DH isn’t fundamentally digital; it’s fundamentally experimental.
Visconti, A., Dombrowski, Q., & Berger, C. (2024). #DHmakes: Baking Craft into DH Discourse. Korean Journal of Digital Humanities, 1(1), 73-108, https://doi.org/10.23287/KJDH.2024.1.1.5
Digital humanities is a historically male dominated field as it is often boiled down to a narrow definition of “makers” instead of acknowledging the women who make up the basis of dh. This passage, however, extends the definition of dh to include the more traditionally female roles of educator, nurturer, and creator while also experimenting with what dh could be. Digital Humanities is the culmination of experimental work from a multitude of communities; so as an artist who grew up in a rural town, this quote is striking. The entire reason I create art is to advocate for underprivileged female youth in rural communities. So to say I was excited when finding out I could incorporate physical artwork into a digital sphere would be an understatement. The idea that dh could be used to navigate ways to make higher education more accessible and challenge rural ideals is inexplicably beautiful.
As a child, I accepted being scared to walk past a group of men, being looked at as “dumber” for my gender, and having to live up to traditionally feminine expectations as the “norm”. I hadn’t even begun to question this until I had access to social media and an online feminist community (though really we were just middle schoolers who had access to the internet). The validity I felt from this group, however, culminated in the creation of art to voice my frustrations with sexism. Quite similarly to the #dhmakes movement, our small Instagram groupchat nurtured a necessary empowerment of teenage girls. As such, I hope to take art in dh as a way to help advocate for the wellbeing and education of underprivileged rural youth.
Digitizing and testing ways to preserve feminist history and culture is a big step in discovering how to aid our youth in the future of this country. As this term continues, I am most excited to understand the ins and outs of digital archiving and 3D modeling as a tool to support the teaching of humanities. Not only will this serve to make education more accessible, but also excite future generations about the importance of feminist history. I hope to thoroughly explore these routes of schooling throughout this term.
