Author: Brittany Russell

Shameless Hamilton callback?

Look at us! We did it! We made it to week 10! Home stretch! Hooray!

This summer has been one of the more interesting summers I’ve had. I’ll give this program that. It was a similar emotional roller coaster to what I dealt with during the school year, because you can never have too many hills on that. But I’m getting off the ride, and I’m looking forward to continuing my own self improvement.

I’ve gained a lot of knowledge from this program. I’m grateful for that, because I think that knowledge will help me more than I thought it would at the beginning of the summer. Not only was this a study of art and humanities and academia, but it was a study of myself as well, and focusing on how to improve the problems I’ve been helplessly self-aware of and unsure how to fix. This summer was a good kick in the pants to get that taken care of.

I once said humanities is a documentation of the human experience. We all have our emotional outlets, and it’s good to look at the way other people from the past put their problems into pen and paper. Hopefully we can all do that and be not only healthier, but happier.

I hope that for everyone honestly.

Make good choices,

-Britt

I’ve got no song for this, so we’re going for peak Mountain Goats

Back with another verbose rant about where my project fits in the grand scheme of things; my first one is right here.

I want people to first and foremost pay attention to the language and terminology they choose to use when describing actions in DH. Particularly, I was concerned about the use of the word “decolonization.” I see that as a poorly executed, disruptive, and failed attempt at rectifying years of problems that only ended up creating more problems. Decolonization is a poor choice of words, because when it’s been executed it has only ended with more infighting. This is because of how when the West decolonized, lines were drawn without speaking to the people who were being decolonized, and those lines merged old cultures that didn’t go together and wouldn’t acknowledge traditional lands. Basically, setting up for land disputes and war. I’m worried the use of this word in this setting will minimize the effects of this method.

How does that translate into DH? I worry that academia is going to eventually acquiesce to allowing DH to be a valid method of research, but it’ll only be for certain projects and certain types and certain fields. Those lines in the sand might not translate well into what seems to be the recurring themes and values of DH and the revolutionary writers we’ve been reading. Something major is going to get left out of what they want, and the community won’t like it. As I said before, the DH writers we’ve read have indicated a very utopian mindset that wants it all and wants it NOW, ALL AT ONCE, and honestly can get stubbornly uncompromising about those demands. I sympathize with them, but that mindset about it is extremely toxic and dangerous. That means there will be letdown, because there will always, always, always be a problem to solve. There is no such thing as anything or anyone who is perfect or unproblematic. That’s why we’re all here- to learn, because we came together about our love of learning.

I just read this article on Vox about the online revolutionary communities that took the form of the alt-right and what is described as the Tumblr left, which has a point of view that can get to “one mistake, one disagreement, and you’re out.” Don’t let DH turn into that utopian bubble, and don’t let academia turn DH into that mindset. Learning is about the diversity of ideas, and closing ourselves off can turn into a hypocrisy on our own values of accessibility.

As for my own project and how it will affect the community as a whole? I’m not sure. It wouldn’t surprise me if someone said interactive exhibits have been done better. It’s my first rodeo. I’m keeping my expectations low and hoping to get something done that I can be proud of. I didn’t really invite anyone to the presentations- mainly because I want it to be my own. It’s important to stand on your own two feet because I don’t give a shit what the academic community says. I don’t know them, and they don’t know me. That’s okay. Make our own good projects.

Make good choices,

-Britt

These are elevator speeches I wrote, and included the scenarios in front of it. Just picture the tone being awkward and trying my best.

It’s the start of the fall semester and you’re early for a class. Your professor is already in the classroom. They make small talk and ask how your summer went.

Good morning! My summer went well, I stayed on campus. I was doing research with the library and working more with digital scholarship and web design. I worked with some lithographs in Special Collections that are absolutely gorgeous, and I made a digital exhibit analyzing origins and inspiration behind the art pieces. I used some of the digital tools we learned about to annotate them and mapped out the points of where they came from. I’d be happy to come in to your office hours and give you a tour of it if you’re interested, or just email you the link at a later time?

