This page was created by Collin Hardwick.
Why Scalar?
Following this call, part of the aims of this project is to explore the role of place in digital composition. I hypothesize that creating digital texts that move away from more traditional composition media can restructure relations of power between writer and reader.“Decolonial digital archives have built into them the instrumental, historical, and cultural meanings of whatever media they include. To be understood, such media need to be contextualized within the social practices that lend them these meanings” (116).
I have chosen to work on this project through Scalar because it allows for the creation of non-linear, scholarly “books.” Creator Tara McPherson writes in Feminist in a Software Lab that "Scalar resists the modularity and compartmentalized logics of dominant computation design by flattening out hierarchical structures of platforms such as WordPress" (216). Scalar was created to allow authors to contextualize their research by organizing content through curated pathways (nonlinear, lateral, radial, etc.) as opposed to more traditional threads, such as chronological order.
Pulling from De Certeau's “Walking in the City,” through creating this project I aim to examine how composing in Scalar can reinforce the relationship between writing and space, encouraging writers and readers to interact with a digital place. It is my intention to organize my project with space for detours. As this digital work expands, I intend to structure the book to be “wandered” through. My ultimate aim to is learn how digital composition may mimic De Certeau’s “city,” with a structure that allows for reader detours -- and ultimately acts of resistance. At the core of this project is an exploration of the ethics of resisting linearity. Can contextualizing our research, making our mediums mimic place, be a decolonial act?