Project Shoutouts
Episode 1:
Welcome to Redes | Redes (tamu.edu)
Redes is relatively young (started in 2020) but extremely pertinent to our world today in which there are a lot of people circulating across the globe. On their About Us page, they describe themselves as “a digital solidarity initiative” that “consists of a digital platform that houses the pertinent information of associations, shelters, centers, programs, and other initiatives that support the migrant population in transit or who are returning to Mexico.” Redes was created to link resources and those who need them most, and is structured to encourage you, the website user, to volunteer and contribute. Their mission is to “provide associations and initiatives with digital tools that allow teamwork in favor of migrants. It is intended to directly help and facilitate this population with relevant information to, in this way, reduce their needs in their walk through Mexico.” They have several components compassed within their website to facilitate their goal, and we encourage everyone to check it out. It’s a great way to be more aware of overlooked populations, and to become part of a community.
The Little Lion of Valley Forge
We’d like to shout out a Tumblr archive that inspired me Claire to take a closer look at the Baron von Steuben’s letters. The site is called “The Little Lion of Valley Forge,” and it’s run by a woman named Eleanor who has an interest in 18th-century queer history. She not only examines letters and literature, but discusses artwork, linguistics, and clothing related to queer history. Please check her out!
Episode 2:
Los Alamos Tribal Community Interactive Map
Created by the American Indian Employee Resource Group of Los Alamos National Laboratory, this project is an interactive map that lets you learn more about the tribal communities and nations with members who work at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It shows the large spread of North American regions from which employees originate, from Alaska to Wisconsin to Arizona. We love how this project steps back to let these indigenous groups speak for themselves, directing you to each nation’s own resources and amplifying their voice and the ways in which they have chosen to present themselves to the world.
Dr. Eric Gonzaba of California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) has created a project called “Mapping the Gay Guides.” The goal is to create an interactive map where users can see the locations published in gay travel guides created by Bob Damon in 1965. The locations include bars, restaurants, and clubs, and users can interact with the map by scrolling through years and watching as certain locations emerge and fade out over time. It’s a really fascinating project that also serves as a way to see historical gay trends and events.
Episode 3:
Knitting Data: Data Visualization and Crafts
“Knitting Data: Data Visualization and Crafts” is a really neat Scalar project. As a Scalar project, it is itself a digital humanities project, and at the same time, it discusses amazing crossovers between analog fiber arts and digital technology use. The creator of “Knitting Data” is Rebecca Michelson, the senior library assistant in Special Collections at the USC Libraries. It’s an accessible, enjoyable, quick-to-read exploration of how crafting (especially knitting) can be used to display and communicate data in a way that is tangible, visual, and diverse. The project summarizes and links to further information about historical crafty-coding like wampum, and also gives examples of ways that data has been knit in the modern day.
The Digital Native American and Indigenous Studies Project
This site, called The Digital Native American and Indigenous Studies Project, is run by directors Jennifer Guiliano, Charmayne “Charli” Champion-Shaw, Holly Cusack-McVeigh, Larry Zimmerman, and Mary Cox out of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis as part of the Humanities for All initiative. Users can navigate through the site to find projects related to various communities. It’s a neat website and tool that lets you find all these various humanities projects. Please check them out!
Episode 4:
Julfa Cemetery Digital Repatriation Project
The Armenian cemetery in Julfa used to be home to a massive number of khach’k’ars. Once more than 10,000 strong, it had whittled down to about 2,000 by the year 2000. Between 2005 and 2006, the remaining khach’k’ars were destroyed. The Julfa Cemetery Digital Repatriation Project, initiated by Dr. Judith Crispin, was an attempt to restore those UNESCO Intangible World Heritage artifacts to their community. The project has created two permanent 3D installations and an international touring one. There are further plans to add VR components, a full related archive, and so on.
This project shout-out links right back to Dr. Nieves. We are specifically shouting out his work in the creation of Soweto ‘76, a 3D reconstruction of the Black township Soweto, South Africa. The 3D archive uses a combination of oral histories, video footage, and physical objects to create an interactive historical experience. Please check it out!
Episode 5:
Christiana Wong’s “Female image in Vogue magazine: A pictorial analysis of facial and body language“
This shout out goes out to Christy Wong, a student at Yale University who did a project falling under the university’s “Robots Reading Vogue: Data Mining is in Fashion” section. Christiana used the enormous amount of data available through Vogue magazine to analyze their photography’s “implications about the female face.” In this presentation, she walks you through the entire project, and how it worked toward three goals: (1) to “identify trends in facial features of cover models,” (2) to “identify trends in faceism index,” and (3) to “identify trends in location of face in fashion photography.” She shows a variety of examples of how her data was put together. She pulls together her results in a really cohesive way to discuss how we need better facial-recognition algorithms, how the faceism results can point to changes in women’s empowerment etc., and so on. It’s really fascinating to see what was done with this data, and to imagine what else could be put together or concluded from this work.
This is a really cool project related to Phillis Wheatley’s legacy. The DigitalTechWorks Academy is a program run by the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center in North Minneapolis, Minnesota. The project provides people of color with training for basic computer skills and things like Microsoft certificates. The community center also supports groups like Girls Who Code and Mancode Mentoring, along with tons of other programs to serve the community. The community center itself has some really fascinating history dating back at least a hundred years, so please check them out!
Episode 6:
The “Peabody Floor Chart” project was underway at the Digital Humanities Lab of Georgia Tech a few years ago. It was in-progress for several years, although the most recent update is a few years old. The floor chart project was an attempt to physically recreate educator Elizabeth Peabody’s alternative timeline as a touch-responsive quilt (learn more about Peabody’s work in relation to other feminist data here). Peabody’s concept used a kind of grid in which squares were colored in with particular colors and in particular positions to describe historical events. It truly does lend itself well to a physical representation. Using copper tape, fabric, LED strips, and a lot more coding than we can explain here, this project at Georgia Tech was well on its way to realizing their goal. If you go to https://dhlab.lmc.gatech.edu/ and select “floor chart,” you can read the posts of students who worked on the project over the years.
The Women’s Project is a website exhibit that features a combination of oral histories, text, and photographs to document the story of a network of women in the 1980s who fought against violence, battery, racism, and homophobia in Arkansas. The website showcases the movement’s public stand against domestic violence, the Ku Klux Klan, and the slashing of social services. Please check out this amazing project!