You’re at a job fair and the recruiter is looking over your resume; they ask you, “What’s this Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship?”

Thank you so much for asking! It was a summer research fellowship that I did with the library at Gettysburg College where I learned a lot about digital tools, web design, and definitely improved my research skills. The tools I used I’ve seen in multiple publications online, including USA Today, but the platform I used was WordPress. I used them to build a digital art exhibit with some lithographs of 1890s posters we had in Gettysburg’s Special Collections that annotated the pieces and mapped out the location of each event the posters advertised. It definitely improved my computer and technology skills, and if you give me your contact information I’d be happy to send you the link along with a digital copy of my resume.

-Britt

This will make sense when I start talking about the nukes.

I’m still fresh off of the talks from Dr. Titus and Dr. Isherwood about the Jack Peirs and Vietnam War protests that we talked about today, and Dr. Isherwood made a point about the Peirs letters that kind of got my brain gears turning. He talked about how the physical letter itself can kind of tell the reader where Peirs is- if he’s on the line he’s writing in pencil from a notebook, and behind the line he’s writing in pen and on stationary. It’s interesting that we’re using that less now- it’s still present and there are sticklers for the written word vs. digital items, but at the end of the day the paper documents are being transitioned out by a generation who’s having trouble seeing their value.

I was also watching House of Cards this weekend and at one point, the nuclear codes are pulled out and there’s a paper binder of instructions enclosed in the briefcase. The person I was watching with remarked that he was surprised it was still paper and not digitized or on a laptop. I wasn’t- these are the nuclear codes, and putting this on paper reduces the risk of hacking or theft. If you also think about it, this system may have updated but it’s technically been around since the late 1940s, early 1950s. That also kind of got me thinking about more value of paper.

We’re moving into the digital age where we’re not sending many physical letters anymore unless it’s bills or random magazines that don’t have much as far as archival value. The things we send are usually emails or direct chat messages and if 2016 should have taught you anything, those can be deleted. Maybe not permanently to the extent we would hope, but still making them tougher to find. The problem is that if the worst happens and the internet blows up, or someone screws up and deletes a whole website, we may never get that stuff back. Then what? We have an entire era of personal accounts, photos, and correspondence of life just deleted, erased. Obviously paper can be burned or thrown away… but the archival and sentimental value of paper correspondence can lead to more preservation of it.

I acknowledge my own role in this risk too- most of my pictures are digital, and I have a blog that I’m not shamelessly plugging at all that documents my own thoughts on current events and personal experiences. Arguably the hipsters are helping with this problem with the return of Polaroids/instant film and printing photos on Shutterstock, but they’re expensive and decreases availability. And honestly, I’m awful at keeping a regular journal on pen and paper. The transition is making the documentation more elite, and that’s sad too.

Bringing it sort of back to the Peirs project, are people really documenting what goes on outside of social media, computers, and the internet anymore? Are people documenting personal accounts and wars and historical events this way, or again, is someone going to be able to wipe them off the internet or hack into it to delete it? Are we at risk of losing the personal and human aspect of history in the digital era?

If the worst doesn’t happen, what are archives going to look like in the future, and will they be at risk to hacking, ransomware, etc.? Is this what the future is of spy movie style museum theft?

Just wanted to get some thoughts out. Maybe we should look into somehow preserving blogs like this on paper for future viewership… just in case.

-Britt

That’s not true / That’s a rotten thing to say / That’s a damnable lie

This week’s uplifting reading was about the liberal arts college political history of DH and how colleges have sold their soul to the neoliberal devil. As the friendly neighborhood fiery liberal (but not radical… this is best saved for a different blog post), I’m bitter and salty. Neoliberal economics is a dirty term, and I kind of advocate for more of a international relations approach of “Keynes at home, Smith abroad.” It ignores the important role government plays in regulation and making utilities safe and cheap for all to use.

