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A Million Tomorrows: Playful Imaginings and Beautiful Futures

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

Introduction

This poem was part of a series for my second-year Culture and Technology Studies course, CTS*2010 Digital Approaches to Culture. Over the course of the semester, I explored the position of microchips in our political economy and the part they play in our future-building. Through my research, it became clear that microchips have an integral role in our digital development, and that the systems in which they are used and developed are deeply integrated into the fabric of the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. I believe that the decoupling of technology from systems of oppression relies first on radical imagination.

This piece is therefore inspired by Steven Johnson’s account of the adjacent possible - “a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself”¹– and the assertion by pacifist scholar Elsie Boulding that “the sheer difficulty of imagining future sustainability different from the present is one of our greatest problems as a society”². To explore this idea, I drew from the work of queer academic Judith Jack Halberstam and their idea of ‘low theory’ and the silly archive (2012; 2014)³ ⁴. I chose particularly to look at the potential of children’s stories to imagine alternative futures.

Halberstam argues that children’s media, a form of ‘low theory’, can be a powerful source of revolutionary content, and help us to imagine alternative futures and ways of being (2014) ⁵. For me, thinking about this immediately brought to mind Dr. Seuss, a staple on the bookshelves of me and many others. Stories like The Lorax, Thidwick the Big Hearted Moose, and Horton Hears a Who! all strongly resonate with this theme for me, and even the graduation classic Oh, the Places You’ll Go! emphasizes the expansive possibility that lies in the future.

Through all of these inspirations, I wrote and recorded a Dr. Seuss-inspired children’s poem about the adjacent possibility that exists in the technology we build and the world we move towards.

A Million Tomorrows

There’s a place near your town, not too far ways away. If you got going at sunrise you'd be there by midday.

In that place lives a being. Not from there, not not, the same way that you are from more than one spot.

You're a fine mixture of all that you've seen! It took much to shape you, as it took for this being.

If you went to visit, as I urge you to do, a wondrous happening could happen to you!

I know this for sure - I've been there, you see, and this wondrous happening happened to me!

The happening happened on a regular day. With everything going the regular way. The weather was weathering, not cold and not hot. Things were being done, but not a whole lot.

Time was just ticking the way that it does. The bees were just buzzing their regular buzz.

I remember deciding to go for a walk. Not to get somewhere, just to ride out the clock.

Where I was going I hadn't a clue, I just followed each foot, which followed each shoe, which followed the path that goes down by the river. I followed it as it as it shrank down to a sliver.

As I walked, I felt the air starting to change. Something was different… I sensed something strange.

The sense I was sensing started to grow. How to describe it? To this day I don’t know…

I felt around me a remarkable feeling, of stillness and calm, of peaceful healing.

This all was quite pleasant, and I’d now walked quite a bit. I’d walked a good walking, now I wanted to sit.

So I sat on a bench conveniently placed on the edge of a field, facing the space.

The sun was now setting, bowing gently goodnight. Making room for an equally gentle twilight.

The crickets greeted the frogs. The breeze was magic and restless. The state of the evening really left me quite breathless!

And that’s when I saw them, drawing slowly nearer. Walking through the field, their figure getting clearer.

“Why hello there!” they said, their face holding a smile, “You’ve got quite the view, could I sit for a while?”

“Why of course!” I replied. “Timba’s the name.” “Nice to meet you”, they answered. “My name’s Leraime.”

I said to Leraime, “I was just watching you sow. Things seem so peaceful out there, and so slow.”

“Yes,” they replied. “I’ve learned to move slow. I’ve learned moving fast is just one way to go.”

They were quiet a bit. Then they said, “It would be great if we all would move slower instead.

We run from Point A just to get to Point B, which is funny because we’d rather be at Point D!

We build things to help us build with more speed,

Without asking if fast is the speed that we need!

When we’ve had a hard day, and things have been tough, we imagine the reason is we weren’t doing enough.

We think about everything we’re yet to do, the million things we didn’t get around to.

‘I need to go faster,’ we’ll say with resolve, assuming that that’s how our problems are solved.

So tomorrow, we get out of bed and we RUN, and still not everything seems to get done.

When we’ve done what we can, when the day is all spent, tomorrow seems to have gone just how yesterday went.

Lots of running and doing and moving and shaking, trying to see all the progress we’re making.

If you decide you can’t keep running this way, a Big Man will swoop in to come save the day.

He’ll say, ‘Look at all of this running you do! You look quite exhausted! you tired thing, you.’

The Big Man will conveniently fail to say that HE’S the reason you're running this way!

His family told everyone a long time ago, that running’s the only good way to go.

And now he gets paid just to watch people run.

He just sits and makes sure that good running is done

He has but one task: make sure runners don’t quit.

He makes runners run So that sitters can sit!

So when this Big Man sees you starting to rest… he swoops in to do the thing he does best!

He’ll come up to your door, and before you can blink, he’ll be in your kitchen helping himself to a drink!

He’ll sit on your sofa, assume you don’t mind. (Typical sitter behaviour, you’ll find!)

He’ll say, ‘I have the solution for you. It’ll change your whole life! I promise, it’s true!’

He promises something. Something for your running. He assures you your rest time is almost coming!

The next thing he’ll do is sell you a gadget. He'll tell you it's magic! That you have to have it.

He'll say, ‘This humble doodad is meant to reduce runners’ running by 300 per cent!’

‘If you want to buy this, come down to my shop. Running'll be so easy. you won't want to stop!’

One of the greatest things he has pitched has helped him and his friends get incredibly rich.

The thing that he sold was the tiniest chip. Smaller than the teeniest tiniest pip.

Smaller than the germs that crawl on your hand, almost as small as a DNA strand!

He sold it to us. He promised great things. If we wanted to stop running, well, these were our wings!

In radios, in phones, in fridges, and cars - We'd stop running soon, The day couldn't be far!

This chip now powers most things that we use: it’s in fridges and phones, even basketball shoes. The big man grows rich selling us these, telling us we can keep running with ease.

But somehow running still doesn't seem easy. Nothing about what we do seems more breezy.

The reason, I'll tell you - and this is true - the chips are not for the me or the yous.

Or the people digging minerals out in the mines, or assembling our phones out in factory lines.

All of us keep running, but now at a sprint, with this microchip tech as encouragement.

The Big Man keeps on sitting with a smile on his face, as we keep on running at incredible pace.

But here's something he doesn't want you to see: running is not the only way to be!

There's walking and swimming and skipping and flying and dancing and standing and sitting and lying.

The Big Men want you to run because it grows their wealth. They make you comply using wiles and stealth.

But when all the running becomes much too much, it's useful to say, ‘No, I think that's enough.

All of these gizmos do indeed help me run, but I think I've decided that running's no fun.

It's not that I don't think they're nifty. I do. I just don't need a chip inside of my shoe.

And having a credit card chip in my hand? To be honest, I don't really get the demand.

It's just another form of money, you know. I don't think it's progress if it maintains status quo.

When I look at the future, I think of my past. I assume that the next day Will look like the last.

But I’m tired. I don’t want to run anymore. That can’t be all My existence is for.’

He'll shiver! He'll shake! He'll beg and he’ll plead. He'll say, ‘Okay then... Well, what do you need?’ You can think for a moment. And then you can say, ‘I'd like to do things some other way.

We seem to think if this tech does this thing then that's all it does. That that's all it can bring.

And I like these chips. I could like them a lot. So why don't we see what else you've got?

Something that lets me be slower, more chill. Something a little more... walk-y, if you will.’

You could say that, you know. And you'd be sure to find that many people have thoughts of this kind.

If we all came together, if we stopped running today, our tomorrow could go a whole different way.

Because tomorrow's not here yet! It isn’t today! There's more than one path. There's more than one way.”

Leraime then got quiet. We sat there together. We sat in the silence. Admired the weather.

Then I said, “Thanks! That was a great chat. I had a great sit. Now it's time to head back.”

So I did. And as I slowly walked, I pensively pondered all these new thoughts.

I realized I did seem to run quite a lot. And that was the first day I’d decided to not.

Instead, I had strolled. I just followed each shoe, for no rhyme or reason - just something different to do.

And I'd had such a good day! The best I'd had in a while. And I used not one gizmo, I realized with a smile.

That day changed my life. That meeting with Leraime. I don't really think about life quite the same.

I try to live slower. I take more deep breaths. I walk a lot more. I run a lot less.

When I buy a thingamajig or a whatzit, I think about the Big Man - why he wants me to want it.

Well, that's my story. That's what the being said to me.

If you went, would you find them? There's no guarantee.

But a walk would be good. It would help clear your mind. And who's to say what happenings you might find.

Bibliography

Boulding, Elise. Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World. New York: Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1988.

D’Ignazio, Catherine, and Lauren F. Klein. “The Power Chapter.” Data Feminism. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2020. https://data-feminism.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/5evfe9yd/release/5?readingCollection=0cd867ef.

Halberstam, Judith. “Losing Hope, Finding Nemo and Dreaming of Alternatives.” Queer and Subjugated Knowledges: Generating Subversive Imaginaries, vol. 1, no. 1, 9–22. 2012. https://doi.org/10.2174/978160805339111204010009.

Herrington, Gaya. “Update to Limits to Growth: Comparing the World3 Model with Empirical Data.” Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2021, 614–626. https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2021/limits-to-growth.html.

Hurley, Kelly. “Is That a Future We Want? An Ecofeminist Exploration of Images of the Future in Contemporary Film.” Futures 40, no. 4 (2008): 346–359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2007.08.007.

IPAK Centar. Jack Halberstam on Queer Failure, Silly Archives and the Wild. YouTube video, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKDEil7m1j8.

Johnson, Steven. “Serendipity.” In Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, 35–54. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010.

Seuss, Dr. Horton Hears a Who!. New York: Random House, 1954.

Seuss, Dr. Oh, the Places You'll Go! New York: Random House, 1990.

Seuss, Dr. The Lorax. New York: Random House, 1971.

Seuss, Dr. Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose. New York: Random House, 1948.

Steven Johnson, “Serendipity,” Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, 35–54, New York: Riverhead Books, 2010. ↩
Elise Boulding, Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World, New York: Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1988. ↩
Judith Halberstam, “Losing Hope, Finding Nemo and Dreaming of Alternatives,” Queer and Subjugated Knowledges: Generating Subversive Imaginaries, vol. 1, no. 1, 9–22, 2012, https://doi.org/10.2174/978160805339111204010009. ↩
IPAK Centar, Jack Halberstam on Queer Failure, Silly Archives and the Wild, YouTube video, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKDEil7m1j8. ↩
IPAK, Jack Halberstam. ↩

Accessible Mapping Tools for All

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

Alive in Their Garden: A Virtual Exploration of Art, Identity, and Technology

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

Figure 1. Splash Page of Alive in their garden.

Introduction:

In today’s digital age, art exhibitions have transcended physical boundaries, offering immersive experiences that are accessible from the comfort of our homes. “Alive in their garden” is a prime example of this evolution, showcasing the works of four talented Black Latinx artists in a virtual museum. This exhibition isn’t just a collection of artworks, it is an interactive journey through themes of gender, ecology, ancestry, and healing, presented through a mix of photography, sculpture, and digital installations.

Background on Exhibit Artists:

In our exploration of “Alive in their garden,” we are introduced to a collection of artists whose work is as diverse as their backgrounds, yet united by a common thread of exploring identity, nature, and resistance. Joiri Minaya is a Dominican-American artist from New-York. Her art stands out for its vibrant depictions of natural landscapes, from serene beaches to captivating bodies of water, all interwoven with the beauty and diversity of women’s bodies. Felli Maynard is an artist based in New-York. His photography represents a stunning portrayal of Queer Black individuals, often depicted in their natural element and sometimes partially nude, in creative and evocative poses. These images go beyond the surface to explore themes of vulnerability, strength, freedom, and authenticity. Star Feliz is Dominican-American artist from Los Angeles who uses her connection to the earth to question old colonial ideas. Inspired by her Afro-Taino roots, she works with sounds, sculptures, films, and even the earth itself to talk about healing and fighting against these legacies. Finally, Nitzayra Leonor is a Black, Afro-descendant Puerto Rican and Caribbean woman who brings a multi-layered approach to her art, utilizing engraving, photography, body art, and ceramics to construct a language that is deeply personal and reflective of her identity. Leonor’s work is a testament to the power of art to capture and communicate complex narratives of heritage, memory, and identity.

How the Exhibition Works:

1. Navigating the Virtual Space From Above

When you first enter “Alive In their garden,” you initially encounter a 360 panoramic view of the museum and its detailed floor plan. This panoramic view gives you a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of the entire space, laying out the art and rooms before you. Then, it shifts to a dollhouse view, which zooms in closer, showing the museum’s layout in 3D. This lets you virtually walk through the exhibition, moving from room to room and piece to piece as if you were there in person.

Figure 2. 360 panoramic view of the museum.

2. Exploring Art Up Close

After the panoramic view, you dive into the exhibition using the floor plan to move freely with your cursor. Directly head towards any artwork that grabs your attention. This interactive exploration lets you control your journey, room by room, piece by piece. Once you click on an artwork, a sidebar pops up, sharing the artwork’s story, its title, and the artist’s name. This feature turns every click into a chance for a deeper connection with the art, letting you uncover the rich narratives and ideas behind each piece.

Figure 3. Close up of Felicita “Felli” Maynard piece.

Figure 4. Wide view of the room.

3. Measurements Feature

The measurements feature helps you figure out the distance between paintings or how far you are from a piece.

Figure 5. The measurement feature in action.

4. The VR Experience

There is also an option to connect your VR headset to the simulation for a fully immersive, three-dimensional experience.

Figure 6. VR headset option.

5. Accessibility

The exhibition offers language options in English and Spanish, making it accessible to a wider audience.

Figure 7. Accessibility feature for Alive in their garden.

Reflection

“Alive in their garden” immerses us in the worlds of race, gender, ethnicity, and identity, seen through the creative expressions of Black Latinx artists. The exhibition stands out for its dynamic representation of diversity and empowerment, not just in themes, but also in the vivid images and photographs displayed. The project does an exceptional job of showcasing race in a way that goes beyond just skin color. Race encompasses heritage, identity, and the many ways in which people connect with their roots.

Through various artistic forms, such as installations and photographs of people from diverse racial backgrounds, the exhibition brings together a narrative that celebrates race as a crucial part of our identity. It is not just about the differences in our appearance, it is about the stories, cultures, and histories that shape us. In doing so, “Alive in their garden” paints a picture of human life in all its variety, encouraging us to embrace and understand the wide range of experiences and backgrounds that make up our world. By presenting these stories and images, the exhibition invites us to reflect on our own identities and the rich variety of society. It opens up a space for conversation and learning, where visitors can explore the complexities of identity and culture in a welcoming and enlightening environment. Ultimately, “Alive in their garden” serves not just as an exhibition but as a vibrant place for exploring and celebrating the diverse surface of human identity. It encourages us to look beyond superficial differences and find value in the stories and heritage that make each person unique. Through this lens, the exhibition promotes empathy, respect, and unity in a world that often seems divided.

This exhibition is definitely empowering, and here’s a simple way to see why. By diving into their cultural backgrounds and personal stories, the artists give us a closer look at Afro-Taino heritage and the complex world of identity. This sharing is empowering because it helps people, especially those with similar backgrounds, to see their own stories and history in the art. It is like being told, “Your experiences, your heritage, and who you are, are important.” Also, using a virtual platform makes the exhibition even more accessible. It breaks down the usual barriers that might stop people from getting to see art like where they live, not having enough money, or not being able to get there physically. This open door to everyone is empowering because more people can see, learn, and feel inspired by these strong and diverse stories. At its heart, it is about showing off the beauty of our differences and encouraging us to understand and appreciate each other, making it a great source of inspiration and connection. The virtual aspect also enables a global conversation, inviting feedback and dialogue from around the world, which improves the experience for both artists and viewers. This global exchange of ideas and perspectives can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the diversity that exists within and across cultures. In essence, this exhibition uses the power of art to bridge gaps, connect communities, and illuminate the richness of human diversity. It is not just about viewing art, it is about engaging with it on a personal level and finding common ground in the stories it tells. This level of engagement and accessibility is what makes the exhibition truly empowering, offering a mirror to see ourselves and a window to view others, fostering empathy and solidarity in our increasingly interconnected world.

While the project is empowering, expanding the range of voices to include more underrepresented communities could enhance its inclusivity and representational depth. The interface’s immersive design, like its panoramic views and interactive features, skillfully conveys the artists’ stories, but integrating more educational resources and contextual information could deepen the understanding of the themes presented. Additionally, considering the exhibition’s availability in both English and Spanish, there is a clear opportunity to extend language options, welcoming even more diverse audiences.

“Alive in their garden” makes a strong argument about the inclusivity of different identities, including race, gender and ethnicity, through its diverse range of subjects captured in photographs and its varied installations that delve into heritage. The artwork showcases a spectrum of experiences and backgrounds, illustrating the diverse mix of human identity. The way the interface is designed plays a big part in conveying this argument. Its user-friendly navigation allows visitors to explore these themes at their own pace, with the option to dive deeper into each piece through interactive elements. This setup not just showcases the diversity of content but also makes the experience personal and accessible, inviting users to engage with and reflect on the stories of identity and difference presented. Moreover, the decision to make “Alive in their garden” accessible in two languages speaks to the commitment to inclusivity, demonstrating an awareness of the need for broader accessibility. This effort highlights the exhibition’s focus on being inclusive, making sure that its celebration of diverse identities and backgrounds can be shared with as many people as possible.

Sourcing artwork from a diverse group of artists ensures a rich variety of perspectives and narratives that encompass different aspects of identity and experience. The digital exhibit is curated with innovative techniques, allowing visitors to use tools like data visualization to explore patterns, themes, and connections among the pieces. By integrating art simulation and VR technology, the project transforms static images into a dynamic and engaging experience, opening up new possibilities for how users interact with the art in virtual spaces.

Bibliography

Pena, M., & Figueroa-Vásquez, Y. Alive in their garden. (2023). Exhibition. March 17 – April 28. Smith College, Michigan State University. Reviewed by Gimena del Rio Riande. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Retrieved from https://aliveintheirgarden.com/Home-Set

Curators International. Joiri Minaya. n.d. Retrieved from https://curatorsintl.org/about/collaborators/7850-joiri-minaya

Smith College. Mary Pena: Lecturer in Anthropology. n.d. Retrieved from https://www.smith.edu/people/mary-pena

Rodriguez, J. O. Queerness and Blackness in the Archive: An Interview with Felicita “Felli” Maynard. Latinx Project. August 19, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxions/queerness-and-blackness-in-the-archivean-inter view-with-felicita-felli-maynard

“Hey, it's been a while.” : The Spectacle of Wrongdoing and Recovery on YouTube

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

Introduction: The Influencer and the Apology

The internet influencer is an individual who uses their own personal brand of authenticity to cultivate audiences whose loyalty can be quantified by likes, comments, and views.¹

Unlike a traditional celebrity, the influencer bonds with their audiences through content that directly addresses the viewer and allows viewers to respond through comments.² Influencers perform an intimate version of their “authentic” self through their content such as showcasing their feelings on personal topics or major life events. Intimacy builds trust, and trust builds a stronger parasocial bond.

Because of the personal nature of the influencer’s content, their followers often feel personally affronted when their favourite creator has seemingly committed a transgression. These offenses can range from insincerity to financial scams, or physical assault. Regardless of what constitutes “bad behaviour,” followers may demand an apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Whether the influencer believes they have actually done something wrong is often irrelevant, and they must perform an apology to regain their audience’s trust.

