A overview on and reflection of the evolution of my final project

While I outlined the details and desired outcomes of my project proposal in the idea submission and class presentation, some aspects of my project, including the title, have since changed. Though most of the changes were minor, the process of drafting, outlining, and revising (many times!) various elements of the overall idea, have been critical in shaping the project trajectory and proposal that I submitted for this class and hope to continue developing, and eventually realize.

The most obvious change concerns the project name. Originally, I was referring to this as an archival project, however after much reflection on the goal of this project which focus on documenting and collecting conjunto music education materials, I felt the project is not so much an “archive” as it is an ongoing documentation and collection project. While the project certainly possesses elements and focuses similar to those of an archival project, such as the digitization and publication of conjunto artifacts, a major element of this project surrounds documentation, specifically referring to the production of previously undocumented works, mainly music transcription and notations. Thus the name eventually changed to “The Conjunto Music Documentation Project and Collection”, what I felt was a more appropriate title to highlight the two overarching focus areas: documentation efforts and collection efforts.

The scope of work and project team members also changed to address necessary work areas within the project. For example, the project staff did not initially include a metadata specialist. As I developed the scope of work for the project, it became apparent that specialized knowledge in metadata is necessary to realize a widely accessible online collection. This realization also helped shape the work plan, allowing me to address and expand on online cataloging and metadata requirements for the collection content. While I included a Legal Consultant form the initial stages of this project, I was unclear on the appropriate term for this role — that is, I thought perhaps this role would only be necessary for some phases of the project. As I developed the proposal, however, it became clear that a legal consultant would likely be necessary throughout the entire project timeline, and perhaps even in the ongoing development of the collection. From content acquisition, to the development of new content, legal complexities surrounding copyrights, ownership, media laws, and more may arise and a legal consultant would need to help navigate these situations. Furthermore, the development of the project helped identify which roles should be part of the ongoing development and maintenance efforts, versus roles that can or should have a fixed timeline. The Website Administrator, for example, will be an ongoing role to help maintain the online collection, while the researcher roles might be temporary or seasonal roles required mainly in the early phases.

The most notable realization, however, was the scope of the project, especially those surrounding ongoing efforts. It was difficult to elaborate on the project work plan and dissemination as it became more and more apparent that the project required many ongoing efforts and did not necessarily have a hard stop/end phase. The nature of this project calls for ongoing maintenance and development to ensure access and awareness. An entire department or team within the Conjunto Heritage Taller will likely need to be established to address these efforts. While they are concerning, especially in how they will shape the project budget and timeline, these discoveries are critical in bringing this project to realization — such concerns must be addressed if/when we are prepared to pursue funding and support for the project.

Overall, the evolution of the idea to proposal was extremely helpful in identifying project risks and challenges as well as outlining the true scope of this idea. It is a massive project that will likely require more developments before we are prepared to launch the first steps towards realization, but this entire process of drafting a proposal has been critical to preparing for that.

Exploring mapping beyond a focus on geographic elements.

Mapping, especially projects and work focused on demography, social, and socio-economic features, have always fascinated me. From straightforward maps of geographic elements to the representation of otherwise complex data against a geographic base layer, information truly comes to life in a way that is approachable and understandable to many non-specialists through mapping, revealing the innovative power in the art of mapping. As a powerful approach to analytics and representation, mapping goes far beyond working with geographic features. For me, the DAV program, and this course especially, have allowed me to explore mapping in ways that transcend what may seem like non-geo related topics and ideas.

Take, for instance, our first week class topic “Approaching the Digital Humanities” where we explored the project “Torn Apart / Separados” which draws on mapping as a tool to visualize immigration policy and incarceration data from 2018. The project reveals a network of affiliates, including government institutions, politicians, religious and non-profit organizations, who help sustain immigration detention centers and policies. With much, if not all, of the project data being widely accessible to the public, there are many opportunities to represent and analyze the data. Considering the vast amount of data used in the project, complexities in the data can result in a loss of important information when presenting it to an audience. Torn Apart / Separados, however, uses mapping as an approach to make sense of the information and organize complex, multifaceted information, ultimately showcasing the power, versatility, and beauty of mapping.

