“An identity built around making things—of being “a maker”—pervades technology culture. There’s a widespread idea that “People who make things are simply different [read: better] than those who don’t.”
Debbie Chachra, “Why I Am Not a Maker,” The Atlantic, January 23, 2015.
Why did this particular passage grab your attention?
This passage excellently delivered a psychological and even philosophic analysis of the ideal digital humanists, pointing out that a digital humanist is more of a rebelling person that expresses part of their own identity through creation, rather than a stereotypical “making”, whose entire personality were almost tragically defined by their products. The accurate depiction of such an ideal immediately grabbed my mind, which has been so often misguided to think of artists as naturally weird (in a neutral way) peoples that consider themselves higher intellectual beings. It does resonate with my ideals for a content creator, someone who addresses social problems, and with a sincere piece of their own personality.
What elements of your past experiences, current interests, or future plans did it kindle?
This article git me passionate about bringing my own effort into digital humanities. While it’s undoubtedly true that males have “ordered” and constructed the modern society in their way, the statement would be much more accurate if the subject gets substitute into “white males”, and the fact that I’m currently typing English sentences pretty much explains my claim. The field of digital humanities has been dominated by white males, now with the fruitful addition of women and black folks, but few Asians even look at this powerful new field, not to mention making our own impact. Asians have our own unique lengthy history and face numerous social problems, which could at least be somehow addressed by the study of digital humanities. Pressure from own family, racism, low birth rates, and sexual anxiety are just some of the very few potential fields that an Asian digital humanist might cover.
Under the large umbrella of Digital (Arts &) Humanities, which areas of inquiry, methods or techniques are you most eager to pursue this term and why?
I would love to combine Digital Humanities with the field of statistics, which itself is a powerful tool for analytics but lack the facet of humanities. Moreover, the Fusion 360 software and computational text processing skills are probably a useful tool, and as someone interested in computer science, I will definitely try my best to grasp those.