some stuff i've done recently
2021
“Research Data Management Support in the Humanities: Challenges and Recommendations”
This report, written by myself, and with Lisa Goddard and Shahira Khair, outlines discussions and findings from Research Data Management for Digitally Curious Humanists, an online event sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and held on June 14, 2021 as a Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) 2021 –– Online Edition aligned event. The project builds on my MA research on data infrastructure, management, and work, and draws on key research on data in the Humanities and Social Sciences. (NB: The link will take you to a final draft version of the report, which will be amended upon final publication. The report will also be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.)
“Sensations of History” Book Review, InVisible Culture
Of the more academic variety, this book review of Sensations of History: Animation and New Media Art, by James J. Hodge, explores the stakes of digital imaging and contemporary computation. How is sensing and experiencing digital images different from encountering analogue pictures and cinema?
2020
“Imagining information: the uses of storytelling”
Why do people choose the information they do? Why, when presented with evidence to the contrary, don’t people change their minds? This research project argued that the most important element of any piece of information or data is not how truthful or factual it is, but how compelling its audience finds it. Despite our best efforts, we like information that helps us tell stories about the world we live in, and those stories tend to skew along the lines of our desires: our cultural affinities, our social communities, and our ideological leanings. I looked at a variety of objects: Fox News, scientific modelling of climate change, theories of communication, YouTube creator communities, and various other literature.
2019
That the internet can be an unhappy, anxious place is hardly a secret. But what is it like to live in a constant “Crisis Mode”? For Real Life Mag, I wrote about the emotions tied up in social media use, and how ambivalent or negative feelings lock us in to feedback cycles where refreshing social media feeds becomes the cure for the very crises those feeds create.
2018
The Situationist Game
Designed for a graduate seminar called “Paper Computers”, The Situationist Game was my attempt to develop an exploratory map-making game for players ages 10+. The goal of the game is for players to draw a map, whether collaboratively or not, in an interative process that shirks typical map-making methods. Players are forced to think about how maps work, and what role they play in representing the world.
The design process involved defining my theme, style, and message; identifying target audiences; wireframing various game states and possibilities; prototyping game objects (the card set and the game “board”); play-testing with different groups; and finally, releasing the game to eager players without me watching over them.
If you’d like to play, or just take a closer look at what I did, you can check out (and download!) the game manual and cards here.