In an effort to chronicle, the distinction between slavery in the Antebellum South and slavery on the Caribbean Richard Dunn curated the biographies of slaves who lived at Mount Airy Plantation in Virginia and the Mesopotamia Plantation on the Island of Jamaica. The website showed the biographies of some 431 slaves across several generations coupled with vignettes of members of familial units on each of the plantations. The description of several of the slaves I thought was the best part of the website. Giving a description of some of the slaves along with their biographies and familial relations went far in establishing their identities and shedding much needed information on this historical period. The website began with an introduction of the two plantations using a series of pictures as you scroll through. The first picture is a plantation designed in colonial structure. It does not tell us whether this is a picture of Mount Airy Plantation. There are a series of historical pics as you move through the introduction including a picture of slaves working on a cotton plantation. The website was successful in creating the feel that you are exploring a digital historical archive.

Once you make it through the introduction, there are several other tabs to note. The Family Story tab with a handwritten inventory of the slaves listed in the format of a crude family tree. The next two tabs The Family Tree and Family List are a more formal representation of the family tree along with a brief biological description of the slaves derived from the handwritten inventory list. You can easily navigate between Mount Airy and Mesopotamia family information.  One of the interesting things about this website is you can read the biographies of slaves in two different regions of the world. Just noting the differences and patterns can be a fun endeavor.   However, a big part of Dunn’s analysis was a focus on the demographic difference between slaves on the two plantations.   

Dunn justified the comparison based on demographic differences that occurred within the context of similar institutions. On the Mesopotamia Plantation during the period of 1762 to 1833, there were over excess 300 slave deaths. This deficiency led to the slave owners choosing to import more slaves to labor in the sugar plantations.  In contrast the Mount Airy Plantation on Virginia there were nearly 300 births during the period of 1809 to 1865. These excess births allowed the Virginia slave owners to move slaves to other parts of the south and to sell some of their slaves.  Dunn never teased out why these different demographic differences occurred on these plantations, however he points out that these differences affect the slaves on both plantation. The Mount Airy slaves constantly had to deal with their families being broken up due to movement and sale while the Jamaican Plantation had to adjust to the permanence of death. In any event, Dunn made the choice to compare these two plantations on births and deaths without offering any explanation why these differences exist. Furthermore, while he does acknowledge an interest in comparing slavery in both regions he does not go into any depth as far as the historical, political and geographical differences regarding slavery in both regions. In addition, these two regions during slavery used labor to produce different type of crops sugar cane verses cotton and or tobacco did the different crops contribute in some ways to the different demographic outcome.

Another critique I have on the website is the use of certain language without acknowledging the political cultural and historical context in which it exist.  For example during the period of slavery did not exist as a separate institution. Yet use of the word family did not allude to this. Finally, the wording on the website suggest Mount Airy slaves were resilient when they lost their family because the family got bigger. Again, I think context matter. These families were not in control of their reproductive behavior. Drawing such a conclusion without other supporting factors is erroneous.

Data Feminism by Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, the authors challenge the conventional understanding of data as objective and neutral. They argue that data collection and interpretation are often shaped by power dynamics and social hierarchies, which can include bias and inequality. The book introduces “data feminism” as a framework for examining data through the lens of gender, race, and social justice.

They emphasize the importance of asking “Who gets Counted” and “Who benefits from data” and these questions are often overlooked in traditional data science. So, Data Feminism calls for more inclusive and equitable approaches to data analysis. They empowered marginalized voices, and this is very important especially in the area where data driven decisions have strong social impact.

The visualizations I created that Shows gender disparities in employment rates and leadership roles – are a clear reflection of the concepts discussed in Data Feminism.

These charts basically illustrate the ongoing gender inequality in employment and leadership roles, that proves the book’s main argument which is data is never neutral.

By visualizing the gap between male and female employment rates and leadership positions, we can see how what gets counted, counts. In this case, focusing on employment and leadership metrics highlights the consistent under representation of women in leadership despite having growth in employment rates. This aligns with Data Feminism’s message about the importance of representation in data– who is included in these datasets, and what societal narratives are reinforced as a result.

When looking at a map, it is taken as fact. The lines representing borders, the name of the place being mapped take as sovereign, the peoples within those boundaries are clumped together in one location, and time stands still. The video in Visualizing Sovereignty and Critical Cartography provided a new take on mapping, it brought time & Sovereignty into picture, and it placed maps not on paper, static picture, but in motion. A map is another form of data, and therefore also “capta”, it holds subjectivity and power. A map just like data, should not be taken as fact, but as a perspective, and through the readings we learn, many common maps hold a motive.

