Tag Archives: Final Project

Bandurapedia

The bandura is Ukraine’s national instrument, and a symbol of its independence and resistance. For my personal connection with the bandura, I’ve been taking lessons for a little over a year now. While Ukrainian cultural heritage is being targeted in the war, I wanted to learn how to play a traditional instrument. Recently, I’ve also inherited my godfather’s bandura. To me, playing the bandura connects me to my Ukrainian roots as well as my Ukrainian-American identity. I always perk up at the chance to share this wonderful instrument with others, since my saying “I play the bandura” inevitably results in the question “Oh, what is that?”

This past year, I went to a concert performed by the Women’s Bandura Ensemble of North America (WBENA), of which my teacher is a member. After the show, she came up to me and mentioned that a lot of the songs they played that evening were sad. That moment clicked for me. I began wondering what songs are commonly played, and why? There are so many different types of songs that can be played on the bandura – modern, folk songs, dumy (epic poems), dance songs, religious songs, etc.

So, for my project, I decided to try to map out each of the songs at each of the WBENA’s performances to dig into the context behind them and see what trends arose. Yes, I picked the WBENA because I am the most familiar with this ensemble, but I’m also interested in doing this project with them because A. They are a North American ensemble and B. they are an all-female ensemble. Most bandura ensembles are all-male, and the bandura is traditionally considered a male coded instrument. By doing my project on the WBENA, I wanted to look into and share these two perspectives.

The project itself is a Wax-based website hosted for free on GitHub Pages. I’ve had some previous experience with Wax and wanted the website to continue on without worrying about costs after its completion. I also like how efficient and lightweight the framework is – from a simple csv, you can populate a series of pages on a given collection. Also, given that this project is based around a set of PDF’s and tags, the project doesn’t need anything too complex. Each program will have a song list, and each song in that list will lead to its own page providing context (such as language, composer, genre, themes, etc) and (where applicable) lyrics and an embedded audio or YouTube clip.

For the project, the team would be working very closely with the WBENA, ensuring that they are 100% on board with what we’re publishing and also turning to them as a resource for our research into the songs.

This project is fairly unique – the only similar website that I was able to find in my search is Songs of Truth, a website for the CD recording of the Julian Kytasty bandura concert of the same name. In this site, however, each song has lyrics (where applicable) and the program notes from the concert on its own page. For my site, I’d like to situate each performance in its own time and see what songs and themes repeat. I’d like for people to come and take a deep dive into the repertoire and discover the rich history and bright future of bandura music and the people who play it.

Final Project Proposal – TWINSIGHTS

When I initially thought about what I wanted my project to be I was interested in using text analysis tools to make a point about the way twin myths are perpetuated through literature. Once I started working on the project I realized this wasn’t really asking a question or adding anything to the field of digital humanities. I was aggrieved by twin portrayals in media and I wanted everyone to know it! Then, through a twin friend, I was connected to a couple of actresses who had been cast as twins in an upcoming play and they wanted to make sure they did the characters justice. This then got me thinking about the posts I usually scroll past on Reddit in r/Twins by writers asking for advice from twins on how to accurately portray their characters. As it turns out there is actually an interest in showing twins as they are! Two people who can (but not always) share a unique relationship and experience of the world. It was through this that TWINSIGHTS materialized.

There is a decent amount of content about twins online ranging from twin research studies, to blog posts, to social media accounts. When I first became interested in the psychology of twins in the late 2000s the content I was able to find was about behavioral psychology and what twins were able to tell us about nature vs nurture and humans in general. I soon found other books that were more focused on exploring the relationship between twins and their experiences of the world from twins themselves. Now with social media there are a lot of twinfluencers providing an inside look into twinship and capitalizing off of it in the meantime.

With all of this content circulating online and in books I thought it would be useful to create a resource/research hub for twin content. I would like to take some well known literature – Shakespeares Twelfth Night and Comedy of Errors, J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter series, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Francine Pascal’s Sweet Valley High series, and Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and pull out the sections that portray the twins in the stories. I will contextualize these excerpts in the larger story, and then use content already available online that critiques the passage or create original content should commentary on the excerpt not already exist.