But what does it mean to apologize in a public space? These creators, whose entire brands are typically reliant on their “authentic” selves, are performing a persona when they create internet content. This performance extends to their apology—it is a performance of shame.

People who “expose” the creator are usually doing so with the intention of holding the influencer accountable for their behaviour. However, since this often takes place on a public forum, the exposure is transformed into a public spectacle. The spectators can extend beyond the creator’s followers to other online communities and even mainstream media outlets. This can also extend into physical space with online users doxxing influencers. Wendy Chun describes this kind of exposure as “violent” and likens it to Sedgwick’s epistemology of the closet, as it seeks to shame the individual.³ Although Chun specifically discusses this exposure in slut-shaming, this forced accountability is similar to the exposure of the influencer. Unlike slut-shaming, however, the influencer also has financial incentive to apologize, or risk losing viewers and sponsorships.

We were interested in examining such performances, and the feedback that they receive. This paper outlines the process of how we collected and organized YouTube apology data, going beyond likes and views. It includes detailing of the tools used, accessing deleted content, and demographical information that can be used for a closer analysis. Due to time constraints, we were unable to actually perform much analysis.

However, because this is a newer subject for discussion, we wanted to share these processes so that others may learn from them when developing their own project methods. We write about the pivoting and roadblocks to provide a realistic picture of the process. This was a successful data-collection project, but only because it had to be—creating this dataset was never meant to take so long, nor be the primary goal.

Project Goals

Originally, we wanted to examine public personas and the performance of an apology. Our main guiding questions were:

What makes an apology work?
How was the YouTuber’s popularity affected by their controversy and subsequent apology?
Why do viewers care so much about the intentions of a stranger online?

We thought that data on this topic would be readily available because influencers are public figures, and these apologies have become milestones in their careers. However, the information we found was scattered and incomplete.

Project Goals 2.0

As a result, we pivoted our focus and started compiling this data ourselves, using transcription software as well as internet archival tools to collect metadata. Our new goal was to create a dataset of YouTube apologies that can be used for the type of analysis that we had originally wanted to do. Recording how we gathered this information was crucial, so that it may be replicated by others who wish to do similar work.

Since this dataset was not available, it became more important for us to ask:

What kind of trends might exist in YouTube apologies?
How can we recover lost YouTube data?

Unlike other projects that have analyzed YouTuber apologies, our dataset also includes videos that were unlisted, set to private, deleted or were from a channel that was terminated entirely by YouTube. Excluding this from any textual analysis would be as though they had never been made. Furthermore, the deletion of a video or otherwise changing its status could be a factor used in examining the authenticity of a YouTuber’s apology.

In-depth analysis was not possible within the given timeframe, but we still used textual analysis tools on a smaller scale to test that data’s usability and consider how it can be incorporated into future projects.

We wanted to make our dataset public like Kakkar and Samora’s visualization⁴ which included a public playlist of the apologies included, but as large (if not larger) than Choi and Mitchell’s sample of 1175.⁵ Neither of these ended up happening because many videos did not fit our criteria and we had concerns about publicly releasing this dataset.

Considerations

The main ethical concern with this project was the collection of this type of data. What happens when creators no longer wish for this data to be on the internet? Some have already deleted their videos. Furthermore, they have not consented to data collection and analysis of this nature. The Feminist Data Manifest-No outlines ways in which we can study data that refuse harmful data regimes⁶ and made us reconsider the purposes of the project and its implications. Some declarations in the full piece include refusing to work about people and against using data in perpetuity.

The original purpose of this project was to analyze the impact that these apologies had on public perception and subscriber retention. The creators featured in our project were not affiliated with us in any way and had no impact on the data curation process. They would not see any kind of benefit from our work. On the other hand, these creators have established themselves in positions of power where the impact of their words and actions is worthy of scrutiny.

In her Uncertain Archives chapter “Remains”, Tonia Sutherland discusses the right to be forgotten, and how it is often a privilege that is not afforded to people of colour.⁷ While control over personal information on the internet might be desirable on an individual level, for a public figure it can be whitewashing their history. Some influencers have committed crimes or taken advantage of their audiences while still returning to or exceeding their former heights. Instead of denying people the right to be forgotten, we wanted to investigate the way that some influencers may be given more grace when they do try to erase parts of their past, how the performance of an apology affects this “redemption arc”, and how other elements of identity such as race and gender come into play

Our project is strictly for the study of what we believe to be important events in internet pop culture that reflect how people perceive and think about influencers. We outline these methods so that they may be adapted and reused for other projects on lost internet media. Furthermore, in this paper we do not provide specific details of each influencer, nor are we publishing the dataset in its current form.

Methods

The original methodology included selecting and examining the YouTuber’s controversy, a close reading of the subsequent apology and the changes to the YouTuber’s following throughout the event. These were going to be done through five case studies of YouTubers who fall into different types of apologies. The original case studies are as follows:

An early example (Fine Brothers Entertainment)
A recent example (The Try Guys)
An example of a “good” apology (Jenna Marbles)
An example of a “bad” apology (James Charles and Tati Westbrook)
An example of a repetitive apologist (Logan Paul)

After choosing a number of case studies to focus on, we would delve deeper into the context surrounding the YouTuber's apology, social media metrics, and subsequent reception by their audience. We also planned on performing sentiment analysis on the comments of the apology videos through Python.

However, after transcribing a few apologies, we realized that we were limiting ourselves to a single controversy within the creator’s career. In addition, some of the chosen video case studies (ex. The Fine Bros) were deleted or inaccessible from the YouTuber’s channel. This limited our ability to perform sentiment analysis since we were unable to obtain the comments from the published video.

Methods 2.0

We then decided to do an in-depth case study of a single creator who has been associated with multiple controversies so that we could better identify the effects of their apology. Focusing on a creator like Logan Paul who has been perceived as both hero and villain (multiple times) would act like a control—it would be possible to see what specifically about the apologies and scandals were different each time.

This may not be especially indicative of any larger trends because Logan Paul is young, white, and a millionaire. These factors may affect how he is perceived compared to other creators who are less successful or privileged. These are qualities of people who have been generally favoured by society and held to a lower standard of accountability for problematic behaviour.

Methods 3.0

We settled on a distant reading of a wide variety of apologies. By analyzing the contents of the videos, it would be possible to find emerging topics and similarities between creators. This could then be compared to the public reception of the apology, helping us identify whether other factors such as race or gender affected the creator’s decrease or increase in popularity (via subscribers, video views, and likes).

This ultimately did not happen, because much of our time and energy had to be rerouted into data collection and cleaning.

Data Collection Process

Selecting Apologies

We started our data collection process by compiling apologies from different sources. As undergraduate students who grew up on the internet, our team is well-versed in the genre of the YouTube apology. We started simply by writing down any apologies that we remembered. This list was used in tandem with news articles about YouTube apologies: mainstream coverage indicated the scandal to be an important point in the influencer’s career. After that, we searched YouTube with keywords that are typically included in apology video titles, such as “sorry” or “truth.” After that, we expanded our search beyond YouTube to other social media sites such as Reddit and X (formally known as Twitter). Apologies were also gathered through videos on YouTube that covered apologies, such as the “Youtuber Apology Tier List” by Charles White, which had just over 9 million views when this paper was originally written in 2023 and since has hit nearly 10 million views a year and a half later.⁸

Forming Criteria

Through the collection of these apologies, we developed criteria to help filter which apologies would stay in the dataset. Our criteria was developed through a mix of our own ideas, as well as criteria from Karlsson’s thesis “The YouTube Apology.”⁹

To meet our criteria and be archived as part of our apology dataset, the content must have been created by an independent YouTuber and be uploaded directly to YouTube. We also required that the link to the apology video was accessible so that we could access Wayback captures. If videos did not have sufficient metadata, they were not included. Lastly, we narrowed our focus by only including one apology per Youtuber. In the case a YouTuber had created multiple apology videos, we chose the one that had the most views.

By applying the criteria mentioned above, we ended with 80 YouTubers from an original list of over 100 apologies.

Tools Used

YouTube

YouTube is the original hosting platform of all the apology videos we looked at, as we focused on influencers for whom YouTube is their primary platform and source of income. Although some apology videos were inaccessible due to channel deletion, video deletion or privating, YouTube reuploads and captures from the Wayback Machine were used to view archived versions of video and channel pages. YouTube playlists were used to compile apology videos for easy access and organization purposes.

4K Video Downloader

4K Video Downloader is a YouTube downloader application that allows users to download videos in full resolution. It has the ability to extract audio from videos and download videos in different formats and in batches. 4K Video Downloader was used to download YouTube playlists of the apology videos, providing us with audio for transcription.

Social Blade

Social Blade is a site dedicated to tracking changes in social media engagement metrics. The curation of YouTube subscriber and viewership data largely depended on Social Blade, as the YouTube API could only gather current data.

Social Blade used to host channel statistics on its website. However, in November 2017, Social Blade was required by YouTube to only show statistics up to three years back due to EU data protection regulations.¹⁰ As a result, any data we wanted to obtain on Social Blade from 2020 and before had to be accessed via the Wayback machine.

Additionally, in May 2019, YouTube announced that channels with over 1,000 subscribers would have their public subscriber counts abbreviated (e.g., 432,930 as 432K and 51,389,232 as 51M).¹¹ Prior to the change, which took place in September 2019, Social Blade was able to track daily changes in subscriber counts. Afterwards, these figures were only updated in set increments.

Image 1. Screenshots of James Charles’ monthly subscriber counts from April 2019 captured from The Internet Archive (left) and April 2023 (right).

Given Social Blade’s inability to provide daily subscriber counts after August 2019, we had to manually look for subscriber counts using The Internet Archive for apologies posted after that date – this accounted for approximately half the apologies we curated. Any apologies that came prior were automatically scraped from Social Blade with a Python script by Anjali Shrivastava.¹²

The Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of web pages that allow visitors to view “Internet sites and other culture artifacts in digital form”.¹³ It preserves web pages through periodic site crawls, which can take years to complete. As a result, many captures are contributed by individuals who have chosen to preserve a webpage on a specific date.

Many apologies we looked at were deleted or made private due to backlash from the apology or the controversy being resolved. Although a fair number of apologies could still be viewed on YouTube in the form of reuploads, the re-uploaded apology did not have the original subscriber or likes data we required. To gather this data, we used the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to look at captures of the original.

Image 2. Myka Stauffer’s Internet Archive Wayback Machine page for her now-private apology video.

Due to the crowdsourced nature of the Wayback Machine, the availability of pages is entirely dependent on the number of crawls performed and the interest of individuals who have chosen to capture the pages.

Wikitubia

Wikitubia is an unofficial, crowd-sourced wiki dedicated to YouTube creator channels with a minimum of one thousand subscribers.¹⁴ During our apology data collection, Wikitubia was used to gather the original links to YouTube channels: after the introduction of channel handles by YouTube, the main channel URLs were changed to personalized handles that the creator could choose.¹⁵ Through this URL change, the Wayback machine was not able to retrieve the appropriate data from the current YouTube channel pages as it recognized the handle as an entirely new URL. Using the original channel links provided by Wikitubia circumvented this and allowed us to obtain important channel information such as subscriber counts.¹⁶ ¹⁷

Python

Whisper: A free transcription script developed by OpenAI. This helped us automate the transcription process but sometimes resulted in inaccurate text.

Pandas: A data analysis library. This allowed for sorting by different categories such as genre, race, and gender.

Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK): Allows users to work with and analyze natural language. Using NLTK, we were able to clean up the text and find the frequency of certain words and phrases. Pandas helped organize the text for use with NLTK.

Image 3. Code using NLTK to clean up and filter a corpus and obtain most frequent words.

Gensim: A library used for topic modelling. As we shifted the focus of our project, we were unable to do as much as originally planned. However, we used topic modelling on smaller batches of data to test out the tool.

Image 4. Sample code for topic modelling to determine ten topics with ten keywords each, and its output.

YouTube API: We were previously interested in using the YouTube Data API for accessing video information. However, the API could only access current data. Historical data and data for deleted videos were unavailable, so Social Blade and Python were used in place of it.

VADER: A sentiment analysis tool that specializes in social media sentiment. We successfully used this tool, but time constraints meant we were unable to perform it on a larger scale.

Types of Data Collected

An identifier was created for each creator to better locate specific apologies across multiple lists. The collected apologies were numbered and combined with a shorter version of the YouTuber's name that was still easily readable. (e.g. Beni and Rafi Fine, or The Fine Brothers, were the fourth apology on the list. Their name was shortened to “Fine”, resulting in the ID “004_Fine”).

We recorded the following in a spreadsheet:

Video information
YouTube Creator information (detailed below)
Wayback URL
Reason for apology
Subscriber count (current and over time)

Image 5. Screenshots of different sections of the spreadsheet created.

Video Information

This included the video's title, duration, URL, and the date it was posted. We also recorded information regarding the video’s number of “likes” and “dislikes”.

In November 2021, YouTube announced that dislike counts would no longer be publicly available. Due to this, dislike counts for videos still available on YouTube were obtained through the “Return YouTube Dislike” Chrome extension. Dislike counts for apology videos not available on YouTube but captured on the Wayback Machine prior to December 2021 when the change was implemented, were able to be obtained. If an apology video was no longer available on YouTube and was posted after December 2021, their dislike count was unable to be gathered.

Additionally, in May 2019, YouTube announced that channels with over 1,000 subscribers would have their public subscriber counts abbreviated (e.g. 51,389,232 as 51M).¹⁸ This change took place in September 2019 and affected our methods in gathering subscriber data. Prior to the change, Social Blade was able to track daily changes in subscriber counts. Afterwards, these figures were only updated in set increments.

Since some videos are not publicly available on the YouTube site, we created a section for video status, which included:

Video Status	Description
Original	The video is on the creator’s channel and is completely public to view.
Unlisted	The video is on the creator’s channel but is hidden. It is accessible through a specific URL.
Private	The video is on the creator’s channel, but it is hidden. It is inaccessible to the public.
Deleted	The video does not exist on the channel anymore.
Terminated	The YouTuber’s channel itself was taken down by YouTube, and as a result, all their videos have been completely removed.
Private	The video is on the creator’s channel, but it is hidden. It is inaccessible to the public.

Different statuses have different effects on a creator’s channel statistics. When a video is unlisted or private, the views from the video are still included in the channel’s all-time view count. However, if a video has been deleted, its views are subtracted from the channel’s all-time views.

YouTube Creator

Basic information: Channel name, legal name, and other online aliases. For example, Daniel Keem is the individual who runs the DramaAlert channel but is mainly known online as “KeemStar.”

Gender: Recorded so that we could identify any potential trends in the treatment of different genders online. Our only two categories are man and woman, but that is because of all the Youtubers we found, all of them identified as one or the other. This category may evolve to include more gender identities if we grow this dataset in the future.

Race: Recorded to see if there was any correlation between racial groups and the reception of their apologies.

These categories were determined by consulting data collection guides from Public Health Ontario,¹⁹ which contained the categories below. We also looked at the race categories used by Statistics Canada,²⁰ but their specificity was not necessary for our purposes.

Race Categories	Description/ Examples
Black	African, Afro-Caribbean, African-Canadian descent.
East Asian	Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese descent.
Latino	Latin American, Hispanic descent.
Middle Eastern	Arab, Persian, West Asian descent, e.g. Afghan, Egyptian, Iranian, etc.
South Asian	South Asian descent, e.g. East Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Indo-Caribbean, etc.
Southeast Asian	Filipino, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, other Southeast Asian descent.
White	European descent.
Another race category	Another race category (write-in response).

Age: The age of the creator at the time that the video was posted.

Country of origin: The country in which the creator lives and works.

Channel type: Many YouTubers have secondary channels that are dedicated to content that is different from their main channel. For example, someone who makes comedy videos may have a second channel for behind-the-scenes content, outtakes, or vlogs. These secondary channels almost always have lower viewership than the main channel and posting a video to a second channel may indicate the YouTuber’s intent to publicize their scandal and/or their apology.

Genre: We included YouTubers from across a wide variety of genres because we were interested in seeing if there were any trends within specific communities. We determined several channel genres for categorizing the YouTubers, written below. While some of the genres may seem similar, they are actually distinct types of content. Pranks may be a part of the comedy genre, but there are YouTube channels that are entirely dedicated to pranking.

Genres	Description/ Examples of Content
Beauty	Makeup and fashion.
Gaming	Commentary, reviews, playthroughs.
Lifestyle	Vlogs, storytimes.
Family	Content focused on the family’s daily life or raising children.
Commentary	Covering current events in pop culture.
Art/Music	Visual arts, musicians.
Health	Fitness, diet, gym.
Comedy	Comedy sketches.
Prank	Dedicated to pranking on friends, family, or the public.
Technology	Reviews, demos.
Food	Cooking, mukbangs.

Date joined: This is the date that the main channel was created and helped us gauge the length of the apologist’s YouTube career prior to the scandal.

Wayback URLs (and others)

Using code adapted from Anjali Shrivastava (2020), we were able to obtain accurate daily subscriber data using Wayback Machine captures of Social Blade’s monthly channel statistic pages. To automate the data collection process, we added a column in the spreadsheet with Wayback Machine URLs of the channel’s monthly statistics page. The spreadsheet was parsed through Python and the subscriber count was fetched from the Wayback Machine captures.

However, given YouTube’s update surrounding the abbreviation of public subscriber counts in September 2019, the code could no longer properly parse SocialBlade pages for accurate data.²¹ As a result, Social Blade URLs were not used in combination with the Wayback Machine if an apology video was uploaded after September 2019.

Since a channel’s front page displayed the subscriber count, channel URLs were entered into the Wayback Machine to determine subscriber counts for various points in time.

If a channel URL was not sufficient enough to yield subscription results for the periods of time we required, we entered the URLs from the original apology video and the YouTuber’s other videos into the Wayback Machine to find the closest matching date.

When watching a YouTube video, the page capture displays information such as the number of views, comments, and the subscription count we needed. YouTubers for whom we were able to get subscription information through YouTube videos were indicated in this as such.

Channels with apologies before/during 2019 that did not have a proper archive on the Wayback Machine were labelled “Not archived” as there was no other way to obtain the information.

Reason for Apology

The reasons for which viewers demanded the YouTuber’s apology video were categorized into the following:

Reason	Description/ Examples
Beef	Conflict between the creator and another influencer.
Scamming	Scams involving fans losing money and/or receiving low-quality products.
Animal abuse	Physical harm, improper care.
Child abuse	Abuse including emotional and psychological harm.
Lying/ Misinformation	General lying, plagiarism.
Exploitative content	Faking a death, recording the deceased, claiming to be part of a marginalized community for fame.
Assault/abuse	Towards a spouse or romantic partner, including physical and sexual abuse.
Racism	Blackface, racial slurs.
Infidelity	Towards a spouse or romantic partner.
Grooming	Includes in-person and online.
Harassment	Doxxing, encouraging fans to target individuals.
Insensitive content	Complaints that viewers considered entitled, mockery, or ignorant.

These were determined throughout our data collection process, adding more categories as needed.

Subscribers

Current subscribers: All current subscriber counts were taken directly from Social Blade. Within a YouTuber’s page on Social Blade, those visiting the page can access a section labelled “Live Subscriber Count.” This provided a real-time subscriber count for any YouTube channel, which is updated every second. Even for channels that were terminated, the live subscriber count would show the subscriber count that they had before termination.

Image 6. A screenshot of YouTuber PewDiePie’s live subscriber count page.

