Visualizing Poetry With 1960s Computer Graphics’ by Stan VanDerBeek and Ken Knowlton

While working with a large selection of images, it was important for me to keep track of the source and the year it was published, as well as having shared access with members of the team. For larger PDFs of files, such as magazines that had 300 pages, I’d save the PDF to my hard drive, and select pages that I’d want to convert to JPGs in order to upload to the Dropbox.Something that I was actually looking forward to was searching physical archives, since scrolling on my laptop can be a bit daunting for hours and hours. Having 14 tabs open and re-clicking links I thought I hadn’t open before gets overwhelming, and the idea of diving into a web of endless images online was overwhelming.

The problem with digital archives is that most are directories to physical archives at the specific library, and the few available digitized collections only represent a fraction of what are at physical archives. In order to keep track of all the digital archives I’ve found, I’d compile a list on Notion where it was tagged as Digital Archive, Physical Archive, Website, Podcast, Book, Video, and References (a website referencing online archives to be used). I included the date in which it was added, title, a link, who added it, and a brief description of the source. The more I kept track of archives I had already searched, the more manageable it became. Before, I’d found myself clicking the link over and over again searching for the same key word in hopes of finding something I had missed the last time. By checking off archives that did not provide results and describing why they were useless, it gave a sense of accomplishment, in that I could cross something off a list and move on.

The past week I generally had a hard time narrowing the scope of our project. It seemed to go in a several directions, when it first started off with the history of mainframe computers, emphasizing on how people interacted with machines and how it has affected us as a society. I then had ideas about digital dark ages– in which there is a lack of historical information in the digital age as a direct result of outdated formats, software, or hardware that becomes corrupt, scarce, or inaccessible as technologies evolve and data decay. What would happen if we, as a species, lost access to our electronic records? What if we could no longer access important documents, scientific data, or treasured family photos?

With more research, I discovered that the Museum of Moving Image had an exhibition called “Computer Films of the 1960s“, a 37-minute reel of psychedelic films. Organized by guest curators Leo Goldsmith and Gregory Zinman; it features work of Stan VanDerBeek, Kenneth Knowlton, A. Michael Noll, and John and James Whitney, among others. In the 1960s, computer programmers at IBM, the MIT, and other research labs experimented with computer-generated films. It highlights the interrelationship of science and art, and the collaboration between artists and engineers. These abstract films are usually about new ways of seeing and new forms of sensory engagement with cinema and the world.

I then discovered Radical Software, a journal cofounded by Beryl Korot in 1970 in NYC. It emphasized the relationship between power and control of information, and the importance of freeing television from corporate control. It was also a call to encourage grassroots involvement in creating an information environment exclusive of broadcast and corporate media.

Radical Software Volume 1 1970 Cover Page

In the magazine’s first issue, it states: “Our species will survive neither by totally rejecting nor unconditionally embracing technology—but by humanizing it: by allowing people access to the informational tools they need to shape and reassert control over their lives.” 

Current Work and Education

Nelson currently works at a philanthropic organization in the area of operations. He works extensively with reports and excel sheets with a plethora of data. He has degrees from CUNY, An AAS in Computer Ops: Network admin and Security and a BA in Intl Studies. He combines them both in his career work.  He will looking to use his new found knowledge of data humanities in order to aid his colleagues with any sort of data reporting.

Responsibilities in “What is a Community Garden in the Digital Age”

Nelson’s main task will be to compile the available data found online, in the group he will help visualize them through Tableau and upload the data visualization model onto an interactive website. He will help find and create a website for the data models and maps. He will also help with any ethnographic work.

Work

Raquel Neris has 13 years of experience working in different areas of design, such as UX design, service design, and learning experience design. During this journey, she also had an entrepreneurial experience developing educational games about financial literacy for students in Brazilian schools. Today she works for BMCC as OpenLab Student Engagement Coordinator.

Studies and interests

Raquel has a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication, a Graduate degree in Interaction Design, and a Master’s degree in Communication and Education. In discovering Digital Humanities as a promising pathway to exploring crucial issues in humanities using digital technology, she became curious to know how to use its theories and practices to explore the last mile of technology in cognition and learning. 

Responsibilities in Sounds of Music project

Since Raquel has experience working as a product owner of digital solutions, her contributions for the Sounds of Music projects are in project management, research, and UX design.

Benjamin Mørch graduated from Copenhagen University in 2017 with a B.A. in Ethnology and Visual Anthropology. His main academic interest has been working with processes of othering or the figure of ‘the stranger’ in the media and education system often with a feminist scholar framework. During his bachelor’s he focused on ethnographic fieldwork using visual and audio methods, and developed workshops about cultural history for educational use. Since he has used his skills in different settings and worked on documentaries, as a teacher, ethnologist conducting fieldwork and campaign leader for an NGO. His interest in pedagogy using media and digital tools has grown in the last years where he has worked making educational material for high schools students and as a teacher. He is currently in his first semester of a master in Digital Humanities, and he hopes to explore and learn more about digital pedagogy and skills in digital tools for educational use. In the project “What is a Community Garden in the Digital Age” his main task is to design and conduct a smaller ethnographic fieldwork with selected community gardens and work with the user experience and development of the final site.

Faihaa Khan graduated from St. John’s University with a B.A in English in 2017. Her bachelor’s education focused on literary studies and journalism. Skills attained in those fields has led her to various job opportunities. In 2015 she worked as a lifestyle blogger and fashion intern at World Bride Magazine and in 2016 she worked as a Corps Member at Jumpstart; an early education program designed to help preschoolers from under resourced communities improve language and literacy skills. Present-day she is working as a typist/desk supervisor at a New York newspaper alongside editors, reporters and writers.

