCID Research Seminar on the UK Coronavirus Dashboard via Zoom.


HCID Research Seminar: UK Coronavirus Dashboard: From Concept to Reality by Pouria Hadjibagheri [February 17, 2021 11:00 AM GMT]

I

have now deposited on figshare my deck of slides from my presentation yesterday in Part B of the Lightning Talks on Day 1 of the LIS Bibliometrics 2021 conference (28 April 2021).

 Priego, Ernesto (2021): Using the Altmetric Explorer for Responsible Metrics as a Researcher, Author and Journal Editor. figshare. Presentation.

Slides from #LISBIB21 Lightning Talk: Using the Altmetric Explorer for Responsible Metrics as a Researcher, Author and Journal Editor [28 April 2021]

Presentaré en el seminario virtual “Las ciencias sociales y los entornos digitales” de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.


Webinar: El campo de estudios del cómic y la narrativa gráfica – 16-03-2021, 9AM CST/3PM GMT #ComicsStudies

CHI2021 extended abstract now deposited.


Now Deposited: SketCHI 4.0: Hands-On Special Interest Group on Remote Sketching in HCI

Call for Expressions of Interest: Editorial Positions at The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship

The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2: Je Suis Bernie

Líneas compuestas en insomnio a modo de ahuyentar a los fantasmas.


Sueños de la Alhambra (sonsonete insomne de madrugada)

A new published poem by me in Visual verse, inspired by an image by Michael Easterling.


‘Definitions’,  in Visual Verse Vol. 8, Chapter 3 (January 2021)

100,000+ and counting. With apologies to W.H. Auden (1907–1973) and every Auden purist.


The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2- In Memoriam

Morrissey sobre México. De las páginas 450, 453-455. (Penguin Books 2013). Traducción de Ernesto Priego.


México en la Autobiografía de Morrissey

Maggie got her vaccine. Click on title to access.


The Post [?] Lockdown Chronicles: Maggie

The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2: Ski Holiday Postcard

The Semi-Lockdown Chronicles: Postcard from Half Term

I have finally taken the time to locate and restore the files that composed my 2003 MA dissertation, and to make them into a single PDF that I have now self-archived open access on figshare.


For What It’s Worth: Self-archiving My 2003 MA Dissertation on Art Spiegelman’s Maus

Episode 2 in a series of auobiographical vinyl-only lockdown sessions.


20th Century Boy-  Episode 2 in an Autobiographical Vinyl-Only Lockdown Sessions series

Can we design new, safe interactions for the pandemic world?


The Pandemic as Opportunity: Designing ‘New Normal’ Human Interactions

At The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship, the most frequent query I receive is about the time it takes to get a decision and get published. I share here my position on article processing times in the journal.


Modern Times: A Quick Note on Editorial and Peer Review Work in Accelerated Publish-or-Perish Academic Cultures

The Lockdown Chronicles 34: Susan

The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship is seeking contributions to its book reviews section.

The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship
 



is seeking contributions to its book reviews section. The journal seeks 2,000- to 2,500-word scholarly reviews of academic publications on comics and graphic novels, historical to contemporary, global north to global south, in all comics cultures.

The Comics Grid: Call for Comics Studies Book Reviews (Spring 2024)

O

nce more I feel inclined to write something about recovering time, focus and agency for ourselves. The very act of writing, and of writing something

 here

, is a key part of that need. Writing, not an email, not a text message, not work notes, not a post or comment on other social media, but taking the time to write, just because, as an attempt to make time and reconsider things.

The Practice of Writing for Self-Reflection and Agency

The Digital Humanities 2014 conference took place Monday 7 July 2014 – Saturday 12 July 2014 in Lausanne, Switzerland. I have shared on figshare an .XLS file containing a dataset of Tweets tagged with #dh2014 (case not sensitive).


An Incomplete #dh2014 Twitter Archive (Conference Days Only)

Where I write, being día de muertos, about my copies of Rulfo’s El llano en llamas and Pedro Páramo.

T

oday is 2 de noviembre, and as such it is and always will be día de muertos

 1

. Often an excuse not to write more is having ‘big’ topics that will become too complex and for which I won’t have the time to discuss as they deserve. Thought I could keep trying to write about some of the items in my personal library. As always, I am not promising anything.

Haunted by Juan Rulfo: On Books as Inheritance and Sites for Remembrance

Where I  look at some of the creative ways people responded to and processed the impact of the pandemic on their lives.

Covid Stories
 

uses material from across The British Library’s collections to highlight a variety of perspectives and reflections on the pandemic in the UK. These are grouped into reflective articles, each featuring a number of accessible ‘collection items’ to promote thought and discussion on this momentous period in our shared history.

 Covid Stories

was funded by UKRI AHRC as part of the ‘NHS Voices of

Creative responses to the Covid-19 pandemic – my article for The British Library’s Covid Stories

L

ike every year I drafted an end-of-year newsletter round-up for The Comics Grid this year. 2022 was our 12th year and therefore our 12th volume. I’d like to personally thank everyone involved in the production of the Grid: without everyone’s participation nothing would have been possible. For personal preservation purposes I have copied and pasted below the text from the newsletter.

Closing 2022 at The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship

It came to me in a dream: a poem about poetry is not poetry the words we use are never ours it cannot rhyme, 'cause times have changed the flow is out of joint, as is our world no periods, no accents, except the one we speak with we write in tongues we were not born with it came to me in a dream I no longer remember only the voice of a friend asking where I was and we write like kittens licking a blank page on a typewriter our language sandpaper

It Came to Me In a Dream

Webcomics/hypertext scholars! There’s still time to submit. See you in Rome or online?

The workshop will be held in person in conjunction with the Hypertext 2023 conference, 4 or 5 September, at the Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome. Remote participation can be considered. Participants are asked to submit a short lightning paper representing current work or original thinking in this area with the intention of encouraging interactive group discussion.

CFP: Web/Comics 2023- deadline extended to July 4; Workshop 4 September

29. El soplador

Recording of Professor Jonathan W. Gray’s 20 February 2023 talk at City, University of London.

