Kelly Stanger – The Digital Past Course Blog

Final Project Blog Post

I chose to use image annotation, timeline, and mapping for my final project. I felt that my argument would be best supported through imagery and walking the viewer through the process of my explanation. Image annotation was utilized to depict the travesty that the farmers experienced and give insight to their decisions to leave the Midwest after the dust bowl destroyed their land. ¹ Timeline was best to follow the journey of Alan and John Lomax as they recorded styles of music that for the rest of the country may have been largely unheard. Mapping a potential civilian trip through the west showed the uniqueness of the different states in the country, and the opportunities the American Guide Series brought to the people who may have otherwise never left their hometowns, or did not at the time have a strong sense of patriotism.

Using digital tools helps to further develop understanding of the data, as it involves the viewer’s interaction with the information, rather than only looking at a picture or artifact. These tools can be an effective way to reach a variety of learners.

A large concept in class was the importance of obtaining information ethically through the public domain, and that everything not created by the user needs to be referenced. This was not something that I had thought about outside of citing academic sources in research papers. It was interesting to learn that there is no new data, and that because of this idea, everything can be traced back to its origins (thus creating a line of ownership), like with the reading about Alan Lomax’s ownership rights over a Jay-Z song. ²

Another important concept to take away from this class is how digital tools, such as what was used in this exhibit, can enhance the learning and understanding of primary sources. Through this method, we were able to analyze texts, artifacts, sounds, and images in multiple ways. This expanded our learning of the topics beyond simply looking at them. ³

Until now, the 1930s had always been clouded for me by the Great Depression. We learned that the ‘30s were far more about the strength of a nation, and the willpower of its people to pull themselves out of trouble. The history of this period is far more complex than I think its reputation leads us to believe. We have learned that it was not only about the depression, but also about the people’s willingness and drive to make an effort to fix the problems that they were facing, in order to provide for themselves, and other generations, a better future. The legacies left behind by the New Deal are still shaping our country today. Social Security, the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as the development of the Interstate Highway System have all impacted the ways in which we function as a society. ⁴ The discovery of new types of music, and the open-ended publication of different forms of art, provided for a resurgence and rebirth of the American artist and redefined our culture. ⁵

Omeka Exhibit:

http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/kellystangerfinalproject/intro

Blog Post #9-Sound Analysis

For this assignment, I chose to ask about how John Lomax was able to capture the cultures and lifestyles of Americans as he traveled across the country, recording their different songs and sounds. Traveling the southern states with his wife Ruby, John recorded nearly 25 hours worth of folk music of the different people from Texas to the Library of Congress encased in over 700 recordings, ¹ using “improved recording equipment.” A goal of the Lomaxes was to introduce folk (vernacular) music into popular culture. ² This shows as an example of welcoming music for all the people, created by the people, a foundation block of the Federal Music Project. ³

While in Houston, Lomax made multiple recordings of a man named John B. Jones. Interestingly, he was able to capture the essence of an instrument that hunters used to communicate with their dogs while in the field. The hunting horns were created from a cow’s horn, and emitted a high-pitched sound, called a hunting horn call. From the audio file, this seemed to be an early rendition of a dog whistle. Lomax notes in the recording that these sounds were able to potentially alter signals from other hunters, but that the dogs only knew of this sound and one other, used to alert the dog back to the hunter when it may have strayed away, in a sort of effort to say come back here you [fools]. ⁴

As a visual learner, it can be very effective to read a description of any time period and create a picture of the story in your mind. However, when reading about audio, there is a disconnect when analyzing a work. Embedding an audio file directly into the text makes it possible for the reader to experience the story in a number of ways, which can help to believe the argument of the author. I feel that this was an extremely effective way to understand what was being addressed. By including these audio files into our blog posts, we are continuing to pass on the recordings of the folk music in the 1930s, preventing it from disappearance, in a way helping the influential figures of the Federal Music Project preserve history. ⁵

Blog Post #7-Mapping

The American Guide Series was designed to give shape and language to the various regions of the United States, while both expanding tourism and creating a link between tourism and a more patriotic and American outlook. ¹ Through creating a StoryMap, it was interesting see the locations in the state guides come to life through designing a tour that I would create for another person. The Guide Series was written by the people of those specific areas, which brought a more honest component to the information given. This is important for spatial understanding because the locations documented were of interest to the writers while they were still standing, rather than a researcher going back to learn of a monument or area that no longer exists.

