What Does a Talking Digital Humanities Bus Sound Like?

Well, a bit like me, apparently. Sort of.

One of my DH-related tasks today was to provide the voice-over for a video, to be released (I am told), later this evening, on the subject of the DH Maker Bus.

DH Maker BusYou have possibly heard of this, via the hashtag #DHMakerBus. If you haven’t, you soon will. It’s a project, initiated by one of our DH grad students here at Western University, Kim Martin, and being almost willed into being by a larger group of incredibly energetic grad students. It will see them buying a bus, equipping it with all manner of DH-related tech toys, and driving it to Nebraska for DH 2013. It is one of the most hare-brained, astonishing, and brilliant ideas I’ve ever come across in my professional capacity.

Grad students are truly amazing, and the DH grads we have here at Western doubly so. This idea has been entirely conceived, and is being virtually entirely executed, by them, with no “official” support from the institution. I myself have watched in growing bemusement and astonishment as this project has grown in conception, and assumed a more and more finished form.

They asked me, for reasons that are not entirely clear to me, but may have something to do with the soporific effect of my voice, to narrate their video. I allowed myself to be convinced.

The question, however, remains: will they be able to convince me to hop on the bus for a wild 15-hour trip of hacking and making? Do I possess the kind of adventurous spirit that they exhibit in such abundance?

Stay tuned.