This post was the bibliography section of my initial dissertation proposal in the Spring of 2015.
(6th century mosaic from Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy. Photo by Michael Hemenway)
What might be a useful new media translation for “bibliography?”
βιβλιον and γραφη have both played large roles in my endeavors into the materiality of bible over the last decade and a half. βιβλιον is the Greek word often translated “book” in the Septuagint and the New Testament. Yet, this word for book that becomes the signifier for the cultural phenomenon of christian scripture, and so much more, always refers to something otherwise than a codex in these ancient Greek texts. Here are a few examples (translations my own) that will show up other places in a proximate bible:
-
LXX Exodus 24.17 - “And taking the book (το βιβλιον) of the covenant, he read it into the ears of the people and they said, ‘All things, which the Lord said, we will do and we will hear.’”
-
LXX Nehemiah 8.8 - “And they read in the book (βιβλίω) of the law of God, and Ezra taught and ordered [them] in knowledge of the Lord, and the people understood when he read.”
-
2 Timothy 4.13 - “When you come, bring the cloak, which I left in Troas with Carpus, and the books (τα βιβλια), especially the parchments.”
In the pauline corpus, the perfect participle of the verbal form of γραφη, το γραμματον, becomes almost a formulaic introduction to citations from jewish scripture or other authoritative writings. The closely related noun, γραμμα, is used in the second letter to the Corinthians as a metaphor for a Jewish way of reading Torah in contrast to the emerging reading practices of the pauline community (2 Cor 3.1-13). The γραμμα-πνευμα dichotomy articulated in this New Testament letter has become an ancient source for many theories of binary difference throughout history.
With the importance βιβλιον and γραφη have played in my inquiry all these years, it might make excellent sense to include a biblio-graphy in this project. Even further, “bibliography” and its etymological resonances connect for us the writing of books with the writing of bibles and hint at the intimate relationship between bible and book. Yet, despite the careful attention a proximate bible will pay to the making of books and how this shapes the ways we make the world, I choose not to use the term “bibliography” to indicate the conversation partners and encounters with artifacts that have left their mark on this project. Instead, i will provide links and guidelines for participating in curating the conversation that is a proximate bible. “Curating the conversation” has become my new media translation of “bibliography.”
Often, dissertation bibliographies and statements of bibliographic method in the humanities offer a chance to demonstrate a thorough, or better yet, exhaustive survey of predominantly print materials relevant to the project at hand. I have no illusions of being exhaustive and print materials are only one part of what makes up the conversation partners in this project. So, curating the conversation in a proximate bible will be a dynamic process with varied media, multiple contributors, and evolving as it needs. The goal of this curation will be introducing compelling conversation partners, not producing a comprehensive list.
The best way to encounter meaningful conversation partners and artifacts related to this project is to read around in the fragments and chase the links within the discussion. But in order to facilitate a broader resource for experiments and conversations related to material bible and anarchic meaning making, I will provide two main spaces for curation of materials related to a proximate bible. First, because print still matters, I will use a publicly available Zotero library to list print or digital print materials that have shaped this project. The link below will take you to an ever changing list of bibliographic items tagged with #aproximatebible.
Zotero library for a proximate bible
Second, I have created a social aggregation space for anyone to collect and share web artifacts (images, tweets, YouTube videos, webpages, blog posts, instagram posts, facebook threads, books, quotes, articles, etc.) related to the ongoing dialog that is a proximate bible. To participate in this community-sourced curation, simply use your favorite social media mechanism (twitter, facebook, instagram, etc.) to share the artifact and tag the post with #aproximatebible or #aproxibib for short. Thanks to Rebelmouse for continuing to challenge our imaginations of what is possible in collaborative curation. a proximate bible on rebelmouse.
In January 2015, RebelMouse ended support for basic user hashtag filtering, so I am now using twitter hashtags as the collaborative curation engine for a proximate bible. Twitter was already the primary aggregation source used by my community even on RebelMouse. Though limiting to twitter as the aggregation mechanism requires participants to use the twitter interface, it has become increasingly accessible to share all the artifacts listed above from other streams and channels to twitter. The two hashtags used for the project are #aproximatebible and #aproxibib, combined in an a proximate bible twitter search. Please feel free to use these tags to participate in the curation of conversation that makes a proximate bible. I am leaving the RebelMouse link above active as an archive of the spatial interface that RebelMouse provided. All content there is now available through the Twitter aggregation search links.
Despite the fact that a major part of the theoretical framework of a proximate bible questions the value of the reign of an original (an-archy) and problematizes the distinction between production and use, I am committed to fostering creativity and innovation through the protection of creative rights through movements like open access and Creative Commons. I will privilege use of Creative Commons licensed or public domain artifacts where possible. I have even customized the postach.io theme used for the public space of a proximate bible to add a creative commons license to all contributions to this project (see the left corner of the footer of this page for more specifics). Any artifacts used in a proximate bible that are not explicitly marked as available for public use, I will use in accordance with standard fair use rights for educational and nonprofit work and provide attribution where possible. For a list of suggestive datasources and search algorithms related to the conversation topics of a proximate bible, see datasources and algorithms.