Research Talks – Fall 2021 Graduate Fellows and Faculty Grantees Projects

Join in person in Digital Matters, Rm 2751 Marriott Library, or through Zoom:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://utah.zoom.us/j/96055650906

Meeting ID: 960 5565 0906
Passcode: 294094

David Onwukeme, Digital Matters Undergraduate Intern Undergraduate in Multi-Disciplinary Design, “Possibilities of An Autonomous Sanctuary”

This project investigates the Land Bridge formation on Gunnison Island and explores framework for data-driven sanctuary building and, use-case for the Great Salt Lake’s Gunnison Island and its migratory American White Pelicans.

Matthew Basso, Digital Matters Faculty Grantee, Assoc. Prof. of History & Gender Studies, “Utah and World War II: Building a Digital Exhibit”

How can digital humanities tools change the way audiences experience and understand the impact of World War II on Utah and Utahns? We will provide an update on our effort to combine deep primary and secondary source research with the story telling capabilities of Omeka S and complimentary digital applications in order to present a more diverse, interactive, spatially resonant, and nuanced version of World War II history.

Marnie Powers-Torrey, Digital Matters Faculty Grantee Assoc. Librarian, Marriott Library, “Opening Artists’ Books: Interactive Website to Extend & Sustain Access to Artists’ Books”

With colleagues from the Marriott Library Web Development team, graduate student Jonathan Sandberg and Associate Librarian Marnie Powers-Torrey are building a public-facing website that facilitates the use of a common vocabulary by scholars, makers, and community users of artists’ books. The website, database, visual exemplars, and index aid in the discoverability of artists’ books from entry level to advanced.

Eric Handman, Digital Matters Exhibition & Performance Faculty Grantee Asst. Prof., School of Dance, “Nomadic Performance Technologies for Dance-Making in the 21st Century”

Can a drone be an artistic medium? In collaboration with movement artist Scotty Hardwig and visual artist/engineer Zach Duer (both on faculty at Virginia Tech), Eric Handman, Associate Professor of Dance is exploring the creative capacities of drones by developing an original dance/theater work called Daedelus Dreams.

Trevor Smith, Digital Matters Graduate Fellow, Graduate student in Dept. of Communication, “Critical Approaches to Generative AI”

A textual analysis of the social, political, and cultural impact of Artificial Intelligence that creates original media content, or as I will conceptualize, “Generative AI.”  This project will use existing critical writing about more common AI’s role in our digital media environment and apply it to newer “Generative AI”.

John Flynn, DM / American West Center Graduate Fellow, PhD Candidate in Dept. of History, “Native Places: An Indigenous Atlas of Utah and the Intermountain West”

Native Places is a spatial humanities project from the American West Center. It consists of an interactive, layered map centered on Utah that encompasses the homelands of the state’s traditionally associated tribes. The map records and restores indigenous place names to major landscape features and selected historical and cultural sites.