Also, I’ll fight Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher and their stupid political bromance while angrily playing the Sex Pistols.

Okay, back to DH and college.

I’ve had limited exposure to other DH programs and admittedly, I see the author’s point that it’s being much more about teaching people how to use tools and just throwing them out into the world to see what they can do. This probably is a product of a school’s lack of understanding of what DH is, school priorities, and also that undergrad research isn’t taken seriously.

Colleges are a gigantic mess of bureaucracy that is currently at a crossroads. They’re trying to all facilitate the same allegedly desirable qualities of leadership and skills and trying to meet requirements, and not trying to stimulate their desire to learn, and that’s mainly market driven by how people keep saying there’s no money in the humanities and arts. As pointed out by Deresciewicz, most students are now going into vocational majors and not the stuff traditionally appreciated by most students. They’re not arguing and discussing to try and leave a mark on the field of their dreams, and instead just trying to get into something with more money so maybe one day they can get what they were promised, and they’re not being taught to do it either.

DH is a victim of that lack of arguing, shoving it to the bottom of the food chain of priorities. I think colleges are trying to get you a nice LinkedIn page with plenty of skills to endorse, and make students think they’re going to be leaders and top of the food chain so they can get more money. It gives you the tools, shows you what they’re used for, doesn’t give you ideas on how to use them or pique your interest in a way to figure out how to use them best, and then says “have a nice life! Go do something and make money so you can pay us back and also donate to our alumni campaigns!” They don’t care about the impact. They care about the money. Putting money into a niche field to do niche research doesn’t show immediate benefits and they have too many money-making problems to try and make more money to worry about instead of, you know, giving students money. And besides, it’s not like it isn’t taken seriously by the academic world anyway.

Finally, undergrads are only viewed as soulless, potential candidates to give a school hundreds of thousands of dollars that will be shouldered for years to come. They come in exhausted after a 12 year sprint through high school, and come in hopeful to engage their curiosity more until they get smacked with collegiate realities. A student has the right to ask to do research, but then there’s the question of funding for it and also time with the rest of classes. I remember a point being mentioned that no students were biting on helping with a project because they “wanted money or something.” This is a reflection of a societal mentality of millennials are spoiled and like money to you know, live, eat, and maybe enjoy leisure if possible. Oh, and avocado toast.

I don’t even like avocados.

-Britt

I’ve been watching Master of None, and this song is not relevant to anything I’m saying, but it’s a fun song anyway and you should check it out!

Reading the article “Debates in the Digital Humanities: #transformDH, Growing Up” created some thoughts that are still… kind of critical of this field. They will look selfish, and they will look a little negative. I agree with everything this stands for, but there comes a point where you need to start prioritizing where you put your energy.

I admit when I signed up for the fellowship I was merely hoping to do some research and create a digital project. I wasn’t expecting to be part of a bigger community, or bigger movement. Research, to me, has always been relatively isolating work because that’s what professors expect from you- you sign the honor code and remind everyone that this is your work and you did it on your own, right? Or else you get kicked out of school or at least get a bad grade?

DH, since I first defined it, hasn’t changed its definition much besides the possible addition of “interdisciplinary” to the word choice. The idea of politicizing it more kind of adds a bit more pressure to someone getting into the field who wants to do research and learn about how to make a great project, and get recognition for said project in the field the project is in. It’s very easy to get caught up in the politics of DH and act like you know what you’re saying when you barely have anything to show for yourself and credibility. While I do preach you should never disregard an amateur’s fresh eyes and lack of jadedness, there should be some basis to back up their points and minimize their ability to get attacked.

I also think that the DH community is trying to tackle too many things at once- making their own house safe for the queer and feminist community while also trying to get taken seriously by the respective fields digital projects are in while also trying to be politically active. There isn’t enough time to cover all of that, and there isn’t enough people too. We’re all human and have our own issues to focus on too.