J

onathan W. Gray, Associate Professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center and John Jay College, talked on the representation of race and disability in comics at City, University of London, on Monday, 20th February 2023. We have now shared the video recording.

Recording: Social Depths: Representing Race &amp; Disability in Comics &amp; Graphic Novels – Jonathan W. Gray

3. La calavera

4. El brasero

1. El sombrero

Second poem in the Lotería series. In hay(na)ku form.


13. El yoyo

First poem in what hopefully will be a series. This one in hay(na)ku form.


7. La matraca

On Wednesday 27th October 2021, as part of International Open Access Week, I will participate in the OLH Editors Workshop within the panel “Inclusivity in Scholarly Publishing”.


Discussing Inclusivity in Scholarly Publishing within the Open Library of Humanities Editors Workshop, Wednesday 27th October 2021, 2-5pm (UK time)

Webinar. Thursday May 27, 2021 from 10:00am – 11:30am Zoom (no registration required).


May Online Research Café: Using Arts-informed Research Approaches to Explore the Lived Experiences of Dementia

Thinking about this issue of the “pastness” of my record collection and the “presentness” of playback. Includes episode 1 of a series of autobiographical sessions.


20th Century Boy- Notes on Listening and Recording Vinyl Records as an Autobiographical Practice

The Lockdown Chronicles 40: Daniel

Announcing User’s Manual, a newsletter for new writing.


User’s Manual: A New Writing Project…

[This event was recorded and has been archived on the Embassy’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Embamexru/videos/158542686331722/ – no Facebook account required] This year’s Learning Disability Week will take place from 14 – 20 June 2021. The theme will be art and creativity.


#LearningDisabilityWeek 2021 Online Event: Chat on Covid-19 Response Comics at the Embassy of Mexico in the UK [15 June, 5-6 PM BST] #LDWeek2021 #LDArtWeek

The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2: One-Way Road

The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2: Burnout

Freedom of Speech Trading Cards

The Lockdown Chronicles Year 2: Square One (but Much Worse)

To wrap-up the year and the decade…. Dunley, K., Priego, E. and Wilkins, P., 2020. Our Pandemic Year: On the Comics Scholarship to Come.


Wrapping up the 10th Volume of The Comics Grid! Our Pandemic Year: On the Comics Scholarship to Come

Este jueves 10 de diciembre de 2020 a las 02:00 p.m. (hora Colombia) | 07:00 p.m. (hora Londres) participaré en el III Encuentro de Investigadores, Editores y Bibliotecólogos organizado por la Editorial Uniagustiniana, en el panel titulado “Ciencia en 280 caracteres: difusión científica y redes sociales”.


Online Panel: Research Dissemination and Social Media: III Encuentro de Investigadores, Editores y Bibliotecólogos, 10/12/2020 @UniagustOficial

Un no-poema pandémico

The Non-Lockdown Chronicles 3: Expecto Patronum!

Like London buses, two new journal articles appeared nearly at the same time today.


Two New Articles Published Today: ‘Where Comics and Cultural Heritage Meet’ and  ‘Uses of Comics by Mental Health and Social Care Library Users’

The Lockdown Chronicles 27: Ludwig

“Comics as COVID-19 Response: Visualising the Experience of Video-conferencing with Ageing Relatives” was published yesterday in ACM Interactions Magazine.


In ACM Interactions Magazine: Comics as COVID-19 Response: Visualising the Experience of Video-conferencing

The Lockdown Chronicles 7: Sarah

The Lockdown Chronicles 39: Bernard

The Lockdown Chronicles 24: Herman

The Lockdown Chronicles 18: Walt

Virginia said she would order the flowers herself.


The Lockdown Chronicles 14: Virginia

Pepys keeps count of the increasing fatalities, and the safety he feels being in the “City” relatively diminishes as the plague gets very close home.


“In a sickly time”: Reading Pepys in 2020

Juana is looking after her sick sisters.


The Lockdown Chronicles 9: Juana

Samuel is an extrovert. Staying at home is hard for him.


The Lockdown Chronicles 4: Samuel

Francisco de la Mora and I co-created a poster for a call by the World Health Organisation to use any creative medium to produce work that captures one of their coronavirus key messages. We submitted this poster under the “Viral Contagion” theme.


Physical Distancing: Everyone is Different; Let’s Be Kind

I woke up this morning thinking/T.S. Eliot had no clue


The Burial of the Dead

Announcing the release of a new output in the Parables of Care series:  I Know How This Ends: Stories of Dementia Care (2020).


Using narrative to convey the experience of dementia care-giving: I Know How This Ends: Stories of Dementia Care

The British Library and City, University of London will offer a fully-funded PhD studentship on ‘Understanding UK digital comics information and publishing practices: From creation to consumption.’


Digital Comics AHRC Collaborative PhD Opportunities with the British Library

A new translation of Parables of Care (2017) makes comic about  creative responses to dementia care available to German speaking audiences


Parabeln der Pflege: new translation of Parables of Care makes comic about dementia care available to German-speaking audiences

Sharing the podcast in memoriam Manrico Montero.


Manrico Montero (1973-2018) In Memoriam

The advert for the UK Digital Comics information and publishing practices: from creation to consumption PhD studentship opportunity is now available.


PhD studentship-Understanding UK digital comics information and publishing practices: From creation to consumption

Here’s a listing of the articles we published during 2019, our 9th volume, by section.


This was 2019 in The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship (Vol. 9)

Today I will give a talk as part of the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design’s HCID Research Seminar series: The Question Concerning Comics as Technology: Gestell and Grid. Implications for HCID.


HCID Research Seminar:  The Question Concerning Comics as Technology: Gestell and Grid. Implications for HCID

On learning to interrogate our own privilege in order to build more transparent, accountable, fairer scholarly organisations.


Openness, Transparency, Accountability: On New Ways of Being Scholarly

I will present at the HCID Open Day 2018 on Friday 4th May at City, University of London as part of the knowledge exchange and impact activities around the Parables of Care project.