The Decolonial Atlas was another collection we explored this semester that showcases the versatility and power of mapping. The project overview highlights the collection’s use of mapping as a seemingly unconventional use of mapping, “[The Decolonial Atlas] is based on the premise that cartography is not as objective as we’re made to believe.” Many of the maps in the collection, for example, reveal patterns of segregation, applying mapping approaches to information and analysis that does not necessarily require the use of maps, thus showcasing the power in mapping as a tool to communicate an array of information, not only geographic information. As a large collection of maps that aim to challenge the common understanding of map projections, political borders, the understanding communities, and more, the collection utilizes mapping as a means of presenting important information, even information that is not necessarily geographic focused, that might otherwise get lost or overshadowed via other formats of presentation.

Learning about and exploring the versatility in mapping has driven me to explore mapping ideas and projects with subject-matter of particular interest to me, including topics that I may not have associated as appropriate for mapping! Some personal explorations include ideas and projects that are more obviously related to mapping, such as this project where I explored changes of demographic and socio-economic changes after historic designations in San Antonio neighborhoods:

I have also used mapping approaches even in non-professional or academic work, such as the quick observation amidst the power outages and 2021 Polar Vortex in Texas, where I shared some of my own thoughts through a side-by-side comparison of previously produced (not by me) maps on a social media platform:

However, in more abstract uses of mapping, I’ve explored ideas rooted in more social and cultural areas of focus, such as my mapping project, Mapping San Antonio’s Westside Sound. Because this started as an idea to explore and showcase the history and trajectory of San Antonio’s Westside Sound, I envision more elements to this project as it grows, but I am pleased to have incorporated this mapping element as I had not quite envisioned it in the early brainstorming stages.

While it can be used objectively, mapping as a tool for research, exploration, and presentation goes far beyond geographic work. With it’s power and versatility, mapping can, and should be, considered a tool for humanities work and projects throughout many areas of focus.

With COVID-19, digital pedagogy is more effective now than ever. An increased used of digital technologies has led teachers to implement new and creative uses of teaching in the classroom. To fight Zoom fatigue, teachers are developing ways to be more engaging and accessible to different learning abilities.

Like DH open access, education and teaching is being spread outside of classrooms. Instagram has become a sea of information for ‘controversial’ topics, meaning topics that have been perpetually excluded from academia. There is now a wealth of information about healthcare and critical race theory that is missing and intentionally left out of curriculum. To cater to engagement, TikTok has become popular among historical sites that are using this platform as a fun way to tell their history, such as Old Salem, that has a large following that is interested to learn more about the enslaved laborers at this site and the history of the transatlantic slave trade in general.

A digital society has its limitations and caters to exclusivity, however. There needs to be made recognition of the problems of accessibility in remote/digital tools used for schooling. Many marginalized communities lack access to digital technology, internet, even TikTok, let alone if they have it, they lack the tools to disseminate the information and disinformation. Risam confirms this and states, “Together, students gain an understanding of the ways that digital spaces privilege particular communities and forms of knowledge.” Not all are as Mark Prensky terms, a “digital native,” because of “inequalities in access, education, and training that reflect socioeconomic class, geography, and racialized and gendered experiences with technology.”

Perhaps this entire perspective is best summed up in this opening remark by Risam:

“Engaging with postcolonial digital pedagogy further helps students understand how print culture has played a role in constructing a world that privileges the stories, voices, and values of the Global North and how digital cultures in the twenty- first century reproduce these practices, contributing to the epistemological marginalization of the Global South.”

A digital pedagogy gives students the experience to intervene and find the gaps in history. The epistemology is shifting, and it’s happening due to students in addition to educators. Students today are more than ever engaged in the decolonization of knowledge production, and digital tools are aiding in this.