I chose my tour destinations based on the travel of my in-laws from their home in San Diego to their current home in Yuma. Because I would like to potentially relocate to San Diego one day, I chose to look at the project in reverse, looking at historical locations along the way. I felt that the West would have an interesting past and story as we have discussed in class the mass migrations of families to these areas. While reading through both the Arizona and California guidebooks, I looked for tourist stops that would either be of interest to me as I travel, or that would be heavily populated by others. I tried to find patterns in the locations that would help me to develop an idea that could feed into the concept of the ‘American way of life’ in the West that had been a topic in our readings. I had not thought at this point to consider the feasibility of an African American traveler going to these places, and I was shocked to see that their trip would not have been as enjoyable, or even as safe. Based on the various maps from the Navigating the Green Book site, there were almost no locations that were marked green, other than a few restaurant and “tourist homes”. Looking into the Green Book emphasized, to me, the importance of digital mapping to our understanding of history through “reconstruct[ing], preserv[ing], and visualiz[ing components and artifacts] of the past”. ² This led me to see differently the tour that I had created.

StoryMap: https://uploads.knightlab.com/storymapjs/b8f3f710ff94f8cf5dbd4951f49cbe2e/virginia-a-guide-to-the-old-dominion/index.html

Blog Post #8-Special Collections

Visiting the Special Collections was an experience that helped to gain a stronger feel of what theatre was like in the 1930s. We have discussed in class the importance of digitizing information for preservation purposes, and the possible negative effects of digital data. Having the ability to feel actual documents from the Federal Theatre Project proves both points. Seeing the fragility of documentation, learning about the proper way to hold a piece of paper, and the need to be so careful when handling the items shows the importance of digitizing information because without proper care, these documents would become damaged and lost forever. However, as the Coordinator talked about in class, the digitization of tactile items can change the way in which people interact with history. We lost the ability to engage with the senses, which can ultimately impact the way we absorb information.

Another difficulty with digitization is the risk of bias in choosing sources. As Thomas Padilla noted in his interview, art can be political, and it is up to the archivists, politicians, etc. who get to be remembered, forgotten, or silenced through historical records. ¹ At George Mason, the archivists digitize one of every document, based on what the Coordinator told us. She mentioned that this can become difficult with documents that have multiple pages or annotations, and that as a team they decide whether the additional information will be included in the archive.

Archives, at least George Mason’s, is a sort of hub of knowledge and history. The public is gifted an opportunity to interact with our history in a way that is not always available in a classroom setting. Researchers are able to use the data and artifacts for their own projects, at a price, whereas without an archive this information may be lost. The Library of Congress argues a similar concept with born-digital records. Susan Manus believes that future archivists, or even current, will look to historical records on original forms of technology in order to preserve digital works that may become historically significant as time goes on, just how the hard copy works of the Federal Theatre Project are important to our understanding of history today. ²

Blog Post #6: Text Analysis

My initial question was ‘How were the works of the Federal Writers Project perceived and interpreted by different classes of people (social, racial, economic, etc.)?’ I had a sense of what I might find due to the differences of opinion towards the project that has been heavily discussed in class as well as in the readings. ¹ It seemed interesting to view the works from the perspective of the reader and any negative opinions if they did arise. In order to find writings specifically based around the classes I mentioned, I narrowed the results to those dated 1930-1939. I focused on the listed subjects that were covered, and chose some based on my desire to have pieces that could lead to asking more questions, and that could have sparked different reactions in readers who were part of the opposite class of the writer. I opted for pieces in the subjects Beliefs and Customs, Occupations, Dating (Social Norms), Poverty, and Education. Ultimately, I selected those that had the most interesting titles. I learned early into the text analysis that this question was not going to work, as the analysis was done on the writings, and thus would not have represented any thoughts or ideas after they were published.

Voyant Tools was a confusing experience. For total transparency, I was unsure of what exactly I was supposed to be looking for, especially due to the fact that I needed to reshape my question. I began looking for keywords that sparked an interest in what I had originally wanted to ask, and noticed certain words that seemed popular throughout the corpus: man, women, young, and old. These similarities were much more easily seen through the use of the cirrus word cloud and the links tools.

I used the class corpus to reshape my question. I was not finding words from all areas that I wanted to think about, but the presence of the four words led me to think about how different genders might formulate their writings. I decided that I wanted to investigate the ways that men write versus women, and what topics about which they choose to write. After looking into a few pieces from each gender, there were obvious similarities: writing about their life during the time. It seemed as though women wrote in a different voice than men, and men were either interviewed, or wrote about a specific event. For example, Barbara Berry in her piece wrote about those living in Florida, and the writing was heavily descriptive and used a lot of imagery. I noticed, through close reading some of the pieces, the similarities between the FWP and the Slave Narratives, and the heavy use of personal experiences from the writers. ² I feel that close reading is more beneficial for me as I prefer to build ideas after interacting fully with the piece, and I did not have as clear of a grasp on distant reading as I may have needed to in order to fully understand the assignment.