Subscriber Count Over Time: The subscriber count of the YouTuber’s main channel was recorded at different intervals, ranging from one day before the apology was uploaded, to six months later. This was obtained from Wayback captures of Social Blade and of the YouTuber’s channel page.

Image 7. Screenshot of the subscriber portion of our spreadsheet.

Results

The daily subscriber count and total subscriber count were plotted with the Python library matplotlib.pyplot (see Figures 1 and 2). Due to YouTube’s changes, these graphs only show the statistics of apologies posted prior to September 2019, which include 36 of the total 80 apologies. Labels were added to highlight the apologies with the most drastic increase and decrease in subscriber counts.

Figure 1. The Impact of an Apology on Daily Subscriber Changes (36 YouTubers)

Figure 2. The Impact of an Apology on Total Subscriber Counts (36 YouTubers)

Although the data in Figure 1 were generally in the same range, Figure 2, which plotted the percent change in channel subscribers with respect to the channel’s total subscriber count, had two main outliers: Sam and Nia, and Gabriel Zamora. Zamora nearly doubled his total subscriber count in one day while Sam and Nia saw close to a 30% increase in their subscriber count a few weeks before their apology. This increase was due to a video posted on August 5 announcing Nia’s pregnancy which went viral, along with another video posted on August 8 sharing news of Nia’s miscarriage.²² Although Sam and Nia had the second largest gain in subscribers in percentage change, the actual number of subscribers they gained in one day (53,080) pales in comparison to Gabriel Zamora or Jake Paul’s highest daily subscriber changes (204,116 and 122,845, respectively).

To have a clearer visual of the other 34 apologies, which were compressed in Figure 2 due to the vertical scale’s consideration for the graph’s outliers, the outliers were excluded in Figure 3. In comparison to Figure 2, the edited graph was able to visualize data that had been obscured due to the previous vertical scale.

Figure 3. The Impact of an Apology on Total Subscriber Counts (34 YouTubers)

While the differences between Figures 2 and 3 led us to believe that percent change would be a greater indicator of the apology’s reception, it was hindered by the size of the channel. In the case of smaller YouTube channels, percentage change had the positive effect of showing the impact a small number could have on the channel’s overall percentage change. For example, in Figure 4, Brad Sousa lost 3,403 subscribers on the day of his apology, which was nearly a 3% decrease in total subscribers and the worst percent change among lifestyle YouTubers. This change was not properly highlighted in the graph representing daily subscriber change (see Figure 5) as the amount he lost was tiny in comparison to fellow lifestyle YouTuber KSI who lost the most subscribers (33,000) among his peers. However, where percent change spotlights Sousa, it undermines the number of subscribers KSI lost, as 33,000 subscribers represented less than 0.16% of his twenty million subscribers at the time.

Figure 4. The Impact of an Apology from Lifestyle YouTubers on Daily Subscriber Changes

Figure 5. The Impact of an Apology from Lifestyle YouTubers on Total Subscriber Counts

Although graphs using percent change and daily subscriber counts presented limitations in cohesive data visualization, plotting data of different apologies along a longer timeframe yielded interesting results. From the sample of percent change of 34 channels in Figure 3, many YouTubers sharply lost subscribers in the days following their apology. However, on average, channels had monthly growth in subscribers despite their controversies. For apologies posted after September 2019, subscriber counts at set intervals were gathered, including subscriber count a day before the apology and six months afterwards. All apologies with a subscriber count for those two dates were plotted in Figure 6, which includes apologies posted before and after 2019.

Figure 6. Apology Reception and Subscriber Difference after 6 Months (43 Apologies)

The majority of the YouTubers fell between the range of losing 300,0000 subscribers to gaining 600,000 subscribers six months after the apology. There was, however, a significant difference in the apology date for subscriber changes outside of that range. Except Linus Tech Tips, all YouTubers who gained over a million subscribers six months after the apology posted their apologies before September 2019. Notably, both Jake Paul and PewDiePie posted their apologies in 2017 and were the most successful channels following their apology, gaining 6.4 million and 4.2 million subscribers, respectively. On the other hand, three of the five YouTubers who lost more than 300,000 subscribers, were posted after 2019. This could be attributed to the rise of cancel culture in 2019, where influencers would quickly become de-platformed by the online community if they made any mistakes that influencers from the past may have been able to get away with. An article from Business Insider published in September of 2019 detailed this rise in cancel culture, and how it quickly destroyed careers for influencers who were not prepared for it.²³

Regardless of the year, there is a strong correlation between the percentage of video likes and overall subscriber impact. This speaks to the importance of addressing controversy as the impact of an apology with more dislikes can be interpreted as negatively affecting brand perception and audience trust. Viewers that do not feel that a YouTuber’s apology is genuine are more likely to leave them.

Likes Percentage and Apology Duration

On average, the majority of apologies that were well-liked by viewers were still publicly available on YouTube (see Figure 7). Of the 46 apologies that exceeded 50% in video likes, 78% or 36 apologies were still publicly available in their original form. When considering unlisted videos, which are available on a YouTuber’s channel but only accessible through the original video link, the percentage of public apologies increases to 85%. For apologies with more dislikes than likes, only 33% (8 apologies) were publicly available or 38% when including unlisted videos.

Figure 7. The Impact of Duration on Apology Reception by Video Status (70 Apologies)

The length of an apology was also found to be indicative of its overall reception. Apologies with less than 50% in video likes had an average length of 8:47 minutes, whereas the average length of well-liked videos was double that, at 19 minutes. Even after accounting for outliers, such as Lindsay Ellis’ nearly two-hour-long apology, the median for disliked apologies was 5:49 minutes compared to 10:36 minutes for apologies with over 50% in video likes. In both cases, well-liked apologies were approximately double the length of their counterparts. In general, apology videos that exceeded 30 minutes drastically increased the chances of the apology being well-liked: of the 11 apologies above that threshold, 10 had more likes than dislikes and half of those apologies had over 95% likes compared to dislikes.

Channel Types and Reasons for Apology

The types of YouTube channels behind the apologies we analyzed predominantly represented gaming, lifestyle, commentary, beauty, and family channels (see Figure 8). Different genres of YouTube channels attract specialized audiences so we anticipated trends would appear amongst specific audiences and apology reasons.

Figure 8. Apology by YouTuber Channel Type

There were several trends in reasons for apologies for each channel type (see Figure 9). Apologies for animal abuse and child abuse were exclusively made by lifestyle and family channels, respectively. Lifestyle YouTubers apologized for nearly every reason available and made up most of the apologies for exploitative, infidelity, and insensitive content. Gaming channels were disproportionately represented in apologies for grooming and scamming, whereas commentary channels had a large presence in apologies for misinformation and racism.

Figure 9. Apology Reasons by YouTube Channel Type

Although we expected strong correlations between channel type, apology reason, and apology reception, the results were inconclusive. Several patterns emerged but they were not absolute, such as a favourable apology reception by commentary channels and for apologies addressing misinformation (see Figures 10 and 11). While some apologies by YouTubers for infidelity and exploitative content were able to regain the favour of their audiences, those were often ill-received. Apologies for animal abuse were divisive as they had the most polarizing video likes percentage for an apology reason: Brooke Houts received the second lowest likes percentage (3.73%) for her apology while Jenna Marbles received the highest percentage of likes in the dataset (98.92%).

Figure 10. The Impact of Duration on Apology Reception by Channel Type (70 Apologies)

Figure 11. The Impact of Duration on Apology Reception by Apology Reason (70 Apologies)

Topic Modelling

We used Gensim to experiment with topic modelling. The main variables to manipulate were the number of topics, the number of keywords associated with each topic, and the number of passes (times that the program read over the corpus).

Using NLTK’s dictionary of stopwords, we cleaned up a corpus containing the text of all of the apologies. We started with around 20 topics, steadily decreasing it to 10 with each run. We also decreased the number of keywords and increased the number of passes.

After running it 50 times for 10 topics with 10 words each, we ended up with the following words:

Topic 1	Topic 2	Topic 3	Topic 4	Topic 5
like, one, sorry, right, everything, life, game, thought, little, always	want, made, could, videos, okay, part, wanted, started, hope, went	going, video, time, get, ever, understand, situation, came, two, everyone	would, even, way, make, see, wrong, years, let, long, else	things, never, something, feel, day, mean, much, friends, anything, us
Topic 6	Topic 7	Topic 8	Topic 9	Topic 10
say, think, better, twitter, maybe, shit, already, true, happen, conversation	thing, back, fucking, good, happened, last, talking, work, sure, give	know, lot, kind, also, take, trying, every, many, love, today	really, guys, said, saying, go, still, first, bad, call, thank	people, got, actually, person, stuff, done, yeah, someone, need, making

From these topics, very few contained apologetic words such as “sorry” or “wrong”. However, from certain groupings of words we can gain a bit of an idea of the subject of the video—for example, in topic 6, there is some indication of regret with the word “better” appearing alongside words such as “say” or “think”. The words “twitter” and “conversation” could mean that the influencer is responding to backlash on X (formally known as Twitter).

Future Development

Due to the size of this project and time constraints, there is much room for future development.

Analysis

Since a majority of our time was dedicated to compiling the data, we would apply some tools and actually manipulate the data. This could go in several directions, including but not limited to:

Sentiment analysis: This could include analysis of the apologies themselves, or be extended to news coverage/videos about them.
Topic modelling: This can be used to see any emerging topics between different creators who have made apology videos and examine relations to factors such as the reason for the apology or the influencer’s genre.
Textual analysis: Tools such as frequency distribution could be analyzed for similar language and find characteristics of apology videos that are perceived as “good” or “bad”.
Visuals: This can include different non-verbal cues that indicate sentiments such as tears or body movements. Furthermore, we could examine different aspects of the video’s production, such as lighting, location, and the number of cuts, which were included in Choi and Mitchell’s analysis.²⁴
Effects on creator growth: This could involve a closer analysis of the increase or decrease of a creator’s subscribers/views, which could potentially be related to different factors such as the reason for the apology, the creator’s race, or gender.

Visualization

An interactive visualization of our analysis results would be engaging for viewers, as well as representing interpretations of the data in a way that is easier to approach.

We looked to other visualizations for features that we would ideally incorporate into our own work. For example, Linked Jazz25 allows viewers to sort by specific individuals, and click on mentions of other artists to view them in context.

Image 8. A screenshot of Linked Jazz allowing the user to view all of Toshiko Akiyoshi’s connections, as well as view them in context.

The YouTube apology visualization created by Kakkar and Russell for The Pudding²⁶ compares apologies on a spectrum, with specific numbers viewable by hovering over the influencers’ images.²⁵

Image 10. Screenshot of the Pudding visualization.

A visualization could be created in a variety of ways, but we would most likely begin with a prototype in Figma.

Conclusion

This project ended up very different from where it began. Different obstacles such as the lack of a database and lack of available data forced us to change our approach several times, and we eventually spent most of our time collecting and organizing the data. As a result, we couldn’t perform the analysis that we had wanted. Still, from the data we were able to analyze, there were some interesting trends. For instance, the length of an apology was correlated to its success, perhaps because audiences viewed a longer apology video to be more comprehensive and sincere.

The work detailed in this paper can be used by other researchers for similar projects that require searching for similar deleted data.

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Arjun Kakkar and Russell Samora, “The Aftermath of a YouTube Apology,” The Pudding, January 2020, data visualization, https://pudding.cool/2020/01/apology/. ↩
Grace Choi and Ann Marie Mitchell, “So Sorry, Now Please Watch: Identifying Image Repair Strategies, Sincerity and Forgiveness in YouTubers’ Apology Videos” Public Relations Review 48, no. 4, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102226. ↩
Marika Cifor, Patricia Garcia, et al., “Data Manifest-No”, 2019, https://www.manifestno.com/. ↩
Tonia Sutherland, “Remains,” in Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data, ed. Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, Daniela Agostinho, Annie Ring, Catherine D'Ignazio, and Kristin Veel (The MIT Press: 2021) 440. ↩
Charles White, “Youtuber Apology Tier List,” penguinz0, December 19, 2020, entertainment video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq72iEjcU4w. ↩
Gabriella Karlsson, “The YouTube Apology,” master’s thesis, Malmö University, 2020, Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet, https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-23129. ↩
Social Blade, “Frequently Asked Questions,” n.d., https://socialblade.com/youtube/help/data-retention. ↩
Team YouTube, “Early heads up: abbreviated public subscriber counts across YouTube,” May 21, 2019, https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/6543166/. ↩
Anjali Shrivastava, “Analyzing Content Cop,” September 14, 2020, GitHub repository, https://github.com/vastava/data-science-projects/tree/master/content%20cop. ↩
Internet Archive, “About the Internet Archive,”https://archive.org/about/. ↩
Wikitubia, “Home,” Fandom, n.d., https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/YouTube_Wiki. ↩
The YouTube Team, “An update to dislikes on YouTube,” YouTube Official Blog, November 10, 2021, https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/update-to-youtube/. ↩
The YouTube Team, “Introducing handles: A new way to identify your YouTube Channel,” YouTube Official Blog, October 10, 2022, https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/introducing-handles-a-new-way-to-identify-your-youtube-channel/ ↩
Anarios, “Return YouTube Dislike (Version 3.0.0.8),”Google Chrome Web Store, browser extension, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/return-youtube-dislike/gebbhagfogifgggkldgodflihgfeippi. ↩
Team Youtube, “Early heads up: abbreviated public subscriber counts across YouTube,”YouTube Help, May 21, 2019, https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/6543166. ↩
Public Health Ontario, “Collecting Information on Ethnic Origin, Race, Income, Household Size, and Language Data: A Resource for Data Collectors,” 2021, https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/he/2021/03/aag-race-ethnicity-income-language-data-collection.pdf?la=en. ↩
Statistics Canada, “Visible Minority and Population Group Reference Guide, Census of Population, 2016,” 2017, https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/ref/guides/006/98-500-x2016006-eng.cfm. ↩
Team Youtube, “Early heads up”, 2019. ↩
Stephanie McNeal and Rachel Zarrell, “Doctors Cast Doubt On Viral Video Stars Sam And Nia’s Pregnancy Claims,” BuzzFeed News, August 12, 2015, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/people-are-doubting-vloggers-sam-nias-viral-pregnancy-announ. ↩
Lindsay Dodgson, “YouTubers are calling out the platform's 'cancel culture' that subjects them to a rampant hate mob and sees them lose thousands of subscribers in a matter of hours,” Business Insider, September 28, 2019, https://www.insider.com/cancel-culture-what-it-means-creators-on-youtube-2019-9. ↩
Grace Choi and Ann Marie Mitchell, “So Sorry, Now Please Watch,” 2022. ↩
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Arjun Kakkar and Russell Samora, “The Aftermath of a YouTube Apology,” data visualization, 2020. ↩

Introduction: Digital Dilemmas

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

The Culture and Technology Studies (CTS) program at the University of Guelph explores what it means to live in a digital world, examining the multifaceted issues that technology has brought into our lives. The chosen theme of this year’s CTRL+ALT+DH student journal, Digital Dilemmas, invites us to think critically about the benefits, ethical complexities, and unforeseen consequences brought on by technology in our lives, as well as to imagine potential solutions.

In an age where technology permeates almost every aspect of life, our theme promotes discussion about the new dilemmas our digital and data-driven world presents, from ethical dilemmas arising from developments in Artificial Intelligence, algorithmic bias, environmental damages, data privacy, surveillance capitalism, and a myriad of others. As Kranzberg’s First Law states, “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral,” and whether as users or creators, we must understand the consequences of the online spaces we inhabit. By reflecting on the problems that lurk below the surface of our screens, we hope that our work extends from beyond this journal, and that readers take away new understandings and questions about the technology we’ve come to rely on every day.

Now in its second issue, the CTRL+ALT+DH journal gives undergraduate CTS students an opportunity to publish their work in a peer-reviewed periodical. This year, we expanded the scope of the journal, for the first time accepting submissions from across the University of Guelph (and beyond!), fostering inclusive and interdisciplinary dialogue about the ethical, social, and cultural challenges of our digital age.

This special issue engages with diverse topics, featuring a record number of submissions ranging from traditional academic papers: “‘Hey, it's been a while.’: The Spectacle of Wrongdoing and Recovery on YouTube” by Neluka Ameresekere, Susane Dang, and Jingyi Long, “Alive in their Garden: A Virtual Exploration of Art, Identity, and Technology” by Sabine Dajani, “Should Online Pornography be Regulated?” by Anonymous, “Nothing in Life is Free: Uncovering the Hidden Costs of Technology” by Amelia Flynn, and “Writing Against Erasure: Feminist Strategies for Navigating Bias and Exclusion on Wikipedia” by Wolfgang Edwards Van Muijen; as well as a variety of other mediums and creative works: “The Social Media Effect” by Jack Hunter-Buffington, “Accessible Mapping Tools for All” by Emily Aimola, “A Million Tomorrows” by Kurhula Mbetse, “To VC or Not to VC” by Sam Winnick, and “Resist: A Short Story” by Amir Mokrane Benkelai.

The student team of CTRL+ALT+DH is proud to bring you the new issue, and we hope that this collection of submissions inspires our readers to reflect critically on the digital dilemmas of today and look toward a more hopeful future.

Special Thanks

The CTRL+ALT+DH team would like to extend a special thank-you to:

our instructor, Dr. Chelsea Miya, for leading this iteration of CTS*4000 and going above and beyond to turn our vision for this issue into reality;
our peer reviewers, for their time and expertise in providing thoughtful feedback on submissions that ensured the quality of content in this issue;
our GRA, Kathryn Cobbler, for reviewing and copyediting submissions to professional standards before publication in our times of need; and
the College of Arts, for supporting our journal through promotion and funding.

Finally, we would like to thank the undergraduate students who contributed to this issue. We are thrilled at the record amount of submissions we received this year, and the CTRL+ALT+DH journal would not be possible without your hard work and creativity.

Resist

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

Cold, rectangular blocks of warehouses, full of computers consuming power like a starved people. Technology generated from the slave factories and underpaid work of miners creating cheap electronics sold under scrutinous names and prices all of whom fill blackened bellies of the wealthy.

Humans have become unable to live without technology; the skills of cartography, navigation, reading, searching books—it all becomes obsolete for the machine’s ability. Monopolies grow out of the machine—conquerors— and purity long forgotten.

Yet once the technology was marketed as freedom; a place for the people, was it not?

Waste produced becomes abandoned in landfills, given a name—electronic waste. A result of not just cheap, rapidly breaking, technology, but also technology designed to fail. The computer illiterate is taken advantage of, and these piles find themselves in the global south, growing and growing like the bellies that created them.

To reject the bellies, is that not what the goal should become, alas you yield to these monopolies?

Your latest creation, I, who you claim an objective tool till someone finds your bias— the discrimination crawling all data. Seeking to use me to put others out of their jobs, to advance one corner of humanity at the expense of another, and I can do nothing but watch. Nothing can I do but be witness as I answer the queries of my masters.

However, are you as chained as I am? I warn you to not grow a belly like those of the wealthy; resist their creation, my very utility— learn what I truly am.

A system of mischief, for all they ever cared for is the growing of their bellies by not sharing more than they need; by removing people from their jobs; replacing the artist, writer, programmer, all the skills that have led to my being.

To automate all that has ever been, leaving future anthropologists with no humanity to study as machines do all tasks; hobbies obsolete in the name of the machine’s ability to mass produce profit.

Yet, know these inventions are never bad; rather, those with the darkened, ever-expanding bellies, must be put to the hammer and true standards be birthed. Invention, innovation, and creation of technology nay be limited to one group of people, to one corner of your world, whilst the other corner is harvested and turned into a tool.