Within the ethnography of infrastructure, there are facets of analyzing how infrastructure affects our every day lives. To break it down even more, it affects us all differently, especially for those who are in ‘underdeveloped’ nations. ‘Developed’ nations get their hands on technology and rarely stop to consider where each piece of the product comes from, and who’s hands created or mined it. Posner explains the effect of software companies have on the economy and their relation to the supply chain which ultimately supports global capitalism. Many companies, aside of tech, claim they are ‘fair trade’ or free from cheap labor, but to put it simply, it is impossible to set this guarantee.

Logan Kock of Santa Monica Seafood even claims that “the supply chain is quite cloudy, especially when it comes from offshore.” He is aware that there is no way of knowing that their product hasn’t come from the hands of enslaved workers. What is fascinating is that he feels that slavery “can happen to supply chains, not just something that they themselves cause.” Therefore, he is taking the blame away from himself, and businesses that rely on thriving consumerism for commodities that support our growing capitalistic society. His and others’ naiveté is not only not acceptable, but also showing that these companies, and capitalism, is the root reason for slavery or other forms of labor abuse.

Posner emphasizes this issue: “It’s entirely possible to have an astoundingly effective supply chain while also knowing very little about it. Not only is it possible: it may be the enabling condition of capitalism at a global scale.” Posner is saying that global capitalism is therefore only possible with exploitation, slavery, and labor abuse.

Thinking about infrastructure from another angle, Greenspan discusses how Digital Humanities acts against the normative functions of a privatization of commodities by implementing open access tools and resources. In addition, he feels “digital humanists need to do more still to distinguish their own inventive and critical explorations of alternate pedagogies and methodologies from the corporate ‘innovations’”. This statement is in regards to the always evolving and feeling of incompleteness of DH projects due to the nature of open access archives, databases, etc.

Furthermore, academia ‘blames’ DH for “sapping both prestige and resources from the “pure” scholarly pursuits of merely thinking and writing.” The DH model acknowledges that it supports tenured professors and students’ research infrastructure. “The digital humanities do not pander to the system (at least not more than any other field) so much as they scandalously reveal the system’s components.”

Caroline Kelly

In the medieval era the ability to read and write were the markers of education, these days I am reminded of this mentality when I think of how we approach coding. Speaking latin has been replaced with writing code and the literacy divide has now become the digital divide. In preparation for my final project, I attended several workshops as an introductory to building a Virtual or Augmented Reality tool. 

There are of course multiple programs that offer free workshops in the attempt to have you use their product or purchase additional training. These workshops provide a foundation that even a layman such as myself found useful. The availability on both Coursera and Udemy offered the widest range of topics covered, and provide plenty of options. However, the design and setup of Circuit Stream most resembled a traditional classroom and offered a lot of support. In terms of its accessibility.

The course provides an introduction to Unity, one of the leading programs for developing AR, VR and 3d gaming apps. Unity is used in both commercial and academic functions, and between the Unreal Engine, is a dominant platform for 3D development. The workshop provided a basic understanding of how to create an app-based AR experience that creates monsters similar to Pokemon Go. Attendees are required to download in advance the Unity software, the Tool Kit and to enable key features such as Visual Studio for effects.  During the workshop, the instructor goes through adding project files to Unity which are the Pokemon “monsters”. This being an augmented space much attention must be paid to the external area, that is the reality portion. Unlike traditional coding, there is an element of the unknown as the developer has to account for the changing space that the camera is projecting onto. When developing software it is an essential function to account for the geometric planes that will impact whether the “monster” is on the floor vs the table vs the ceiling. 

