Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 39, No. 179.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2025-10-23 06:48:10+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: theory and fashionable dogma

My thanks to Manfred for spotting the absurdity of an unqualified
dismissal of 'theory without experience'. I did attempt to qualify mine by
saying that it concerned "any activity for which use of a tool is
essential". The case I had in mind but omitted mentioning was that of
Solomon-Godeau's 1990 attack on curator John Szarkowski's work as
Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art (see 'Mandarin
Modernism: “Photography Until Now”', Art in America 78). Szarkowski's
project struck home for me because I've been wanting closely tool-based
instruction in an art I love with all amateurish enthusiasm, and because I
am convinced we all badly need the same in practicing the art of computing in
the humanities.

Beware, I say, of being blown off course by the strong winds of
theorising that are so easy to surrender to, so difficult to navigate
productively!

Comments more than welcome.

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts,
   Sciences and Humanities (Berghahn); Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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