This website is a portfolio for John F. Barber, PhD, a scholar-teacher-artist based in the Department of Creative Media & Digital Culture at Washington State University Vancouver. He intertwines research and scholarship with creative practices.
This website preserves and curates Barber's efforts. It provides insight. And reinforces the legends. Use the tabs to learn more. Or, use the menu above to visit the curated exhibits.
This website replaces and updates the "blue-squares" version, which replaced the "deconstructed" version, which replaced the "cyberspace" version.
CloseJohn F. Barber is a scholar and sound artist based in Vancouver, Washington, USA. He convenes with the faculty of the Creative Media & Digital Culture Program at Washington State University Vancouver. See his Wikipedia biography John Barber (artist, scholar) for more information.
Barber's current scholarly and creative activities include digital scholarship and radio art+performance+research. For example, he developed and maintains American Dust: Richard Brautigan's Life and Writing, The Brautigan Library, Radio Nouspace, and Re-Imagined Radio.
Personally, Barber is actively involved in the process of becoming. He is noted for his preparation of four-course meals using on granola and yogurt. He has spoken with Captain America (of Easy Rider fame, not Marvel comics), walked the Great Wall of China, navigated the Mississippi River, and was featured on This American Life.
John F. Barber, PhD
Department of Creative Media & Digital Culture
Washington State University Vancouver
Vancouver, Washington, USA
jfbarber[AT]wsu[DOT]edu
Follow Barber on X (formerly Twitter) @RadioNouspace and/or @ReimaginedRadio
Barber began his academic career exploring the use of computer technology to facilitate the teaching and learning of writing. New Worlds, New Words: Exploring Pathways for Writing about and in Electronic Environments (Edited by John Barber and Dene Grigar. Hampton Press, 2001), focuses on the future of writing following its move into electronic spaces. Barber contributed chapters focusing on the use of mediated, electronic environments as sites for meaningful human interaction to Texts and Technology, The Online Writing Classroom, Electronic Networks, High Wired: On the Design, Use, and Theory of Educational MOOs, and Studies in Technical Communication. His essays have been published in peer reviewed journals like Readerly Writerly Text, Works and Days, Pre/Text, Leonardo, Fine Art Forum, and Kairos: A Journal For Teachers of Writing in Webbed Environments.
This early focus on computers and writing peaked Barber's interest in the temporality of writing and the adoption of a new research question: "How might digital technologies facilitate the collection, organization, and presentation of information and narrative structures?"
One answer is digital archiving and curation. Barber has several significant efforts in these areas.
Brautigan Archives
Bibliographic archive. Ongoing.
GIHUGANTIC, and preeminent, bibliographical and biographical information resource for life and writings of American author Richard Brautigan. LEARN more.
The Brautigan Library
Curated manuscripts. Ongoing.
Lyrical, haunted. 300+ manuscripts ignored by commercial publishing. Permanently housed at Clark County Historical Museum, Vancouver, Washington. LEARN more.
Two books, Richard Brautigan: An Annotated Bibliography (McFarland, 1990) and Richard Brautigan: Essays on the Writings and Life (McFarland, 2007), are offshoots of this work. Regarding Brautigan, Barber has contributed essays to The Honest Ulsterman, Postwar Literature 1945-1970: Research Guide to American Literature, Encyclopedia of Beat Literature, and various international literary journals.
As a sound artist, Barber explores sound as the basis for storytelling, narrative, and literature. Following this line of inquiry Barber has contributed chapters to Doing Digital Humanities, Vol. 2, and Contexts, Forms, and Practices of Electronic Literature. His essays have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Digital Studies/Le champnumérique, ebr [electronic book review], Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures, Leonardo Digital Reviews, MATLIT (Materialities of Literature), Scholarly Research and Communication, and others.
Barber's works include literary media art, international radio art broadcasts, sound art installations, gallery exhibitions, performances, a regular radio program, and a podcast series. All follow the idea that sound engages with listeners’ imaginations to shape images and stories of their own making. Sound promotes immersion, engagement, and expression of personal experience. Peer reviewed / juried / curator selected, Barber's creative radio and sound art works have been broadcast internationally, and featured in juried exhibitions in America, Brazil, Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and United Arab Emirates.
Radio Nouspace
Virtual listening gallery. Ongoing.
Curated radio and sound art, and other sound-based narratives. LEARN more.
