DH should live up to the ‘humanities’ part of their name by highlighting the human aspects of making
Visconti, Amanda , et al. “#DHmakes: Baking Craft into DH Discourse.” Korean Journal of Digital Humanities, vol. 1, no. 1, May. 2024, pp. 76, https://doi.org/10.23287/KJDH.2024.1.1.5
I love this quote from the chapter we read from #DHMakes: Baking Craft into DH discourse because this was the part of the reading that made what Digital Humanities is truly click for me. The quote builds off of something Ashley Reed said which made her understanding of the importance of concentration on the process over the product in DH, and in this digital age where we are still wrestling with the idea of what it means to make something or to be someone that makes something is, I think it’s an important piece of the conversation that has historically been left out. American society is very results-oriented, from our daily work to our healthcare, is solely focused on the results. Additionally, the quote brought to memory something I learned from the artisans I had the opportunity to meet during my time in México is that not only is there an unbelievable amount of work that goes into the art people produce, but the most impactful art tells a personal story. What we make should be a reflection of who we are and what we believe, and the key to unlocking those hidden key details is found in understanding the process by which something was made. From my understanding, the humanities are about how we produce knowledge and our knowledge comes as a byproduct of our environment and culture. I want to delve deeper into the idea of what we consider “making”, what it means to be someone who makes, and the impacts that heavily collaborative nature that computing brings to the field of humanities will have on the said field. I am also interested in learning more about the humanities in general, as I haven’t had a humanities class recently.