Of interest was a comment made by another presenter. Some Digital Humanities scholars working in Unity are concerned as questions of obsolescence and external control of the platform are ever-present. While the AR program does allow for code to be written that can easily be translated to run on IOS, Android, PC and Mac devices, the potential loss of control for content creators remains. To a Digital Humanities scholar losing their life’s work because software is no longer supported would be devastating. There was also some discussion in regards to censorship in the virtual world. Already we are seeing early forms of censorship such as the fact that the Coke logo could not be used in an AR platform and would be censored as Coke had a contract with the AR tool who agreed to ban other users from allowing their AR media to interact with coke products. This stands in contrast to the use of a logo for parody or satire which would not be banned were it in a Youtube video and not a virtual space. As we are discussing Augmented Reality we had to also consider that some areas where for sensitivity, political, or other reasons, augmented reality might be inappropriate to use and how this should be addressed. It makes you question Who determines what can be in AR or not? Who determines what locations can be part of AR?

By the end of the 1.5 hour workshop I was not able to transfer the project to an application but was able to obtain a conceptual framework that I can build on. It was far from a Pokemon Go experience, but it did provide some key foundational understanding of what even building an AR experience would look like.

When I started this course, I had very limited knowledge of digital humanities. In fact, I think I wrote about that in some of my early reflections and spoke about it during the class sessions. But it was not just the digital humanities that I did not have great level of familiarity with already, it was the humanities, in general. Being a mathematician, I had not, in my academic studies, spent much time on humanities courses, so there was a lot to get used to.

Over the course of the semester, while completing a lot of the readings I felt like I understood the concepts and the materials, but, at times, it was really difficult for me to translate that into something I could conceptualize. I actually recall writing an entry about how the digital humanities needed to focus more on the fun aspects, so as to not dissuade the layperson from being interested in the field. As I was working on my final project, I thought it would be useful to go back to the sections of the curriculum that most closely aligned with the type of project I was working on. My project was mainly a data visualization project, to be completed via mapping, incorporating some text mining. To get myself mentally prepared to handle the project, I went back and reread some of the assigned readings, and I must say, it was a far more enlightening experience after completing the course than it was on the initial go round. Working on the praxis projects, engaging in class discussions, and seeing how far the digital humanities field could really be stretched over the course of the semester gave me a different perspective about the ideas in the texts. In particular, the concepts discussed by Manovich and Drucker resonated far more deeply with me as I was looking to infuse some of their theories into my approach. Ultimately, I think my newfound greater appreciation for the works that we explored early on are an indicator of just how far I have come as a digital humanities student, and how impactful all of our sessions were in furthering my understanding of a subject matter that was, at the time, a very unfamiliar landscape.

I recall in one blog post stating something along the lines of how I felt educated but not necessarily entertained while completing the readings. And, coincidentally, for my workshop session, I attended one on game-based learning and gaming in educational design. I love playing video games, so this session resonated with me very much. I certainly did not see that coming. That session really helped bring things full circle for me and gave me a better understanding of just how broad reaching the digital humanities field can be. What I will take from this class is not only a familiarity and understanding of new concepts but also, at a minimum, introductory skills with a number of tools that at some point down the line can serve some purpose in the research I am conducting. What I really appreciated about this course was how it gave me an opportunity to really take an interdisciplinary look at some of my research interests that are primarily centered around mathematics. Within a digital humanities framework, I was still able to focus on something I am really passionate about, but I had to configure my interest to the tools and ideas at our disposal in this class, and that is an exercise I think will serve me well in the long run.

Professor, I sent this to you separately when it was due, but I am posting it here as well.

According to their website, The Math Genealogy Project (MGP) aims to “compile information about ALL the mathematicians in the world.” , and for any individual who has received a doctorate in mathematics, the website shows:

• The complete name of the degree recipient
• The name of the university which awarded the degree
• The year in which the degree was awarded
• The complete title of the dissertation
• The complete name(s) of the advisor(s) (Math Genealogy Project)

The MGP is a digital tool that appeals almost singularly to PhD-level mathematicians. The website, however, is not well-funded and, as such, has limited personnel support and limited technical functionality. As it currently stands, to use the tool, one must use either of two search methods, a quick search, or an advanced search. The quick search allows a user to only search by name—first name, last name, or full name. The advanced search feature allows a user to search the following fields: first/given name, middle name, last/family name, name of school, year of degree, thesis keyword, country, and math subject/class. Once an individual is located on the website, one can click that PhD recipient’s advisor’s name to then find that person’s advisor. Each click of a name takes a user to a new page that displays that PhD recipient’s advisor, lists the PhD recipient’s students,  and the number of descendants (at least second generation) of that person. A user can keep clicking names, travelling backwards chronologically, until a PhD recipient has no known advisor listed.

