Glitching History

Acting Director of the DLA Michael Kramer has a new essay in the inaugural issue of Current Research in Digital History, published by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. The essay, “Glitching History: Using Image Deformance to Rethink Agency and Authenticity in the 1960s American Folk Music Revival,” focuses on the surprising ways in which file glitching can aid in historical inquiry. It draws upon Kramer’s current research into the folk music movement, which includes a digital project about folk music on the West Coast as well as a book project about technology and tradition in the folk music movement. Kramer will be teaching his digital methods seminar, Digitizing Folk Music History, with students at Middlebury in Spring 2019.

Student Nathan Anderson’s 2013 glitch experiment with Kelly Hart’s 1964 photograph of “Mississippi” John Hurt, Sam Hinton, and Arthel “Doc” Watson at the Berkeley Folk Music Festival.