Presenting at HCID Open Day 2018: On Comics and  Collaborative Art Practice as Human-Computer Interaction Methodology

Creating Comics, Creative Comics is a 2-day academic symposium. Friday June 1st &amp; Saturday June 2nd 2018.


Presenting at The First USW Cardiff: Comics Symposium- Creating Comics, Creative Comics

I was interviewed by the Open Library of Humanities for their Open Insights series today, part of their EmpowOA programme.


Open Insights Interview

En el pasado se te acababa el papel o la tinta.


Impasse

Dr Simon Grennan (University of Chester) will present at the HCID Research Seminar series at City, University of London (College Building, Room A214) tomorrow Friday 17 November at 1pm.


HCID Research Seminar: Making Parables of Care

Segunda entrada en esta serie. Espero no la última.


Última parada

Parables of Care, a comic that adapts dementia care stories from the Care’N’Share app, is out now.


Parables of Care: A Comic About Dementia Care, Available for Free

Dr Abi Roper is speech and language therapist and researcher passionate about technology use within atypical speech &amp; language populations. Recently Abi asked me some questions about working on Parables of Care.


Interviewed by Abi Roper re: Parables of Care

Repository Fringe is a gathering for repository managers and others interested in research data repositories and publication repositories. I collected an archive of #rfringe17, containing 1118 Tweet IDs. I then analysed the text of the tweets with Voyant Tools to identify most frequent terms and refined the results to 230 terms.


#rfringe17: Top 230 Terms in Tweetage

The Great 78 Project is a community project for the preservation, research and discovery of 78rpm records. I made a quick mix with some of my favourite tunes.


The Strangest Secret: A Great 78s Mix

Everything is Connected

<img data-attachment-id="6661" data-permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/03/31/in-a-sickly-time-reading-pepys-in-2020/samuel_pepys/" data-orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg" data-orig-size="1280,1500" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="Samuel_Pepys" data-image-description="&lt;p&gt;Samuel Pepys, Image via Wikipedia. Image file by John Hayls &#8211; Walthamstow Weekender (file), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=210769&lt;/p&gt;
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=256" data-large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=874" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-6661" src="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=359&#038;h=421" alt="Samuel Pepys, Image via Wikipedia. Image file by John Hayls - Walthamstow Weekender (file), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=210769" width="359" height="421" srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=359&amp;h=421 359w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=718&amp;h=842 718w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=128&amp;h=150 128w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/samuel_pepys.jpg?w=256&amp;h=300 256w" sizes="(max-width: 359px) 100vw, 359px" />
&nbsp;
I have a little bookcase where I have books about London, short story collections and other brief volumes (such as Penguin&#8217;s <a href="http://www.littleblackclassics.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Little Black Classics</a>) thinking of visitors who might want a quick read. Lately this bookcase has been my go-to resource when I can&#8217;t sleep.
Last night, unable to go to bed early worrying about everything that&#8217;s happening in the world, at work and at home, nearby and faraway, I grabbed one of those Penguins, number 47, &#8220;The Great Fire of London&#8221;, containing entries from The Diary of Samuel Pepys dated May 1st to June 31st, 1665, and September 2nd to 15th, 1666.
It&#8217;s common-place now to think of Pepys as a 17th century protoblogger. I have, in the past, many a time recurred to the Diary in a second-hand two-volume Everyman edition I treasure. I like dipping in and out from it at random.
&nbsp;
<img data-attachment-id="6668" data-permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/03/31/in-a-sickly-time-reading-pepys-in-2020/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12-15-42/" data-orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png" data-orig-size="854,1254" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol I., Everyman&#8217;s Classics" data-image-description="&lt;p&gt;My copy of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol I., Everyman&#8217;s Classics &lt;/p&gt;
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=204" data-large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=697" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-6668" src="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=397&#038;h=583" alt="My copy of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol I., Everyman's Classics" width="397" height="583" srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=397&amp;h=583 397w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=794&amp;h=1166 794w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=102&amp;h=150 102w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=204&amp;h=300 204w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=768&amp;h=1128 768w" sizes="(max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px" />
The first half of the little Penguin volume, May 1st to June 31st, 1665, contains many references to the plague. What&#8217;s striking to me is how contemporary the account feels- though Pepys was noticeably concerned about the &#8220;encrease&#8221; of the plague, he also continued his daily life as socially active as ever, kissing people&#8217;s hands and all.
Pepys keeps count of the increasing fatalities, and the safety he feels being in the &#8220;City&#8221; relatively diminishes as the plague gets very close home:
10 June 1665
<blockquote>
In the evening home to supper, and there to my great trouble hear that the plague is come into the City (though it hath these three or four weeks since its beginning been wholly out of the City); but where should it begin but in my good friend and neighbour&#8217;s, Dr Burnett in Fanchurch-street &#8211; which in both points troubles me mightily.
</blockquote>
15 June 1665
<blockquote>
The town grows very sickly, and people to be afeared of it &#8211; there dying this last week of the plague 112, from 43 the week before &#8211; whereof, one in Fanchurch-street and one in Broadstreete by the Treasurer&#8217;s office.
</blockquote>
26 June 1665
<blockquote>The plague encreases mightily- I this day, seeing a house, at a bittmakers over against St Clements church in the open street, shut up; which is a sad sight.</blockquote>
The last entry from 1665 in the Penguin edition I read last night is from 30 June, where Pepys writes:
<blockquote>
Myself and family in good health, consisting of myself and wife &#8211; Mercer, her woman &#8211; Mary, Alice and Su, our maids; and Tom, my boy. In a sickly time, of the plague growing on.
</blockquote>
The Diary of Samuel Pepys is online at<a href="https://www.pepysdiary.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> https://www.pepysdiary.com/</a>and selections from entries mentioning the plague can be found at <a href="http://www.pepys.info/1665/plague.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.pepys.info/1665/plague.html</a>.
&nbsp;

![Samuel Pepys, Image via Wikipedia. Image file by John Hayls -
Walthamstow Weekender (file), Public Domain,
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image-title="Samuel_Pepys"
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sizes="(max-width: 359px) 100vw, 359px"}

 

**I** have a little bookcase where I have books about London, short
story collections and other brief volumes (such as Penguin's [Little
Black Classics](http://www.littleblackclassics.com/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}) thinking of visitors who might want a quick read.
Lately this bookcase has been my go-to resource when I can't sleep.

