Keynote, 3Ts 2013: Transliteracy from Cradle to Career, March 15 2013, SUNY Empire State College. http://threetees.weebly.com/index.html #3tsconf

1. TRANSLITERATE SPACES
15 March 2013
Transliteracy from Cradle to Career
SUNY Empire State College Center
for Distance Learning
Professor Sue Thomas
De Montfort University
www.suethomas.net

2. Past, present & future

3. PAST
Transliteracy Colloquium 2007
Photo: Jess Laccetti

4. What is transliteracy?
“The ability to read, write and interact across a range of
platforms, tools and media from signing and orality
through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to
digital social networks”
Thomas, S. Joseph, C. Laccetti, J. Mason, B. Mills, S. Perril, S. and Pullinger, K.
"Transliteracy: Crossing divides" First Monday [Online], Volume 12
Number 12 (12 December 2007)
http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/
index.php/fm/article/view/2060/1908

5. Transliteracy was born from a problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFAWR
6hzZek&list=PL925763F45FF18201&index=
7&feature=plpp_video

6. Origins 1:
Online Writing, trAce, 1995-2005
trAce Online Writing Centre
Nottingham Trent University
http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk

7. Origins 2:
Online Reading, UCSB 2005
Research in the Technological, Social, and
Cultural Practices of Online Reading,
Transliteracies Project, University of California
at Santa Barbara

8. Origins 3:
TRG @ DMU 2006
Transliteracy Research Group (TRG)
Institute of Creative Technologies
De Montfort University
www.transliteracy.com

9. So many questions about literacy...

10. There’s more to literacy than reading
Chauvet Horses
approx 32,000 years old Karaja Indians, Brazil, 2005

11. There’s more to literacy than writing
Socrates
c. 370 BC
Writing is an aid “not to
memory, but to
reminiscence” providing
“not truth, but only the
semblance of truth.”
Computer gamers
c. 2005
Http://www.holycanoli.com/images/340_g
amers.jpg

12. Many theories
“Part of the confusion
about media convergence
stems from the fact that
when people talk about it,
they’re actually describing
at least five processes”
(Henry Jenkins, 2001)
- technological
- economic
- social or organic
- cultural
- global
WWW.TRANSLITERACY.COM

13. Transliteracy is a unifying concept
• Its focus is on interpretation via practice and
production
• Its interest in lived experience, history,
context and culture
• Convergent
• Transdisciplinary
• Holistic
• Networked
18 March, 2022
Professor Sue Thomas | De Montfort
University

14. 18 March, 2022
Professor Sue Thomas | De Montfort
University
Transliteracy in the network

15. PRESENT

16. Who is working on transliteracy?
At the 2010 Transliteracy Conference, De
Montfort University, topics included:
Ethnography, reading practices, fiction,
convergence, digital art, geography, music,
comics, games, interactive graphics, remote
audiences, film adaptations, the networked
book, critical theory and interactive fiction......
18 March, 2022
Professor Sue Thomas | De Montfort
University

17. At www.transliteracy.com

18. The transliteracy conversation is
happening on Twitter

19. In libraries

20. In future forecasting...

21. Africa
• Sukai Bojang How New
Media and Mobiles can
promote Storytelling and
Literacy in Community
Multi-media Centres
especially in Senegal and
The Gambia
• Anietie Isong New
Writing, New Media:
Emerging African Writers
and the Internet

22. China

23. India

24. France
• Séminaire international « Translittératies :
enjeux de citoyenneté et de créativité »
ENS-Cachan et Université Sorbonne nouvelle
7-9 Novembre 2012
Avec le parrainage de l’UNESCO et de la
Commission Nationale Française auprès de
l’UNESCO

25. And, of course, the USA

26. Cultivating a transliterate space
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co
mmons/6/68/Cell_Culture_in_a_tiny_Petri
_dish.jpg

27. Amplified Leicester 2009-10
• MODE: Fortnightly f2f
meetings for 6 months
supported by online.
Personal socme training.
• PLUSES: Strong personal
bonds; NVC
opportunities; high
creativity & innovation;
lasting community
identity
• NEGATIVES: regular f2f
made it easy for some to
drop out of online.
http://youtu.be/bh0xYkuCLL8

28. DMU Transdisciplinary Common
Room 2012-3
• MODE: Meeting rooms &
kitchen for socialising &
study. Card entry. Wireless.
Regular meetings + drop-in.
Blog and email list.
• PLUSES: Attractive to
colleagues wanting to meet
others from different
faculties; very relaxed &
non-corporate.
• NEGATIVES : Requires lot of
management; needs group
ownership; expensive.

29. A transliterate space
• Online , offline or both
• Flexible, social, personal
• Access to tools, both
digital & analogue
• Encourages & supports
collaboration, skills
exchange
• Welcomes diverse ideas,
disciplines & people
• The space is attractive &
comfortable
• Has a curator/manager
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co
mmons/6/68/Cell_Culture_in_a_tiny_Petri
_dish.jpg

30. Challenges of a transliterate space
• FLEXIBILITY can be difficult
• COMPLEXITY: participants
need to understand the
ethos
• RESISTANCE: participants
should want to be there
• ANXIETY: don’t worry if you
don’t have all the skills –
cooperation is key
• FUNDERS may not get what
you are trying to create, but
hopefully they will
understand the results
http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4019/460292
7398_c376a356a0_z.jpg

31. Planning your transliterate space
• Should it be online, offline,
or both?
• Digital tools
• Analogue tools
• Indoors/outdoors
• Collaboration/solo spaces
• Private/public
• Which disciplines?
• Distinctive & different
because you’re inviting
people to behave differently
• Aware of the future...

32. FUTURE

34. What is cyberspace like?

35. Metaphors of nature in cyberspace

36. Biophilia
“The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes”
Edward O Wilson 1984

37. Biophilia Research
Experimental Psychology (Kaplans)
Social Ecology (Kellert)
Behavioural Science (Ulrich)
Biology (Wilson)
Zoology (Orians)

38. ‘Biophilia’, Bjork, 2011

39. Technobiophilia
The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike
processes as they appear in technology

40. Restorative benefits of nature

41. Virtual nature
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/218
/8/0/yaoi__world_of_warcraft_by_yuhsuke
chiohara-d45m7re.jpg

42. Biophilia soothes our connected lives

43. Howard Rheingold’s outdoor office

44. ‘Digital Break’, Paris

45. Walden: A Game (USC)

46. Flower (Sony PS3)
http://youtu.be/-FPfRHaXl7E

47. 50 Things... (National Trust)

48. The real voyage of discovery
consists not in making new
landscapes but in having new
eyes. (Marcel Proust)
http://www.landscape-
photo.net/albums/userpics/10001/normal_
Rays-of-the-sun-over-a-slightly-hazy-forest-
road.jpg

49. Thank you
15 March 2013
Transliteracy from Cradle to Career
SUNY Empire State College Center for Distance Learning
Professor Sue Thomas
De Montfort University
www.suethomas.net
www.technobiophilia.com