Libraries, Videos, Bodies: An Interview with Virginia Kuhn

This episode of Rhetoricity comes to you from the 2016 Modern Language Association Convention in Austin, Texas. At the convention, I spoke with the University of Southern California's Virginia Kuhn. Dr. Kuhn is an associate professor in the Media Arts + Practice Division of USC's School of Cinematic Arts. In this interview, we discuss three of Dr. Kuhn's recent and ongoing projects: First, the Library Machine, which was until recently known as "LibViz." That project is the third case study in a recent article coauthored by Dr. Kuhn: "Coping with the Big Data Dump: Towards a Framework for Enhanced Information Representation." From there, we turn to the Video Analysis Tableau, an online toolkit that makes a vast archive of digital video accessible and searchable for a wide variety of users and uses. Finally, we discuss Future Texts: Subversive Performance and Feminist Bodies, an 2015 Parlor Press anthology that Dr. Kuhn co-edited. Along the way, we discuss cinematic conventions, gender, Afrofuturism, YouTube, and how rhetoric and rhetoricians figure in to Dr. Kuhn's various projects. This episode includes a number of clips and samples from other sources: "Time Travel" by Jasmine Jordan "interactive ui in minority report" The Wizard of Oz "Not in Kansas Anymore" Ghosts of the Abyss Inkheart Little Shop of Horrors The Matrix "Baby Laughing Hysterically at Ripping Paper (Original)" "Charlie bit my finger - again !" "David After Dentist" Honey, I Shrunk the Kids The 85th Academy Awards Lincoln Beasts of the Southern Wild trailer Silver Linings Playbook To the People of the United States "I'm not a Doctor, but I play one on TV Commercial 1986 with Peter Bergman Vicks Formula 44" "Pilot" - House M.D. The Last Angel of History trailer Sucker Punch trailer "A Virtual Friend" by Paris La Nuit Various clips from freesound.org