My proposed project aims to accomplish two things as it relates to the MGP; better connect the data that comprises the MGP base, and extend the capabilities of the MGP to map genealogical connections across the globe, highlighting key metrics along the way. Other than printing a poster, that displays one’s math genealogy in a format that looks very similar to a hierarchy chart, the MGP has no capability to display connections graphically. Even creating the poster is done outside of the website and is unavailable to be viewed until it is sent to the purchaser. The sample posters that were created can look very messy (see here), due to how many ancestors a PhD recipient may have in their genealogy. With access to the raw data, which is entered one entry at a time by visitors to the site not uploaded from a database, I could map each entry onto a map of the world.

Though relatively simple in concept, these mappings would allow one to easily trace, though time, mathematical influences, and their impact on the study of higher-level mathematics. Moreover, using the subject class codes, one could chart the genesis, intermediate history, and contemporary standing (or not) of certain mathematical subjects over time, and across the world (as ancestors branched out from their bases). Most math PhD recipients, if they become professors at all, do not teach post-PhD where they earned their degree, so this mapping would illuminate the transience and transferability of mathematical concepts and foci.

Side Note: I verbally proposed this project, along with a couple other ideas, to The Schomburg Center’s director and the director of library services this past summer and they seemed very interested in this particular idea. They were interested in having me create a platform for open communication between the institutions and people as a means of keeping the museum/library programing fresh and nuanced, relevant and contemporary.

I have also reached out to the Dominican Studies Institute (DSI) for support and guidance. I hope to hear from them soon. This institution would be a great starting point for research and collaboration. The staff there are well connected to academics, researchers, students, and cultural institutions on the island.

I decided to put aside my original project idea. Without first traveling to a specific town or region in the Spanish speaking Caribbean and finding out more about their book and publishing culture, it is almost impossible to know how to move forward. I think I will keep this idea and most likely go back to it in the near future. I do like the career-focused aspect of it for The Schomburg, but I rather take a chance at something more academic to present and add to this institution’s digital archive than I would proposing the creation of a job and not have it flourish.

For this proposal, I generated an abstract, background, theoretical framework and started thinking about the best methods for achieving this anthropological/sociological project with a simple online website and digital component.

ABSTRACT

Dominican national identity has been a topic of much interest to theorists investigating and analyzing race and ethnicity, nationalism, culture, heritage, and history. Since the official end of the Dominican Republic’s Trujillo-era dictatorship in 1961, Museum curators thereafter have participated in efforts to display and consequently (re)define Dominican national identity. These attempts have often betrayed the island’s history and negated or omitted the dominant influence and presence of their island’s African cultural heritage. This has only served to divide the nation already plagued with issues across lines of race, color, class, and gender and have further marginalized the more vulnerable populations: the racially and ethnically black and mixed-raced, rural and laboring class, women and queer/sexual minorities, and folks at the intersections of these identities. How can one add to current efforts to bridge a gap and offer a platform for these issues, especially during the twenty-first century era of online mass information and transnational communication?