Last night, unable to go to bed early worrying about everything that's
happening in the world, at work and at home, nearby and faraway, I
grabbed one of those Penguins, number 47, "The Great Fire of London",
containing entries from The Diary of Samuel Pepys dated May 1st to June
31st, 1665, and September 2nd to 15th, 1666.

It's common-place now to think of Pepys as a 17th century protoblogger.
I have, in the past, many a time recurred to the Diary in a second-hand
two-volume Everyman edition I treasure. I like dipping in and out from
it at random.

 

![My copy of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol I., Everyman\'s
Classics](https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=397&h=583){.alignnone
.wp-image-6668 attachment-id="6668"
permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/03/31/in-a-sickly-time-reading-pepys-in-2020/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12-15-42/"
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image-title="The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol I., Everyman’s Classics"
image-description="My copy of The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol I., Everyman’s Classics 
" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/screenshot-2020-03-31-at-12.15.42.png?w=204"
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sizes="(max-width: 397px) 100vw, 397px"}

The first half of the little Penguin volume, May 1st to June 31st, 1665,
contains many references to the plague. What's striking to me is how
contemporary the account feels- though Pepys was noticeably concerned
about the "encrease" of the plague, he also continued his daily life as
socially active as ever, kissing people's hands and all.

Pepys keeps count of the increasing fatalities, and the safety he feels
being in the "City" relatively diminishes as the plague gets very close
home:

**10 June 1665**

> In the evening home to supper, and there to my great trouble hear that
> the plague is come into the City (though it hath these three or four
> weeks since its beginning been wholly out of the City); but where
> should it begin but in my good friend and neighbour's, Dr Burnett in
> Fanchurch-street -- which in both points troubles me mightily.

**15 June 1665**

> The town grows very sickly, and people to be afeared of it -- there
> dying this last week of the plague 112, from 43 the week before --
> whereof, one in Fanchurch-street and one in Broadstreete by the
> Treasurer's office.

**26 June 1665**

> The plague encreases mightily- I this day, seeing a house, at a
> bittmakers over against St Clements church in the open street, shut
> up; which is a sad sight.

The last entry from 1665 in the Penguin edition I read last night is
from 30 June, where Pepys writes:

> Myself and family in good health, consisting of myself and wife --
> Mercer, her woman -- Mary, Alice and Su, our maids; and Tom, my boy.
> In a sickly time, of the plague growing on.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys is online at
[https://www.pepysdiary.com/](https://www.pepysdiary.com/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}and selections from entries mentioning the plague can be
found at
[http://www.pepys.info/1665/plague.html](http://www.pepys.info/1665/plague.html){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.

<div class="embed-twitter">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/danielarosner?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@danielarosner</a> <a href="https://t.co/KeGW6z3eh8">pic.twitter.com/KeGW6z3eh8</a>
&mdash; Alex Taylor (@alxndrt) <a href="https://twitter.com/alxndrt/status/1241339780165767169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 21, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
As expected I have been too busy to sit down and make another video. I made an extra video for my students instead.
Last night a friend shared <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/25/hundreds-thousands-uk-students-call-tuition-fee-refunds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this</a>. The news arrives at a time in which I have been taking action to support in any way that I can students and colleagues online. Personally, I have also been trying to support those businesses that have been now closed due to coronavirus and who will surely struggle, such as bookshops, record shops, indie bands and musicians, newspapers and magazines that I like. For the time being, while I can, I am happy to make an extra financial effort that hopefully sends a small message of appreciation and support.
This led to me reflect out loud, as one does, on <a href="https://twitter.com/ernestopriego/status/1243131323474227200" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a Twitter thread today. </a>I have reused some of that writing below, expanding on some related ideas.
I&#8217;m not a political economist but I find it sadly ironic that a system that eminently depends on the circulation of capital simultaneously would be so efficient at making participants so disconnected/alienated from the economic responsibilities and consequences of our actions.
The student petition covered by the BBC in the link above made me write in the thread that in the case of higher education it&#8217;s clear its marketisation is embedded in a system that depends on social polarisation; the dehumanisation of universities and their staff, seen by some stakeholders as semi-automated service providers.
I do think we had not experienced in our lifetimes such a paradigmatic moment where the consequences of fostering market competition through rankings, metrics, funding allocation, student fees will demonstrate its most acutely negative consequences. Where the educational experience has been transformed into an experience that can be bought and satisfaction measured (like one books, say, a package holiday or a cruise) we can&#8217;t be surprised solidarity and empathy between competing providers and their consumers will be scarce.
It is now more than ever that we urgently require solidarity between everyone who is part of society (and that is everyone); this is essential if we want any resemblance of an optimistic present and future to take place. The system of exchange we have all embraced has disconnected consumption from production and has made consumers believe they are always right and in a position to get what they want when they want it how they want it, irrespective of context.
Attitudes to Higher Education do not exist in a vacuum. In the context of immigration, health care and welfare we see a similar phenomenon too, where those &#8216;unskilled&#8217; workers that a hostile environment has made its best to exclude are very likely to be the ones keeping society running at the moment. One wonders how many deaths could have been and be avoided if only the NHS, welfare, education, equality and societal cohesion had been priority instead of the sustained campaign against it in recent years, fueled by the bigotry of those who favour &#8216;the market&#8217; over human rights.
Though it&#8217;s easy to focus on what seems negative or pessimistic about the ideas above, I&#8217;d like to emphasise that what I seek is to communicate the urgent need for greater empathy and solidarity. It is possible for an apparently optimistic stand point, that focuses on individual, family unit or organisational self-care to fit within the structures of alienation/disconnect that have enabled inequality in our societies.
Any optimistic or &#8216;positive&#8217; approaches to the coronavirus pandemic should, in my opinion, be framed and motivated by an awareness of the interconnectedness of everyone and everything. In order for us to be well others need to be well too, and others will be well only if we are well too. It goes both ways- and this wellness is also dependent on the circulation of capital, and this depends on people&#8217;s ability to earn a living. The pandemic affects everyone- and this means it affects everything we humans do.
Finding the balance between critically engaging with what is happening and trying to maintain a semblance of normality is important, but not easy. Gramsci&#8217;s motto, &#8220;Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will&#8221;  calls for this ongoing interrogation of what happens whilst having trust in our ability to stand up to challenges pragmatically and strategically. There cannot be solidarity and empathy unless there is awareness of difference, and this implies an awareness of privilege, and of the fragility of that privilege.
In a time in which nearly everyone has the ability to broadcast publicly aspects of their private lives, and when many -but definitely not all- will be at home, some of which will be working from home- it&#8217;s to me essential that we try to reflect on the interconnectedness of everything- home, until recently the quintaessential &#8216;private&#8217; space, does not exist outside society, even if we never physically leave it.
When we make a complaint or ask for our money back, when we buy all the possible loo roll packets we can afford at once- let&#8217;s think carefully about the consequences those actions have on others and on ourselves. This is not a time to treat others, including organisations or services, as mere means to an end- but as key interconnected points in the wide network of society- all playing a role, and forced to play many other roles whilst under these exceptional circumstances.
&nbsp;

