Author: Emmarie Toppan

Visual novels themselves combine a number of different digital tools to tell a story. They share a narrative through the use of not only text, but also audio, visuals, and gameplay. Creating a website has given a visual and interactive aspect to my research that embodies what a visual novel is, using different digital tools and forms of media to tell a story that could have been told in the form of plain text for a very different experience.

With a website I can present an abundance of screenshots and other images that allow for a more effective presentation than an essay would have been. In addition to images, instead of just describing different types of gameplay I’m able to link and embed videos that show exactly what I’m talking about. My project also includes a timeline going through the past of visual novels, and I believe that an interactive timeline of images and videos is much more interesting than just writing a list of dates and events.

In terms of structural soundness, I’ve organized my topics into a who/what/when/where/why/how format that I’m currently working to make a bit more sensible. I really like my format but it’s not particularly straightforward when it comes to what each word is representing within my project without actually exploring the entire menu. I’m hoping to find a way to fix this without completely compromising the design of how I’ve organized everything thus far.

While my project does not contain an abundant amount of literal sound and is currently structurally questionable, I still think the digital tools and media that I have combined present information in a more suitable fashion than an essay would have. Since the realm of visual novels is continuously developing, the content of my project is subject to change over time and luckily a website can easily reflect that. As the topic I’m discussing emphasizes the visual and interactive experience so much, it only makes sense that my project would do the same.

The purpose of my project is essentially to bring attention to visual novels and try to explain away the negative pre-conceived notions that contribute to their reputation as nothing more than weird Japanese pornographic games. Video games themselves now are not generally regarded as something worth academic study or focus but I believe that this is gradually changing with the release of more in-depth and thought-provoking games. I think that video games as a form of media that people can use to share ideas and express themselves creates a unique and diverse environment for digital scholars. It would also be nice if more people recognized that video games are not only for young boys.

When I started this program my definition of DH was very vague and confusing. Now I understand it as an extensive, collaborative network that strives for diversity and inclusivity when it comes to sharing information in all kinds of digital formats. It is a lot more broad and encompassing than I ever would have expected. I still have a hard time defining it, but I think I’m better at recognizing it. The combination of the humanities and technology allows as many people as possible to have access to information that you can structure and present in so many different ways.

When it comes to the program itself, I can’t think of much that I would change. I like the independent nature of our projects and the lack of daily structure, as well as the workshops. I know that in the past the workshops were a lot longer and I’m happy with the amount of time they take now. I guess if anything I would suggest more widely advertising it, since I never would have known about this program if my advisor hadn’t mentioned it to me. Maybe I’d suggest spending a little more time on coding because I think that’s something that myself and a couple of others struggled with a bit when it came to finding where and how to use code to alter our websites. Overall I feel like I have learned a lot and I wish more people knew about this program because I think it does a really good job of introducing and getting more people involved in DH.

When reading about neoliberalism, particularly in academia, the emphasis on money is what stands out the most. There is the assumption that many people only participate in DH for the funding. It’s true that incorporating technology into the humanities might make it more economically appealing, contributing to the ongoing corporate changes in the liberal arts college system. However, we can’t forget the Digital Humanities effort to make resources more readily available for everyone regardless of their situation or location, often by publishing work in an open-access environment. DH strives to make information free and accessible for everyone, contradicting the money-centric assumptions.

In Neoliberal Tools (and Archives), the authors argue that DH is anti-interpretive, instead aiming to solely “archive materials, produce data, and develop software.” I believe that this description demeans the analytical aspect of DH; in addition to making such work accessible to as large an audience as possible, DH projects are also built to reflect the thoughts and opinions of all those who participate. This felt like an effort to make Digital Humanities appear shallow and potentially less impactful than it has the ability to be.

I can see how people make neoliberal connections to Digital Humanities by saying that it’s a field used to gather money. I believe that this is true in some cases, but I also believe that as Digital Humanities is a relatively new and developing field the people involved are generally interested and passionate about what they’re doing.

