Dear Future Student,

Welcome to Digital Humanities! I must admit I’m jealous – you are just starting an experience that I really enjoyed. I hope you are ready to think deeply about technology and the internet. It’s a fascinating subject, and Professor Remy will lead you to some really meaty articles. But you will probably learn the most this semester from your classmates. This class is full of interesting discussions, and you will hear perspectives that you haven’t before. Don’t be afraid to come forward with your own experiences. Whether it’s something you love, hate, or are indifferent to, your perspective on matters is what makes this class great.

This class asks what it means to study the humanities using technology. I took this class during the Coronavirus lockdown, so it was entirely remote. This was a great time to study this subject, because I had examples right in front of me of the benefits of the internet with regards to accessibility for everyone. However, we also saw some of the downsides of this – learning how to operate technologies remotely can be difficult. If you ever had to take classes remotely due to lockdown (or for other reasons), I encourage you to think about your perspective. What positives and negatives do you see in each? What about other online communications? As a society, more and more of our culture has moved online. Taking this class is a great opportunity for you to think critically about what this means for you.

The most important technology I learned about this semester was Zotero, which is a program to create bibliographies and citations quickly. I wished I had found this program earlier! But the most important lesson of this class is that everyone can accomplish a lot with technology. I do not feel like a coder, after having taken this class. But, I did do a little coding, and I learned a lot from the experience. You don’t have to throw yourself into things and become an expert; just try your best, and accept that learning is why you’re here. Make an attempt, and reflect on your experiences, and you will do well. It is your reflections and thoughts that matter, not if you’re able to succeed at every single activity. Don’t be intimidated.

I will be bringing Zotero out of this class, but I will also be bringing the confidence to try new technologies, and the perspective on why accessibility matters. These will be great benefits for the rest of my education, and my life. You made a good choice to take this class, it will be useful whatever your major is.

I also bring the deep-rooted fear that comes whenever I think about the lack of privacy online. This isn’t a new thing for me, but you might gain some existential dread with the greater understanding of how technologies work. Don’t be afraid to think about the negatives of technology, as well as the positives. Having a well-rounded understanding on things will allow you to make informed decisions.

Have a great semester. I hope you’re able to meet with your classmates in person – I never appreciated that enough before this year.

Virtual reality is a spectrum, and elements of it can be useful in a variety of situations. “Surround Sound” is something that is possible even on mobile devices, as headphones now will have different sounds from the right and left ear. Specials seats to simulate movement has been a mainstay of rollercoasters from “Soaring over California” to the majority of the rides at Universal Studios. Augmented reality, such as phone apps, has been made mainstream by Pokémon Go, and even before that was normalized to an extent by Google Maps. These are also part of a long history of tricking the senses to make someone think they are elsewhere; as Robert Cable points out, theater and the arts have been creating immersive realities for people for hundreds of years (Cable). My own experiences with VR headsets have felt similar to hypnosis, when your senses give conflicting information. Hypnosis is an old practice, which has been formally studied since the 18^th century (Orne and Hammer). Thus, treating VR as some unprecedented, frightening thing, is unreasonable. Elements of VR have been present for many years; what is most new are VR goggles, and the proliferation of internet communication.

VR headsets do carry significant problems, which I believe need to be discussed. Screen time has the potential to damage vision (“Developer Warns VR Headset Damaged Eyesight”). As someone who grew up being told to not sit directly in front of the television, I am bemused to be told to place a screen an inch from my eyes. Headsets also cause nausea, which makes VR something that is not accessible to everyone. The benefits of VR – increased communication, “travel,” and educational opportunities – are locked behind a barrier for people who become nauseas when using VR headsets. The headsets are also expensive, creating further barriers, and rely on visual stimulus, locking out the visually impaired. And, as with any technology, I worry that as it becomes prevalent, the choice to “opt out” may no longer be available. If someone has their own health reasons to not use VR, and then classes require virtual trips to a museum, that person is put in an impossible position. Similarly, societal pressures are very strong; if the only way to see friends is to purchase a $300 headset, people will have to use VR whether they like it or not. Finally, VR as it currently stands is a threat to privacy. Oculus requires a Facebook login. In the words of Rory Mir and Katitza Rodriguez, “With this lack of choice, users can no longer freely give meaningful consent and lose the freedom to be anonymous on their own device” (Mir and Rodriguez). Using one of these devices – much like a Google Home or an Alexa – gives up some of your privacy.

That said, the internet communication elements of VR are important. Being able to talk with people far away is a blessing, as the last year has taught us. And using the internet to “visit” museums can share and spread cultural artifacts, without locking them behind the barrier of plane ticket and entry costs (the barrier of purchasing the internet and a computer are still present) (Robson et al.). Many of these projects, such as the Virtual Studiolo, can be viewed from anywhere with an internet connection, and without sacrificing privacy to view (MacNeil). It must be acknowledged that these virtual walkthroughs of museums are often clunky and imperfect. The last year has shown us that physically going outside is different than visiting from an online forum. Part of the “immersion” of a museum can’t be replicated – even by the very best of VR that we have available. However, I find that this is something that can be explored more. I dislike VR headsets, but I think there is a place for Augmented Reality and Virtual visits to sites of cultural heritage – to preserve the sites that would be destroyed by constant tourism and make visiting them more available to everyone. Unfortunately, I think making museums virtual will be largely a labor of love, since the price benefits of selling VR headsets for videogames is much higher, so I anticipate VR will move in that direction.

Works Cited

Cable, Robert. What Is Virtual Reality? | Stanford Humanities. 8 Feb. 2019, https://shc.stanford.edu/news/stories/what-virtual-reality.

“Developer Warns VR Headset Damaged Eyesight.” BBC News, 10 June 2020. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52992675.

MacNeil, Anne. “The Virtual Studiolo.” Storymaps, 12 Feb. 2021, https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/54830bcfdb9f4c878d05d8cbe21cf4c3.

Mir, Rory, and Katitza Rodriguez. “If Privacy Dies in VR, It Dies in Real Life.” Electronic Frontier Foundation, 25 Aug. 2020, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/08/if-privacy-dies-vr-it-dies-real-life.

Orne, Martin T., and A. Gordon Hammer. “Hypnosis | Definition, History, Techniques, & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/hypnosis. Accessed 7 May 2021.

Robson, Stuart, et al. “3D Recording and Museums.” Digital Humanities in Practice, https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.libproxy.chapman.edu/eds/ebookviewer/ebook?sid=c6ee6c9e-ba7a-4988-9374-92ea77b3e148%40sdc-v-sessmgr01&ppid=pp_91&vid=0&format=EB. Accessed 7 May 2021.