::: {.embed-twitter}
> .[@danielarosner](https://twitter.com/danielarosner?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [pic.twitter.com/KeGW6z3eh8](https://t.co/KeGW6z3eh8)
>
> --- Alex Taylor (@alxndrt) [March 21,
> 2020](https://twitter.com/alxndrt/status/1241339780165767169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
:::

 

 

**A**s expected I have been too busy to sit down and make another video.
I made an extra video for my students instead.

Last night a friend shared
[this](https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/25/hundreds-thousands-uk-students-call-tuition-fee-refunds){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. The news arrives at a time in which I have been taking
action to support in any way that I can students and colleagues online.
Personally, I have also been trying to support those businesses that
have been now closed due to coronavirus and who will surely struggle,
such as bookshops, record shops, indie bands and musicians, newspapers
and magazines that I like. For the time being, while I can, I am happy
to make an extra financial effort that hopefully sends a small message
of appreciation and support.

This led to me reflect out loud, as one does, on [a Twitter thread
today.](https://twitter.com/ernestopriego/status/1243131323474227200){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} I have reused some of that writing below, expanding on
some related ideas.

I'm not a political economist but I find it sadly ironic that a system
that eminently depends on the circulation of capital simultaneously
would be so efficient at making participants so disconnected/alienated
from the economic responsibilities and consequences of our actions.

The student petition covered by the BBC in the link above made me write
in the thread that in the case of higher education it's clear its
marketisation is embedded in a system that depends on social
polarisation; the dehumanisation of universities and their staff, seen
by some stakeholders as semi-automated service providers.

I do think we had not experienced in our lifetimes such a paradigmatic
moment where the consequences of fostering market competition through
rankings, metrics, funding allocation, student fees will demonstrate its
most acutely negative consequences. Where the educational experience has
been transformed into an experience that can be bought and satisfaction
measured (like one books, say, a package holiday or a cruise) we can't
be surprised solidarity and empathy between competing providers and
their consumers will be scarce.

It is now more than ever that we urgently require solidarity between
everyone who is part of society (and that is everyone); this is
essential if we want any resemblance of an optimistic present and future
to take place. The system of exchange we have all embraced has
disconnected consumption from production and has made consumers believe
they are always right and in a position to get what they want when they
want it how they want it, irrespective of context.

Attitudes to Higher Education do not exist in a vacuum. In the context
of immigration, health care and welfare we see a similar phenomenon too,
where those 'unskilled' workers that a hostile environment has made its
best to exclude are very likely to be the ones keeping society running
at the moment. One wonders how many deaths could have been and be
avoided if only the NHS, welfare, education, equality and societal
cohesion had been priority instead of the sustained campaign against it
in recent years, fueled by the bigotry of those who favour 'the market'
over human rights.

Though it's easy to focus on what seems negative or pessimistic about
the ideas above, I'd like to emphasise that what I seek is to
communicate the urgent need for greater empathy and solidarity. It is
possible for an apparently optimistic stand point, that focuses on
individual, family unit or organisational self-care to fit within the
structures of alienation/disconnect that have enabled inequality in our
societies.

Any optimistic or 'positive' approaches to the coronavirus pandemic
should, in my opinion, be framed and motivated by an awareness of the
interconnectedness of everyone and everything. In order for us to be
well others need to be well too, and others will be well only if we are
well too. It goes both ways- and this wellness is also dependent on the
circulation of capital, and this depends on people's ability to earn a
living. The pandemic affects everyone- and this means it affects
everything we humans do.

Finding the balance between critically engaging with what is happening
and trying to maintain a semblance of normality is important, but not
easy. Gramsci's motto, "Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the
Will"  calls for this ongoing interrogation of what happens whilst
having trust in our ability to stand up to challenges pragmatically and
strategically. There cannot be solidarity and empathy unless there is
awareness of difference, and this implies an awareness of privilege, and
of the fragility of that privilege.

In a time in which nearly everyone has the ability to broadcast publicly
aspects of their private lives, and when many -but definitely not all-
will be at home, some of which will be working from home- it's to me
essential that we try to reflect on the interconnectedness of
everything- home, until recently the quintaessential 'private' space,
does not exist outside society, even if we never physically leave it.

When we make a complaint or ask for our money back, when we buy all the
possible loo roll packets we can afford at once- let's think carefully
about the consequences those actions have on others and on ourselves.
This is not a time to treat others, including organisations or services,
as mere means to an end- but as key interconnected points in the wide
network of society- all playing a role, and forced to play many other
roles whilst under these exceptional circumstances.

 


Any optimistic or ‘positive’ approaches to the coronavirus pandemic should be framed and motivated by an awareness of the interconnectedness of everyone and everything.


“Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will”: Empathy and Solidarity in the Times of COVID-19

These are exceptional times. Trying out something new here, not without some embarrassment. Hope someone finds it interesting.
&nbsp;
<iframe class="youtube-player" width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mKOrUCrrY78?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen="true" style="border:0;" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe>

**T**hese are exceptional times. Trying out something new here, not
without some embarrassment. Hope someone finds it interesting.

 

[]{.embed-youtube style="text-align:center; display: block;"}


I have started a YouTube ‘vlog’. yes I have.


Strategies for Exceptional Times: The Coronavirus Diaries

<div class="wpcom-reblog-snapshot"><div class="reblogger-note"><div class='reblogger-note-content'><blockquote>Looking forward to Creating Comics, Creative Comics 2020: BEYOND! a comics symposium in Cardiff!
</blockquote></div></div><div class="reblog-post"><img alt='' src='https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/17d93dffb1b1e1473856bf43d386de4b5763f1ee6d11f6833487871fce79701f?s=32&#038;d=&#038;r=G' class='avatar avatar-32' height='32' width='32' loading='lazy' /><a href="https://creatingcomicscreativecomicssymposium.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/programme/">Creating Comics, Creative Comics 2020</a><div class="reblogged-content">


Monday 6th April. 0930-1030CA B414 Studio Theatre.Registration andWelcome.





1030–Keynote.Dr.Sarah Lightman.Building Bridges: Art, Life and Comics.





1130–ComicsCreation





Alexander James Pollard–The Precognitive Painting Programme.





DanielGoodbrey–How to Cheat at Comics – DigitalAlternatives toTraditionalTechniques forComicIllustration.





Leonie Sharrock– Memories of Story-Self and the Insides ofOldEnvelopes:theMaking of aCollage-comic, ‘Unwritten’.





1300–LUNCH





1400–AdaptationPractices





Lena Lenny– Slovene Literature in Comics – Adaptation ofLiteraryClassics.





SimonGrennan– RationalisingGraphicAdaptation as aMethod ofInterrogating theImpact of French Theatre in Victorian London.





Geraint D’Arcy–MakingTheatreTechnologyComics.





1530–Writing Practice





Hailey Austin– CreatingCommando.





BrianFagence–ConstructingEntropy, Deconstructing Practice.





1630END DAY 1





Tuesday 7th April. 1000– Registration Day 2.





1030–EsotericComics





Barbara Chamberlin–WalkingWyrd:Comics,Collaboration andCunningFolk.





LisaKottas– Sight Beyond Sight: TheConscious Aesthetics ofJibaMoleiAnderson’sThe Horsemen.





MartinSchwarzenbacher–…
</div><a href="https://creatingcomicscreativecomicssymposium.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/programme/">View original post</a> 89 more words</div></div>

::: {.wpcom-reblog-snapshot}
::: {.reblogger-note}
::: {.reblogger-note-content}
> Looking forward to Creating Comics, Creative Comics 2020: BEYOND! a
> comics symposium in Cardiff!
:::
:::

::: {.reblog-post}
![](https://1.gravatar.com/avatar/17d93dffb1b1e1473856bf43d386de4b5763f1ee6d11f6833487871fce79701f?s=32&d=&r=G){.avatar
.avatar-32 height="32" width="32" loading="lazy"}[Creating Comics,
Creative Comics
2020](https://creatingcomicscreativecomicssymposium.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/programme/)

::: {.reblogged-content}
Monday 6th April.  
0930-1030CA B414 Studio Theatre.**Registration andWelcome**.

**1030--Keynote.Dr.Sarah Lightman.*Building Bridges: Art, Life and
Comics*.**

1130--**ComicsCreation**

**Alexander James Pollard**--The Precognitive Painting Programme.

**DanielGoodbrey**--How to Cheat at Comics -- DigitalAlternatives
toTraditionalTechniques forComicIllustration.

**Leonie Sharrock**-- Memories of Story-Self and the Insides
ofOldEnvelopes:theMaking of aCollage-comic, 'Unwritten'.

**1300**--**LUNCH**

1400--**AdaptationPractices**

**Lena Lenny**-- Slovene Literature in Comics -- Adaptation
ofLiteraryClassics.

**SimonGrennan**-- RationalisingGraphicAdaptation as aMethod
ofInterrogating theImpact of French Theatre in Victorian London.

**Geraint D'Arcy--**MakingTheatreTechnologyComics.

1530--**Writing Practice**

**Hailey Austin**-- Creating*Commando*.

**BrianFagence**--Constructing*Entropy*, Deconstructing Practice**.**

**1630END DAY 1**

Tuesday 7th April.  
1000-- Registration Day 2.

1030--**EsotericComics**

**Barbara Chamberlin**--WalkingWyrd:Comics,Collaboration andCunningFolk.

**LisaKottas**-- Sight Beyond Sight: TheConscious Aesthetics
ofJibaMoleiAnderson's*The Horsemen.*

**MartinSchwarzenbacher**--...
:::

[View original
post](https://creatingcomicscreativecomicssymposium.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/programme/)
[89 more words]{.more-words}
:::
:::


Originally posted on Creating Comics, Creative Comics 2020: Monday 6th April.0930-1030?CA B414 Studio Theatre.?Registration and?Welcome.? 1030?–?Keynote.??Dr.?Sarah Lightman.?Building Bridges: Art, Life and Comics.? 1130?–?Comics?Creation?? Alexander James Pollard?–?The Precognitive Painting Programme.? Daniel?Goodbrey?–?How to Cheat at Comics – Digital?Alternatives to?Traditional?Techniques for?Comic?Illustration.? Leonie Sharrock?– Memories of


