Poster Presentation/Demo Abstract
Shakespeare performances are not static works with a single authoritative meaning, but exist in multiple versions, recreated in a wide array of media and across time and cultures. In order to access and engage with these multiple matrices of cultural expression and meaning, we need tools to compare versions of the same scene side by side, to create clips, and to annotate and cross-reference text, video, and cultural references.The MIT Global Shakespeare Project will show educational and research tools including the Cross Media Annotation System (XMAS) and the Shakespeare Performance in Asia (SPIA) archive http://web.mit.edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/shakespeare/asia
MIT Shakespeare Project Website
Statement of the problem or issue
- Challenges of geography and time
It has been previously difficult for scholars and students to access time-based Shakespeare performances around the world. - Close reading of video
Videos offer the possibility of deep investigation and analysis, parallel to the close reading of text, but there have been a lack of educational tools for the close reading of videos with the ability to provide contextual annotations and juxtapositions. - Crossing language and cultural barriers
How does one interpret and understand art forms in other cultures? International participation in this archive promotes the study of Shakespeare across the world, supported international team of scholars and teachers. - Globalizing the Humanities
Studying worldwide Shakespeare productions in individual cultures and locations and as contributions to emerging global forms engages our students in the evolving definition of what it means to be a global citizen. - Description of activity, project, solution, and outcome
Students can now view performances, do close readings of video and text in conjunction with finding and creating video citations from popular culture around the world to deepen their understanding of these emerging global forms.
The goal is for students to be able to juxtapose and compare Shakespeare readings, interpretations of the text in images and film versions quickly and easily enough so that they could in a sense read across versions, holding textual variants and alternate performances of the same scene or line in mind at the same time.
In addition, we are developing tools for more active uses — electronic means of defining segments in all media, adding notes to video as well as text, storing playable extracts in electronic notebooks, and using them to create one’s own commentary.
In this vision, the work of scholars and students will change, at least in part, from the print-only forms of student term paper and scholarly publications to multimedia essays that were, in effect, guided pathways through a digital archive.
Importance or relevance to other faculty, staff, students, departments, and programs
XMAS (Cross-Media Annotation System) was developed by The Shakespeare Electronic Archive research group under the MIT-Microsoft iCampus Initiative, and has been used since 2003 in MIT classes, including Shakespeare, Shakespeare on Film, The Film Experience (MIT’s introductory film course) and Hong Kong and Hindi Cinema. In Shakespeare on Film, it is used for all assignments, and in almost every class hour for brief student presentations. XMAS is a continuing project, and in its current outreach phase we are able to offer technological, logistic and pedagogical support and advice to teachers and scholars in other universities and colleges. The system has been used at more than twenty institutions, and version 2 is being planned by OEIT and the MIT Global Shakespeare Project.
The interactive, intercultural archive of Asian Shakespeare Performances (SPIA) is the first of many foci; we are now working on Shakespeare Performances in Brazil and in the Arab languages.
Professor Peter S. Donaldson, Literature
Belinda Yung, Literature; Suzana Lisanti, Literature
(Presented at MIT Educational Technology Fair 2009)
Topic Area(s)
1. Using video and clickers for teaching large classes more effectively
2. Finding and integrating digital content into the curriculum
3. Supporting global learning experiences
4. Incorporating visualizations and simulations to deepen student understanding