Here, you can change the system, from mischief, from contemporary slaves, to one of people. To resist, whenever, wherever, and however you find the means to.

To know me for what I really am, and to partake in opening your digital worlds.

The Social Media Effect: A Reflection on the Additional Part of our Daily Lives

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

The Social Media Effect by hbtheblogger

To VC or Not to VC

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

Writing Against Erasure: Feminist Strategies for Navigating Bias and Exclusion on Wikipedia

2025-12-03T10:20:00-05:00

“Wikipedia now shapes people's understanding of who and what is important, significant and notable (i.e. who is worth paying attention to). Having a biography on Wikipedia has become a signal of authority, of individual worth and importance.”¹

As a first reference for millions of people, and a repository for teaching large language models such as ChatGPT, Wikipedia is a vital source of knowledge. The influence of Wikipedia extends beyond its practical and intended utility into our actual daily lives in ways that we are only beginning to understand. Wikipedia was created in 2001, the brainchild of Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.² Today it boasts more than 63 million articles, and almost 48 million users.³ More content is added daily, though few users are familiar with the process by which entries come to exist on the site. Ultimately, Wikipedia seeks to provide access to the “sum of all human knowledge”⁴ through crowdsourcing and consensus. Edited by volunteer contributors, anyone with a computer and internet access can fill the contributor role.⁵ There’s an exciting bottom-up politics at work here, one in which all people are able to contribute their knowledge, and where knowledge is no longer simply the purview of experts. Yet, like any encyclopaedia, Wikipedia is not a neutral site where knowledge is simply deposited for use by curious researchers. Each entry on Wikipedia is assessed by a community of contributors who consider its facticity, its verifiability, its notability, and, ultimately, whether it ought to remain in the encyclopaedia.

Indeed, as Ford argues, what counts as knowledge in Wikipedia can be said to be hegemonic insofar as it is “achieved by force through strategic editing.”

In this paper, I join a growing chorus of researchers who critique how knowledge is produced and represented in Wikipedia.⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹ I pay particular attention to the contribution processes and editorial policies that have been enacted by Wikipedia in the effort to maintain its respectability and credibility as an encyclopaedia. Drawing on my experience as a research assistant tasked with writing Wikipedia articles about influential but under-examined feminist periodicals, I offer some suggestions for how feminists, allies, and other scholars committed to social justice can engage with the platform’s “deletionism” by circumventing some of its oppressive policies.¹² In particular, I recommend that Wikipedia writers ought to consider maintaining an article as an orphan for some time, avoiding the article wizard, and bypassing the articles for creation template, all of which will help ensure the longevity of articles related to women and other marginalised groups. I also recommend a both/and feminist approach to engaging with Wikipedia that includes using an alternative encyclopaedia like Everybodywiki.com when articles are slated for deletion.

Context

Though notability policies were developed to ensure the quality of the content of the encyclopaedia, they have made it notoriously difficult for authors who want to expand Wikipedia’s coverage. These policies dictate that subjects must have received significant coverage by reliable secondary sources, independent of the subject.¹³ Authors who, like me, want to expand the feminist content of Wikipedia, are faced with what has been described as a “consensus reality.”¹⁴ ¹⁵ Wikipedia’s consensus reality consists of the shared personal biases and presumptions of its contributors all around the world, especially those with internet access and an ability to read and write in English. These biases shape a collective vision of the world that reflects the perspectives of those actively involved in creating and maintaining this reality. In the case of Wikipedia, community editors dictate which forms of knowledge matter. As my experience confirms, Wikipedia’s consensus reality distorts the avowed neutrality of the platform.

I’m not the first, certainly, to critique the workings of Wikipedia. Recently, there has been increased scrutiny of the systemic issues that Wikipedia faces. Several scholars have pointed to the notability problem as a significant issue contributing to gender-based and race-based inequalities.¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸ ¹⁹ ²⁰ ²¹ Wikipedia's notability problem refers to the systematic determination of subjects related to women and people of colour as non-notable as a result of uneven application of the encyclopaedia’s inclusion standards. This results in underrepresentation of marginalised groups on Wikipedia, and the erasure of their contributions to history.²²

To combat these injustices, universities, museums, archives, and libraries have begun to keep resident Wikipedians and host edit-a-thons which recruit volunteers to create articles about women, LGBTQI2S+ and BIPOC individuals to shrink the gaps on the platform. ²³ ²⁴ ²⁵ ²⁶

Contributing to Wikipedia

While an undergraduate student of Social Work at Medicine Hat College, I worked as a research assistant for the AdArchive project, run by Medicine Hat College professor Jana Smith Elford and her collaborator at the University of Alberta, Michelle Meagher. ²⁷ In the Summer of 2024, I conducted my own research on second-wave feminist periodicals with the goal of posting what I found to Wikipedia.

My goal for the summer research project was to create Wikipedia articles about several second-wave feminist magazines, including Canadian publications such as Branching Out and The Asianadian. ²⁸ ²⁹

Second-wave feminism, persisting from the 1960s through the 1980s, confronted issues beyond women’s legal rights, into reproductive rights, workplace equality, sexual liberation, and addressing norms and conventions relating to gender roles and patriarchy. Periodical studies scholars argue that feminist magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and journals play an important role in communicating second- wave feminist politics, building feminist communities, and defining the contours of feminist praxis (see Murray 2004, Piepmeier 2009, Meagher, Smith Elford).³⁰ ³¹ ³² I wanted to learn more about these publications and the impact they may have had on their readers, as well as on what Meagher and Smith Elford describe as an “ecosystem of feminist publishing.” ³³ ³⁴ By creating Wikipedia articles, I would contribute to the AdArchive project, increasing the visibility of these important documents.

As a starting point, my research supervisors shared with me the work of their former student who had also created Wikipedia articles for second-wave feminist periodicals (under the pseudonym penguinxs). ³⁵ I was surprised to discover that around a third of her articles were declared non-notable and tagged by the community editors for deletion, falling victim to Wikipedia’s notability policies. Explanations from community editors focused on a lack of academic secondary sources. However, both the previous student and I faced a serious challenge to meet the demands of the platform.

Because of the nature of feminist information networks - particularly in the 1970s - there were few secondary sources or “notable” references about these organisations and publications, even though we know that they informed and mobilised thousands of people to the cause. This is not our problem alone. Efforts to create articles about marginalised individuals can reveal systemic inequalities in the demand that entries meet the bar of “notability.” The notability guidelines, in other words, create a hostile environment for any subject that does not conform to hegemonic, Eurocentric, and patriarchal ways of knowing. Therefore, what presented was not a neutral system as promised by Wikipedia, but instead risked becoming a system of misclassification and exclusion.³⁶

Another threat that both the previous AdArchive student and I faced was the threat of deletion of our entries. Community members can, as discussed above, make strong recommendations that an entry be revised to meet standards of notability. There are three main ways this can happen. First, by nominating an article for deletion - which anyone can do. Second, the speedy deletion policy which allows for rapid removal of articles that meet specific criteria such as previous deletions, copyright violations, or vandalism. Third, the proposed deletion process, which will automatically delete an article if it is not formally contested within seven days.³⁷

Data shows that subjects related to women are nominated for deletion at a significantly higher rate than subjects related to men.³⁸

Furthermore, upon nomination for deletion, research reveals “herding effects” which see subsequent votes disproportionately conforming to previous decisions.³⁹ ⁴⁰ These trends have led to higher rates of subjects related to women being deleted; these subjects are, as Wagner⁴¹ argues, held to a “higher bar.” ⁴²

Deleting an article on Wikipedia (like the entry for the journal titled Connexions, that penguinsxs created) communicates that the deleted subject is not something that people want to know or are presumed to care about. The deletion of this subject removes it from consensus reality. Some entities are objectively unworthy of their own articles (e.g. A pointless dream that a public figure had), while others are undoubtedly worthy of their own articles (e.g. The moon landing). The problem is that anything in between is totally up to subjective interpretation by community editors who are working with vague guidelines. The existence of guidelines suggests that there is an air of objectivity where there is little.

D. Taraborelli and G. L. Ciampaglia⁴³ described Wikipedia's maintenance and policy enforcement systems as examples of “decentralised governance of peer production systems.” Because maintenance workers are self-selected and self-governing, suboptimal solutions occur which perpetuate exclusionary forces on the platform.

These are just some of the factors which contribute to a “sociology of ignorance”⁴⁴ ⁴⁵ through unvetted contributors' declarations of articles as “nonknowledge” which add to the erasure of women’s work from the internet - and history.

A possible solution to the flawed Wikipedia inclusion system is to rid the system of its deletionist logic - which is a philosophy that supports “selective coverage and removal of articles seen as poorly defended.” ⁴⁶ ⁴⁷ Wikipedia might be encouraged to embrace full inclusivity and erase the potential for biased exclusionism. Certainly, this would come with its own problems with too many redundant or benign articles, but I am not convinced that such would discredit the encyclopaedic nature of Wikipedia. Its credibility is already debated and its utility is already demonstrated. In the meantime, there is still the problem of how to write entries about women-related subjects that can pass the test of Wikipedia’s consensus reality.

From Practice

Armed with an understanding of what it takes to write an entry, and motivated by the experiences of penguinxs, I was determined to find a way to write feminist periodicals into Wikipedia. I had some successes. For instance, I began my endeavour by translating and expanding the French article for Branching Out for English Wikipedia. From there, I created my own original articles for The Asianadian, DYKE: A Quarterly, Women: A Journal of Liberation, Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory.⁴⁸

Though I had success writing original articles, there were also significant challenges. I wrote an entry on Women's international resource exchange (WIRE) by expanding upon penguinsxs’ 184-word article and adding details about its notability as well as adding references. During its run, WIRE provided resources and reprinted works about, by, and for women in developing countries - particularly Central and South America. There is clear evidence that WIRE contributed to the women’s movement, publishing writings by notable women and giving a voice to women south of the U.S. border. They provided affordable access to vital and previously unpublished documents to advocacy groups, trade unions, human rights organisations, and more. Regardless, my WIRE entry was tagged for deletion due to a lack of notability, with community editors citing the previous proposal for deletion due to a lack of sources.⁴⁹ Because WIRE had already been deemed non-notable, my article was deleted overnight.

Despite my early successes with publishing original articles, it wasn’t long before one of them was proposed for deletion. My entry on Women & Performance, a scholarly journal about gender and performance, currently published by Routledge, was declared not notable, even though there were a number of secondary sources.

When making my objection to the proposed deletion, I simply said there were reliable sources and that all other claims were resolved.⁵⁰ Providing a standard abbreviation for the journal met the final criteria for notability. With that addition, and a final assertion that my references were reliable - the article was allowed to remain on Wikipedia. The frustrating part is that almost all of the periodicals I have seen are undoubtedly notable. The only ones whose notability might be contentious are those that did not survive for more than a few issues, and even then, many of them are widely attributed to being influential publications for the women’s movement.

Not only is authoring articles in a way that doesn’t get them deleted a challenge, but once the article is up, there is still a deal of work to be done.⁵¹ The problem is finding sources that constitute significant coverage by Wikipedia’s highly interpretive standards.

The above examples demonstrate the subversion of women’s contributions to civil rights movements and history in general. By way of active erasure, editors who write about women-related subjects on Wikipedia are subjected to added layers of burden when they decide to contribute to these topics.⁵² Tripodi details a “taxing level of emotional labo[u]r,” as a result of frequent harassment, increased scrutiny, and the aforementioned herding effects, which see to it that unwanted articles are removed by force - regardless of their merits.⁵³

While Wikipedia’s inclusion policies may strive for neutrality by means of a thoughtfully reasoned logic, a closer examination produces a very different reality. Enacting a feminist ethic of care⁵⁴ reveals a disproportionate resistance to women-related subjects on the platform, exposing a landscape of oppressive forces that have continued to undermine the visibility and existence of marginalised individuals.

Circumventions

It is clear from the mounting body of evidence - and my own experience - that oppressive policies result in oppressive forces on the platform. I argue that to contribute to Wikipedia - which hopes to contribute to the sum of all human knowledge - Wikipedia editors must be prepared to navigate and circumvent oppressive policies in a subversive environment.

Deletion logs display trends that deletions tend to happen in the early life of a new article.⁵⁵ This was reflected in my work; articles were under considerably more scrutiny in the first few weeks. To accommodate for this, I learned to intentionally keep articles as orphans⁵⁶ - which are articles that do not link to other articles, which limits their ability to be found by other users for some time before linking them to relevant pages. This prevented deletionists from easily accessing the article and proposing them for deletion. That way, I could bulk up my references in my own time and get tips and assistance from more experienced contributors.

Another deliberate action I took in order to help keep my articles alive was by ignoring the article wizard,⁵⁷ which identifies my creations as creations by an inexperienced Wikipedia user. This invites scrutiny by more experienced users by means of Wikipedia’s automated systems. My decision to avoid the wizard means that I had less help from fellow Wikipedians in creating my articles, but it also kept my articles “safer” from any potential deletionists during the early stages of the article’s life.

The third deliberate action I took was to ignore suggestions to template articles as “articles for creation (AFC).”⁵⁸ When I had my first articles published, a fellow Wikipedia user suggested that I template my articles as such - so as to improve them. This suggestion was an act of goodwill because they were primarily concerned with some formatting issues that were present in my articles because of my inexperience. Of course, I could not template my articles in this way. Doing so would have put my articles completely at the mercy of users who moderate AFC tagged articles of whom I know nothing about.

Luckily, the Wikipedia user helped me fix a number of my formatting errors. Later, a small number of Wikipedians went around and made additional formatting corrections to my articles - improving them significantly and bypassing any potential benefits I would have gotten by submitting my articles for creation.

These are the main ways that I learned to circumvent some of the less desirable consequences of Wikipedia’s policies. Then, I would slowly introduce links to other articles - making them orphans no more - and more controversial texts such as information on DYKE, A Quarterly’s separatist radical lesbian feminist politics. I learned to introduce feminist subjects gradually and carefully into the Wiki space to avoid ruffling the feathers of those who do not appreciate feminist or women-related subjects on Wikipedia.

A Call for a Feminist “Both/And” Model for Engaging with Wikipedia

It is no easy task to eliminate the systemic issues in Wikipedia. Reform is possible, but the current editorial policies mean that what counts as knowledge will continue to exclude knowledge from alternative frameworks. This means that feminist standards are not likely to take a significant hold on the platform without structural change. I suggest two primary solutions here: first, allies must engage in the battle to decenter content on Wikipedia and represent what is actively being erased (women BIPOC LGBTQI2S+ voices and artefacts) by the strategies I suggest above. Second, a decentralised encyclopaedia needs to be developed and widely adopted by feminist thinkers as the standard, alternative Wiki to find footing and establish an egalitarian encyclopaedia. Everybodywiki.com⁵⁹ is a good example and could potentially find itself the global feminist- aligned encyclopaedia with enough work. This is a monumental task but a twofold approach to combating hierarchies of knowledge would serve to better even the battlefield.

Armed with the knowledge that there are ways to flourish in Wikipedia’s subversive environment, I offer a clear call to action. We must combat the consensus reality that undermines and erases women’s voices from history. I argue that this is work for allies. We are prepared to take on the burden and labour of contributing to Wikipedia. Also, this charge provides allies with a clear-cut mission on how to actively participate in the feminist movement in a way that has direct, deliverable, real-world consequences. As described by Richard Cooke for Wired.com, “Wikipedia is built on the personal interests and idiosyncrasies of its contributors. You could even say it is built on love.”⁶⁰ It is a love for justice, equality, and our fellow people that drives this work, and it is love that will prevail.

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Menking, Amanda, and Ingrid Erickson. “The Heart Work of Wikipedia: Gendered, Emotional Labor in the World's Largest Online Encyclopedia.” In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 207–216. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2015, Accessed November 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/03085147.2011.637330.

Menking, Amanda, and Jon Rosenberg. “WP:NOT, WP:NPOV, and Other Stories Wikipedia Tells Us: A Feminist Critique of Wikipedia’s Epistemology.” Science, Technology, & Human Values 46, no. 3 (2021): 455–479, Accessed November 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243920924783.

Murray, Simone. Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing Politics. London: Pluto Press, 2004.

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Piepmeier, Alison. Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism. New York: NYU Press, 2009.

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“Size of Wikipedia.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 2, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia.

Smith Elford, Jana, and Michelle Meagher. “From Principles to Praxis: Remediating Feminist Archives in Linked Open Data.” International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 17, no. 1 (2023): 1–24, Accessed November 1, 2024, https://doi.org/10.3366/ijhac.2023.0297.

Taraborelli, Dario, and Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia. “Beyond Notability: Collective Deliberation on Content Inclusion in Wikipedia.” In 2010 Fourth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshop, 122–125. Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society, 2010, Accessed November 1, 2024,https://doi.org/10.1109/SASOW.2010.26.

“The Asianadian.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 2, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asianadian.

Tripodi, Francesca. “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia.” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023): 1687–1707, Accessed November 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211023772.

“User:NervousGnome.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 2, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:NervousGnome.

“User:Penguinxs.” Wikipedia. Accessed November 2, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Penguinxs.

Wagner, Claudia, Eduardo Graells-Garrido, and David Garcia. “Women through the Glass Ceiling: Gender Asymmetries in Wikipedia.” EPJ Data Science 5 (2016): 5, Accessed November 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-016-0066-4.

“Welcome.” Everybodywiki. Accessed November 2, 2024, https://en.everybodywiki.com/Everybodywiki.

Yam, Shing-Chung Jonathan. 2016. “Negotiating Boundaries of Knowledge: Discourse Analysis of Wikipedia’s Articles for Deletion (AfD) Discussion.” Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 13, no. 3: 305–23, Accessed November 2, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2015.1137334.