PROGRAMME

I published the following text on the <a href="https://blogs.city.ac.uk/hcidcomicsgames/2020/02/05/power_records_narrative_design_transmedia_archaeology/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HCID Comics, Games &amp; Media Research Group blog</a>.<img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="6577" data-permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/02/05/stories-of-designs-past-narrative-design-transmedia-archaeology/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07-49-43/" data-orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg" data-orig-size="1600,1200" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="Star Trek Spider-man 7&#8243; records front" data-image-description="&lt;p&gt;Star Trek Spider-man 7&#8243; records front &lt;/p&gt;
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=300" data-large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=1024" class="alignnone wp-image-6577" src="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=739" alt="Star Trek Spider-man 7&quot; records (front)" width="530" height="397" srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=530 530w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=1060 1060w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=768 768w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=1024 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px" /><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="6576" data-permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/02/05/stories-of-designs-past-narrative-design-transmedia-archaeology/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07-49-56/" data-orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg" data-orig-size="1600,1113" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="Star Trek Spider-man 7&#8243; records back" data-image-description="&lt;p&gt;Star Trek Spider-man 7&#8243; records back&lt;/p&gt;
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=300" data-large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=1024" class="alignnone wp-image-6576" src="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=739" alt="Star Trek Spider-man 7&quot; records back" width="530" height="368" srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=530 530w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=1058 1058w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=768 768w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=1024 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px" /><img loading="lazy" data-attachment-id="6575" data-permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/02/05/stories-of-designs-past-narrative-design-transmedia-archaeology/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07-50-11/" data-orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg" data-orig-size="1600,1179" data-comments-opened="0" data-image-meta="{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}" data-image-title="Star Trek Spider-man 7&#8243; records (vinyl, labels)" data-image-description="&lt;p&gt;Star Trek Spider-man 7&#8243; records (vinyl, labels)&lt;/p&gt;
" data-image-caption="" data-medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=300" data-large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=1024" class="alignnone wp-image-6575" src="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=739" alt="Star Trek Spider-man 7&quot; records (vinyl, labels)" width="530" height="390" srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=530 530w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=1060 1060w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=768 768w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=1024 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px" />

[Provisional draft notes shared as a prompt for future research group discussion]

My interest in<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/bibliography-and-the-sociology-of-texts/CF5FE52FD90E0B79D8583FF675C4923D" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> the sociology of texts</a>, transmedia storytelling and the role of materiality in the reading/collecting/reception/user experience, particularly in the case of comic book cultures, originally found a welcoming conceptual framework within the digital humanities. Recently, my interest has been evolving towards exploring the role of <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.5555/2031425" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">media archaeology</a> within human-computer interaction design.

Media archaeology, as discussed by Jussi Parikka (2011), is a branch of media history that studies contemporary media culture by looking into past (also called “residual”) media technologies and practices. Media archaeology takes a special interest in practices, devices and inventions that may be now otherwise forgotten. It addresses the rapid obsolescence of software and hardware, and poses that their collection, preservation, conservation and study can provide important context for multidisciplinary analysis and innovation.

In particular, I have been recently drafting arguments and potential methodological and domain approaches to critical narrative design and speculative design (sometimes also called “design fiction”, though both terms are not always used to mean the same thing). Needless to say, all these terms have specific meanings and require further clarification and discussion, even for the initiated, let alone those new to them. For an intro into the relationships between the terms “critical design” and “speculative design”, I recommend  Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s books, Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects (2001) and Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming (2013).

According to Henry Jenkins (<a href="http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html">2007</a>), “transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” Transmedia is a mainstream term within contemporary literary and cultural studies, but its application and study goes beyond the mainstream humanities.  Interaction designers are well aware that humans “are increasingly living their lives […] in multisensory, narrative driven ways” (Spaulding and Faste <a href="https://0-doi-org.wam.city.ac.uk/10.1145/2470654.2481394" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2013</a>).

I took the photos above of two items in my record collection. They are two 7″ vinyl records containing the audio recordings of two stories based on characters, situations and fictional worlds at the time (late 1970s) mostly developed through comic books (today it would probably be film, rather than comics). I played them the other day and I was once again amazed at how immersive and engaging (in spite of some unavoidable and fully expected silliness that hasn’t aged well). As storytelling, both recordings qualify as fully immersive devices that expand fictional universes beyond their original media and that stimulate the imagination via different senses in a media-specific way. (For more context on these records and the label that released them, see Ettelson <a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-avengers-age-of-analog-the-power-records-story-bf824e78e4bf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2015</a>).

This brief note is meant to share my interest in continuing exploring how media archaeology approaches to examples like these audio comic books in 7″ vinyl,  can help us understand better how “residual media” could offer valuable context into the affordances of transmedia in both a pre-digital and in a fully networked, digital, cloud-based eras. This implies that “transmedia” is (of course) not only a 21st century phenomenon.

Within the field of HCI it is now well known that storytelling is a critical design tool in human-computer interaction, in particular by addressing how an exploration of potential futures can inform strategies around the problems of the present (see for example Dow et al<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/external-representations-ubiquitous-computing-design-implications-design-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> 2006</a>). How do form and content, materiality and information, inter-relate to participate in the user experience?  Storytelling can also be a powerful strategy to understand the designs of the past, and to understand how these designs always-already include future designs- what can we learn from the design of things past, what stories do these objects tell, and what kind of insights can we obtain from them to design the present and the future?

Hoping these brief notes help as a starting point for further discussions between members of this research group.

&nbsp;

I published the following text on the [HCID Comics, Games & Media
Research Group
blog](https://blogs.city.ac.uk/hcidcomicsgames/2020/02/05/power_records_narrative_design_transmedia_archaeology/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.

