“The cultural primacy of making, especially in tech culture—that it is intrinsically superior to not-making, to repair, analysis, and especially caregiving—is informed by the gendered history of who made things, and in particular, who made things that were shared with the world, not merely for hearth and home”
Debbie Chachra, “Why I Am Not a Maker,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015.
When I read this sentence, I was reminded of an episode of Nova that I had watched with my mother recently. In an episode titled “Prediction by the Numbers”, the narrator spoke of the 5% error margin in scientific research. If you are researching something new and your results are within that margin of error, that is worth celebrating. A margin of error lower than 5% means that further research could be done to look more into the study… but people don’t do that. Discovering something new gets you noticed by prestigious institutions, other researchers, gives you a reputation. Further research done into something that was already found doesn’t receive as much attention nor recognition.
This then reminded me of my years participating in science fairs. You see, I never really was into science fair, but it was a requirement because I took pre-AP science classes. I remember looking at other students’ projects and the vast ideas that they somehow created and researched to the point that it became a presentation.
Digital Arts & Humanities is such a broad field where researching and making can be explored in multiple avenues. One thing under its broad reach is data visualization. Have you seen word clouds? I remember seeing them when I was younger and I would spend time just sitting there trying to read all the words, from the giant ones to the ant-sized ones. Learning how to code and use programs that change the way data is presented is something I am excited to learn more about and use.
