Discussion: Using Technology to Integrate Hidden Humanities into Everyday Life

I am interested in recent digital humanities projects that attempt to connect people with the hidden histories (or other humanities) in their everyday lives.

Here are a few examples based here in Philly:

A photo archive made accessible via an augmented reality ap for smart phones.

Forgotten urban history revealed through a GPS treasure hunt.

Oral histories collected into a Google Maps web interface.

All of these projects take historical data, knowledge and/or primary sources and overlay them on top of the everyday world. Historical markers do this, troppo – analog style. As someone interested in humanities exhibition design and public humanities, I think this is a powerful concept for making the humanities not only accessible, but relevant and engaging.

Do you agree?

Are there other projects you know of that take humanities data/knowledge/primary sources and tie them directly to contemporary geography and life?

What are the strengths and shortcomings of these projects?

What data sets or resources would you like to see used this way?

What are the best and/or easiest technologies for using this concept?

Circa Aislinn

Aislinn Pentecost-Farren an anthropologist, historian and artist. She is currently the Curatorial Design Assistant at the National Museum of American Jewish History, and previously created exhibitions at Slought Foundation and the Raleigh City Museum in North Carolina. She has collaborated on research-based installations with artists such as Mark Dion, J. Morgan Puett, Gene Coleman and Juliet Hinley and had residencies at the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative and Mildred’s Lane. She has a background in ethnography, documentary and alternative education. Her interests include the history of educational display, cartography, Victorian optical tricks, audio tours, and digital/analog hybrids.