Culture Mapping 2019

Thanks to everyone who made NewYorkScapes’ 2019 Culture Mapping Symposium a success! Please see below for access to community resources & media from the event.

View the Culture Mapping Community Directory

Here, you’ll find contact information, project descriptions, slide decks, and other resources shared by participants. Note: this directory is only available to registered Culture Mapping participants. Please use your email address in the password field. If you feel you should have access to the directory but are having trouble logging in, please email gafsari@nyu.edu.

See photos & video from the event

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Program (Archived)

Friday, April 12

All Friday events in Bobst Library Room 745

2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Humanities Research Data & Digital Pedagogies: Roundtable & Workshop
Moderated by Thomas Augst, Director of NewYorkScapes & Chair, Department of English

Featuring:
Kelley Kreitz, Assistant Professor of English & Co-Director of Babble Lab, Pace University
Jeremy Rowe, Research Scientist & Purveyor of Historical Photographs
Susanna Horng, Clinical Associate Professor, NYU Liberal Studies

In this session, speakers will present methods for modeling humanities data and developing metadata schemata, provide an introduction to the use of historical photographs as primary research materials using “photo-forensic” strategies, and explore the use of narrative mapping and digital tools like Esri Story Maps in the university classroom. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and workshop their own research and teaching methodologies.

4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Panel: Migrating New York

“Preserving the legacy of pioneering women media artists in New York City (1970-90s)”
Rachel Ward, National Digital Stewardship Resident (NDSR Art), Small Data Industries
“Digital Downtown”
Tamar Barzel, New York University
“Disaggregating Historical New York City: Developing A Microdata Mapping Approach”
Wright Kennedy & Dan Miller, Columbia University
“Walking Oral Histories into Our Bodies: An Experimental Approach to Public Curation and Analysis”
Amy Starecheski, Columbia University

5:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Screening: “meridians” by Lynn Kim
With introductory remarks from the filmmaker

“meridians” is a film concerned with the mapping and occupation of bodies. Questions of distance, proximity, value, identity, and multiplicity are evoked through video collages that feature my own body and flesh (either alone or in tandem with another.) The work takes viewers through a shared journey to negotiate matters of space, surface, and subject. All aspects of production including editing, sound, and animation were completed by the artist.

6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Reception & Welcoming Remarks

Saturday, April 13

Presentation Room: Bobst Library 745

9:30 – 10:00 a.m.
Breakfast & Coffee

10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
“Mapping Impasse” — Keynote Address by Dr. Elizabeth Rodrigues, Humanities and Digital Scholarship Librarian & Assistant Faculty at Grinnell College

Presentation Room: Bobst Library 745	Media Room: Bobst Library 743
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Panel: Virtual Diasporas, Digital Migrants “Documents of Barbarism: Imag[in]ing Palmyra from the Afterlife” Andrew Scheinman, Harvard University “Representation, Desire and Spatial Consumption: The Digital Nomad” Marilia Kaisar “Creating Borderland Worldings through Digital Remembrance and Reconciliation” Beatriz Maldonado, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “An Island Above the Land: How the Diasporas of Sri Lanka Use Digital Communication and its Insights Into the Limits of Diaspora’s Current Definition” Isa Spoerry, New York University	11:00 – 11:30 a.m. Project Demo: Unaccompanied Assault Visualizing the Epidemic Sexual Assault of Detained Migrant Children Zarith Pineda, Territorial Empathy Unaccompanied Assault visualizes reports detailing the sexual assault of unaccompanied minors held in detention facilities. It depicts the rampant negligence on the part of the agencies responsible for the care of some of the most vulnerable – children escaping pervasive violence and chronic poverty. Through interactive visualization and mapping, we have located the facilities where these assaults have taken place in order to shed light on this growing epidemic. Our mission is to create materials to advocate for public awareness, reform, and the protection of these vulnerable children. More at www.territorialempathy.com 11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Artist Talk: (Dis)Placed in Sunset Park Betty Yu (Dis)Placed in Sunset Park is an interactive multimedia exhibition that features short videos of Latinx and Chinese (im)migrants, workers and residents in Brooklyn, New York’s diverse Sunset Park neighborhood. The common theme among their stories is the shared narrative of migration to the U.S., their journey to Sunset Park and their fears of displacement as a result of gentrification. Each story is grounded in the subject’s own sense of home, sanctuary and refuge that they have found in Sunset Park. The title refers to the way people are being “displaced in” their own community as it changes around them; and to the some are being crowded into smaller quarters within Sunset Park as well. It was recently given honorable mention in The New York Times (as a part of BRIC’s Biennial).

Presentation Room: Bobst Library 745

Media Room: Bobst Library 743

11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Panel: Virtual Diasporas, Digital Migrants

“Documents of Barbarism: Imag[in]ing Palmyra from the Afterlife”
Andrew Scheinman, Harvard University
“Representation, Desire and Spatial Consumption: The Digital Nomad”
Marilia Kaisar
“Creating Borderland Worldings through Digital Remembrance and Reconciliation”
Beatriz Maldonado, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“An Island Above the Land: How the Diasporas of Sri Lanka Use Digital Communication and its Insights Into the Limits of Diaspora’s Current Definition”
Isa Spoerry, New York University

11:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Project Demo: Unaccompanied Assault
Visualizing the Epidemic Sexual Assault of Detained Migrant Children
Zarith Pineda, Territorial Empathy
Unaccompanied Assault visualizes reports detailing the sexual assault of unaccompanied minors held in detention facilities. It depicts the rampant negligence on the part of the agencies responsible for the care of some of the most vulnerable – children escaping pervasive violence and chronic poverty. Through interactive visualization and mapping, we have located the facilities where these assaults have taken place in order to shed light on this growing epidemic. Our mission is to create materials to advocate for public awareness, reform, and the protection of these vulnerable children.