A strong interest of mine, is the Black history of my mom’s native country Colombia. Colombia has the second largest black population in South America, second to Brazil, with 11 million Afro-Colombians making up 26% of the population. Cartagena, Colombia was the first Spanish colony and the biggest Spanish slave port in South America. Currently Cali, Colombia is the largest black city in the country. Many Colombians on the coast will call themselves or their cities “Caribe” (Caribbean). In Visualizing Sovereignty, Colombia was very briefly mentioned as a part of the Caribbean, but not included in the video mapping Caribbean sovereignty. In the discussion of maps, sovereignty, history, is it possible to Map the black history of Colombia through music and sound?

In last week’s class, many projects sparked my interest in the possibility of Mapping Sound. I found Cathy’s presentation on SONG DATA, a 2018 Project from Ottawa quite interesting. Music can be seen as a universal language and experience. Cathy mentioned her own experience of seeing successful women of color dominate many musical genres and was shocked to see the music industry data presented in the project. Melissa, in presenting HERSORY, touched upon audio preservation, the importance but also dangers in preservation work. Rabana in discussing ensalved.org, honed in on her user experience, the color, the interactive timeline, the data. But also, the ability to filter through places, events, and people. The website was able to bring a connection the stories and even included handwritten letters. SONGDATA demonstrates the importance of highlight disparities in music, HERSTORY the preservation of sound and how audio is also a part of telling history, and ensalved.org the interactive collection of  enslaved history & data. When I think about the musical and salve history of Colombia many aspects of the projects mentioned come to mind.

Finding similar projects to Mapping Colombian Music also proved its challenges, many websites touch upon the black musical history in Colombia and using sound to represent a place or people in Colombia, but a map that encapsulates both was hard to come by.

Musical connections between Africa and Colombia: The “Caribbeanization” of Afrobeat in Colombia (africasacountry.com)

A place of resistance, solidarity, and locality: Soundscapes of Colombia (arcgis.com)

A sense of space through sound: A Guided Tour Of Colombian Music, From The Mountains To The Coasts: Alt.Latino : NPR

Mapping Rhythms: Ritmos musiccales de Colombia by sergio cabrera on Prezi

I am very eager to learn how a project in Mapping Music in Colombia could come to fruition. Some of the challenges I faced while attempting this week’s praxis was lack of open-sourced data on music by region and finding reliable sources on the origins of Colombian sound. To end, a song that encapsulates the intersections of Black History and resistance, Colombian Music and the migration of sound is Joe Arroyo — La rebelión | Letra/Lyrics | English translation (“The Rebellion”).

I found this weeks reading/video assignments really illuminating (with the exception of How Maps Lie by Mark Monmonier, which strangely elicited a Math Tears response in me). Building on Drucker’s capta vs data it was striking to see all of the ways we take the “objectivity” of data for granted and how that is expressed in maps. I don’t think I was necessarily surprised, but I had never really thought of maps as subjective even though it now feels so obvious. I feel like this concept builds on much of what we’ve learned so far this semester – we need to be critical about what is presented as “fact” in all areas of digital humanities (and life?), who/what gets counted, how the different presentations of data can skew the interpretation.

Dr. Nelson’s talk “Critical Cartography” was especially illuminating considering the current conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Maps have a huge influence on the way we see the world. The conversation around the borders of Gaza, the West Bank and settlements, and the borders of Israel are based on politics, not what is actually true (if there is a Truth when it comes to geographic borders…). I thought it was interesting to see the way Google maps is adapting their map to use dashed lines to mark contested boarders, which still doesn’t tell the whole story.

With Israel’s pink washing campaign I have had conversations with my brother in law about how I would be imprisoned/killed in Palestine (so how could I possibly support the Palestinian people), as if queer Palestinians do not exist (and as if states in our own country are not incredibly hostile towards queer and trans people). Something that was brought to my attention was the Queer Mapping Project, a community generated “counter-mapping” platform used to digitally archive LGBTQIA+ experiences in relation to physical space. There are fewer entries in Gaza compared to other places on the map (though I do not think this is reflective of the queer population there), which is something that I think should be examined more (barriers to access). Additionally, some entries are posts in solidarity rather than experiences of queerness in Gaza. This can be kind of confusing/skew the “data”/capta. Even with it’s limitations this map is a useful tool in telling us what isn’t accounted for in mainstream narratives that are fed to us in the west. https://www.queeringthemap.com/