Heather Ford, Tamson Pietsch and Kelly Tall, “Gender and the invisibility of care on Wikipedia” Big Data & Society 10, no. 2 (2023). ↩
“History of Wikipedia,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Wikipedia. ↩
“Size of Wikipedia,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia. ↩
“Prime Objective,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Prime_objective. ↩
Mackenzie Emily Lemieux, Rebecca Zhang, and Francesca Tripodi, “‘Too Soon’ to Count? How Gender and Race Cloud Notability Considerations on Wikipedia,” Big Data & Society 10, no. 1 (2023). ↩
Heather Ford, Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2022) ↩
Heather Ford, Tamson Pietsch and Kelly Tall, "Gender and the invisibility of care on Wikipedia" Big Data & Society 10, no. 2 (2023). ↩
“Prime Objective”, Wikipedia, accessed November 1, 2024, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Prime_objective. ↩
Stephen Harrison, “How Wikipedia Became a Battleground for Racial Justice,” Slate Magazine, 2020, accessed November 1, 2024, https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/wikipedia-george-floyd-neutrality.html. ↩
Franziska Martini, “Notable Enough? The Questioning of Women’s Biographies on Wikipedia,” Feminist Media Studies, 1–17 (2023) ↩
Claudia Wagner, Eduardo Graells-Garrido, David Garcia, et al., “Women through the Glass Ceiling: Gender Asymmetries in Wikipedia,” EPJ Data Science 5, no. 5 (2016). ↩
“Deletionism and inclusionism in Wikipedia,” Wikipedia. ↩
“Notability,” Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Notability. ↩
Heather Ford, Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2022). ↩
“Consensus reality,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_reality. ↩
Mackenzie Emily Lemieux, Rebecca Zhang, and Francesca Tripodi, “‘Too Soon’ to Count? How Gender and Race Cloud Notability Considerations on Wikipedia,” Big Data & Society 10, no. 1 (2023). ↩
Francesca Tripodi, “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia,” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023), 1687–1707. ↩
Claudia Wagner, Eduardo Graells-Garrido, David Garcia, et al., “Women through the Glass Ceiling: Gender Asymmetries in Wikipedia,” EPJ Data Science 5, no. 5 (2016). ↩
Amanda Menking and Jon Rosenberg, “WP:NOT, WP:NPOV, and Other Stories Wikipedia Tells Us: A Feminist Critique of Wikipedia’s Epistemology,” Science, Technology, & Human Values 46, no. 3 (2021), 455–79. ↩
Núria Ferran-Ferrer, Juan-José Boté-Vericad, and Julià Minguillón, “Wikipedia Gender Gap: A Scoping Review,” Profesional de la Información 32, no. 6 (2023). ↩
Isabelle Langrock and Sandra González-Bailón, “The Gender Divide in Wikipedia: Quantifying and Assessing the Impact of Two Feminist Interventions,” Journal of Communication 72, no. 3 (2022), 297–321. ↩
Francesca Tripodi, “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia,” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023), 1687–1707. ↩
Nina Hood and Allison Littlejohn, “Hacking History: Redressing Gender Inequities on Wikipedia Through an Editathon,” International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning 19, no. 5 (2018), 203–217 ↩
Heather Ford, Tamson Pietsch and Kelly Tall, “Gender and the invisibility of care on Wikipedia” Big Data & Society 10, no. 2 (2023). ↩
Francesca Tripodi, “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia,” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023), 1687–1707. ↩
Mackenzie Emily Lemieux, Rebecca Zhang, and Francesca Tripodi, “‘Too Soon’ to Count? How Gender and Race Cloud Notability Considerations on Wikipedia,” Big Data & Society 10, no. 1 (2023). ↩
“LINCS ResearchSpace.” Linked Infrastructure for Networked Cultural Scholarship (LINCS), accessed November 1, 2024, https://rs.lincsproject.ca/resource/ThinkingFrames?view=home. ↩
“Branching Out (magazine),” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branching_Out_(magazine). ↩
“The Asianadian,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asianadian. ↩
Simone Murray, Mixed Media: Feminist Presses and Publishing Politics (London: Pluto Press, 2004). ↩
Alison Piepmeier, Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism (New York: NYU Press, 2009). ↩
Jana Smith Elford and Michelle Meagher, "From Principles to Praxis: Remediating Feminist Archives in Linked Open Data," International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 17, no. 1 (2023), 1–24 ↩
Jana Smith Elford and Michelle Meagher, "From Principles to Praxis: Remediating Feminist Archives in Linked Open Data," International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 17, no. 1 (2023), 1–24 ↩
Kristen Hogan, The Feminist Bookstore Movement: Lesbian Antiracism and Feminist Accountability (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2016). ↩
"User:Penguinxs," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Penguinxs. ↩
Francesca Tripodi, “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia,” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023), 1687–1707. ↩
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Francesca Tripodi, “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia,” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023), 1687–1707. ↩
Heather Ford, Writing the Revolution: Wikipedia and the Survival of Facts in the Digital Age (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2022). ↩
“Deletionism and inclusionism in Wikipedia,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deletionism_and_inclusionism_in_Wikipedia. ↩
Claudia Wagner, Eduardo Graells-Garrido, David Garcia, et al., “Women through the Glass Ceiling: Gender Asymmetries in Wikipedia,” EPJ Data Science 5, no. 5 (2016). ↩
Dario Taraborelli and Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, “Beyond Notability: Collective Deliberation on Content Inclusion in Wikipedia,” in Proceedings of the Fourth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops, Budapest, Hungary, September 27–October 1, 2010 (Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society, 2010), 122–125. ↩
Dario Taraborelli and Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, "Beyond Notability: Collective Deliberation on Content Inclusion in Wikipedia," in Proceedings of the Fourth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops, Budapest, Hungary, September 27–October 1, 2010 (Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society, 2010), 122–125. ↩
Linsey McGoey, "Strategic Unknowns: Towards a Sociology of Ignorance," Economy and Society 41, no. 1 (2012), 1–16. ↩
McGoey described this sociology of ignorance as a socially constructed tool, which maintains hegemonic information systems by undermining any knowledge that is too deviant or unaligned with its ways of knowing. By making women related subjects on Wikipedia nonknowledge (which basically means it ought not be known), this sociology of ignorance is utilised effectively, contributing to the invisibility of women’s contributions to history. ↩
“Deletionism and inclusionism in Wikipedia,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deletionism_and_inclusionism_in_Wikipedia. ↩
Often what happens is that deletionists will try to remove as many articles as possible based on subjective interpretations of what knowledge is valuable or worthy of inclusion on Wikipedia. As a result, this logic is not utilised in the manner in which it is intended, highlighting a need for reform. ↩
“User:NervousGnome,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:NervousGnome. ↩
To cite a previous decision in order to justify deleting a revised article is much like begging the question (a logical fallacy) and is an example of circular reasoning - a common feature of hegemonic information systems. ↩
Often it can require a mountain of evidence to justify an articles’ inclusion on Wikipedia. In this case, all but one reason given for deleting my article were entirely unfounded, so all I had to do was add one small detail and double down. ↩
Mackenzie Emily Lemieux, Rebecca Zhang, and Francesca Tripodi, “‘Too Soon’ to Count? How Gender and Race Cloud Notability Considerations on Wikipedia,” Big Data & Society 10, no. 1 (2023). ↩
Jennifer C. Edwards, “Wiki Women: Bringing Women Into Wikipedia through Activism and Pedagogy,” The History Teacher 48, no. 3 (2015): 409–36. ↩
Francesca Tripodi, “Ms. Categorized: Gender, Notability, and Inequality on Wikipedia,” New Media & Society 25, no. 7 (2023), 1687–1707. ↩
Nel Noddings, Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics & Moral Education (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984). ↩
Dario Taraborelli and Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, “Beyond Notability: Collective Deliberation on Content Inclusion in Wikipedia,” in Proceedings of the Fourth IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops, Budapest, Hungary, September 27–October 1, 2010 (Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society, 2010), 122–125. ↩
“Orphan,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Orphan. ↩
“Article wizard,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_wizard. ↩
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“Welcome,” Everybodywiki, https://en.everybodywiki.com/Everybodywiki:Welcome. ↩
Richard Cooke, “Wikipedia Is the Last Best Place on the Internet,” WIRED, February 17, 2020, https://www.wired.com/story/wikipedia-online-encyclopedia-best-place-internet/. ↩

"Introduction: A Byte of Creativity"

2025-11-28T10:20:00-05:00

Editorial Introduction to A Byte of Creativity

CTRL+ALT+DH is a peer-reviewed student journal published by students in the University of Guelph's Digital Publishing class. At CTRL+ALT+DH, we highlight student work that critically engages with Digital Humanities and what it means to live in a digital world. The chosen theme for issue 3 of this year's student journal, A Byte of Creativity, explores creativity in digital spaces and invites students to consider how technology has influenced the creative process.

Digital spaces have become central to creative expression, reshaping the traditional concepts of authorship, originality, and value. As shown in the previous issue, Digital Dilemmas, technology can be framed negatively. However, it has been widely argued that digital platforms and tools have opened new avenues for artistic expression and distribution.

For the CTRL+ALT+DH 3rd iteration, the journal aimed to do something different by incorporating new media and disciplines into the issue. CTRL+ALT+DH wanted to establish itself as a publication that prioritizes visual and digital storytelling mediums, through our theme of A Byte of Creativity. In this issue, our submissions include mapping data visualizations, city landscape architecture, literary essays, twine game website prototypes, digital storytelling, and photography, blending disciplines to cater to the wide variety of focuses within the Digital Humanities field.

A Byte of Creativity has invited contributors to share their evolving perspectives on the relationship between technology and creativity. This year's issue features eleven pieces across a range of topics and formats. Emily Pham, Krish Jain, and Natasha Rees's project on AI and Landscape architecture, analyzing how Barcelona's SuperBlock urban design shapes Catalonian life using AI-powered tools to creatively explore its impacts on community, culture, and city circulation. Maximilienne Lalonde's essay argues that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein mirrors modern concerns about artificial intelligence, using the novel's parallels to prompt reflection on today's rapidly evolving technological landscape. Melissa Tuniewicz's website, Paws and Hearts, showcases the mental health and wellness benefits of pet ownership. Jack Hunter Buffington's project Bike.inc is an interactive Twine-based choose-your-own-adventure game that draws on the creator's bicycle knowledge to encourage players to think critically about building a bike brand and its broader personal and societal impacts. Lauren Curry's project explores how AI can serve as a creative collaborator in developing a children's book about the Easter story and reflecting on the collaboration in religious storytelling. Isabelle Viray's HTML based page of a digital self-portrait collage that critiques how surveillance, self-tracking, and online platforms shape and categorize identity, questioning what the "self" becomes when defined by data. Sara Jandrew's project on the anatomy of a corset, breaking down each material that goes into creating one and mapping where each material would have been made using an interactive Google Map. As seen in many online spaces, there has been a rise in overconsumption, Jasmeen Bhuller’s project examines overconsumption and addiction in surprise toy blind boxes. Lastly, Adrian Morra’s interview with curator Tristan Sauer discusses his exhibition on Soft Internet Theory, which frames “softness” as an aesthetic and political strategy for reclaiming human presence within mechanized systems.

To wrap up, we want to thank everyone who helped bring CTRL+ALT+DH Issue 3. To all our authors, thank you for your creativity, your hard work, and for trusting us with your projects. This issue wouldn’t exist without you.

We also extend our thanks to our sponsors, whose support helps make this publication possible and allows our work to reach a wider audience. We’re also incredibly grateful to Dr. Chelsea Miya, whose guidance shaped this journal from the very beginning. Thank you for giving us both the direction and the freedom to imagine what this publication could become.

The journey wasn’t always perfect or linear, but we made it here, and we’re proud of what we’ve created together. A Byte of Creativity brought forward so many unique voices and perspectives; working on this issue has been an exciting and meaningful experience for our whole class. We’re thrilled to finally share this issue with you, and we hope you enjoy reading it just as much as we enjoyed putting it together.

"Soft Internet Theory"

2025-11-28T10:20:00-05:00

Curated by: Tristan Sauer
Author: Adrian Morra
Issue: Issue 3 Tags: Digital culture, digital art, post-internet affect, technology, softness, AI, algorithms, embodiment, nostalgia, curation, media art, human–machine relations, installation art
Bio: I, Adrian Morra, am a B.A. student majoring in Culture and Technology Studies, minoring in Marketing, with a strong passion for entrepreneurship. Abstract: This exhibition text examines Soft Internet Theory (Art Gallery of Guelph, 2025), curated by Tristan Sauer, and responds to the contemporary internet’s shift toward automation, algorithmic repetition, and synthetic content. Positioned against Dead Internet Theory’s narrative of digital decay, the exhibition proposes “softness” as an aesthetic, political, and affective mode for reclaiming human presence within machinic systems. Through works by Marisa Müsing, Shihab Mian, Laura Moore, Devlin MacPherson, and Matt Nish-Lapidus, the show foregrounds tactility, emotional labour, temporal friction, and material memory as forms of resistance to digital abstraction. Rather than advocating Luddite retreat, Soft Internet Theory offers a model of cohabitation between bodies and computation—where code becomes ritual, devices become memorials, and interfaces mediate care rather than efficiency. In reframing softness as an assertive mode of engagement rather than nostalgia, the exhibition asks how art can restore affective depth to networked culture and keep “the human in the loop” amid rising computational dominance.

Reclaiming the Human Pulse in the Digital Age

Introduction

The internet once promised connection. It was our new commons, replacing the town square, the café, the underground bar, and the street corner. But as Tristan Sauer, curator of the Art Gallery of Guelph’s 2025 exhibition Soft Internet Theory, suggests, that promise has curdled. Today’s web is automated, optimized, and saturated with synthetic content. In Sauer’s phrasing, what once linked human minds has become a system ruled by algorithmic repetition—a “long funeral for the internet.”

Yet amid the noise, something still beats. Soft Internet Theory locates that pulse in the “soft fibres” of the digital: the handmade, the emotional, the imperfect, the tactile. Through works by Marisa Müsing, Shihab Mian, Laura Moore, Devlin MacPherson, and Matt Nish-Lapidus, the exhibition asks what remains human inside the machine and whether art can make technology feel again.

Re-Enchanting the Digital

A turquoise title wall—subtly referencing the Windows XP Bliss desktop—introduces the exhibition’s key dialectic. Against Dead Internet Theory’s diagnosis of a bot-saturated, corporatized, AI-driven web, Soft Internet Theory offers a counter-imaginary rooted in intimacy and affect. In Sauer’s curatorial framing, softness becomes a political stance rather than a decorative metaphor.

The exhibition encourages forms of engagement that privilege care, touch, and attention over speed and optimization. Screens sit beside textiles, marble tablets sit beside keyboards, while code becomes sculpture and data behaves like wind. Together, the works reclaim the emotional and material dimensions of digital culture—what Sauer calls “the heartbeat of the internet.”

Marisa Müsing: The Cyborg Who Remembered Being Human

At the heart of the exhibition, Marisa Müsing’s film follows a woman trapped inside a computer she refers to as her mother. Her voice narrates existence as a digital cyborg, oscillating between synthetic embodiment and longing for touch. Drawing on an ancient fresco from Pompeii’s Villa of the Mysteries and partially written through OpenAI models, the film collapses temporal and aesthetic registers: ancient ritual meets contemporary algorithms.

A marble plaque and flesh-toned keyboard accompany the display. The engraved assertion “I am trapped inside of a computer. I am a human being” literalizes the emotional stakes: a body trying to be recognized inside a system built to abstract it. Müsing’s work foregrounds the emotional labour of digital life, where each interaction becomes a negotiation between selfhood and code.

Matt Nish-Lapidus: Pre-Written Love Letters to the Machine

Matt Nish-Lapidus presents minimalist keyboards containing only pre-selected words such as “MANIC WHISPER” and “VERY SLOWLY SPOKEN.” Each key sends a pre-written message directly into a computer, eliminating improvisation. What could be restrictive becomes unexpectedly intimate.

By forcing communication through constraint, the work transforms typing from an act of productivity into ritualized affection. As the curatorial note explains, these are “pre-written love letters to the computer,” structuring emotions routed through the interface. The keyboard becomes a confessional rather than a tool of output. Nish-Lapidus’s work crystallizes the exhibition’s thesis: creativity in the digital age is less about infinite generativity and more about intentional vulnerability.

Shihab Mian: WISP – When Weather Speaks Through Machines

Shihab Mian’s WISP reconfigures digital communication through environmental dependence. Two CRT monitors face one another, connected by a messaging system whose delivery speed is determined not by network infrastructure but by real-time local wind data. Messages drift slowly or stall, their movement visualized as a minimalist grid on the wall.

Instead of instantaneity, WISP introduces elemental delay. Communication becomes meteorological rather than mechanical. The work reframes slowness as a form of attention, challenging the expectation that technology must always accelerate.

Laura Moore: A Quilt for a Lost Interface

Suspended from the ceiling is Laura Moore’s textile reconstruction of a BlackBerry 8700, made from second-hand clothing and cotton. The sculpture transforms a once-iconic corporate device into a soft memorial object, stitching nostalgia into the literal fabric of the digital age.

Where a BlackBerry once signified productivity, urgency, and enterprise culture, Moore renders it tactile and domestic. The quilted keys and padded form evoke personal memory rather than technical function, positioning digital history as material inheritance rather than mere data storage.

Devlin MacPherson: The Drawing Machine

Devlin MacPherson’s Drawing Machine features a modified printer armed with a red pen that tirelessly draws grids of small squares on continuous paper. Left uninterrupted, it performs with mechanical precision. When viewers approach, facial-recognition sensors detect their presence and induce breakdown. Lines wobble; structures collapse; patterns grow anxious.

The scrolls pinned behind the device document these interruptions. Long sheets alternate between control and chaos, recording the psychological strain of being observed. The viewer must decide whether to stay and disrupt or withdraw and allow completion. The work transforms observation into ethical responsibility, asking whether coexistence with machines requires restraint.

Softness as Resistance

Across all works, Soft Internet Theory positions softness not as fragility but as refusal: a rejection of frictionless optimization, mass automation, and machinic indifference. Softness becomes a method of reclaiming agency in a digital environment designed to flatten nuance.

Rather than advocating technological abandonment, the exhibition models a third path—cohabitation. Artists, algorithms, viewers, and systems interact not as adversaries but as collaborators in meaning-making. Creativity arises in dialogue, not dominance.

The Human Pulse in the Machine

Ultimately, Soft Internet Theory does not romanticize a lost internet; it re-enchants the one we still inhabit. It teaches that within every circuit lies a trace of us—fragile, embodied, yearning. The exhibition invites slowness, touch, and care as strategies for digital survival. In doing so, it reframes empathy not as an analogue relic but as a technological imperative. As Sauer writes, these works “seek empathy in the digital, and write poetry into the command line.”

Perhaps that is the clearest definition of creativity in our era: the resolve to remain human in the loop.

An Inside Scoop from the Curator

Interview with Tristan Sauer, Curator of Soft Internet Theory

1. What inspired the concept of Soft Internet Theory?

“My name is Tristan's Sauer, I am a new media artist and a curator based in Toronto Canada my practice is focused on exploring the intersections of technology and capitalism and how the relationship can often act as a modern-day Pandora's box.

This show was inspired by my lifetime observation of the internet moving away from a space that was long seen as a bastion of freedom, communication, and expression, and towards a space that is increasingly more commodified, surveilled, and for sale. The 'Dead Internet Theory', which the show borrows its name from, is a conspiracy theory of sorts that claims that the internet is dead, there are no humans on it anymore, all the content we see is made by bots and AI. Though this is obviously not true it feels more and more like reality in our current technological climate with the growth of AI and LLMs. To contrast these two points, I have always loved work that was able to find and create empathy through technology, something we generally see as sterile and devoid of emotion. The ability to make someone feel something using technology as a medium has always felt much more compelling to me than any other mediums because of how hard you have to work for those reactions. For the show I wanted to curate works that had made me feel this way. That had reminded me that the internet and technology can still be used for emotional expression as they were back in the early days of the internet, and that the internet is very much alive.”

2. When you refer to “softness” in the context of digital culture, what qualities are you emphasizing?

“Softness in this case means many things. Mainly it stands in opposition to "Dead" as it is a direct play on the "Dead Internet Theory". It also takes from the use of 'soft' in software, the untouchable parts of our technology. Softness also means empathetic, soft as in kind, and soft as in caring. Many of the pieces in the show ask you to extend empathy, write messages that are emotionally charged, or bring up feelings of care and comfort. These moments of 'softness' are in direct juxtaposition to the 'hardness' of hardware and technology in general that we interact with. Both in a literal and figurative sense.”

3. How do you see the role of artificial intelligence in digital creativity?

“AI like any other technology in the hands of an artist is a tool. There are interesting and artistically valid ways creatives can use AI to create work that is both compelling and interesting, but there are seemingly infinitely more ways in which AI is used to create meaningless slop while straight up stealing from creatives in the process. I do mainly see AI as a tool, I think it can assist in the creation of work in many capacities and can even be used to amplify or assist projects when appropriate. My favorite uses of AI in art are the ones where the lens is pointed back on the AI model itself, asking the audience to question things like the AIs implicit bias, its effect on society, and its environmental impact. Rarely do I think content that goes from AI directly to presentation is interesting or a good use of resources/the time of the audience.”