More at www.territorialempathy.com

11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Artist Talk: (Dis)Placed in Sunset Park
Betty Yu
(Dis)Placed in Sunset Park is an interactive multimedia exhibition that features short videos of Latinx and Chinese (im)migrants, workers and residents in Brooklyn, New York’s diverse Sunset Park neighborhood. The common theme among their stories is the shared narrative of migration to the U.S., their journey to Sunset Park and their fears of displacement as a result of gentrification. Each story is grounded in the subject’s own sense of home, sanctuary and refuge that they have found in Sunset Park. The title refers to the way people are being “displaced in” their own community as it changes around them; and to the some are being crowded into smaller quarters within Sunset Park as well. It was recently given honorable mention in The New York Times (as a part of BRIC’s Biennial).

12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch
Note: Lunch not provided. We hope you’ll check out one of the many great lunch options in the neighborhood. Explore Macdougal Street for everything from kati rolls to Vietnamese noodles to gourmet Belgian fries!

1:45 – 2:45 p.m. Panel: Preserving Movement(s): Digital History Approaches “Art, Migration, and Preservation: The Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library” Jehan Roberson & Alexandra Provo, New York University “Mountains, Deserts, and Migration: A Geographic History of the Sogdians, Influencers of the Silk Roads” Kimon Keramidas, New York University	1:45 – 2:45 p.m. Game Session: Life: Immigration Game Join game designer Isabelle Garbani in a play-through of her immersive artwork “Life: Immigration Game,” based on Milton Bradley’s “The Game of Life.” The game, inspired by true stories, urges players to better understand the experiences that attend immigration to the U.S., including language and culture barriers, xenophobia, fear of the unknown, and separation from family.
2:45 – 4:00 p.m. Panel: Disruptive Urbanisms “Mapping Loss in the Wake of Urban Renewal: Baku as Case Study” Rustin Zarkar, New York University “Re-Imaging the Frontier: The Visual and Vernacular Strategies of Anti-Counterfeiting Initiatives” Laura Cadena “Mapping Bison: Multispecies Space Making in Growing Urban Environments” Jayati Narain, New York University	3:00 – 3:30 p.m. Artist Talk: “Humans as Cargos” Tsedaye Makonnen With the title of her talk taken from Christina Sharpe’s highly influential book In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, the artist will discuss her light sculpture and performance developed during her Maker Residency with the DC Public Library and recently on view at the August Wilson Cultural Center. This monumental work is dedicated to and named after ten black women and girls who have died from state-sanctioned violence in the United States and have invisibly died along the migratory journey through Europe.
4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Lightning Talks: Soundscapes “Here There Be Dragons: Broadcasting the Intersection of Identity and Security” Jessica Myers “Sesol.org: Rethinking Community and Commons at the Playground of Sound Events” Ipek Oskay, University of Alberta “Give me all your music! The case for accessing Irish traditional music at the Library of Congress” Patrick Egan (Pádraig Aodhgáin), Library of Congress “Catcalls of NYC: Mapping Instances of Street Harassment with Chalk, ‘IRL’ and on Instagram” Sophie Sandberg, New York University “QUEENSBOUND” KC Trommer	4:00 – 4:45 p.m. Roundtable: #MappingFreedom Creating a digital database and interactive GIS & Wiki-enabled map of all of the #FreedomColonies on the planet Learn more at imappingfreedom.tumblr.com.
5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Panel: Countermappings “Practicing Palimpsestry in Seattle’s Landscape: Archives, Counter-Mapping, and Public Scholarship” Amir Sheikh, University of Washington “‘Island to Island’: Using the Brooklyn Bridge to Understand Queer Isolation and Influence” Corey Clawson, Rutgers University “The Decolonial Mapping Toolkit” Patrick Jaojoco & Rebecca Manski “Resisting Queer Erasure: Counter-Mapping as Artistic Strategy” Danny Jauregui, Whittier College	5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Game Session: Life: Immigration Game Join game designer Isabelle Garbani in a play-through of her immersive artwork “Life: Immigration Game,” based on Milton Bradley’s “The Game of Life.”

Organizing Committee & Event Support

Grace Afsari-Mamagani, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
Emily Fenster, M.A. Candidate, Department of English
Nicholas Wolf, Data Management Librarian, NYU Libraries & Co-PI, NewYorkScapes
Thomas Augst, Chair, Department of English & Co-PI, NewYorkScapes
Saronik Bosu, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
Maggie Iuni, M.A. Candidate, Department of English
Patricia Okoh-Esene, Assistant to the Chair & Administrative Aide, Department of English
Alyssa Leal, Department Manager, English and Dramatic Literature