To follow the path:
look to the master,
follow the master,
walk with the master,
see through the master,
become the master.
This quotation from a zen poem was taken from a “how to become a hacker” website. In the “Introduction: Theory and the Virtues of Digital Humanities”, Natalia Cecire talks about how the Digital Humanities is “undertheorized” and “the role of theory” in the digital humanities. Cecire explains that the “debates about theory” are debates about the “role of words and deeds”. In the digital humanities, theories are humanistic inquiries about knowledge. The article also mentions hackers, which was interesting, because I often associate the word hacker with information breach. I googled the word and found this quote from a how to be a hacker website: “Hackers solve problems and build things, and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help.” That is, according to Cecire, a “hacker is a person who looks at systemic knowledge structures and learns about them from making or doing.” It is also interesting that Cicere would note that epistemology about doing include collaboration. In relation to daily life, we use words to make theories from our own experiences in order to navigate through life. The way we form our theories about the world and what we do should ideally be the same. However, theories, as it is suggested by Cecire, have been divided from actions and became mere “words”. Hacking is a good example of a practice that have theories with immediate effect. Also, it should be added that while theories can lead to praxis, praxis can be theorized. The development of new knowledge comes from theorizing praxis. As the quote from the zen poem suggests, hackers can improve their skill by solving and building. The master being both the problem and the theory. Therefore, hacking is the praxis and the database the theory. The concern for Humanistic inquiry is that when the way we make theories by words does not result into a praxis and becomes ineffective. Cicere suggests that “…in its best version, digital humanities is also the subdiscipline best positioned to critique and effect change in that social form—not merely to replicate it”. This means that new ways of making theories in digital humanities can bring the relationship between praxis and theory in unison. Furthermore, digital humanities, being “under theorized” according to Cecire, can create praxis. The digital humanities, therefore, creates new forms of inquiry and new exploration of knowledge that can change “social order”.
Work cited:
Natalia Cecire, “Introduction: Theory and the Virtues of Digital Humanities,” Journal of Digital Humanities, March 9, 2012. http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-1/introduction-theory-and-the-virtues-of-digital-humanities-by-natalia-cecire/
Steven Raymond, Eric http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html. 29 November 14