I'm John F. Barber and I teach in
The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver. My teaching, research, and scholarship focuses on theory and practice promoted by digital media and how it shifts relationships between technology, art, science, and the humanities across three broad areas: digital humanities, technology studies, and sound arts.
Sound arts
In the area of
sound arts, I am interested in opportunities afforded by Internet radio, online iReportage, and geo-locative audio-based immersive/interactive experiences, especially as the might promote aural compositions/performances/installations as the basis for engaged narrative. I have produced a number of
digital audio narratives that explore opportunities for developing and sustaining immersive narrative contexts using natural, human, and/or mechanical sounds. A sample work is
"Sounds of My Life: A Sixties Narrative", selected for a juried gallery exhibit themed "Electrifying Literature: Affordances and Constraints" in conjunction with The Electronic Literature Organization international conference 13-23 June 2012.
My current work includes "Walking-Talking," a project that envisions a mobile audio narrative experience of discovery and connection throughout a network of site-specific locations of historic and/or cultural interest.
Example scholarship and publications include
Digital humanities
My research in
digital humanities includes the development and curation of
Brautigan.NET, an online, interactive bibliography and archive known as the preeminent resource on the life and work of Richard Brautigan. Another project,
The Brautigan Library is an experiment in archiving unpublished manuscripts by authors keen to share their narratives but with no real hope of seeing them published through traditional channels.
Example scholarship and publications include
Richard Brautigan: An Annotated Bibliography and
Richard Brautigan: Essays on the Writings and Life, an anthology of essays about Brautigan, his work, and his place in American literature. Additional publications include chapters in
Transdisciplinary Digital Art: Sound, Vision and the New Screen,
Encyclopedia of Beat Literature,
Research Guide to American Literature, and essays in journals like
Fine Art Forum and
Hyperriz: New Media New Cultures.
Technology studies
Example scholarship and publications in
technology studies includes
New Worlds, New Words: Exploring Pathways for Writing about and in Electronic Environments, a volume edited with Dene Grigar, that focuses on the future of writing resulting from its move to inhabit electronic spaces. I have contributed invited chapters to
Going Wireless: A Critical Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies for Composition Teachers and Researchers,
High Wired,
Electronic Networks,
The Online Writing Classroom,
Texts and Technology,
Technical Communication and the World Wide Web, and
Technology and English Studies. My work is included in print journals like
Works & Days,
Studies in Technical Communication,
Pre/Text, and
Readerly Writerly Text; and electronic journals like
Leonardo Digital Reviews, and
Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments. Additionally, I created
Dr. John's Eazy-Peazy Guides, web-based, award-winning tutorials for improving skills in writing, research, HTML, public speaking, and creative thinking.