I think ultimately this project will be two phases. Phase 1 will consist of gathering and cleaning the data for the selected works, writing summaries for the works, obtaining permission from content creators, and creating original content where appropriate. Phase 2 will be the creation of the website/database itself. I would like to create a site with minimal computing principals in mind, but ultimately will defer to the designer/programmer based on their skills. At the end of the project I hope to have a website featuring 3-5 exhibits. Ideally the site could continue to grow with more works of literature being added, as well as adding in categories for movies and TV shows.

Echoes of Resistance: Revealing Afrobeat’s Cultural Impact – Analyzing Fela Kuti’s Legacy.



Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a Nigerian musician, the original creator of Afrobeat, and an outspoken activist from a family of generational activists – who used his music to awaken African consciousness, challenge political corruption and call out social injustice in Nigeria, and the globe. Growing up as a young Nigerian millennial in the 90’s and being exposed to the sound of this legendary figure, the vibrant and revolutionary genre, which was conceived in Nigeria in the 1970’s, has always been more than just music—it’s a cultural force intertwined with political commentary and social movements. My final project, Echoes of Resistance: Revealing Afrobeat’s Cultural Impact while also Analyzing Fela Kuti’s legacy, researches this unique intersection through the lens of Digital Humanities, while uncovering hidden narratives and reimagining how we understand music’s role in shaping history.

The project focuses on Afrobeat’s representation in Nigerian media during 1996-1997, a politically tumultuous period marked by military rule and social unrest. Drawing from the Archivi.ng digital newspaper repository, my research will be using natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and advanced text analysis to dissect the cultural expressions embedded in the media coverage of Afrobeat. By combining these techniques with innovative data visualization, this project reveals the intricate connections between political events, musical commentary, and grassroots activism.

An interdisciplinary team comprising statisticians, data engineers, and digital humanities researchers will be collaborating to bring this project to life. Through web scraping and interactive visualization development, we will be transforming historical newspaper data into dynamic tools for analysis. The results include an interactive web platform, thematic dashboards, and temporal visualizations that highlights Afrobeat’s evolution and its societal impacts.

Key findings from this research will uncover narratives that highlight Afrobeat’s dual role as a cultural critique and a rallying cry for positive change. The project’s deliverables not only preserve these narratives but will also be making them accessible to a global audience, fostering a deeper appreciation for Afrobeat’s legacy.

Looking ahead, this project aims to contribute to academia and beyond. Open-source code and research tools will be made available on platforms like GitHub, encouraging collaboration and innovation in Digital Humanities. Academic publications will be developed to share insights with a broader scholarly community, while public-facing platforms will bring Afrobeat’s historical significance to light for enthusiasts and researchers alike.

By merging traditional scholarship with digital analysis, Echoes of Resistance demonstrates the transformative potential of integrating music, culture, and technology. It will be reaffirming Afrobeat’s place not just as a musical genre, but as a powerful agent of societal change.

PowerPoint slide for ref. http://Echoes of Resistance_ Revealing Afrobeat’s Cultural Impact – Analyzing Fela legacy..pptx

Kelechi Iwuagwu (Data Analysis & Viz Candidate, CUNY Graduate)

Project Proposal: Tech on Strike!

In early November, on election week, New York Times Tech Guild (NYTTG) members called the largest tech worker strike in US history. Nearly 700-unit members — about half of whom are remote workers located across the country — logged out of their work laptops and walked out to the 8th Avenue and virtual picket lines. Eight days later, the strike ended abruptly with no additional bargaining time with management, no contract agreement, and — to put it politely — a strongly re-engaged and opinionated membership. 

This project will have two main aspects. Firstly, it will serve to chronicle the NYTTG strike — featuring a timeline, interviews, and details of both the in-person and remote strikes. Because the unit’s contract negotiation is still underway, this part of the project is the most sensitive to updates in the ongoing negotiations. Since I am also a member of the NYTTG unit, I’m uniquely positioned to both adapt to changes in the state of the contract fight and to access members of the unit for interviews and internal documents to help illustrate more of the internal mechanics of the strike for those outside of the unit. Consulting with the CUNY Human Research Protection Program has been helpful in determining the structures and supports (like interviewee consent forms) that will help me to distinguish between my roles as unit member and researcher.

