Digital, polyvocal expression can support a genuine multiverse in which no single point of view can claim the center. The principles of relativist approaches to knowledge, rooted in historically situated understanding, remain fundamental to (digital) humanism.
Burdick et al. “One: From Humanities to Digital Humanities,” in Digital_Humanities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 24.
This passage reminded me of discussions about truth and the pool of knowledge that we have as humans. It reminded me that truth and knowledge isn’t always simple enough to be displayed by one person or in one format. In that sense, everything we know is shaped by our perspective. I love that digital humanities adds so many new formats for new people to have perspectives on all sorts of dilemmas and research in the humanities.
As I understand it so far, studying digital humanities requires the usage of digital tools to learn more about and express our perspectives on discussions of the humanities. I’ve spent some time in high school messing around with various forms of making media such as video editing, game design, and music production. I’m glad to have a bit of experience with these tools because I think they could be very useful in this field. These tools could help me express different perspectives on the humanities in ways that I hadn’t considered before and in any way that I choose to. In the same way, other people will express ideas in ways that I haven’t though off, providing points of view that I haven’t seen before.
This term I’m excited to explore a bunch of mediums while presenting on humanities-related subjects. Given how wide the scope of Digital Arts and Humanities is, it’s difficult to come up with specific areas that I would like to dive into. That said, I would like to use web development to make whatever I create more accessible and easily widespread. I also find that easily accessible data can help prove a point to a wide audience, so I’d like to spend some time working with data visualization (perhaps in tandem with web development). I’m excited to add to the giant mass of perspectives that make up digital humanities using these tools.