Blog Post #5-Timelines

Interviews are an important way to experience what actually happened in the past when we were not there to live through it ourselves. ¹ The interview that I looked at did not focus on slavery, but more on her experiences as a child and what made her happy during that time. This is a good example of the concept learned through the class readings about how the former slaves who were interviewed were children at the time of slavery, and thus were unlikely to remember most of what happened. ² Celia Black definitely spoke highly of her childhood, and when asked about historical moments, like Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, she was unable to recall the event. My timeline shows this, as well as the idea that the history we are taught is focused mainly on large historical events that affect the country, or the world, but are not necessarily pivotal to the individual. To Celia, her greatest memory was her birthday.

Celia was born towards the end of institutionalized slavery, so it was not surprising that she did not remember what may have happened with her family during that time. It was interesting that she never spoke about political events because I expected her to remember these instead of the smaller day to day activities that she had as a child. It was like she wanted to talk about what made her happy throughout her life.

As mentioned above, it was useful to listen to somebody who lived through the time period that is being researched, rather than reading about it in a textbook because it is more honest and raw. However, it was difficult to understand what she was saying because she had a thick accent, and was struggling to remember answers to the questions, and stuttered over her words. This is a limitation in recorded interviews, and in order to receive the correct information it is helpful to have a typed record as well (which was included by the Library of Congress). Celia and the interviewer, Elmer, while both southerners, had very different voices. It was apparent that they were raised in different areas, where Elmer was likely educated, and Celia may not have had a formal language education, a stereotype noted in one of the readings. ³

After experiencing both oral and written histories, I feel that oral interviews give a better sense of the emotional component of the past, but it is difficult to decipher exactly what is said. A transcript of the interview may be better for research purposes as it would remove the chance of recording any discrepancies in the information.

My Timeline:

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1Jq-eV6XaWOyU2KIVFHl7bn9Bx-0MmkGlZb6TUnQgoxM&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

Blog Post #4-Critical DH

A legacy from the 1930s activists that has carried into today is the fight for gender and racial equality. The Long Civil Rights Movement, or Long Civil Rights Era as it is depicted in Ritterhouse’s introduction, asked the question of whether African Americans would be a present part of the democracy of the country in the future. ¹ This was the beginning of the decades-long fight for equality as 1930s era regulations consistently kept African American people out as beneficiaries of governmental organizations.

Algorithmic criticism is said to be an important concept for the consumers of digital media, as we need to remain aware of what these programs are actually computing. O’Neill, in the video reviewed in class, referenced the idea that algorithms are generated by the opinion of a human which is then embedded into code. As a result of the human component, the algorithm is inherently biased.

In O’Neill’s Ted Talk, she mentions a current issue surrounding the normalized use of algorithms in the hiring process within the country’s biggest companies. Her example, Fox News, spoke to a problem in which their computer program is set to hire professionals who exhibit certain qualities and skills that they deem desirable. However, this has caused friction in the case of gender equality because Fox has promoted largely men in their recent history, which led the algorithms to weed out potential female employees, as they were not the ones promoted, thus they did not have the sought after traits. This concept of equality was a large focus with the Feminism and Popular Front groups as well as the issue of racial equality.

Similarly, Noble, in Algorithms of Oppression, speaks to this same issue, but highlights its presence in popular entries in search engines. In this piece, African American women are said to face discrimination for both their race and their gender, and that this is evident when searching for a simple term about their defining characteristics, and the result is not much more than questionable and offensive results. ² An important note that the author makes is that we as consumers do not even take notice of the wrongdoings of the media in these circumstances until it is forcefully brought to our attention.

Blog Post #3-Image Analysis

I sought out to select an image that would make me think about its cause. I felt art completed by hand would show more of the artist’s thinking process, and I wanted the image to speak to a specific issue, not just a promotional campaign. Based on looking at the poster, I thought of the following questions: Why did Vera Bock feel that this message needed to be delivered to the public? Who was she directly speaking to? Was she speaking in favor of the government or in protest? Was this an idea thought of by her or proposed to her by the WPA? A focus in class was how the government enacted the Federal Project One not only to put people back to work in order to strengthen the economy, but to use the power behind the voice of artists as “meaningful symbols” to gain acceptance and support from citizens in their time of distress. A criticism of the Federal Art Project was that some felt it was based in communist thinking, and artists could use their work to protest the government rather than speak as an advocate for them. ¹ The glitched image that I developed could be an example of this protest, and how easily the meaning of art can be changed, skewed, or misinterpreted just by its presentation alone.

