“Where Writing Happens (and Why Where Matters).”

• We write more now that at any time in human history.
• Much of the writing we do, though, is usually not considered writing.
• These forms of writing happen in all kinds of places, in all kinds of forms.
• My research explores these forms of writing, and argues that the kinds of writing that happens every day—the kinds we rarely think of as writing—matters in significant ways.
  • I use visual research methods, which means that I’ll show as much as I tell—lots of images of where these kinds of writing happen.
• These kinds of writing strongly shape what we know and who we are.
• What do these kinds of writing look like? Notes on paper, notes in notes apps, YikYak backchannels, Direct Messages on Twitter, jotting on spiral journals, text messages, hidden slips of paper, code, etc. etc...