In this project, I seek to investigate this institutional legacy of strategic exclusion and the contemporary challenges and solutions to these issues by proposing a participatory strategy for displaying the experiences, stories and world views of marginalized Dominican citizens, thus creating a radically nuanced definition of Dominican identity—a “New Dominican” that challenges popularly upheld beliefs of a unified national identity and brings to light the real and on-the-ground social and cultural beliefs, experiences and dreams of a people in communication with each other and commenting on the definitions of their identity both outside and within themselves. I hope to do this by bridging the communication gap between both the Dominican Republic and the United States, between Museums and Dominican citizens. I will rely on a participatory theoretical framework to suggest that museums consider the mutual benefits of collaboration that includes the lived experiences and creativity of the public, both native citizens and the diaspora abroad. My research method includes interviewing museum-goers and museum representatives as well as using social media to assess and access the knowledge and interest already present in this transformative effort. I hope to create a website to archive this process and attempt at collaboration that is people-centered and can be used by institutions to include and consider when redefining their own physical platforms for exhibiting its national and more inclusive and participatory culture and identity. I may also consider creating a digital map to visualize the general locations of the collaborators. I hope to do this to note the geographic region of people so that the national museums get a sense of where the collaborators are located and what kinds of issues and creativity is shaped by their locations. For example, my hometown of Las Hermanas Mirabales in the Dominican Republic is where the assassination of the Mirabales sisters occurred, an event that helped unite the nation during the Trujillo dictatorship. This small town is famous for the sisters but also for its critical politics and anti-governmental authority. The art that surrounds the town, the literature the circulates the neighborhoods and the general politics of its people is party a direct result of the history there. The town of Samaná is also an interesting location on the island with a specific history that shapes the culture and art there. After the emancipation of slaves in America, hundreds of African-Americans moved to that specific town in the Dominican Republic. The culture and history that comes from that region is very rich in politics, Black pride, American Black culture, American slavery, English language and migration. There are dozens of other regions on the island that have equally rich histories. Mapping these regions would be a visually important aspect for the website.

BACKGROUND

Dominican national identity has been historically defined by the conditions plaguing the island-nation since colonial times. Post-colonial definitions have been strategically established by the political and ruling elites as racially white, ethnically indigenous, culturally Hispanic, and Christian (Torres-Saillant, 2000). This narrative of Dominicanidad, Dominican national identity, has been both promoted and contested in the country’s museum and cultural heritage sites (Candelario 2007; Nadal 2013). More specifically, I want to know how and why the national Museo del Hombre Dominicano (MHD) has promoted an ahistorical account of the nation’s past and what are the consequences of erasing and miseducating its people about their culturally dominant African heritage.

Is the national museum’s current state of being in a place of “sunken abandonment” indicative of the consequences of a people ignored and overlooked? Is it representative of a government no longer interested in investing in museums as cultural and education institutions? Also, are the current museum practices effective in delivering the message that they seek to project? If so, how can the citizens and diaspora both add to this effort? Currently, and as of today, 12/15/2021, the MHD museum is closed and has not received funding since 2005. The national heritage is at stake here. But there are other museums that have taken the place as the nation’s heritage site.

I am also interested in analyzing how the Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana (MMRD) challenges the narratives of Dominicanidad by highlighting a history of struggle against tyranny by memorializing its revolutionary heroes. What does this display of revolutionary heroes do to the formation of a political, class and racial identity in Dominicans? Is this museum displaying and mentioning the nation’s African heritage to unite political and class struggles with the past and current realities of racism on the island? Are these efforts doing enough to unite Dominicans and allow for their active participation as museumgoers and re-definers what it means to be Dominican?

Considering the island’s colonial history, foreign occupations, fascist dictatorship and the scramble for a new national identity thereafter, I will conduct a mixed-method approach using interviews, social media engagement and encouraging communication and addition to an online platform for collaborating on this effort. For the historical analysis portion of my research, I will access the national archives and both museums’ archives at their physical space and online platforms. I will interview the current museums’ administrators as well as both of the museums’ online social media administrators. I will also interview administrators of Dominican-run social media platforms that address and are in constant conversation about Dominican related issues around identity, culture, and heritage. My social media interview subjects will be chosen based on their active interest in the race, class and gendered dynamics present in Dominican Republic’s national museums, the MHD and MRD. I am looking to ask open-ended questions about the interviewees’ thoughts about the museum’s history and displays. This portion will be done on a website I will create in order to have a continuous/permanent platform and forum for these discussions. I will also ask about possibility of Dominican natives and the diaspora about participating in a transnational effort to communicate and collaborate with museum curators in redesigning and, by extension, reanimating interests in museums on the island. I hope to gather enough convincing responses to propose to the museum administration an alternative vision and strategic plan for the future of both the museum and, by extension, Dominicanidad. The website I will be creating will serve as evidence of the engagement, of the people in the diaspora and the island, necessary to express to the museums how much interest its citizens have in adding to the museum’s archives and exhibitions as well as serve as a location for the free and open expression of national identity. My process is “anything-goes” and I hope that the nation’s leaders in culture and heritage are able to consider this participatory process as beneficial to a greater cultural revolution in identity.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

