Jay David Bolter (born August 17, 1951) is the Wesley Chair of New Media and a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...

. His areas of study include the evolution of media, the use of technology in education, and the role of computers in the writing process. More recently, he has conducted research in the area of

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

and mixed media. Bolter collaborates with researchers in the Augmented Environments Lab, co-directed with Blair MacIntyre, to create apps for entertainment, cultural heritage and education for smart phones and tablets. This supports his theory regarding remediation where he discusses "all media functions as remediators and that remediation offers us a means of interpreting the work of earlier media as well" (Bolter & Grusin, 2000, p. 55).

Biography

Bolter received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in

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from

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, in the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, in 1973. In 1977 and 1978 he received his Ph.D. in

Classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

and an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

, both from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...

. Bolter received prominent fellowships at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, and with the American Council of Learned Societies. From 1979 until 1991, Bolter held various faculty positions at the University of North Carolina. In 1991 he moved to the

, where he remains today.

Storyspace

Along with John B. Smith and Michael Joyce, Bolter co-created Storyspace, a software program for creating, editing, and displaying

hypertext fiction Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to ...

. It was developed to support hypertext fiction in particular, although it can also be used for organizing and writing fiction and non-fiction intended for print. Although always credited as a coauthor of Storyspace with Joyce and Bolter, Smith wanted to clarify in an interview that he wasn’t involved in the development of either TALETELLER (which was a precursor to Storyspace) or Storyspace — but that he made more of an intellectual contribution insofar as "there was a sort of cloud of ideas that we were all drawing on in the discussions we’d have in this research entity at UNC, Textlab" Some of the notable hypertext fictions created in Storyspace include: Michael Joyce's '' afternoon, a story'',

Stuart Moulthrop Stuart Moulthrop (born 1957 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an innovator of electronic literature and hypertext fiction, both as a theoretician and as a writer. He is author of the hypertext fiction works '' Victory Garden'' (1991), whic ...

's ''

Victory Garden Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I a ...

'' and Shelley Jackson's ''

Patchwork Girl ''The Patchwork Girl of Oz'' is the seventh book in L. Frank Baum's List of Oz books, Oz series. Characters include the List of Oz characters (created by Baum), Woozy, Ojo the Lucky, Ojo "the Unlucky", List of Oz characters (created by Baum), Un ...

''. Bolter has used Storyspace to revise several of his own books. More importantly, Storyspace provides facilities for writing and editing, which includes a map of the structure of the links, making it accessible for new users. Storyspace is currently being developed by Mark Bernstein of

Eastgate Systems Eastgate Systems is a hypertext publisher and software company headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts. Eastgate is a pioneer in hypertext publishing and electronic literature and one of the best known publishers of hypertext fiction. It publ ...

Trivia

Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...

has referred to Bolter as "the new

Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg ( – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and craftsman who invented the movable-type printing press. Though movable type was already in use in East Asia, Gutenberg's invention of the printing ...

." Bolter states in ''Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print'' that "Hypertext in all its electronic forms — the World Wide Web as well as the many stand-alone systems — is the remediation of print". Jay David Bolter and his writing partner, Richard Grusin, make the claim in their text ''Remediation: Understanding New Media, "'' At this point, all mediation is remediation."

Select works

*Bolter, Jay David. ''Digital Plenitude: The Decline of Elite Culture and the Rise of New Media''. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019. *Bolter, Jay David and Gromala, Diane. ''Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art and the Myth of Transparency''. Cambridge:MIT Press, 2003. *Bolter, Jay David. ''Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, Second Edition''. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. *MacIntyre, Blair, Bolter, Jay David, Moreno, Emmanuel, and Hannigan, Brendan. "Augmented Reality as a New Media Experience," In ''International Symposium on Augmented Reality (ISAR 2001)'', New York, NY, October 29–30, 2001. *Bolter, Jay David and Richard Grusin. ''Remediation: Understanding New Media.'' Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000. *Bolter, Jay David. "Virtual Reality and the Redefinition of Self" in ''Communication and Cyberspace: Social Interaction in an Electronic Environment'', edited by Stephanie Gibson et al. (Hampton Press, 1996). *Bolter, Jay David. ''Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing.'' Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990. *Bolter, Jay David. ''Turing's Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age.'' Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984. * Bolter, Jay David. "Examining and Changing the World of Media," in: ''Humanistic Perspectives in a Technological World'', ed. Richard Utz, Valerie B. Johnson, and Travis Denton (Atlanta: School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014), pp. 37–9.

References

External links