It all started on a Monday. . .

Today isn’t just any day. It’s a day we may well remember for years, months, or even weeks to come. It’s a day that might someday be called “legendary.”

Today is the day that we launch the Spring 2015 UMW edition of ds106: noir106. That’s right, my friends, this spring we’ll be taking ds106 in a whole new direction, pushing the boundaries as we work collectively to interrogate the meaning of noir.

Noir actually means black, for those of you who don’t speak the French. But what does noir mean when applied to the many headed hydra of ds106? What is noir photography? design? radio? web sites? Noir film, of course, has been around as a concept for many decades, and we’ll be talking about how the aesthetics and ideas embodied by that genre can invade and inform our other media landscapes.

We’ll be doing this together, my friends. That’s right: my section of ds106 will be joined by two others, led by my partners in crime: Groom & Bond. They’re a decent pair. Together, I think we can help tame the beast that is ds106.

This semester, there’s a new face in the ds106 yearbook: Maggie Black. Maggie’s a tutor in UMW’s Digital Knowledge Center and she’ll be working alongside this spring’s crop of new ds106 recruits. Get to know her. She can show you the ropes.

That’s it folks. I’m nothing more than a humble ds106 instructor, looking to return to the fold. Just call me Burtis.