To some, college has become a place where people go to graduate and get a good job without actually learning anything. People don’t go because they’re interested in what they’re studying, they go so that they can get a degree and therefore hopefully succeed in society. Incorporating technology into the humanities has made it more appealing to this neoliberal college structure by taking a field that did not seem as fiscally appealing as other areas of education and implementing digital tools to interest university institutions and increase project funding. At the end of the day, I can see how people make connections between Digital Humanities and neoliberalism but I don’t think they’re as intertwined as some of these articles say they are.

Historically, the humanities have been comprised of individual scholars who work alone and publish their final products in exclusive, institutional environments that can only be accessed through certain journals or university books. There is an emphasis on intellectual property and taking sole credit without recognizing or inviting the assistance of outside participation. This is what the Digital Humanities community is trying to move away from, into a social, open-sourced world where work is collaborative, accessible, and credit is spread among the people who continuously work to update and share information. By involving digital technology, the humanities no longer need to exist in a primarily physical state but instead are being altered for a medium with which people from all around the world can interact and contribute their own experience and expertise.

With this, scholarship transforms from a solitary experience to a group project as work is published on public platforms where the author(s) can receive feedback without the restrictions of exclusive licensing agreements and copyright. Publishing becomes a social act instead of the presentation of a set-in-stone final product. This leads us to the existence of platforms like Wikipedia, which may run the risk of spreading misinformation but also provides an example of the kind of global, collaborative, knowledge-distributing community that DH embodies. Traditional scholarly publishing follows a strict set of conventions that are no longer necessarily productive or beneficial in this digital day and age. Individual, institutional exclusivity is limiting and prevents the humanities from embracing the potential that digital humanists recognize with the rise of technology. There is also the risk that the service provider or company with access to privatized scholarly work could go out of business and as a result, the work could cease to become available to anyone at all. Widely digitizing information can prevent this.

At its core, the goal of Digital Humanities is to make all information as open and accessible as possible, regardless of one’s circumstance. Publishing information to the public creates an inclusive and all-encompassing environment where people from around the world can communicate their own knowledge and experiences to create something amazing without institutional boundaries. Instead of confining scholarly work to a solitary author who publishes within a narrow realm, the open-source options that accompany the internet allow for this core value of expansion and inclusivity to flourish.

The digital tool I will be focusing on in this reflection is Timeline JS. It is a free, comprehensive yet simple timeline-creation tool that allows you to easily incorporate a variety of forms of documentation (videos, images, audio, maps, etc) by simply pasting the link to your desired media and all other information into a straightforward spreadsheet. Aside from your own text, all images and videos have to be linked from other parts of the internet, so you will need to make sure that the source has given permission to use their material. Usable sources, according to the Timeline JS website, include “Twitter, Flickr, Youtube, Vimeo, Vine, Dailymotion, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Soundcloud, Document Cloud, and more!” While some of these—like Vine—no longer exist, the list is still a good indication of the variety of materials that can be incorporated into your timeline. The completed spreadsheet is then immediately converted into a timeline that you can embed into your website by simply copying and pasting a link.

After your timeline has been created, you can continue to alter it in the spreadsheet and all changes will be applied to your already-made timeline; you can update the spreadsheet then immediately see your changes by refreshing the Timeline’s page. You can assume that anyone using this tool is primarily looking to create an interactive timeline. While you can incorporate a map into the program, there are probably better tools out there if mapping is your focus. I also find it very easy to use, and made a first draft of a timeline for my own project right after learning about it that I was pretty pleased with.

Using Timeline JS, you end up with a visually appealing timeline that allows you to control everything from the background imagery to the appearance of text and size of desired media without being overwhelming. Similar programs that I looked at had superfluous add-ons and options that just didn’t interest me. I am definitely planning on incorporating this digital ­tool into my own project to give an interactive overview of the origin and history of visual novel games.