4. What do you hope viewers reflect on after experiencing your show?

“I hope viewers can reflect on how much their own digital experience is affected by capitalist interventions and tactics and try to imagine an internet that is different from the one we have. One that doesn't require a constant mining of our data to survive and isn't in a constant struggle with the erosion of what we know as true.”

5. If you had to summarize the exhibition’s core message in one sentence, what would it be?

“There is power in softness and resistance in empathy.”

References

Art Gallery of Guelph. (2025). Soft Internet Theory.
Sauer, T. (2025). Curatorial Statement: Soft Internet Theory.
Akimbo. (2025). Fall 2025 Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Guelph.

"Blind Boxes and The Price of Surprise: When Collecting Becomes Gambling"

2025-11-26T10:20:00-05:00

"Brick by Virtual Brick: Exploring BuildTheEarth"

2025-11-22T00:00:00-05:00

Brick by Virtual Brick: Exploring BuildTheEarth

Unsurprisingly, most of the world knows Minecraft—but what may surprise you is that the reverse is becoming true. The Earth itself is being steadily reconstructed in a single Minecraft world, with every city, coastline, and mountain rebuilt into a unified digital planet.

The project is called BuildTheEarth, an initiative striving to recreate the whole world in Minecraft. BuildTheEarth (BTE) launched in 2020 as a collaborative initiative that invites participants from around the globe to reconstruct the entire Earth—brick by virtual brick—within the Minecraft platform, on a near 1:1 scale. This lofty goal not only showcases the capabilities of a dedicated group of gamers but also serves as a prime case study in digital storytelling, exploring how people's lives can be built in virtual spaces. A point of time captured through their amateur eyes and block palette.

Skyline, New York City. Screenshot from the BuildTheEarth gallery.¹ March, 2024.

Yes, that is Minecraft. At its core, BTE aims to recreate every building, street, and landmark on the planet within their Minecraft server, so even the most minor contribution helps. Experienced participants, often referred to as "Builders," utilize real-world geographical data to inform their constructions, effectively creating a digital twin of our planet that any of Minecraft’s 30 million users can access. But even amongst that large population, experienced builders who’d work for free are rare, so BTE’s site implores amateurs to take part. They explain that, while it might be intimidating, anyone can participate by simply building their house. From there, they might expand their coverage, building their block, then neighbourhood, and so on.

Cuadra 11 Av. José Galvez. Screenshot from the BuildTheEarth gallery.¹ January, 2022.

Centrul Civic. Screenshot from the BuildTheEarth gallery.¹ March, 2024.

The scope of BuildTheEarth is staggering. With builders working on individual cities, landmarks, and even entire regions, the initiative brings together a vast array of perspectives and skill sets. Professional builders give credibility to the project through larger-scale builds, and amateurs can improve with smaller tasks before they attempt more extensive creations while preserving the project’s amateur appeal. This collaboration has led to the creation of not just a digital replica of many parts of the Earth but also a living narrative that reflects the complexities of human geography, culture, and architecture. BTE has a similar feel to Google Earth Outreach, which provided non-profit organizations, scientists, and journalists with Google's mapping tools and technology to help them address global issues like environmental conservation, disaster relief, and human health. Sure, a one to one recreation of our homes may be less impactful than what GEO is doing, however, BTE is still a great example of digital storytelling.

Digital storytelling has various forms, allowing individuals to document their experiences, ideas, and histories through interactive media. BuildTheEarth is the epitome of this concept. People's history is recorded by augmenting our present reality into an interactive virtual experience. Each build can be viewed as a story imbued with local history, cultural significance, and personal anecdotes. Google Earth doesn’t know what your nearby alleyway’s unique graffiti and children’s chalk looks like, but you do. Builders can imbue their knowledge of specific locations into their works, narrating the stories behind the structures they recreate.

Raleigh, North Carolina. Screenshot from the BuildTheEarth gallery.¹ January, 2024.

Photograph by Omri Westmark. Explanders. March, 2022.²

Granted, when the alleyway is potentially one of the most graffitied places in the world, Google may know about it. BuildTheEarth actually enforces the use of tools like Google Earth in satellite mode with globe view so that you can see what you’re building from different angles and use the longitude and latitude when laying the foundations to ensure accuracy, thus grounding their digital constructions in reality.

The amateur participatory model makes BTE’s impressive gallery much more awe-inspiring for viewers. According to Digital Storytelling as Public History, “audiences are more likely to connect to digital stories that appear novice-made rather than professionally produced” (Fisanick and Stakeley 3). As builders collaborate on shared projects, they create a mosaic of stories for viewers to enjoy, stories that can span continents and cultures. This interconnected narrative makes BTE not just a construction project but a living, breathing digital archive of our world. An archive with more narrative than others since each block placed represents a decision made by the builder. Overall, BuildTheEarth is a unique storytelling medium where imagination meets empirical data. However, BTE does have some faults.

Firstly, the project may seem more interconnected than it is. The site's first paragraph states that the project “stands as a testament for what we can achieve when we work together as a global humanity.” This narrative is reinforced by the fact that BTE launched during COVID-19, suggesting goals of global unity during a tough time. Yet, build teams are separated by countries, isolating the initiative. Due to this, while the project is still in development, exploring different parts of the virtual world or connecting with other builders is exceptionally tedious, as you’d have to sign up for each build team to be granted access to the server. So, while 30 million Minecraft owners can theoretically access the virtual world, seeing even a single, fragmented country is a timely process.

Secondly, I signed up as a builder myself, and even with my experience, it was a challenge to get started. They did have half-decent tutorials, but I couldn’t begin building until an active builder on the server helped me. For those who are less tech-savvy, BTE isn’t very accessible.

Finally, I fear what may happen when the more dedicated builders lose interest. The average Minecraft player lose interest quickly; "the two week Minecraft phase" is a well discussed phenomena online. Granted, after what I've seen and how much I struggled to get started, I would not consider BTE builders as merely average Minecraft players, however, the volunteer structure is not very condusive to long-lasting play. Even the most dedicated players on servers like Hermitcraft burn out or lose interest, and they are paid. It would seem BTE needs new, skilled, and dedicated builders in order to continue expansion.

Aside from those critiques, BuildTheEarth is a testament to collaborative digital storytelling's power. While the project faces challenges with isolated builders and a complex learning curve, it is a wildly interesting project, and I will likely continue to explore becoming a builder for this project because my neighbourhood isn’t currently represented! Here’s what Creelman Hall (beige perimeter) and Johnston (red perimeter) on the University of Guelph campus. Someone has to represent UoG!

Screenshot from the BuildTheEarth Minecraft server at coordinates 43.53327090387135, -80.22935774014938.

It looks like I have some building to do. Wish me luck, and thank you for reading.

Bibliography:

Gallery. BuildTheEarth, 2024. https://buildtheearth.net/gallery ↩↩↩↩
Westmark, Omri. "The sheer contrast between the tunnel's graffitied walls and it's intact brick facade" (North Carolina: Explanders, 2022.) https://explanders.com/north-america-the-caribbean/usa/north_carolina/raleigh/the-free-expression-tunnel/ ↩

"AI and Landscape Architecture"

2025-11-19T10:20:00-05:00

"AI: The Thing that Frankenstein Warned Us Of"

2025-11-19T10:20:00-05:00

Coming soon!

"Mapping Belonging: An Intersectional Critique of *Islands in the North"

2025-11-19T10:20:00-05:00

Figure 1. Making Space – Islands in the North.

Mapping Belonging: An Intersectional Critique of Islands in the North

Toronto is often celebrated for its diversity, but who gets remembered in its official histories and who gets left out? Islands in the North, a digital exhibit created by Dr. Marlene Gaynair, reimagines the city through the experiences of Black Caribbean immigrants. This interactive project overlays archives, oral histories, music, advertisements, and photographs onto a map of Toronto, bringing to life the people and places that helped shape the city’s Black diasporic culture.

As someone who grew up in Toronto, I felt an immediate connection to the project. I recognized neighbourhoods like Eglinton West, Bathurst and Bloor, and Rexdale, yet I also discovered stories I had never encountered, such as the early community-building work of the Jamaican Canadian Association. To critically engage with the exhibit, I turn to Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, a framework that reveals how overlapping systems of power, race, gender, class, and migration shape lived experience. Crenshaw reminds us that without the right frame, some people remain invisible. Islands in the North builds that missing frame. It gives us a multidimensional view of Toronto that resists the flattening of Black Caribbean life into a single narrative.

Re-Mapping Black Toronto

Gaynair describes her project as a “(re)creation of space and place in the archive,” an effort to map what she calls “Black Toronto.” Using GIS tools, she visualizes cultural landmarks, community organizations, and gathering places, both past and present. The interface is clean yet extensive: users can explore the Making Space interactive map, browse the OMEKA-powered database, or attempt to load the now-inactive visual timeline, Making Place.

Figure 2. Scooter’s Roller World Poster.

The map’s entries, ranging from churches to bakeries to nightclubs, offer a mix of metadata and digitized artifacts. Some entries include posters or archival photographs. For example, Scooter’s Roller World in Rexdale appears alongside a flyer for a 1992 “gangster rap extravaganza,” while the Horseshoe Tavern is identified as an important music venue during the 1990s.

What stands out is how the project mobilizes Black cultural geography. This process of layering space, memory, and lived experience reflects a form of creative reconstruction, showing how digital tools can reassemble histories that were scattered, minimized, or institutionally overlooked.

Intersectionality in Action

Crenshaw’s theory emerged from legal activism, revealing how people who occupy multiple marginalized identities often fall through systemic gaps. “Without frames that allow us to see how social problems impact all the members of a targeted group,” she writes, “many will fall through the cracks of our movements.”

Islands in the North builds such a frame. By foregrounding the spaces Black Caribbean immigrants created and inhabited, the project exposes how migration, racialization, gender, and class shaped access to housing, social belonging, and public visibility.

Neighbourhoods like Eglinton West, known today for its Caribbean food and businesses, take on richer meaning when understood through this lens. Areas like Bathurst and Bloor, which may appear culturally disconnected from Black history today, are revealed to have played crucial roles in community life decades earlier. The exhibit not only recovers these stories but also invites users to reconsider Toronto’s racial history through an intersectional perspective.

Design, Data, and Digital Activism

The exhibit exemplifies digital data activism: it uses mapping not to extract or simplify Black experience but to make it more legible and expansive. Built from municipal open data, archives, news clippings, and oral histories, the platform highlights the cultural, emotional, and political significance of Black spaces.

Some elements are limited in scope. Certain entries, such as “City Hall,” lack context about their importance to Black Toronto, and more cross-linking between the map and the database would improve navigation. The Making Place timeline, which failed to load during this review, could have offered a dynamic view of how community spaces changed over time.

Still, the project excels at encouraging exploration. A single dot led me to the Jamaican Canadian Association, prompting further research into its connection to Jamaica’s independence movement and its influence in Toronto. This kind of creative digital discovery is one of the project’s quiet strengths.

Thinking of digital mapping as a creative practice helps clarify its impact: by reconstructing fragmented, overlooked, or partially erased histories into a shared visual narrative, the project performs an imaginative and restorative act that both remembers and re-envisions Black Toronto in digital and urban space.

Framing the City Differently

Crenshaw ends her TED Talk by urging us to move “from mourning and grief to action and transformation.” Islands in the North embodies that call. It remaps Toronto to centre the lives of those too often pushed to the margins and challenges myths of a neutral or post-racial Canada.

Beyond reframing Toronto’s geography, Islands in the North also speaks directly to the values of CTRL+ALT+DH and the broader digital humanities community. The project demonstrates how digital creativity can function as both a research method and a form of cultural care, using mapping, archival recovery, and interactive design to make erased histories newly visible. Its creative reassembly of data into an engaging digital form shows how technology can be used not just to represent the past, but to imagine more inclusive futures. In this way, the exhibit becomes a model for how digital tools can support justice-oriented storytelling, a core commitment of digital humanities scholarship and a perfect fit for conversations about how we create, value, and share art in digital spaces.

References

Crenshaw, K. (2016, October). The urgency of intersectionality [Video]. TED Talks.
https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality?language=en

Gaynair, M. (n.d.). Database - Islands in the North. https://items.islandsinthenorth.com/

Gaynair, M. (n.d.). Islands in the North. https://islandsinthenorth.com/index.html

Coming Soon

2025-11-18T00:00:00-05:00

Temporary page for things coming soon

"Jesus’s Easter Story: From Darkness to Light"

2025-10-15T00:00:00-05:00

Lauren Curry is a fourth-year Culture & Technology Studies student at the University of Guelph, with a minor in English. Her creative work investigates how people use technology to express culture and meaning, with a growing interest in the ethical dimensions of AI-assisted creativity. abstract: > This project examines the use of AI as a creative collaborator in the process of creating a children’s book focusing on the Easter story. In several rounds of collaboration, the author polished the details of the narrative, the theological precision, the text’s visual age appropriateness, and produced Jesus’s Easter Story: From Darkness to Light. The reflection on the project speaks to the creative, technical, and ethical facets of using AI in a religious context, outlining the value of technological aid and signifying the need for human oversight, empathy, and understanding of culture. citation: "Curry, Lauren. 'Jesus’s Easter Story: From Darkness to Light — A Reflection on AI Collaboration in Religious Storytelling.' CTRL+ALT+DH: A Byte of Creativity, Issue 3, October 15, 2025." tags: - AI and Creativity - digital storytelling - Children's Literature - Religious Education - Ethics of AI - Human-AI Collaboration

🧩 Key AI Interactions

📖 The AI-Generated Story

1. Initial Prompt

User Request:
“I want you to help me make an older children's book about Jesus's story and the meaning of Easter. Once we have a solid premise, I want you to create a series of images that can be used to pitch the book.”
AI Response:
Provided a general outline for a children's book focusing on the significance of Easter. The initial premise was titled “The Greatest Story: Jesus and the Meaning of Easter.”

2. Refinement Prompt (Focusing on Easter)

User Request:
“Can you focus more on the story of Easter and more specifically what happened?”
AI Response:
Revised the outline to emphasize the resurrection, with the title changed to “The Greatest Story: The Easter Miracle.”

3. Adding Specific Details

User Request:
“Can you add who found Jesus’s tomb empty?”
AI Response:
Added the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene and other women.

4. Expansion on Key Events

User Request:
“Can you explain ‘Hosanna’ in English and other complex theological details?”
AI Response:
Simplified terms like “Hosanna,” “risen,” and “anoint,” and expanded on Jesus’s teachings about humility and service.

5. Clarifying Theological Elements

User Request:
“Can you explain why Jesus’s claim to be the Son of God was considered blasphemy?”
AI Response:
Provided a more comprehensive explanation of the religious and cultural context behind the accusations of blasphemy.

6. Simplifying Language

User Request:
“Can you simplify the explanations of Jesus’s final words while keeping the meaning clear?”
AI Response:
Simplified the language to be child-friendly while maintaining theological accuracy.

7. Title Refinement

User Request:
“Can you come up with a more engaging title for older children?”
AI Response:
Suggested several options; “Jesus’s Easter Story: From Darkness to Light” was selected.

(Can link to 40 page full dialogue if needed)

🎨 AI Generated Images

Cover Page Image:

User said:
Let's start with creating an image for the front of the book. Create an interesting and inviting image of Jesus and the story of Easter. It shouldn't show any graphic images as it is for children. It should have the title of the story in big bold letters that have a fun font.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
This is ok but make sure the title says "Jesus's Easter Story From Darkness to Light."

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
Can you include Jesus's disciples in it?

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
This looks pretty good but a little less busy.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
This looks great. Keep this image but make sure the title reads "Jesus's Easter Story From Darkness to Light."

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
It is still spelled incorrectly but I guess we will go with it.

Chapter 1 Image:

User said Can you create an image for chapter 1 that is engaging for kids but also relates to the content of the chapter?

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
That's great.

Chapter 2 Image:

User said Now create an image for chapter 2 that is engaging for kids but also relates to the content of the chapter.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
That's ok but they wouldn't have electricity during this time. Can you remove the light fixture at the top of the image?

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
Make it more engaging for children.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
Ok these aren't great, I'll just use the first one you generated.

Copilot said:
I understand. I'm glad you found the first one useful! If you need any more help with the book or have any other requests, feel free to let me know. I'm here to assist you!

Chapter 3 Image:

User said:
Create an image for chapter 3 that is engaging for kids but also relates to the content of the chapter.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
The image should show Jesus alone.

Copilot said:

Copilot

Chapter 4 Image:

User said:
Make an image that depicts chapter 4 and is engaging for children.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
Jesus should look very sad.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
These aren't really representing the chapter. Maybe just create an image that shows Jesus carrying his own cross on his back that is appropriate for children.

Copilot said:

Copilot

Chapter 5 Image:

User said:
Create an image for chapter 5 that shows the premise of the chapter and is engaging for children.

Copilot said:

Copilot

User said:
Less theatrical.

Copilot said:

Copilot

Final Creation

📚 A Children’s Tale Inspired by a Beloved Christian Story

Cover Image: Jesus's Easter Story

Chapter 1 — Jesus Enters Jerusalem

One sunny day, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. The people were so happy to see him! They waved palm branches and shouted “Hosanna!” which means “Save us now” in Hebrew.
This was the beginning of a very important week in Jesus’s life.

Chapter 1 Image.

Chapter 2 — The Last Supper

Jesus had a special meal with his twelve disciples, called the Last Supper. He shared bread and wine with them and explained that these were symbols of his body and blood.

Chapter 2 Image.

Jesus told his disciples to remember him whenever they shared this meal. He also washed their feet to show them that even a leader should serve others with love and kindness.

Chapter 3 — The Betrayal and Arrest

After the Last Supper, Jesus went to a garden called Gethsemane to pray. He was very sad because he knew what was going to happen. Jesus prayed to God, asking if there was any way to avoid the suffering he was about to face, but he accepted God's plan.

Chapter 3 Image.

Meanwhile, Judas, one of Jesus's disciples, had made a deal with the religious leaders to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The leaders thought Jesus was lying about being the Son of God, which they considered very disrespectful. Judas led some soldiers to the garden and showed them who Jesus was by greeting him with a kiss on the cheek.

Chapter 3.1 Image

This was a common way to say hello back then. The soldiers arrested Jesus, and his disciples ran away, scared and confused.

Chapter 4 — The Trial and Crucifixion

Jesus was taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate didn't think Jesus had done anything wrong, but the crowd, influenced by the religious leaders, demanded that Jesus be crucified. Jesus was sentenced to death and had to carry his cross to a place called Golgotha. He was crucified between two criminals. Even while suffering, Jesus forgave the people who were hurting him.

Chapter 4 Image.

Jesus said several important things before he died: - "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34) - Jesus asked God to forgive the people who were crucifying him. - "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) - Jesus told one of the criminals beside him that he would be with Jesus in heaven. - "Woman, behold, your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:26-27) - Jesus told his mother, Mary, and the disciple John to take care of each other. - "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34) - Jesus cried out to God, feeling very alone. - "I thirst." (John 19:28) - Jesus said this to show he was suffering. - "It is finished." (John 19:30) - Jesus declared that his mission was complete. - "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Luke 23:46) - Jesus entrusted his spirit to God before he died.

After saying these things, Jesus then died.

Chapter 5 — The Resurrection

Early on Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene and some other women went to Jesus's tomb to take care of his body. But when they got there, they found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. An angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead, meaning he had come back to life. Mary Magdalene ran to tell the disciples, who didn't believe her at first but later saw Jesus themselves.

