@state Nov 2017 - Digital Humanities Collaborative

Digging into the Data, with a Humanistic Mind

As a member of the Digital Humanities Collaborative, Adrian Diaz encourages students, no matter what they are studying – art, medicine, engineering, leadership and so on – to get involved with the group. You need only an interest in culture and technology.


By Adrian Diaz

As a kid, I had two great passions: reading and video games.

I am still just as passionate about them today, but as I grew up, I learned that they aren’t mutually exclusive. I remember going on flash game websites and finding text based interactive fiction games and finding one of my favorite books, “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,” turned into a game where I got to progress the narrative by writing Arthur Dent’s actions.

This was a story that I could co-author to affect the narrative; that blew my mind.

That was my first interaction with the digital humanities, and it left a huge impression on me.

Anyone who has used with video games, phone apps, hypertext, virtual reality and gifs have interacted with an output of the digital humanities, which represents an emerging field that sits at the cross section of technology and culture.

Works of digital humanities are prevalent throughout our everyday lives. The work of digital humanists comprises anything “born digital,” or created in such a way that to interact with it, people must use a digital device.

At San Diego State University, I began exploring the field. I eventually started taking classes with Jessica Pressman, a faculty member in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and one of the primary digital scholars at SDSU. Pressman led me to the Digital Humanities Collaborative, where I have since worked towards expanding the digital humanities on campus.

In the field, people are using digital humanities to solve real world problems and to better understand the human condition. When Hurricane Maria thrashed Puerto Rico earlier this fall, people began using satellite imagery and digital mapping to identify the greatest relief needs to target efforts. Visualizing Emancipation, a mapping project, identifies patterns between policies, military actions and individual acts to emancipation-influenced events in the United States.

With such an expansive field of study, we in the Digital Humanities Collaborative seek to explore this intersection of technology and culture to better understand and appreciate the art created. In addition to the events with guest speakers, video game developers, and student showcases where students present their own work, the collective will soon help welcome the Digital Humanities Lab, to be housed under the dome on the bottom floor of Love Library. Members have also hosted events and created a number of digital humanities pieces, critiques and analyses. These projects run the gamut in terms of genres and platforms including Twitterbots, Twine stories, gifs and full virtual reality experiences.

As students, we have the distinct privilege of being able to shape how the space develops, and I would personally like to invite you to two forthcoming events:

  • Nov. 8: Patrik Svensson, a humanities and information technology professor at Umeå University and Visiting Professor of Digital Humanities at UCLA. Disti will present his talk, “Why Should Humanists Care About Infrastructure” 4-5:30 p.m. in Room 431 of the Love Library.
  • Nov. 15: The Digital Humanities Collaborative is hosting an introductory event in the Love Library space from 2-3 p.m. Visitors will be able to meet the faculty, staff and students who work in and are inspired by the digital humanities.

Adrian Diaz is an English major with a minor in leadership from Duarte, Calif.. Diaz is currently on his victory lap – set to graduate in Spring 2018. President of the Digital Humanities Collaborative, Diaz is also a San Diego State University Ambassador, a Leadership Minor Peer Advisor and the student representative for the College of Arts and Letters Curriculum Council. Diaz has been interested in the digital humanities for many years, having been introduced to interactive fiction and gif. culture at a very young age. He cites his involvement on campus as his motivation and credits his work in the digital humanities for teaching him how to think on a deeper, more critical level and for being his creative outlet. Diaz’s favorite digital humanities piece is “Pry,” by Tender Claws.