1.1 From Digital Humanities to Speculative Computing - UCLA ...

A model creates a generalized schematic structure while a representation is a
stand-in or surrogate for something else. A textual expression may be an utterance,
instance of exposition or composition, and though it encodes all kinds of assumptions, it
may not explicitly schematize a model. A representation may be as specific and as replete
with information as the original. A portrait, a nameplate, a handprint and a driver’s
license are all representations of a person. None are models. All are based on models of
what we assume a portrait, a name, an indexical trace, or an official document to be. The
generalized category of “official document” can itself be modeled so that it contains
various parameters and defining elements. A model is independent of its instances. A
representation may be independent of its referent, to use the semiotic vocabulary, but it is
specific and not generalizable. A model is often conceived as a static form, but it is also
dynamic, functioning as a program to call forth a set of actions or activities. The design
of the e-book, to which we will return in a final chapter, provides a case study in the ways
a model of what a common object is can be guided by unexamined principles that
produce non-functional results.
Text modeling creates a general scheme for describing the elements of a text (by
form, format, content, or other categories–each of these, as will be clear below, ask us to
think about a text differently), but it is also a way of actively engaging, producing an
interpretation. Modeling and interpretation can be perilously iterative–and the creation of
metadata can involve innumerable acts of rework. Even when the metadata remains
unchanged, its application is neither consistent nor stable. Just as every reading produces
a new textual artifact, so any application of metadata or text models enacts a new
encounter, performs the text differently.
1.1 History / 3/2008 /
39