Additionally, the project will involve the development of at least one reusable open-source organizing tool to help aid future remote strikers. During the first few days of the work stoppage, unit members made apps that made some of the logistics of the strike easier — a chant sharing application to sync up leaders on the picket line, and a text messaging application to quickly message contacts reminders of upcoming actions. That innovation happened in the midst of a lot of chaos and moving parts of the strike; much more could have been streamlined by tech worker intervention with a little bit of organization and focus. The semester-long timeline of this project will provide a time-bound incubator to talk to other union shops about innovation that would benefit them and to develop an MVP version of a tool that could be used by future workers.

In thinking about organizing the work plan, I envision four key deliverables that will come together into the final project: background research about the current state of remote and tech unions in the US and a survey of a diverse set of units’ needs; interviews with members of the NYTTG; development of an MVP organizing tool that responds to identified need; and development of a website that brings it all together. I’ve tried to organize the scopes of work so that there are consistent and diverse learning opportunities for each member of the team, and no single “crunch” point or bottleneck for the work to come together. I’m optimistic that the project could provide opportunities for all participating colleagues to practice their archival, research, interview, and web development skills, and am excited about the possibilities it holds for future organizing.

Nonmotorized vehicles operating in New York City Risks and Rewards.

Over the last decade nonmotorized vehicles around New York City have grown substantially. Nonmotorized vehicles are modes of transportation that do not have a motor. These include bicycles, scooters, e-bikes, roller skates, roller blades, horse drawn carts etc. Nonmotorized vehicles are environmentally friendly, inexpensive and relatively easy to operate. These types of vehicles have been utilized for work including both commuting to jobs and food delivery services, school and recreational purposes.  In dealing with the growth of these types of vehicles, the infrastructure around New York City has changed to accommodate these new modes of transport. But while increased mobility has allowed New Yorkers to move around the city with ease there are costs associated with this new found freedom. For my digital project I would like to create an interactive and informative website that addresses the risks and rewards associated with nonmotorized vehicles operating around the New York City area. This website will include a combination of interactive data on the growth of nonmotorized vehicles over the past decade as well as Injuries and death resulting from thereof. This data is available from the website of NYC Mayor’s office. However, I would also like to collect my data which would include formats such as short surveys and video interviews.  There will also be an informational portion to this website. This will include such things as blogs from around the city that provide information on regulations, city ordinances, best practices and ideas on safety and rules of the road for navigating through New York City neighborhoods.  I would also like to establish a public space for New Yorkers to discuss ideas and concerns about Nonmotorized vehicles in a safe forum.

This goal is to have this project off the ground in approximately fourteen weeks. Working towards this goal I have established the following timelines as guides to keep the project focused and on track. During the first couple of weeks, I intend to do comprehensive research on websites that provide similar services and detail how my project will go beyond the services offered. Since IRB approval for conducting research on human subjects takes several weeks to complete, I intend to begin that process in the first two weeks to keep the project within the timeline. For weeks three and four I will work on trying to gather the data. I will not only focus on NYC.gov but also engage local libraries across the New York City region. Libraries can be useful in assisting with historical and cultural information since they are an integral part of New York City neighborhoods. I would also like to reach out to community leaders since they are likely to have perhaps even an anecdotal pulse on neighborhood culture. During the fifth and six weeks I will meet with stakeholders and human talent such as website designers to assess the needed resources to make this project a reality

 In six to seven weeks, I will do a more detailed assessment of assessing the risk and rewards of nonmotorized modes of transportation. I would like to do a comparative analysis looking at other states and metropolitan areas where these modes have expanded in recent years. I would also like to explore the environmental benefits that come from these types of transportation. I would like to focus more on evidence base research studies.

Weeks eight and nine I would like to focus on creating a blueprint or schema for the website. This includes text design and format, platform engagement, human resources and the like. 

Weeks ten and eleven will be designated for gathering and organizing content for the website. This includes video clips, photographs, blogs and so forth. During week twelve I will start building the project using WordPress which allows you to build a website without a lot of technical coding. WordPress is also free. The last two weeks will be focused on revising launching and promoting the digital website. This timeline is not built in stone and there will likely be revisions if challenges arise at other stages in the process.