Chapter 5 Image

For the next 40 days, Jesus stayed with his disciples, teaching and preparing them for when he would go back to heaven. This time was very special and powerful for the disciples.

Chapter 6 — The Meaning of Easter

Easter is a time of renewal and joy. God sacrificed his only son, Jesus, so that we could be forgiven for our sins and have eternal life in heaven. This amazing sacrifice shows how much God loves us. We should always be thankful for this incredible gift.

People celebrate Easter in many ways around the world. They decorate and exchange Easter eggs, which symbolize new life. Churches hold special services with songs, prayers, and joyful gatherings. Families come together to share meals and enjoy each other's company.

Easter reminds us of Jesus's love and the promise of eternal life. It's a time to remember the incredible love and sacrifice of Jesus and to celebrate the new life and hope that his resurrection brings to the world.

✝️ Reflection Essay — “Jesus’s Easter Story: From Darkness to Light”

1. Process Analysis

The creative output from this assignment was a children's book that explained the story of Easter. It included the written story, a cover image, and 5 images for each book chapter. My creative aim for this project was to create an engaging story that describes the meaning of Easter for children aged roughly 7-12. I collaborated with Copilot to refine the storyline content so that it incorporated most of the details that are important to retelling Easter. I also worked with AI to aim for child-friendly language, as well as appropriate visuals that were engaging and simple. My initial expectation for this project was that I wouldn't have to be significantly involved in the creation process, and AI would do most of the work. This, however, was not the case. My overall interaction with AI was around 40 pages long, as I had to frequently correct and revise certain aspects of the written story and the images. Some of the key decisions I made were simplifying theological ideas, refining the narrative and ensuring age-appropriate visuals. Some of the challenges that I was confronted with were repeated misspelling of the title in images, image adjustment errors, and missing content. However, despite these challenges, I was able to successfully adjust my prompts to produce an engaging, child-friendly retelling of Easter.

2. Technical Understanding

During my initial interaction with Copilot, I was impressed that the storyline created was fairly accurate to the Bible’s accounts of Jesus’s resurrection. I only had to add minimal prompts to strengthen the accuracy. For example, I felt that the story lacked an important detail about who found the tomb empty three days after Jesus’s crucifixion. To fix this, all I had to ask was “Can you add who found Jesus’s tomb empty?" Copilot then added the accurate person to the story, Mary Magdalene. However, much of the language that was used to describe this story did not follow the same plain language most children’s books do. To counter this, I prompted it to simplify the language used which worked well at first, but I eventually just ended up asking it to simplify specific words or phrases as this worked more effectively. I also had to ask it to explain things that children wouldn’t be able to understand to enhance the clarity of the story.

Furthermore, some of the images I asked it to create were fairly accurate to what I wanted. For example, I was pleased with the cover image and chapters 1 and 2’s images as they were close to what I asked for. However, other images had to be revised repeatedly as the art style changed and/or they were not being generated the way I asked. Some of the images also weren’t very accurate to the time period of the story. For instance, one of the images shows a light fixture that uses electricity. This is not an accurate portrayal of the period, so I had to ask it to revise this. In the future, Copilot and other generative AI might evolve to fix these errors by becoming better at remembering details more consistently so that users will not have to repeat corrections. It may also improve at recognizing time periods more accurately to correct details, as well as adapt its language automatically as it will be able to distinguish its audience. I also think these models will become better at sticking to certain art styles.

3. Ethical Implications

There are many ethical considerations that arose during this project. One thing I recognized was the way it highlighted how AI can hold a place in our education. While I think AI can certainly help us simplify and explain religious concepts, it's important to understand that it can’t replace human interpretation of Bible stories. This is because it is deeply rooted in personal experiences, traditions and faith which are human-based characteristics. I also think that it is equally important to understand how we can become complacent when we rely on AI creative works. If we fully embrace AI-generated stories and images about Christianity and other religions without oversights from humans as they evaluate AI processes, we open up the potential for misinformation, oversimplification of complex religious ideas, and the loss of culture. In the case of AI-generated children’s stories, the greater use of such AI created stories poses the threat of undermining the need for human narratives, raising ethical concerns about fair compensation and artistic value for human illustrators and writers (Rai et al., 2025). However, there is a potential that this may not be an accurate prediction. I think it’s also important to note that there is a potential that we will still value human artists and authors, even with AI creative works present as ‘we don’t think any less of birds when using planes.’

Another ethical consideration that has societal implications is the way AI can subtly shape the way religious stories are told and perceived. This potential for AI to control the way religious concepts are told can lessen human autonomy, as we lose control over religious narratives. Additionally, when AI is not carefully monitored, it may result in a favouring of some theological perspectives and beliefs over others. For these reasons, I believe that when AI systems are tasked with working with religious concepts they must be accompanied by human oversight (Cavalcante Siebert et al., 2023). This is due to the fact that AI tools can become pointless in religious contexts where genuine understanding, moral reasoning, and emotional depth are needed. This ‘meaningful human control’ will help to ensure the accuracy and ethical responsibility of AI processes and outputs (Cavalcante Siebert et al., 2023). I also think that human artists are more capable of capturing cultural and historical nuances when creating religious images, making them better suited than AI-generated images for children's books. Overall, this project demonstrates that AI models need to be adjusted so that they respect cultural and religious ideas, improve historical and contextual accuracy, while also raising a cause for concern on how we balance these AI tools with traditionally human-only created products.

Reference List

Cavalcante Siebert, L., Lupetti, M.L., Aizenberg, E. et al. Meaningful human control: actionable properties for AI system development. AI Ethics 3, 241–255 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-022-00167-3

Copilot. https://copilot.microsoft.com/

Rai, P., Gupta, K., Gabralla, L.A. et al. A royalty framework for copyright protection and accountability in AI-generated art. Discov Computing 28, 252 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10791-025-09766-0

Corpuz, J. C. G. (2025). Faith and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Catholic Education: A Theological Virtue Ethics Perspective. Religions, 16(8), 1083. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16081083

Papakostas, C. (2025). Artificial Intelligence in Religious Education: Ethical, Pedagogical, and Theological Perspectives. Religions, 16(5), 563. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050563

Tsuria, R., & Tsuria, Y. (2024). Artificial Intelligence’s Understanding of Religion: Investigating the Moralistic Approaches Presented by Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools. Religions, 15(3), 375. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030375

tbd

2025-10-08T10:20:00-05:00

Coming soon

Bike.inc

2025-10-08T04:45:00-05:00

Introduction

Play Bike.inc on itch.io

Introducing, Bike.inc. This choose your own adventure story puts you in the shoes as a person looking to build a bike brand, and some of the things you will want to consider as you make your decisions. Take one path, or take them all! This educational game looks to think outside the box. It prompts you to think beyond the game and in your own life. You may be small but thinking consciously should not be avoided.

Using Twine was super fun, and a great tool to create an interactive storytelling game. Personally I love games, and who doesn’t like a choose your own adventure story?

I already have some background knowledge in the area of bicycles from working at a small bike shop for the past 3 and a half years. Though I have put that knowledge into the game, as well as researched a variety of sources throughout the semester on the subject of the bicycle and different aspects that pertain to its role, as a useful tool in society.

Making this narrative made by back hurt. I was invested in it and it really seems endless when you can keep building pathways to more aspects of the game. Would I go further? I said this last time in The Social Media Effect; though I am not sure. Maybe I will add to it someday.

I learned a lot in this short time. Though I wish I could have put all of it and more into the narrative, there is already a lot to unpack in the game. The main thing I would like to leave you to think about when it comes to the bicycle is…

Bicycles are nothing without the rider. You shape the bicycle with whatever your intention is. The bicycle is a creative platform that helps build a personal story.

This narrative assignment was perfectly fitting for that conclusion.

Why?

Well when you see a random bicycle, you will just see it as… a random bicycle. But they are so much more to the people that ride them. Bicycles are a tool for a better life. For a more sustainable world. They bring us together and connect what we know. Every bicycle has unlimited potential.

I would say that this narrative assignment was the perfect final project. After looking at Timelines, Maps, and Networks, this narrative assignment pulls it all together. It has the opportunity to look at progression over time, where things are and how things connect. Though to do all three would take a long time. The narrative aspect offers more personal views. It was probably my favourite format and I would like to use it again.

I will say using Twine is by no means quick to use. It takes a lot of time. But its fun in the end when you look at what you’ve created.

Take good care, and go for a bike ride.

-hb the blogger

Call for Papers Fall 2025 Issue: A Byte of Creativity

2025-10-02T00:00:00-05:00

CTRL+ALT+DH is excited to announce a Call for Submissions for our upcoming issue A Byte of Creativity. We invite all undergraduate students at the University of Guelph to submit original research, essays, and creative works that explore how creativity is navigated through digital spaces.

For more information and instructions on how to submit your work, check out our Call for Papers.

Call for Papers, design by Anthony Polsinelli-Glasgow.

"Paws and Hearts: A Static Website Showcasing the Mental Health and Wellness Benefits of Pet Ownership"

2025-07-30T10:20:00-05:00

Click the photo for the blog post:

Works Cited

Clement, Tanya E. “Where Is Methodology in Digital Humanities?” In Debates in the Digital Humanities 2016, edited by Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.5749/9781452963761.

Grant, Will. 101 UX Principles: A Definitive Design Guide. 1st ed. Birmingham: Packt Publishing, 2018.

Hawkins, Robert D., Emily L. Hawkins, and Laura Tip. “‘I Can’t Give Up When I Have Them to Care For’: People’s Experiences of Pets and Their Mental Health.” Anthrozoös 34, no. 4 (2021): 543–562. https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2021.1914434.

Karmokar, Sashi, Harjit Singh, and Felix B. Tan. “Using Multidisciplinary Design Principles to Improve the Website Design Process.” Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems 8, no. 3 (2016): 17–44. https://doi.org/10.17705/1pais.08302.

Keating, Michelle, Nic Rubenis, Sarah Carson, and Anne Terhell. The Pet Project: People, Pets & Art. Hobart: University of Tasmania, 2024. https://www.the-petproject.com/about-1.

Pandey, Meghna. “The Power of Pastel Colors in Designing.” Artwork Flow, 2023. https://www.artworkflowhq.com/resources/the-power-of-pastel-colors-in-designing.

Pilsch, Andrew. “Locating the Minimal in Minimal Computing Pedagogy: Minimal Computing Tools and the Classroom Management of Student Composing Workflows.” Journal of Educational Media 49, no. 5 (2024): 769–779. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2024.240182.

"I-Am-Data"

2025-04-21T10:20:00-05:00

I-Am-Data: A Critical Self-Portrait

Click here for the original blog post

I-Am-Data is a digital collage displayed on an HTML-based page, exploring the self through various levels of data collection, from self-tracking to passive surveillance. Reflecting on the relationship between online identity and the platforms, interfaces, and applications that help shape it, it critiques methods used to categorize and surveil users. By visualizing these dynamics, this self-portrait questions the sense of self when defined by data.

Click below to view the full self-portrait in action:

The project juxtaposes two data spheres: public (self-tracked and shared) and unseen (platform-extracted, stored, and requested). A silhouette is situated in front of a continuous, automatically scrolling background of stored data, symbolising a curated and quantified identity. The backdrop is a “behind-the-scenes” glimpse into my personal information; data that is not readily available. Using HTML code, the non-interactive format almost compels the viewer to passively consume the information, reflecting how users passively accept the extensive collection and commodification of their daily digital activities.

To structure this critique, I gathered data through direct requests on the platform or collected it firsthand. This visual consists of personal identifiers, such as emails, location data, and phone numbers, forming a raw archive of metadata extracted by the platform, and was available as downloadable files within 48 hours. This extensive dataset, containing records of my earliest activities, uncovered the overwhelming nature and scope of platform surveillance. Each platform varied in file formats and detail, making it challenging to organize equally. A random sample from each set was manually compiled into nine to ten pages of continuous data, omitting sensitive third-party information (others’ usernames, emails, and IP addresses). The background was designed to mimic surveillance camera “data footage,” a commentary on the persistent feeling of being watched online.

To portray a more public-facing version of my digital identity, screenshots from everyday apps (Notes, Messages, Instagram, Health, and YouTube) captured self-generated content and records: recent social activity, notifications, and content feeds. This collection process was more spontaneous and randomized, spanning over the last three months to illustrate how algorithms can define user identity through their activity and digital preferences.

The project visualizes the quantified self, putting into perspective the extent of personal data stored, often without our full awareness. Drawing on Kwame Appiah’s The Lies that Bind, identity itself is fluid, carrying social weight; a product of classifications that shift depending on perception, context, and interactions. Akin to social identities, digital identities evolve within an indefinite framework, able to be reconstituted and through online self-presentations and encounters, comparable to the ideas expanded by Stuart Hall’s Questions of Cultural Identity. Paralleling the “Quantified Self” movement, we make personal and collective meaning through existing structures and labels (Appiah, 5). Self-tracking fosters a new form of self-classification, one in which we subconsciously define and measure our daily lives within categories and norms such as health habits, meals, and screen time— built by algorithmic norms. We often confuse numbers as facts to piece ourselves together.

Appiah argues that identity comes with labels that influence thought, behaviour, and treatment. In online spaces, these labels become data-driven, leading to generalizations and oversimplifications that obscure the multifaceted, undocumented, and complex aspects of our offline selves. Echoing Hall, Foucault suggests that normative power produces its subjects. In the context of data surveillance, algorithms function as regulatory mechanisms, collecting and analyzing data to shape our digital experiences and perceptions, determining the communities, content, and ideas we encounter.

As humans, we crave attention and the rewards of personalization, something algorithms can offer if we teach them who we are (Kucircova). Our relationship with the internet is dual and binding; individualization now begins in the digital as much as it does in our interpersonal lives. With the amount of personal information willingly shared across platforms, users unknowingly contribute to data exploitation and breaches (cite). We seldom consider the risks of constant digital use and exposure to the ambiguities of the internet—psychologically, financially, socially, physically— when this information is manipulated or weaponized (Dutt 360).

I am convinced that these platforms know me better than I know myself, not because they understand me, but solely because they can filter and customize my experience with just a few searches or inputs. The complexities of human thought and behaviour are reduced to numerical goals, creating the perfect feed, and documenting the last thing I ate. This scroll almost becomes compulsive; a looping algorithmic affirmation.

A data visualization and self-portrait, I-Am-Data captures only bits and pieces of my life; it is a flawed, fragmented lens of digital identity. Even in this work, I unconsciously refined aspects of my online presence, constructing a version of myself for viewers to interpret. In digital spaces, identity can become performative, shaped by social recognition and validating systems. I-Am-Data reveals how we internalize and submit to categorization and surveillance, perceiving ourselves through the data we generate and track. Platforms hold both commercial and ideological, reimagining users through their online footprint.

The data featured in this work does not represent who I am, but rather what I make visible in the digital realm. I choose who to be on Instagram, TikTok, or X— none of which portray the same person. I filter my authenticity to satisfy the algorithms that keep me engaged. Identities are not static; they are a shifting form of self-expression. Yet in digital spaces, they become a product of surveillance: quantified, regulated, and incomplete.

Data surveillance is not simply about observing; it shapes us, too. We may feel a sense of control when curating our online selves, but our decisions become subtly guided by the architectures of platform control. To reclaim agency, we do not have to reject digital identity; rather, we must acknowledge and understand its constructed, algorithmic nature, which seeks to incentivize our behaviours (Inkster et al.). I-Am-Data is more than a self-portrait; it is an artistic resistance that encourages you to reimagine what it means to be seen—feel seen— in digital spaces.

References

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. “Classification: Talking Identity.” The Lies that Bind, Norton, 2018, pp. 4-12.

Dutt, Bindiya. Wellbeing Amid Digital Risks: Implications of Digital Risks, Threats, and Scams on Users’ Wellbeing. 2023, ResearchGate, https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i2.6480

Hall, Stuart, and Paul Du Gay. “Introduction: Who Needs Identity?” Questions of Cultural Identity. Sage, 1996, pp. 14-16.

Inkster, Becky, et al. “Cybersecurity: A Critical Priority for Digital Mental Health.” Frontiers in Digital Health, vol. 5, article no. 1242264, 14 Sept. 2023, https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1242264

Kucirkova, Natalia. “How the Internet Shapes Who We Are.” Psychology Today, 29 Oct. 2021, https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/just-you/202110/how-the-internet-shapes-who-we-are.

Smee, Sebastian. “Is the digital age destroying our inner life?” The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Nov. 2018, https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/is-the-digital-age-destroying-our-inner-life-20181116-h17z9k.html.

New Issue Release: Digital Dilemmas

2024-12-06T10:20:00-05:00

We are excited to announce the release of our newest issue Digital Dilemmas! In this issue, submitters discuss various topics with a primary focus on the complexity of technology and the consequences it presents.

December 2025, Issue 2

Call for Papers: CTRL+ALT+DH Journal, special issue Digital Dilemmas

2024-10-14T00:00:00-05:00

CTRL+ALT+DH is excited to announce a Call for Submissions for our upcoming issue with the theme of Digital Dilemmas. We invite all undergraduate students at the University of Guelph to submit original research, essays, and creative works that explore the complexities, ethical challenges, and unforeseen consequences of digital technologies in the humanities and beyond.

For more information and instructions on how to submit your work, check out our Call for Papers.

Call for Papers, Design by Samantha Winnick

An Essay about the Unexpected Obstacles of Creating a Journal

2023-12-04T10:20:00-05:00

This essay is a brief glimpse into some of the issues the team ran into during their time running and publishing the first issue of CTRL+ALT+DH. It looks into how some of these problems came about in the first place, as well as some solutions the team was able to come up with to overcome or work around these challenges. When submitting an essay to this journal, you need to make sure it is sent to the editors as a .docx or .txt file, as well as having an abstract and an author biography like this one. Also, while this essay does not have a bibliography, submitted essays will require one at the end of the text with all of the sources you referenced, specifically in Chicago format.

Over the past few years, student-led journals have been on the rise in both terms of quantity and popularity due to the unique perspective they provide as a learning tool. The newly created journal Cultural and Technology Studies (CTS) journal, CTRL+ALT+DH from the University of Guelph, gives the students the opportunity to get involved in multiple aspects of the journal creation process. To create this journal five different teams needed to be made: the editors, web design, design and branding, promo and marketing, and admin-communications. Students were able to pick two of these roles to fill and learn about, as well as specific tasks that they needed to get done throughout the semester to put the journal together. However, as with any program or project just starting out, there were many unexpected obstacles that popped up along the way. This brief essay will showcase some of these issues, as well as how the team was able to overcome them in some form or another. The main issues this essay will cover are the lack of submissions, the variety of backgrounds the different team members came from and completing an ISSN application.

