Ryan Cordell
@ryancordell
he/him—textual technologies enthusiast—Associate Professor at UIUC's School of Information Sciences & Department of English—co-director of the Viral Texts Project (viraltexts.org) & Director @skeuomorphpress.org —also
Any local folks following me here, come celebrate the end of summer with my band, The Anxious Bench! We’re playing the Americana Happy Hour at the Rose Bowl Tavern in Urbana, this Thursday 8/13 from 5-7pm. We’re planning a nice mix of originals & fun covers for y’all! tockify.com/rbtevents/de...
Will English & DH grad students revolt if I ask them to read Ada Lovelace’s notes on Babbage’s Analytical Engine directly? There’s a lotta math in there—mostly skimmable?—but also prescient moments like this for thinking about C19 automation, labor, etc. en.wikisource.org/wiki/Scienti...
This years’ vintage tattoo Newport Folk poster is one of my favorites in recent memory. Got it up with the collection on the wall this afternoon! Next year will require a more thorough overhaul I think…
Random fb market score today: a late 19th-century scrapbook, mostly blank but with an 1894 almanac & a *Neighborhood Gossip & Dream Book* tucked inside—going straight to the @skeuomorphpress.org teaching collection for whenever we talk about commonplace & scrapbooks
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn’t Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, or Alice In Chains I had to do 2
I was thinking we live in an increasingly hellish capitalist dystopia, but then I saw an small plane (not visible) pulling a banner that said “SOCIALISM SUCKS!” & it really made me rethink things
Back yet again at the baseball field with @eviedc.bsky.social, this time for the Newport Folk All-Stars Game. Time to watch folk musicians try to play softball! Such a joy
TIL that *Hell’s Heart*, described as “a sapphic Moby Dick in space,” exists. I of course 1. texted @transbookhistory.bsky.social immediately 2. Bought it
Came to this bird sanctuary in Newport for a hike & they lent us binoculars and…they may have unlocked something in my middle age soul
Another beautiful evening for baseball. Slightly different setting this time. Love seeing the @newportgulls.bsky.social when we’re in town
Newport bound with @eviedc.bsky.social for our 10th proper Newport Folk Festival (there was no 2020 fest). Will spend a few days puttering around town befor the music kicks off Friday
Welp, it’s official. If anyone at SHARP needs a primer about tornado watch vs tornado warning, I’m enough of a midwesterner now to offer one
Leave Illinois with our 170+ tornados, suddenly there’s a chance of a tornado in Philadelphia???!!???
Alright y’all, a colleague shared this AI overview he got when searching for my OCR research & Google: ya did me dirty! Spoiler for those who haven’t met me: that unhappy gent is not in fact me. He is, however, a former (& particularly irascible) colleague
Also really enjoyed the pop-up typewriter museum/repair shop Typosphere, which is on Chesnutt Street in STL. Chatted with them about bringing a batch of @skeuomorphpress.org’s machines in for service sometime soon en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typ...
Found the Best T-Shirt Ever™️ at a small artist’s shop in St. Louis. The only question really is whether I need one for every member of the band
Visiting with my grant colleagues at Wash U in St. Louis for a workshop in their campus print shop. I am deeply envious of the towering space & incredible light in here!
At @skeuomorphpress.org strategizing with @drtlwagner.bsky.social about the official launch of the Undead Media Lab this fall & they convinced me we had to test out the new digital clock font—it’s everything I dreamed!
Could not be more charmed by this new font from Skyline, in the style of a vintage digital clock/watch face Can’t wait to make something with it @skeuomorphpress.org
People can tell me I don’t look 46 all they want, but the body keeps its own score. Mere days after my birthday, I’m testing out my first set of prescription reading glasses & regret to report that they make deciphering these little inscriptions on the page significantly easier
Did this immediately become the cover image for my fall graduate seminar course website? You’d better believe it did. I didn’t forget our sleepy gent either—he’ll be down at the bottom of the homepage
Everyone knows about the Renaissance book wheel, but I only today learned about the Holloway Reading Stand & Dictionary Holder, patented in the late 19th century by an Ohio company We used to be a proper country archive.org/details/holl...
We’re number one! We’re number one! <blows away> We’r e n u m b e r r o n e
I know everyone is scrambling to figure out how to respond to GenAI in the classroom, but 1. More surveillance tech will not be the answer 2. “Respondus LockDown Browser” & “Respondus Monitor” have to be in contention for the most dystopian edtech product names of all time—which is a high bar