Risk_And_RewardsDownload

Final Project Proposal: Decolonizing the Display

Confront the Canon: Examine Museum Collection and Exhibition Practices

Link to Slide Deck

Proposal Overview: In 2019, a statistics and art history team from Williams College and the University of California conducted a diversity study on eighteen U.S. museums and found that overall 85% artists in the collections are white and 87% are men. I envision the project as a way to explore the institutional bias reflected in the skewed diversity ratios prevalent in museum collections and reflected in their exhibition history that consistently privileges art created by white Western artists. The central question being explored is: How does the institution’s collection and curatorial practices contribute to the marginalization of non-Western art, women artists and artists of color? 

Project Objective and Inspiration: The objective is to confront the art canon (which constitutes the general standards set to judge ‘greatness’ in art) and examine the practices that determine whose history is represented in the institution’s collection and whose story is told in the displays. I propose a mediation in the spirit of Fred Wilson’s brilliant intervention in his Mining the Museum project, where the artist culled forgotten African-American artifacts from the Maryland Historical Society’s permanent collection and juxtaposed the objects in their conventional display issuing a powerful statement against institutional racism. The entrance to Mining the Museum featured the Truth Trophy, where three busts of white men from the collection who were not Marylanders was placed in front of three empty black pedestals that represented Black Marylanders missing from the collection, namely Harriet Tubman, Benjamin Bannekar and Frederick Douglass (Figure 1, right). Another introspective intervention was seen in the form of slave shackles placed in a metalwork display which adds the context of invisible slave labor hidden behind the glimmering objects (Figure 1, left). 

Exhibits from the project Mining the Museum by Fred Wilson
Figure 1: Metalwork on the left; Truth Trophy on the right from Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum, 1992

Project Method and Execution Phases: My project aims to mount a comparable interrogation of museum practices that allows users to intervene in select past exhibitions, curate an equitable display highlighting absences and provide relevant context by studying the collection through a decolonizing lens. Roopika Risam proposed the postcolonial digital pedagogy approach as a means to understand the role of knowledge production in privileging Western voices and employing active engagement of the audience as creators and not just consumers to begin decolonizing the archives. In a similar approach, the Confront the Canon interface will enable users to curate their own equitable exhibitions and empower them to participate as creators in the decolonizing effort. 

Phases of proposed project
Figure 2: Phases of the proposed project, Confront the Canon

To execute the project within a semester, the scope is narrowed down to a single exhibition catalogue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the aim of creating the basic framework for the selection of interventions resulting in the final outcome of the virtual equitable exhibition. The project can eventually be scaled up.

The project execution is planned in four phases (Figure 2):

  • Phase 1: Select a past exhibition catalog, cull the selected catalog to create the past exhibition dataset.
  • Phase 2: Identify relevant search parameters such as art period, style, gender, race to create the basis of the intervention object dataset selection.
  • Phase 3: Provide display panels to swap out objects from the exhibition and accept intervention objects or suggestions where appropriate interventions are unavailable with relevant context labels.
  • Phase 4: Display newly curated equitable exhibition.

DH Context: The environment scan revealed several institutional attempts to address canon exclusions through digital exhibitions such as the ones seen on the NMWA, Palmer Museum of Art websites that feature online exhibits around Women in Art, Asian and Asian American Art, African art etc. However, these exhibitions focus on the themes in isolation, in a way ‘othering’ the subject. My project’s approach differs from these efforts because the attempt is to emphasize the exclusions and the flawed premise of the canon from within and visualize equity as an alternative.

Screenshots of online exhibition from Palmer Museum of Art to show effective use of google slide template.
Figure 3:Navigation of online exhibition Women in Art: Activism and Resistance, Palmer Museum of Art

Confront the Canon will seek guidance from the simple yet effective platform and design choices employed in the Palmer Museum exhibitions (Figure 3). Their design layouts are impressive because the humble google slides are used to great effect providing an immersive experience of the exhibition with simple navigation through the galleries and clickable art objects moving to text or video content that elaborate on the context.