Jay David Bolter (born August 17, 1951) is the Wesley Chair of New Media and a
professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...
in the
School of Literature, Media, and Communication
The School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) is one of six units of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The School focuses primarily on interdisciplinary approaches to the humanities, social sc ...
at the
Georgia Institute of Technology. His areas of study include the evolution of media, the use of technology in education, and the role of computers in the writing process. More recently, he has conducted research in the area of
augmented reality and mixed media. Bolter collaborates with researchers in the Augmented Environments Lab, co-directed with Blair MacIntyre, to create apps for entertainment, cultural heritage and education for smart phones and tablets. This supports his theory regarding remediation where he discusses "all media functions as remediators and that remediation offers us a means of interpreting the work of earlier media as well" (Bolter & Grusin, 2000, p. 55).
Biography
Bolter received his
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
from
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, in the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...
, in 1973. In 1977 and 1978 he received his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in
Classics and an
M.S.
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
in
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...
, both from the
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...
.
Bolter received prominent fellowships at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
,
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
,
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
, and with the American Council of Learned Societies.
From 1979 until 1991, Bolter held various faculty positions at the University of North Carolina. In 1991 he moved to the
Georgia Institute of Technology, where he remains today.
Storyspace
Along with John B. Smith and
Michael Joyce, Bolter co-created
Storyspace
Storyspace is a software program for creating, editing, and reading hypertext fiction. It can also be used for writing and organizing fiction and non-fiction intended for print. Maintained and distributed by Eastgate Systems, the software is availa ...
, a software program for creating, editing, and displaying
hypertext fiction
Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text ...
. It was developed to support hypertext fiction in particular, although it can also be used for organizing and writing fiction and non-fiction intended for print.
Although always credited as a coauthor of Storyspace with Joyce and Bolter, Smith wanted to clarify in an interview that he wasn’t involved in the development of either TALETELLER (which was a precursor to Storyspace) or Storyspace — but that he made more of an intellectual contribution insofar as "there was a sort of cloud of ideas that we were all drawing on in the discussions we’d have in this research entity at UNC, Textlab"
Some of the notable hypertext fictions created in Storyspace include:
Michael Joyce's ''
afternoon, a story'',
Stuart Moulthrop's ''
Victory Garden
Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I ...
'' and
Shelley Jackson
Shelley Jackson (born 1963) is an American writer and artist known for her cross-genre experimental works. These include her hyperfiction ''Patchwork Girl'' (1995) and her first novel, ''Half Life'' (2006).
Biography
In her own words: "Shelley ...
's ''
Patchwork Girl
The Patchwork Girl (a.k.a. Scraps) is a character from the fantasy Oz Book series by L. Frank Baum. She first appeared in ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz''.
History
Scraps is a teenaged (possibly fourteen) living rag doll made of patchwork, butto ...
''.
Bolter has used
Storyspace
Storyspace is a software program for creating, editing, and reading hypertext fiction. It can also be used for writing and organizing fiction and non-fiction intended for print. Maintained and distributed by Eastgate Systems, the software is availa ...
to revise several of his own books. More importantly, Storyspace provides facilities for writing and editing, which includes a map of the structure of the links, making it accessible for new users. Storyspace is currently being developed by Mark Bernstein of
Eastgate Systems
Eastgate Systems is a publisher and software company headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, which publishes hypertext.
Eastgate is a pioneer in hypertext publishing and electronic literature and one of the best known publishers of hypertext ...
.
Trivia
Brian Eno has referred to Bolter as "the new
Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its kind, earlier designs w ...
."
Bolter states in ''Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print'' that "Hypertext in all its electronic forms — the World Wide Web as well as the many stand-alone systems — is the remediation of print".
Jay David Bolter and his writing partner, Richard Grusin, make the claim in their text ''Remediation: Understanding New Media, "'' At this point, all mediation is remediation."
Select works
*Bolter, Jay David. ''Digital Plenitude: The Decline of Elite Culture and the Rise of New Media''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019.
*Bolter, Jay David and
Gromala, Diane. ''Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency''. Cambridge:MIT Press, 2003.
*Bolter, Jay David. ''Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, Second Edition''. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001.
*MacIntyre, Blair, Bolter, Jay David, Moreno, Emmanuel, and Hannigan, Brendan. "Augmented Reality as a New Media Experience," In ''International Symposium on Augmented Reality (ISAR 2001)'', New York, NY, October 29–30, 2001.
*Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin. ''Remediation: Understanding New Media.'' Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.
*Bolter, Jay David. "Virtual Reality and the Redefinition of Self" in ''Communication and Cyberspace: Social Interaction in an Electronic Environment'', edited by Stephanie Gibson et al. (Hampton Press, 1996).
*Bolter, Jay David. ''Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing.'' Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990.
*Bolter, Jay David. ''Turing's Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age.'' Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984.
* Bolter, Jay David. "Examining and Changing the World of Media," in: ''Humanistic Perspectives in a Technological World'', ed. Richard Utz, Valerie B. Johnson, and Travis Denton (Atlanta: School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014), pp. 37–9.
See also
*
Electronic literature
*
George Landow
References
External links
Bolter's Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolter, Jayvik Kashipara
American literary critics
Electronic literature critics
Georgia Tech faculty
Living people
Trinity College (Canada) alumni
University of Toronto alumni
1951 births
Mass media theorists
Digital media educators