The reading mentions utopianism in DH and trying to get more feminist and queer voices in the DH discussion, but I don’t think it will ever be perfect. There will always be a group that isn’t satisfied. I think the politics of it are important and reflect major issues that society is seeing in general, and even I don’t think that we will reach the agenda that radical queer groups and feminists are hoping to get. We keep mentioning castle in the sky, and building a log cabin instead- and no one seems to accept the log cabin.

I’ve accepted the log cabin. I don’t think my project will be that transformative- because I don’t want it to be. I think quality should speak for itself, and that’s what people are looking at my project for at the moment. It’s what I’m looking for. I want my audience to learn about cool art pieces, and literally while I was writing this Julia retweeted this:

The most important academia lesson I've learned: we are all smart, distinguish yourself by being kind and good.

— Emily Farris (@emayfarris) June 28, 2017

I like that. If we all just agree to be good people, and not a jerk, and work on our projects to make things accessible but high quality, that’ll be a good transformation. I think that’s a better pathway than trying to overthrow the system.

-Britt

I don’t have a good song for this, so Spoon is always a good option.

I’ve said in a previous blog post that we keep emphasizing community in DH, and that’s something I only recently began to see. I also mentioned in my last blog post that we went to Ursinus for PCLADLA17 and that kind of turned into something even I didn’t expect: friendship? I had way more engaging discussions at this workshop and conference with both students and advisers, and I definitely felt more engaged with the community for once. We were joined in that nice house by the members of Muellenberg’s DH cohort, and it honestly turned into one of the most fun and low stress nights I’ve had in a while. That’s a lot coming from me, especially given how I don’t really like people (as my mother tends to point out). One of Muellenberg’s cohort is actually a former music director, and one thing I haven’t had the complete pleasure of doing is talking about the weeds of radio music directing. It was safe, relaxed, and many laughs were had.

Community is good. Make sure to appreciate it when you can, even if it’s with a few random strangers, a giant jar of cheese balls, and a pinochle deck they thought was a regular card deck.

-Britt

A link aPEIRS!

The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs is a digital project made by Dr. Ian Isherwood, Amy Lucadamo, R.C. Miessler, with the help of student assistants and letters donated by a former student named Marco Dracopoli, a descendant of Peirs. They made this project to preserve the history of Peirs and create more of a learning opportunity for the students. Each letter by Peirs is digitized, transcribed, and annotated before being published 100 years to the day of when it was written.

The project was made for WWI historians and students, but is also meant to be approachable by the public who may have an interest in a more intimate understanding of what transpired during WWI through the eyes of someone who was there during the major campaigns. The project states its main goal is to make these letters widely available, and focuses more on preserving the history with some commentary about how he writes about the war to his family back home. The authors talk about the way Peirs describes the war and also what he doesn’t describe, especially since Isherwood knows a very good history of where Peirs would be when the letters were written, and can compare his accounts with other, more graphic accounts.

The home page is inviting and interesting, and the site itself is easy to navigate. Isherwood’s writing style, while still has some formalities, is approachable and understanding to keep in line with the project’s main goal of making the letters widely available.

The project utilizes a WordPress site and puts the scans of the Peirs letters next to a transcription of them. The authors also put Peirs’ location when the letter was written on a StorymapJS map, and I’m surprised at how accurate they made it, right down to the trench location. Frankly, I find that incredible that we’re able to do that with a single man, all of my issues I discussed in my review of StorymapJS aside.

The project I would say is far more interesting and interactive than a traditional research project because you can build more and more on it as time goes by, with the touch of putting up a letter 100 years from the day it was written letting the project be a longer time commitment with an easier and steadier pace than doing it all at once. Isherwood or other members of the staff can add his own little chats on the side when he has an idea or thought about what may have been running through Peirs’ head when he was writing his letters, and connect it to other events and a bigger picture of the First World War.