I will be implementing the following frameworks for researching my topic, analyzing my data and offering an alternative perspective on how to engage for the future of museums in the Dominican Republic. I will draw from the overarching theories of museums studies and its criticism of the displays of cultural heritage and historical legacies. I will also draw more specifically, from the theories of participatory museum strategies (Simon 2011) that attempt to revise and transform how museum-goers and the public can and should interact with museums and the mutual benefits that arise from this. This audience-centered theoretical approach proposes techniques for cultural institutions to invite visitor participation while promoting institutional goals; community engagement is relevant in a world of increasing social media participation opportunities, making museums more dynamic, relevant, and essential places. The three fundamental theories underpinning this praxis are:

1. The idea of the audience-centered institution that is as relevant, useful, and accessible as a shopping mall or train station. An online presence for this here would serve as the most accessible platform.

2. The idea that visitors construct their own meaning from cultural experiences and the experiences of others shared on the website. Online conservation with other Dominicans would also influence collaborators.

3. The idea that users’ voices can inform and invigorate both project design, public facing programs and online communication forums (Simon, ii).

Finally. Participant cultural institutions, such as museums and the new and ever growing online/digital/virtual museums, are a place where visitors can create, share, and connect with each other around content. These places help “create means that visitors contribute their own ideas, objects, and creative expression to the institution and to each other: share means that people discuss, take home, remix, and redistribute both what they see and what they made during their visit; connect means that visitors socialize with other people—staff and visitors’ conversations and creations focus on the evidence, objects, and ideas most important to the institution in question” (Simon iii). These techniques are not a way to replace traditional cultural institutions, but as practical ways to enhance them. As history museums are becoming less and less popular in the face of digital and virtual experiences, especially now during the Covid pandemic and in the age of Zoom University, they will have to eventually change and cater to the museum-goers’ ever and rapidly changing interests and locations of experiences.

Caroline Kelly Blog Post

All too often we hear appeals to data as a counter to any argument that touches upon systemic inequality or involves emotion. In the eyes of many, data has become the “new truth”, it is supposed to be divorced from emotion and be objective. Data has become the manifestation of facts. The selection by Catherin D’Igazio and Laura Klein on “Why Data Science Needs Feminism” explores the biases and entrenched systems that undermine this argument. Data purports to have a pureness, it is simply the collection of quantifiable data points but its current and historical use belies this assertion.

It is often said that what is measured is managed. One of the key arguments made in this selection is the inherent biases that can impact this information. Everything from collection methods to presentation and even intended audience can impact its seemingly unbiased representation. Data can be heavily flawed at two critical points, at the preceding point where the intended use is being conceived, and at the collection point where key factors can be ignored. A misstep at any of these points can radically alter the meaning of data.

Data is all too often presented in an ipso facto manner, and the argument is made that it really can not be. The cited story of Christine Darden, a women data scientist in the early days of NASA is telling of this very clear flaw. When she deigned to ask why there were no women at the upper echelons of leadership the response was a simple: “because we thought they were content where they were”. Any data that would attempt to measure gender representation at such a company would ignore the underlying decisions that impacted it. This simple example demonstrates how data alone cannot be the answer to any question without being placed in context. While this is a particularly telling story, how many companies and organizations never have a Christine Darden to question why and incite change?