![Star Trek Spider-man 7\" records
(front)](https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=739){.alignnone
.wp-image-6577 loading="lazy" attachment-id="6577"
permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/02/05/stories-of-designs-past-narrative-design-transmedia-archaeology/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07-49-43/"
orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg"
orig-size="1600,1200" comments-opened="0"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}"
image-title="Star Trek Spider-man 7″ records front"
image-description="Star Trek Spider-man 7″ records front 
" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=300"
large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=1024"
width="530" height="397"
srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=530 530w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=1060 1060w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=768 768w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.43.jpeg?w=1024 1024w"
sizes="(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px"}

![Star Trek Spider-man 7\" records
back](https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=739){.alignnone
.wp-image-6576 loading="lazy" attachment-id="6576"
permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/02/05/stories-of-designs-past-narrative-design-transmedia-archaeology/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07-49-56/"
orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg"
orig-size="1600,1113" comments-opened="0"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}"
image-title="Star Trek Spider-man 7″ records back"
image-description="Star Trek Spider-man 7″ records back
" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=300"
large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=1024"
width="530" height="368"
srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=530 530w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=1058 1058w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=768 768w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.49.56.jpeg?w=1024 1024w"
sizes="(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px"}

![Star Trek Spider-man 7\" records (vinyl,
labels)](https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=739){.alignnone
.wp-image-6575 loading="lazy" attachment-id="6575"
permalink="http://ernestopriego.com/2020/02/05/stories-of-designs-past-narrative-design-transmedia-archaeology/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07-50-11/"
orig-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg"
orig-size="1600,1179" comments-opened="0"
image-meta="{\"aperture\":\"0\",\"credit\":\"\",\"camera\":\"\",\"caption\":\"\",\"created_timestamp\":\"0\",\"copyright\":\"\",\"focal_length\":\"0\",\"iso\":\"0\",\"shutter_speed\":\"0\",\"title\":\"\",\"orientation\":\"0\"}"
image-title="Star Trek Spider-man 7″ records (vinyl, labels)"
image-description="Star Trek Spider-man 7″ records (vinyl, labels)
" image-caption=""
medium-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=300"
large-file="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=1024"
width="530" height="390"
srcset="https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=530 530w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=1060 1060w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=150 150w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=300 300w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=768 768w, https://epriego.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/whatsapp-image-2020-01-30-at-07.50.11.jpeg?w=1024 1024w"
sizes="(max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px"}

\[Provisional draft notes shared as a prompt for future research group
discussion\]

**M**y interest in [the sociology of
texts](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/bibliography-and-the-sociology-of-texts/CF5FE52FD90E0B79D8583FF675C4923D){target="_blank"
rel="noreferrer noopener"}, transmedia storytelling and the role of
materiality in the reading/collecting/reception/user experience,
particularly in the case of comic book cultures, originally found a
welcoming conceptual framework within the digital humanities. Recently,
my interest has been evolving towards exploring the role of [media
archaeology](https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.5555/2031425){target="_blank"
rel="noreferrer noopener"} within human-computer interaction design.

Media archaeology, as discussed by Jussi Parikka (2011), is a branch of
media history that studies contemporary media culture by looking into
past (also called "residual") media technologies and practices. Media
archaeology takes a special interest in practices, devices and
inventions that may be now otherwise forgotten. It addresses the rapid
obsolescence of software and hardware, and poses that their collection,
preservation, conservation and study can provide important context for
multidisciplinary analysis and innovation.

In particular, I have been recently drafting arguments and potential
methodological and domain approaches to critical narrative design and
speculative design (sometimes also called "design fiction", though both
terms are not always used to mean the same thing). Needless to say, all
these terms have specific meanings and require further clarification and
discussion, even for the initiated, let alone those new to them. For an
intro into the relationships between the terms "critical design" and
"speculative design", I recommend  Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby's books,
*Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects* (2001) and
*Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming* (2013).

According to Henry Jenkins
([2007](http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html)),
"transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of
a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels
for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment
experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the
unfolding of the story." Transmedia is a mainstream term within
contemporary literary and cultural studies, but its application and
study goes beyond the mainstream humanities.  Interaction designers are
well aware that humans "are increasingly living their lives \[...\] in
multisensory, narrative driven ways" (Spaulding and Faste
[2013](https://0-doi-org.wam.city.ac.uk/10.1145/2470654.2481394){target="_blank"
rel="noreferrer noopener"}).

I took the photos above of two items in my record collection. They are
two 7″ vinyl records containing the audio recordings of two stories
based on characters, situations and fictional worlds at the time (late
1970s) mostly developed through comic books (today it would probably be
film, rather than comics). I played them the other day and I was once
again amazed at how immersive and engaging (in spite of some unavoidable
and fully expected silliness that hasn't aged well). As storytelling,
both recordings qualify as fully immersive devices that expand fictional
universes beyond their original media and that stimulate the imagination
via different senses in a media-specific way. (For more context on these
records and the label that released them, see Ettelson
[2015](https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-avengers-age-of-analog-the-power-records-story-bf824e78e4bf){target="_blank"
rel="noreferrer noopener"}).

This brief note is meant to share my interest in continuing exploring
how media archaeology approaches to examples like these audio comic
books in 7″ vinyl,  can help us understand better how "residual media"
could offer valuable context into the affordances of transmedia in both
a pre-digital and in a fully networked, digital, cloud-based eras. This
implies that "transmedia" is (of course) not only a 21st century
phenomenon.

Within the field of HCI it is now well known that storytelling is a
critical design tool in human-computer interaction, in particular by
addressing how an exploration of potential futures can inform strategies
around the problems of the present (see for example Dow et al
[2006](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/external-representations-ubiquitous-computing-design-implications-design-tools/){target="_blank"
rel="noreferrer noopener"}). How do form and content, materiality and
information, inter-relate to participate in the user experience? 
Storytelling can also be a powerful strategy to understand the designs
of the past, and to understand how these designs always-already include
future designs- what can we learn from the design of things past, what
stories do these objects tell, and what kind of insights can we obtain
from them to design the present and the future?

Hoping these brief notes help as a starting point for further
discussions between members of this research group.

On the intersections of media archaeology and human computer interaction design. Provisional draft notes shared as a prompt for future research group discussion. I originally published this post on the HCID Comics, Games &amp; Media Research Group blog.


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Strategies for Exceptional Times: The Coronavirus Diaries

PROGRAMME

Stories of Designs Past: Narrative Design Transmedia Archaeology

When Words Fail: A Departure Session

Tweeting in an Age of Overwhelming Information Overload and Increased Workloads

Who Are You and What Are Your Superpowers? Creating Student Trading Cards

In Memoriam Pleasures of Past Times

Scraps- Quick Drafts