War and history can be tough subjects to sink your teeth into, and for some Americans it can be even harder for some since we came into the war so late, and at least until my junior year of high school the only thing discussed about the era was the League of Nations and that’s it. The Peirs project does what it aims to do- make this available and approachable, and I really like it. Thanks, Gettysburg Staff I Totally Don’t Know.

-Britt

There’s bound to be a ghost at the back of your closet no matter where you live.

Greetings from a place that isn’t Gettysburg again! The 2017 cohort has given the 2016 cohort a much deserved break from our nonsense and taken it to Ursinus College for the PCLA Digital Learning Conference! The college was kind enough to stash us in a couple of houses for the two nights we’re here, so it’s me, Emma, and Christina vs. the adults we brought along in the other house. Mind you this place might be a little old, and with all old houses they tend to make weird noises. Emma and Christina are a bit spooked, but frankly with what Ursinus hooked me up with, weird noises don’t freak me out and I’ve had WAY creepier stuff happen. If a ghost comes, let them come at me because you bet I’ll fight them and probably win. Ghosts aren’t high on my list of fears… otherwise that would make going to Gettysburg a little awkward.

Besides, I’m sleeping in a former dining room with a pretty dope bay window, and the lighting makes me happy because I, the second most extra person in the overall cohort, can do my makeup and take cute selfies. Priorities, right?

Obviously we’re not here to only appreciate the accommodations, but I’m excited to meet more DH scholars and learn more about DH overall. It’ll be fun to hear different perspectives on definitions of DH, and also hear more about other digital tools I might be able to use to put my project together. Maybe it’ll help me like Scalar more! We’ll find out!

-Britt

P.S. peep that shakespeare quote because… Ursinus. Bear? HA!

The Knightlab program is cranking out digital tools that I find to be pretty user friendly and easily adaptable to different site templates like WordPress and Scalar (I’m sure you can probably put it in Omeka, but why don’t we cross that bridge later?), and honestly I’m here for it. I love free tools that are designed to be easy to use. StoryMapJS is no different here, and I’m excited to potentially use it for my project.

StoryMapJS is good for mapping out points on a world map to tell a story and document the path, but what sets it up for my own use is its ability to import images so they can be notated as well. This is perfect for my own uses, honestly (given how I’m using art…).

When you go to open up StoryMapJS to make one, the tool immediately asks for your Google account. People do take issue with this for privacy reasons- however, I really don’t and will be proceeding under the impression you don’t either.

The tool opens up with a straightforward, black and white world map. On the map feature, you can zoom in pretty close to get as accurate of a location as possible. However, this is a standard Mercator map, which could affect some more Eastern versions of maps if that’s your issue (maps really are biased, mainly because spheres don’t flatten very well. Different post.).

You can toggle a setting on the map that lets you connect each point on the map and slide, making a path. Turning this off might be easier for other images, but if you’re following someone’s journey across the world, that is a useful tool to have.

However, I take issue with the points themselves, mainly the aesthetic. They’re big, chunky, and put logos on your map that don’t really work depending on what media you use for your notations. The colors can’t change, and neither will the size. They may or may not match the aesthetic a user might be trying to work with, and looks weird on a piece of art.

Uploading images to notate can be a bit tricky too, mainly because you want a giant image that can take up space on your computer, and then you have to use another tool to break it into smaller pieces so the map will load faster and not get distorted. It takes time to do that, and you definitely need a high resolution image to upload to make it work. But this can

You can embed pretty much anything into the map point description, which is pretty nice. That description also probably has a pretty high word count tolerance, or that is also unlimited. I have also been told that there’s either a really high cap on the number of points you can put in, or that number is unlimited. Julia’s project, for example, is pretty wordy and has many points on a battle map (which is super impressive).

Overall, it’s a pretty good tool for beginners and people who are getting into DH with uses that need to be simple, pleasing, and accessible with more limited budgets. Nothing wrong with that, and honestly it’s my favorite tool we’ve used. I didn’t run into any technical problems while playing with it, and I call that a good sign.