1. Introduction to
the Digital Liberal Arts
Prof. Alvarado
MDST 3703/7703
28 September 2012

2. Sullivan

3. What are the “liberal arts”

4. artes liberales

5. Francese

6. The Seven Liberal Arts
• Trivium
– Grammar
– Rhetoric
– Logic
• Quadrivium
– Arithmetic
– Geometry
– Music
– Astronomy

7. The liberal arts is a curriculum

8. How has the curriculum changed?
Think of the what we mean by “arts
and sciences”

10. How is it different from the
professional schools?
(engineering, business, medicine, law)

11. The humanities are at the center
Many departments fall within
history, literature, or philosophy

12. We often call a student of the
humanities a scholar
What do scholars do?

13. Scholars interpret and reinterpret
texts
(literature, historical
records, law, religion)

14. Scholars make arguments

15. essays, books, lectures

16. All of these forms depend up writing

17. What happens to scholarship when
writing and communication become
digital?

18. The rationalization effect

19. The principle of media determinism

20. Plan of the Course
• Seminar and studio tracks (Tues and Thurs)
• Survey of ideas, projects, and technologies
• Historical, Critical, and Practical
• Focus on core theme of how rhetoric and
reasoning change with the new media
– Are linear, verbal arguments side effects of literacy?
– Don new media bring there new forms of reasoning?
• Investigate two ideas
– The rationalization effect
– Media determinism