Faihaa is also currently a second year M.A. student in Digital Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center. Throughout her studies she is eager to learn about tech programs and data visualization methods that will expand her arsenal of skills. Aforementioned skills attained will help her find career opportunities in media research-her current dream profession.

Furthermore she is also serving as Project Manager/Documenter on the digital project known as “What is a Community Garden in the Digital Age”. Her contributions to the project will include being the general overseer of the group, keeping track of Google spreadsheets, listing data that has been found thus far, keeping track of all contact info and assisting with collecting, organizing and analyzing data.

Kai Prenger graduated from Reed College in 2004 earning a BA in Literature, writing and defending a thesis called The Same But Different, an experiment applying the post-colonial theories of Homi K. Bhabha to 19th century American literature. His academic interests include misuse tools and theoretical frameworks on unexpected topics, using arbitrary process to transform subject matter (deformance)  and exploring areas deemed boring by a plurality of scholars. Previous work for pay includes dry cleaning, construction, social work, financial operations, product management, and data analysis and engineering. As a graduate student, he pursues play as productive strategy in scholarship. His main contributions to the project include development, theoretical and educational context, and shares project management duties with Connie, the co-project leader.

Felicity Howlett received a CUNY BA degree in psychology from City College in 2021 and is currently a student in the MALS program at the Graduate Center. Previously, she earned a Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University with a focus on the twentieth century. Her thesis explored the solo piano interpretations of Art Tatum. She became an executive assistant to David Judelson (a co-founder of Gulf+Western Corporation), who devoted his entrepreneurial skills to pharmaceutical research (developing a safe blood substitute) and the “last mile” problem (digital technology). Over the years, she transcribed and edited his recollections, and in 2016, she produced a two-volume memoir of his life and work. As a pianist, she has entertained in piano bars and in various hospital and elderly community settings. Presently, she volunteers in a “Music for Veterans,” music therapy program under the direction of Concetta Tomaino at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function.

The Sounds of Music project is inspired by the creative efforts of Concetta Tomaino. As Project Director, Felicity will contribute her personal experience, contacts, and concentrate especially on helping to frame the model program, outreach, and research, including examination of other interactive music programs, resources to enhance accessibility to the internet, and problems of latency and other interactive connection issues. She is fortunate to have creative, technically well-equipped partners who have solid experience in design and project management.

H316 General Purpose Digital Computer Brochure, 1965

Connie Cordon graduated in 2018 from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Communication Design with a concentration in Illustration. Publications and exhibitions include 3×3 Illustration Annual No. 16, Creative Quarterly 55, Society of Illustrators 2019, Society of Illustrators 2018, and Melted City 4 at YUI Gallery in 2018.

Her main interests include collaging, which later turned into an interest in archives, as she spent most of her time researching materials through physical and digital ones. She became interested in humanities while working on her illustration thesis, in which she created a series of images based on other individuals’ personal recounts of sexual trauma they experienced during childhood. By researching how trauma can impact an individual’s memory, she also explored the media’s interpretation of similar topics about abuse and sexuality, and how it can be misconstrued into something else entirely. For example, how the media has managed to make Lolita a positive cultural icon in our society despite the controversy the book caused. This research led her to questions about the notions of censorship and truth, censorship in advertising, and more specifically the ethics and morals regarding censorship in art and photography.

She is eager to explore how humanities and social sciences are intertwined with visual media in regards to storytelling, as well as the moral responsibility that visual storytellers have in regards to its impact on culture. She hopes to gain the tools needed in order to practice multidisciplinary experimentation with emerging media technologies that deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, and imperfect information.  

Her main contributions to the project is researching material, creating a visual identity, outreach and social media, as well as project management in conjunction with Kai– the main project leader.

Hampton Dodd graduated from the CUNY School of Professional Studies with a B.A. in Communication and Media studies in 2021. Throughout his time there, he focused primarily on the relationship between technology and power through the theoretical lens of Neo-Marxist and Foucauldian analysis. These influences ultimately culminated in a senior thesis entitled Physiognomy, Facial Recognition Technology, & Biopolitics, which sought to uncover and trace the common genealogical thread of pseudoscientific physiognomic thought from the Age of Enlightenment through the Third Reich and into the emergent webs of facial recognition technologies presently proliferating across the world. Beyond this, his research interests encompass the development and application of technological tools in the advancement of digital cultural criticism, the critical analysis of big data and surveillance capitalism, and labor in the age of automation and the platform economy. Currently, Hampton is developing a collaborative project called Modeling Value in the Anthropocene: Contributions to a metacosmics, a vector semantics analysis of the Nanjing Lectures given by philosopher Bernard Stiegler between 2016 and 2019, alongside project-manager and co-author Brian Millen.

Brian Millen received his B.A. in Philosophy from SUNY Purchase, and is currently an M.A. student in the Digital Humanities at the CUNY Graduate Center. During his time there, he submitted a senior thesis entitled Education and a Discipline Beyond Punish, which argued for a renewed role of education in global political transformation. His theoretical interests involve the relationship between humans and technology and the political consequences thereof. His research interests concern utilizing a combination of computational text analysis with more traditional scholarly work of philosophy to investigate technology, politics, economics, and strategies for overcoming the Anthropocene. Currently, Brian is working on a project called Modeling Value in the Anthropocene: Contributions to a metacosmics, a vector semantics analysis, for which he is fulfilling a role as project manager, as well as working co-extensively with research collaborator Hampton Dodd as co-developer and co-author.