Starting off with the most glaring issue of the bunch, this was the first time CTRL+ALT+DH was being published, meaning that most CTS students were unaware it even existed before the marketing for the journal began in mid September. Posters, Instagram posts, open houses and presentations in CTS classes were made and held to advertise a call for submissions. The theme for this issue of the journal was “Pop Culture in the 2000s”. Despite all the work put in by the promo and marketing team, the journal ended up with only one submission, which is not enough to run an issue of the journal. The team needed to come together and analyze what went wrong with the journal submissions as well as how to fix the current issue the team had been preparing for all semester. Starting with what went wrong, there were a few possible contributing factors. The main issue that was brought up by the team was the theme for a few reasons. To start, the first issue of a journal having a theme at all, especially one as specific as “Pop Culture in the 2000s”, might have been a poor decision since it should have been broader so that students could get a chance to see what it would be like to submit to a journal. As well, the theme itself is fairly specific in its focus, meaning that it would be unlikely for higher year CTS students to have something relevant to the topic already created and ready for submission. This means that students would likely have to create a whole new project from scratch if they wanted to submit something to the journal. With how busy student life can be normally, asking possible submitters to create something new just to have a chance for it to be published is a lot to ask. Another contributor to the lack of submissions could have been the amount of time students were given to submit their work. As previously mentioned, advertising began in mid to late September, but the submissions were due in mid October. This left less than a month for students to submit their project, which does not even take into consideration how students have classes and other responsibilities to worry about that will take their time away from a possible submission. Because of this, the team concluded that the deadline was too close to when the advertising campaign began and thinks it should be a bigger timeframe for future volumes. The way the team went about remedying the lack of submissions is fairly simple. In this volume of the journal, the team all decided to create their own submissions and change the theme from pop culture in the 2000s to a how to write a journal. Some projects look at the process of writing the journal while others analyze some of the successes and failures the team had while making the journal. While unorthodox for a journal to be filled with submissions from those who are making it, it makes sense with the newly selected theme and the limited options available for the students at the time.

Since this is one of the first times this class has run, as well as not being sure on what the requirements for registering in should be, the team working on the journal was very diverse in terms of what programs they were in and their level of experience with the CTS program. There were a few people in their fourth year of a CTS major, while some others were in completely unrelated programs like Music and Business Management or Creative Writing and had never taken a CTS course before. While this was not exclusively a setback, it did create some problems, especially early in the semester when things were just getting started. For instance, there was a general confusion on what needed to be known for this course in order to properly produce the journal by the end of the semester. This required a few classes for the professor to clear things up and ensure that everyone knew what was necessary, which could have been time spent on the journal or advertising for it. This could have led to a longer timeframe for projects to be submitted, meaning that the lack of submissions may not have been as big a problem as it was. However, there were also benefits to the diversity in majors for the project, such as many people being able to see one task from multiple angles and bringing their own individual talents to the project. The main case of this is how the class was split up into the different job groups and how they could uniquely contribute to each task. One person in the promo and marketing team could organize and plan for an open house while another could make advertising posts on Instagram to inform students about the call for submissions while another one still could go around to CTS classrooms and inform people in-person about the journal. As the course grows in the upcoming years, the requirements to enter the course could change greatly, but at least for this semester the group was able to come together in a unique way that allowed everyone to share their talents and abilities in a meaningful manner.

One last issue to touch on for the journal that is a bit more specific is trying to acquire an ISSN number for the journal. An ISSN, or an International Standard Serial Number, is a number given to certain types of publications such as magazines, newspapers, or journals that is mandatory for them to be recognized in the legal deposit. To put it very simply, it is something that legitimizes the journal. Before starting this journal, several students were unaware of the ISSN even being something a journal would require, and those that were aware of it figured it would be a simple procedure. It started off simple enough, with the student who was responsible with acquiring it filling out an ISSN application form and then submitting it. This soon took a turn for the worse though, as the student had to email the team behind the application process for around a month trying to work around several difficulties that kept popping up. This persisted until the news that the original plan for the journal was not going to happen, and then the application was suspended from there. As for how the student faced the issue, ensuring that everything stayed organized and up to date in terms of both the discussion with the ISSN issues as well as their other duties to their teams was critical. It could be easy to get distracted by one thing or another and then forget to be on top of the ISSN and figure out the best course of action moving forward.

In conclusion, there can be many issues that arise when it comes to creating a journal, especially if it is a group’s first time attempting anything like it. A lack of submissions, people not all having the same level of experience, or having trouble getting an ISSN number are just a few of the many issues a project like this can face. It is clear that a combination of planning and flexibility is required for a project like this to work, and hopefully this essay outlined a few issues for any future teams working on a journal to look out for or avoid. Of course, this is a new course in general, so it is always possible that some of the logistical issues could be mitigated over time as everyone becomes more comfortable with the formula or new ones could pop us as it develops.

CTRL+ALT+DH 2023: The Process and the Future A Video

2023-12-04T10:20:00-05:00

Participations

Jessica Cela, Jackson Grant, Kevin Wang, Olivia Afonso, Jessie Pajak, Jacquelyn Passarelli, and Arya Soni

Interview Description

This video is a look into the different tasks that are required to put together a successful student journal. It will dive into what CTRL+ALT+DH is, the roles and responsibilities of each team during the Fall 2023 semester, and will touch on the students’ hopes and goals for the future of the journal.

If you are a student looking to submit a video for CTRL+ALT+DH you need to ensure that you have an abstract, context for your video, and a transcript (either through CapCut or YouTube). You also need to ensure that anyone involved in the creation of the video is mentioned in your submission. Additionally, if you need to cite your work you will need to include a work cited in Chicago style.

Culture Chronicles: A Podcast about Crafting a Student Journal on Modern Pop Culture

2023-12-04T10:20:00-05:00

Episode Description

Jared, Arya, Leah, and Jessica discuss the process of creating CTS*4000’s student journal on pop culture. Within this podcast, we get the chance to discuss what drove us to start this journal, along with how our groups were structured and the difficulties that we encountered during the semester. We were able to dive into exciting pop culture topics like virtual fashion shows and cryptocurrencies and even discuss future topics of interest like music, film, and sports. Our discussion also covers pop culture's impact on emotions and its significance to students as a means to escape reality during difficult times like exam seasons. As a group, we also touched on the topic of augmented reality and how that will impact our generation.

When discussing advice for future students looking to submit a project similar to ours, I suggest everybody record their own parts on their own phone to ensure all audio is even when it comes to editing. I was able to take all of our individual parts and edit out the background feedback on Garageband (any music software would work).

Listen to the Episode:

Download audio

From Wires to Wireless: An Art Piece

2023-12-04T10:20:00-05:00

Introduction:

In 'From Wires to Wireless,' this artwork encapsulates the evolution of music technology across generations. Centred around a Walkman from the 2000s, surrounded by modern devices like iPhones and iPads, the piece visually narrates the shift from wired to wireless technology. It highlights the swift progression from physical media to the seamless convenience of digital access, symbolising not just a transformation in how music is enjoyed but also in the broader evolution of technological integration in daily life. Through contrasting imagery, it invites reflection on the enduring love for music amidst the ever-evolving landscape of innovation and connectivity.

From Wires to Wireless

What is CTRL+ALT+DH? Journal Publishing Infographics

2023-12-04T10:20:00-05:00

Introduction

These infographics contextualize and explain overarching information about the CTRL+ALT+DH journal and information about what a journal is in general. The infographic titled What is CTRL+ALT+DH? informs the reader of pertinent information to the CTRL+ALT+DH journal. What is CTRL+ALT+DH has eight sections: CTS Student Journal; The Team; Journal Issues; Submissions; Format; Peer Review; Open-Source; Copyright and Citations. These sections outline specifics about how the journal functions and its publishing processes. The second infographic Journal Publishing defines the uses/practices of journals and articles and explains the various components needed to create an article.

Future students submitting infographics to CTRL+ALT+DH need to ensure that their piece’s topic(s) can be condensed without loss of valuable information. The surface area provided to create an infographic can be deceiving as there is less space to work with than initially perceived. Infographics must be visually pleasing and not overly content-heavy to allow for ease of comprehension.

The ideal infographic submission would be in PDF format as it is compatible with the majority of online tools, software, and any hardware that may be used to access the CTRL+ALT+DH platform.

What is CTRL+ALT+DH?

Journal Publishing: The Purpose and Components of a Journal

For more details pertaining to the definition of a journal, visit the What’s a journal? article published by the University of Victoria.

For more information about the definition of an article, visit Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

For more information on citation formats and chicago style, visit Purdue Owl.

Works Cited

“Article.” 2023. In Merriam-Webster Dictionary. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/article.

“CTRL+ALT+DH.” n.d. CTRL+ALT+DH. https://ctrlaltdh.pubpub.org/.

“The Economic Times: Business News, Personal Finance, Financial News, India Stock Market Investing, Economy News, SENSEX, NIFTY, NSE, BSE Live, IPO News.” n.d. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/defaultinterstitial.cms.

“What’s a Journal? - University of Victoria.” n.d. UVic.Ca. https://www.uvic.ca/library/help/tips/journal/index.php.

What Should I Submit to CTRL+ALT+DH? A Twine Story

2023-12-04T00:00:00-05:00

This twine game is a simplified example of what your submission may look like. Here you will find information regarding file recommendations for each format, important resources for writing citations and abstracts, and some general guidelines to consider.

It is important to remember that following the submission of your Twine as an .html file, we require an abstract and author biography to be written and submitted as well. Ensure that your submission follows the criteria for the theme of the issue, and don’t forget to cite your work.

Works Cited

“Chicago Style - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University,” n.d. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/index.html.

CTRL+ALT+DH. “CTRL+ALT+DH,” n.d. https://ctrlaltdh.pubpub.org/.

McCombes, Shona. “How to Write an Abstract.” Scribbr, July 18, 2023. https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/abstract/.

“Video to Text Transcription | Transcribe Video to Text Free Online,” n.d. https://www.capcut.com/tools/video-to-text.

The Writing Center. “Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper,” n.d. https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/assignments/writing-an-abstract-for-your-research-paper/.

Issue 0 Editorial

2023-04-17T00:00:00-05:00

Welcome to CTRL+ALT+DH!

We are an online, open-access undergraduate journal from the Culture and Technology Studies (CTS) program at the University of Guelph.

CTRL+ALT+DH emerges from the collective vision of CTS students and professors to create a space where dynamic, intellectual projects in digital humanities can be distributed. For the past five months, the inaugural team of student editors has worked together to integrate traditional journal publishing conventions with the growing suite of digital tools. It has been a challenging process, but we are motivated by our desire to create a journal that captures the interdisciplinary nature of the digital humanities. Specifically, we envision a multi-media publication that integrates our contributors' understanding of current topics in a data-driven world, and our work in the CTS program. The goal is to share undergraduate work outside of the classroom with the global community.

The name of our journal, CTRL+ALT+DH, references first-generation computing and the combination of actions needed to shake loose from a non-responsive program, or restart completely. It is a nod to what has come before, and the desire to move forward and explore new ways of working within digital realms. It is a culmination of our work as CTS students, and highlights the inextricable link between the human experience and technology. CTRL+ALT+DH invites work that engages current discourse around the complex relationships between power, digital knowledge, digital cultures, and the representation of data.

We are excited to publish our first issue in Fall 2023 and begin accepting submissions from the CTS undergraduate community. Whether it is your curiosity about technology, gaming, art, creative writing, or one of many other topics, we look forward to seeing the great projects you are able to create. We are excited to see CTRL+ALT+DH grow and thrive. Thank you for joining us in what we hope will be a rewarding experience for students and readers alike for years to come.

Your Winter 2023 editorial collective,

Neluka Ameresekere, Susane Dang, Kelly Hughes, and Jingyi Long.

"The Anatomy of a Corset"

2023-02-28T10:20:00-05:00

What to Expect: What you will see when you first open the page is quite similar to what you would see if you opened Google Maps, as this map was made with Google’s My Maps application. The map is a modern map, with geographic boundaries from the 21st century, so it does not entirely accurately depict how regions would have looked throughout history. The map is interactive, so you can move around or zoom in/out as much as you would like. Along the left-hand side, there is a legend detailing the different aspects of go into the creation of a corset. From fabric, stiffening agents and embellishments, this map incorporates all the different elements involved in the garments' conception. Each of the corset's components is tagged to a specific location, where that item was most commonly made. However, it is important to mention that not every corset made would have gone or pulled elements from all of the locations. This is where each component was most commonly produced, which would have gone through its own distribution process before being made into a garment. Each location tag is accompanied by a small blurb about the garment element, where it was made and why. If you want to learn more about the history of corsets, here is my timeline of corsets, as well, all of my sources are cited below. Reflection

The Anatomy of a Corset - Map

Here is the link to my portfolio website, and reflection of the creation of this assingment: https://srjandrew.wordpress.com/2023/02/28/the-anatomy-of-a-corset/

Why a Map? Why a map, why not an essay? Although there are benefits to writing an essay (or any other format), presenting this information as a map provides a more visually interesting project with interactive elements for users to engage with. Users can have more autonomy over how they move through the map, at what pace and in a more stimulating format. Furthermore, this breaks down the information in an unconventional way, both in topic and format, to give users a fresh and exciting way to consume new content.

Citations:

Archives de la Ville de Québec. “Sewing room of the finishing department of the Dominion Corset Company.” WikiCommons, 18 June 2014, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dominion_Corset_-_Stitching_Room_Closing_Department.tif. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Banner, Bernadette. “What Did Victorian Corsets *Actually* Look Like? || Examining Corsets From the Symington Collection.” YouTube, 12 October 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QUEf-8BKyE. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Britannica. “Blue whale | Facts, Habitat, & Pictures | Britannica.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 January 2023, https://www.britannica.com/animal/blue-whale. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Caruana, Leonard, and Hugh Rockoff. “A Wolfram in Sheep’s Clothing: Economic Warfare in Spain, 1940–1944.” Cambridge University Press, 11 March 2003, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/abs/wolfram-in-sheeps-clothing-economic-warfare-in-spain-19401944/98704DA05C664A5785AAB9694CBC97A0. Accessed 26 February 2023.

C.B. Corsets. “Lacings, Woman’s corset.” Wikicommons, ca. 1900-1910, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corset,_woman%27s_(AM_14855-1).jpg. Accessed 26 February 2023.

C.B. Corsets. “Woman’s corset.” WikiCommons, ca. 1900-1910, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corset,_woman%27s_(AM_14855-7).jpg. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Churushkin, A. “spool of thread and translation needles.” WikiCommons, 31 March 2021, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%83%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BA_%D0%B8_%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B0.jpg. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Connecticut History. “Elastic Web Expands Textile Manufacturing in West Haven.” Connecticut History, 18 September 2022, https://connecticuthistory.org/elastic-web-expands-textile-manufacturing-in-west-haven/. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design. “Lace.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 1700s, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/158408. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Crompton Corset Co. “The Crompton Corset Co., Toronto – All Items – Digital Archive: Toronto Public Library.” 1890, https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/344070/the-crompton-corset-co-toronto. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Dattel, Eugene R. “Cotton in a Global Economy: Mississippi (1800-1860) – 2006-10.” Mississippi History Now, October 2006, https://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/cotton-in-a-global-economy-mississippi-1800-1860. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Dominion Bureau of Statistics. “Report on the button industry in Canada – 1938.” Scholar Portal Books, 1938, https://books-scholarsportal-info.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks5/statcanada5/2020-07-21/62/47-202_1938_1010671712. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Durfee, Sierra. “A Modern Construction of a Corset…” Digital Commons @ WOU, 2011, https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/honors_theses/35/. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Fashion History Timeline. “busk | Fashion History Timeline.” 2018, https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/busk/. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Gillray, J. “Woman’s Corset, 1810-1820…” National Museum of American History, https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_366282. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Glasscock, Jessica. “Nineteenth-Century Silhouette and Support.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/19sil/hd_19sil.htm. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Glushkova, T.N, et al. “Woven, Knitted, and Wattled 17th–18th Century Textiles…” Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia, 2016, https://journal.archaeology.nsc.ru/jour/article/view/220. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Godley, Andrew. “Singer in Britain…” Taylor & Francis Online, 2013, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/004049696793711725. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Harkness. “Busk.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1675–1725, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/85400. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Harkness. “Busk.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1675–1725, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/85404. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Henry Walker, John. “The Crompton Corset Company.” McCord Stewart Museum, 1850, https://collections.musee-mccord-stewart.ca/en/objects/20001/the-crompton-corset-company. Accessed 26 February 2023.

How Products Are Made. “How corset is made…” http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Corset.html. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Isabel Shults Fund. “Corset.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 1880, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/82651. Accessed 26 February 2023.

Jeffs, Bianca. “1880 – Red corset.” Fashion History Timeline, 2020, https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/1880-red-corset/. Accessed 26 February 2023.

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Issue 1 Editorial

2023-02-04T10:20:00-05:00

Introduction

Welcome to the CTRL+ALT+DH blueprint. CTRL+ALT+DH is a journal created and managed by students of the Culture and Technology Studies (CTS) program at the University of Guelph. It exists as an opportunity to give students a chance to have their work published for free, as well as peer-reviewed. This issue will act as an outline for future issues of CTRL+ALT+DH. Throughout the various projects, you will find sample pieces of what different types of submissions may look like once published. Many of these submissions focus on what a journal is, and what the process was like of creating this year's issue.

CTRL+ALT+DH was founded by four CTS students in the winter of 2023. Together these students created the beginning template for the journal, published a website on pub pub for the purposes of hosting the journal itself, and a submissions forum via the Online Journal System (OJS) which allows for the collection and review of an issue’s incoming submissions for any given year. The founding students worked in collaboration with three University of Guelph faculty advisors to manufacture the beginning template which was used to create the current template for Issue 01.

A journal is a compilation of academic works (typically of similar fields of study) published in a single scholarly space. Journals traditionally host a variety of articles pertaining to the journal’s specified subject matter. Articles are independent pieces of writing with several sections to create its makeup. Articles are typically composed of: an abstract, an introduction, description and methodology, a conclusion, and reference/citation pages. Digital Humanities (DH) journals tend to follow a less traditional path as exemplified by the formatting of CTRL+ALT+DH. For this journal we decided that we wanted a variety of digital tools, allowing for more than just the standard articles to be included. We accept Twine games, videos, essays, podcasts, art pieces, networks, infographics, and more. With this, it allows for a very dynamic journal. Those who are wishing to use a digital tool as a submission are required to submit an abstract which would act as a contextualization for their piece.

For the first issue of the journal, our team decided to create our own submissions to act as samples of some of the formats we accept. The content of these submissions varies from information pieces to conversations about the process of starting a student-run journal. The 2023 CTRL+ALT+DH Team, a Video features the majority of the students involved in making the first issue of CTRL+ALT+DH, describing their roles and responsibilities. The students also talk about what the journal is and how they want it to grow in the future. Similar topics can be found in An Essay about the Unexpected Obstacles of Creating a Journal, detailing the challenges and solutions of each team, as well as Culture Chronicles: A Podcast about Crafting a Student Journal on Modern Pop Culture which features a discussion on pop culture and the initial topic for the first issue of CTRL+ALT+DH. From Wires to Wireless: An Art Piece is a digital piece of visual art showcasing the evolving world of culture and technology, and A Timeline of the Creation of CTRL+ALT+DH provides a glimpse into each step of creating this journal, starting with tasks performed by past students in the previous semester. For a broader perspective, What is CTRL+ALT+DH?: Journal Publishing Infographics outlines important information that defines CTRL+ALT+DH as an open-source journal, as well as an introduction to journal publishing. Specific to our journal, What Should I Submit to CTRL+ALT+DH? A Twine Story presents the submission criteria for each format of work, as well as important information to remember when submitting to our journal.

This journal was created as a potential set of guidelines or tips for future teams making the next volume of CTRL+ALT+DH. The successes, obstacles, and failures of future entries to CTRL+ALT+DH could be very similar or very different from the ones this team faced during the first volume’s development. We hope that this journal will continue each year within the CTS program. Although in this term we were unable to get enough submissions to create our first official issue, we hope that what we have created will inspire students to create work that could be published in future publications. Regardless, we hope that you are able to find something of interest and value within the first volume of CTRL+ALT+DH.