Thinking Digitally, One Stitch at a Time

When thinking of digital humanities, needlepoint probably isn’t the first medium that comes to mind. Data and pixels, perhaps, but needlepoint? Nevertheless, when introducing core concepts of digital humanities, A.L. McMichael, senior associate director of the Digital Humanities Center, often sends students to the Design Center to gather around a table filled with needles, colorful threads, and embroidery hoops. There, she instructs participants to record basic information about their day: sew one stitch for each hour of working, for studying, and for sleeping. 

“A lot of humanists aren’t necessarily thinking of their work in terms of data, so in this exercise we’re asking very basic, granular information about people’s lives and let them stitch it into a project to record it in color, in texture, and materials,” she says. 

Although the instructions are the same for everyone, the resulting interpretations vary greatly, with some students producing random free-flowing compositions and others creating tightly organized ones, as if sewing on a grid. The analogue approach to a digital challenge allows for creative interpretation of data and paves the way for more complex and detailed concepts, such as developing a website that examines the relationship between the Class of 1928’s Zora Neale Hurston and poet Langston Hughes, titled “Home to Harlem: Hurston and Hughes in the 1920s.” 

Shifting from the hands-on experience of stitching to portraying complex narratives involved working with an open source tool called StoryMap JS, which weaves together text, data, timelines, maps, video, and archival materials. The project takes audiences through the relationship of the two Harlem Renaissance giants. Visitors can navigate the story map by toggling between a map that pinpoints their travels or via a timeline that details what they did in that particular place on the map, from their first encounter at an awards dinner on Fifth Avenue in New York to a collaborative research journey in Mobile, Alabama. Though digital at its heart, the site incorporates much analogue material, including digitized film, photos, and documents. 

“I don’t see a harsh distinction between digital and analog technologies,” says McMichael. “I see every possible research methodology as a way to solve a problem or tell a story.” 

At its heart, she says, technology and the humanities are both about curiosity — to think about them separately defeats the purpose of a liberal arts education. “If we stop thinking about disciplines and start thinking about just creative problem-solving,” McMichael says, “then all of these methodologies that we have at our disposal can be put toward solving society’s problems, telling great stories, or documenting history in ways that are useful and entertaining.”