The concept of intersectionality is a fascinating one, all the more so because it is a concept that would be difficult to represent with data. Intersectionality thrives in the grey space, the influence of various aspects of a person’s social, racial, and sexual identity are incredibly difficult to quantify. How much categorization would be required? One of the interesting aspects that is suggested is how some minority traits could serve as an advantage when presented against an “otherness” that is more apparent. How would someone classify such a person? Intersectionality is a very real concept, one that suggests an individualism that contradicts raw data collection. And the fact is intersectionality as a concept is not some rare thing but readily present in all people.

The guidelines presented as representative of Data Feminism are a great framework to analyze all data. While the use of the term Data Feminism does play heavily on the binary they purport to question, overall the principles therein are a great guide for anyone using data.

10.29.21

What is Python? What can you do with it? Why is it so popular? Why can it do that other programs can’t?

Python is world fastest growing programming language and it is not reserved for the software engineers and video game developers, as I thought. Kids are also taking part in learning this new language. When I first became interested and asked about it, someone told me that kids nursery rhymes spoke in this language, or more like we can program this language to speak children’s’ songs. For example, if you took the only changing words to the song “Old McDonald Had a Farm” this would be this language of coding. Changing what sound goes with what animal is mentioned is this language. Mind blown! This was my introduction to this language and it helped me understand the basics and imagine the depth of its possibilities.

Of course many other disciplines use this language. Folks working on visualization and data analysis, artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation, etc. Automation is one of the largest uses of Python amongst non-software developers. A great way to understand this is by imagining the redundancy of coping files, naming them, uploading them to a server, this can all be written on Python to automate this process. Of course this sounds great, but I quickly realized the real negative effects of this on the job market and human labor. The machines, by way of human coding, are taking over! These borings tasks, which are real people’s jobs, can be done by computers. That’s a scary thing. But it is where we are headed. The uncritical notion that python, coding, this new computer language, etc just “makes life easier” is concerning.

I participated in the October 29th workshop on Python and found out a lot more about it. A few of the things that i learned was that programming is a lonely journey. It is self-directed and driven by self-interest. Running the script, which we downloaded, was what the instructor told us was going to apparently be the hardest part about the workshop. We followed the basics downloading the script, opening the software and uploading files. We learned that MAC and PC/Windows are very different and that this makes the teaching of these softwares difficult for instructors. Our instructor had to show us for to open and upload files from each since our workshop was split.

In terms of the actual code, we learned some basics about editing simple text in the built-in program and that the different colors is only for simplification. Our instructor was very encouraging. Ja. He kept throwing these phrases that seemed kinda meta. “Face what you don’t understand and make meaning out of it.” I thought it a great touch to this complicated language learning process. I think instructors know that it is very easy to just give up on something so simple–too simple–that it becomes too tidious and doesn’t seem like it has many rewards, specially if all your are doing it coding and not really taking the project or job outside of that realm.

My take aways were as follows: What is the big deal about Python?

1. You can solve complex problems faster and with fewer steps. For example, C# and Javascript, other competing software programs, use longer code or more complex language to do the same thing. Python just makes things easier by being smaller/taking up less space.

C++: str.Substring(0, 3)

Javascript: str.substr(0, 3)

Python: str[0:3]

2. Python is also a “High Level” language so we don’t have to worry about complex tasks, like managing memory.

3. It’s “Cross-Platform” which means that we can run it on Mac, PC, etc,

4. It is the most popular so there is huge community to tap into

5. It is huge! and old. Almost 20 years old. So there is a lot of stuff that’s already happened to it and that people have created with it. This is very useful for beginners. It’s also great that anything you can do with Python is transferable knowledge for other programs. So, starting with Python before finding out what your job, career, or project demands is never a bad decision. Employers mostly look for Python knowledge as a basis for getting hired.

I am not sure Python or any of this language appeals to me just yet but I am glad I participated and learned its most basic functions. I now have an idea of what it means and how it can be used.