Funded by a grant from the NYU Center for Humanities
The Books to Blockchain Humanities Lab interrogates the democratization of pattern discovery through tabulation and archiving. Who decides what to count and what to keep? The project connects earlier practices for calculation and comparison to newly invented ones making a direct continuum from archives and catalogs to open data and digital ledgers. Knowledge infrastructures and the systems of power embedded within them are at the heart of our inquiry which encompasses past and present memory practices — from books to blockchain.
The Humanities Lab Collaboration includes faculty, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduates, and graduate students working in conjunction with guests speakers, creative professionals, and civic leaders interested in the potential of digital social architectures. Together our collaboration weaves together scholarship on imperial archives, metadata description, media valuation, music royalties, afro-futurism, crypto currency, and digital ledgers. Our research agenda investigates autonomy, inclusion, predation, and exclusion across this long history. We will reimagine digital knowledge infrastructures by centering art and humanities as methods of interdisciplinary problem solving.
Our 2023 project spans across research, public scholarship, and teaching. A spring 2023 graduate seminar will be followed by a summer 2023 immersive creative experience for artists and performers. NYU students will be able to enroll in our special undergraduate course for Fall 2023. Using New York City as a laboratory, the course will explore the challenges and possibilities of open, decentralized, and autonomous futures.
Books to Blockchain 2023 HLab Collaboration Team
Anne L. Washington, PhD NYU Steinhardt. Digital Interests Lab. Assistant Professor of Data Policy
Peri Shamsai, PhD NYU Stern. Associate Adjunct Professor Entertainment, Media & Technology (EMT)
Luke DuBois, D.M.A NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Associate Professor Integrated Digital Media
Nicole Contaxis, M.L.I.S, M.A. NYU Langone
Davi Liang, J.D. NYU Steinhardt. Digital Interests Lab.
Alicia Boyd, PhD NYU Steinhardt. Digital Interests Lab.
More on the program
https://nyuhumanities.org/program/bennett-polonsky-humanities-lab/