2022-2023 Humanities Lab
Funded by the NYU Center for Humanities
Anne L. Washington, PhD NYU Steinhardt. Assistant Professor of Data Policy
Amy Whitaker, PhD NYU Steinhardt. Assistant Professor Visual Arts Administration
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
The Books to Blockchain Humanities Lab interrogates the democratization of pattern discovery through tabulation and archiving. How do we decide 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, like blockchain. Data management represents a frontier in deciding what is of value. This project seeks to bridge the gap between the technical and the critical by engaging in multiple methods including history, politics, taxonomy, and art.
Our collaboration navigates political and civic inclusion alongside economic property rights, and the resilience of humanistic and artistic value within these larger systems. We build on these connections to reimagine digital knowledge infrastructures that center art and humanities as methods of interdisciplinary problem solving.
In Spring 2023, we will run a graduate seminar followed by a summer 2023 immersive creative experience for artists and performers. NYU undergraduates will be able to enroll in our special course for Fall 2023.
More on the program.
https://nyuhumanities.org/program/bennett-polonsky-humanities-lab/