Image analysis, in a way, forces us to look at the image in its various segments. Instead of viewing art at its face value, we investigate who created the piece, why it was created, and for whom it was created. I enjoyed the process of both the analysis and the glitching. I think it helps to really understand art when it is seen through its purpose, and that is what was done by analyzing its creator, consumption, and the image itself. Initially, I did not expect the glitch to show me anything exciting. I was prepared for the photo to look the same, but with some streaks thrown in. My image ended up looking chopped, which I feel is not only impressive, but helped me to see the presentation in a different way. If the poster had been published broken through the glitch, then the public may have held a different impression with what message the artist was trying to convey. The original image shows strength in the WPA, whereas the glitched image shows a broken system. This is a similar concept to what Kramer talked about in his piece, where he stated “glitching…through the manipulation of underlying code offer[s] untapped possibilities for historical inquiry.” ² This is an idea that can be utilized by artists to alter the emotions and perceptions of their audience in a way that might not be obvious.

Exhibit: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/exhibits/show/wpaposterfedartproject/wpa-rumor

Omeka Item: http://jessicadoeshistory.com/cnd/items/show/198

Extra Credit Blog Post 1-Current Trends

Morris Dickstein stated in his article “How Song, Dance, and Movies Bailed us out of the Great Depression” that arts programs create employment in downtown neighborhoods, and thus can stimulate business and attract tourists. ¹ According to a study conducted with information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending between 2008 and 2009 remained steadily the same in all targeted areas besides “retail trade” and “leisure and hospitality”. This leads me to believe that overall, Americans did not seek out forms of entertainment during the Great Recession as much as they may have in the 1930s, and instead allocated necessary spending to areas such as housing, employment costs, and education. ²

In terms of tackling political and social trends, I believe that professionals in the popular culture industries who spearhead this would largely be musicians. A part of the lecture last week was about how musicians use their platforms to deliver messages as well as directly protest injustice within the country (i.e. Woody Guthrie and Billie Holiday), and today, with the success of music streaming, this concept has only evolved. For example, A Tribe Called Quest, in their song “We the People” criticize political and racial injustice from the 2016 campaign of the current administration. They demonize current political leaders by speaking to the racially charged opinions that circulate and how legislation targets specific groups of people in their decisions. With artists releasing music directly linked to their beliefs about specific issues, I feel that this mimics Dickstein’s idea that music in the 1930s were “degrees of direct or oblique reactions to dire social circumstances.” I also feel that with the surge of popularity following music streaming platforms, artists are now able to reach significantly wider audiences than they once could when it was expected that each song would need to be purchased in order to be heard. This closely resembles the groundbreaking technology with the radio, and how that technology meant music could reach new heights in its time. ³

Blog Post #2-Text Searching

Text searching, or keyword searching as was stated by Professor Guidone, has been a constant in the way that I search larger databases for the information needed. Typically used for research projects or academic papers, looking through a document by inputting a more simple word or phrase always seemed like the fastest option to drive results. Other uses of the text search would be the infamous Google search engine, or even the control F function commonly used on any document reachable by computer. By the end of Professor Guidone’s presentation, it was learned that this is not usually the case, and keyword searching can limit the possibility of receiving the results that are desired of the reader. ¹

Digital projects are a faster, more efficient way to present information to the public, and make artifacts readily accessible outside of their place of origin. Because of the constant, growing prevalence of technology in today’s world, a digital project holds the strength and power to push boundaries, and thus create social change by bringing information to the people. The Enslaved Children of George Mason project that was reviewed in class is an excellent example of this. For example, they present documentation that exhibits the life of George Mason, and how he interacted with his slaves. A letter included within the project details the proof of vaccination against small pox that was given to Mason’s slaves, of which it is mentioned that he “owned” over 100. This is an excellent source to use to drive social change because it is angering to see that somebody, after whom we named our acclaimed university, was able to see other humans as property similarly to how we see dogs. ²

Yes, these powerful figures from history have done great things, but because of the ability to see what happened around them, it’s now possible to think about the cost at which these great things were achieved. I believe that this new outlook is due to the concept of digital projects.

Through the use of digital media, the original meanings of the source can be lost. This was evident in the organization of the newspaper, the Essex Register, Professor Guidone showed. Information was presented in a specific way in the 1800s and digitizing that source could mess with the original layout of the publication. The meanings of objects that would typically be conveyed by touch is another example of what could be lost, as the reader of the digital media would not be able to feel the exact materials of that time, and would not necessarily know the meaning behind why that material was used. ³

A large point made by Professor Guidone was that the access to artifacts and information is democratized through the use of digital media, and we as readers are able to come into contact with this information at a much faster pace, which leads to new questions in our research. He mentioned that everything before 1920 has been digitized, and we have gained access to a wealth of knowledge that was made possible by the use of technology. ⁴

References

Bracey, A., Farrow, K., Fatima, A., Perez-Garcia, E., & Murshed, F. (2017). The Enslaved Children of George Mason. Retrieved from https://ecgm.omeka.net/

Guidone, T. (2019). Digitization and Keyword Research [PowerPoint Slides].