From Typing to Touching

A Review of Writing with Natural User Interfaces

Authors

  • David R Gruber City University of Hong Kong Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.v6i1.127

Keywords:

computers, digital, critical, rhetoric, technology

Abstract

As Natural User Interfaces (NUIs) grow increasingly common, this article investigates what they might do with/for writing and say about the teaching of writing. Specifically, I review three NUI writing projects, critically examining the rhetorical features of the projects and investigating the relationship between NUIs and Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs). Ultimately, I argue that NUIs are not “natural” interfaces but are as historically and socially grounded as GUIs; even so, NUIs hold the potential to invigorate a critical and activities based pedagogy, placing new focus on socially constructed meanings, material interactions, and embodied performances.

Author Biography

  • David R Gruber, City University of Hong Kong

    David R. Gruber is an Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong. He is a graduate of the Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media doctoral program at North Carolina State University. He has published in Media History, Visual Communication Quarterly, and Ctheory, and he has articles forthcoming in Technical Communication Quarterly and Rhetoric Society Quarterly. He is currently researching intersections between neuroscience and the humanities as well as participating in an interdisciplinary project to build interactive, digital media installations about the use of neuroscience research in the humanities and social sciences.

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Published

2014-06-10

Issue

Section

From the e-Sphere

How to Cite

Gruber, D. R. (2014). From Typing to Touching: A Review of Writing with Natural User Interfaces. Writing and Pedagogy, 6(1), 127-144. https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.v6i1.127

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