Spatial Humanities Fall 2018

The newspaper Thursday’s Child, a feminist and lesbian publication from the San Diego Lesbian Organization, often included ads for events and workshops in San Diego. The December 1979 issue of this newspaper includes an ad for a workshop on page 7. Featuring a sketch of four women and an Audre Lorde quote, this ad is for a racism workshop. The purpose of this workshop “is for women of color and women of non-color to learn from and educate each other so that we may all work toward unity.” Sponsored by Lesbians of Color and Lesbians for Political Action, this event was for women only. The ad for this four-hour long workshop intended to reach a diverse audience by offering free childcare, signing for deaf people, wheelchair accessibility, and allowing participants to pay what they could. The workshop took place in San Diego on Saturday, December 8, 1979 from 1-5 PM at Golden Hill Community Hall 2222 Broadway.

The object includes notes from the Southwestern Gay Conference at San Diego, May 13-14, 1972. Notes include a list of groups in attendance and minutes from the meetings on both days. There are twenty-two groups listed in attendance, including regional groups, university groups, and institutions such as Gay Women’s Service Center Los Angeles. Minutes include a summary of the keynote speaker’s address, questions of voting procedure for the weekend, establishing an agenda for the weekend, and a list of the various motions put forth for vote with pass/fail information for each motion but no actual vote count. There is no description of the discussions that took place in the various workshops held, though there is a list of the topics covered in each workshop as well as a general description of when the workshops were held. These documents are typed and appear to be original.

This spatial project focuses on studying the moviegoing patterns in North Carolina from 1896-1930. However, the project also analyzes the effect that race had on moviegoers and the 1200+ different establishments in North Carolina. The focus is on North Carolina because one-third of the population was African American and urban life was where most movies were shown. The analysis of North Carolina allows there to be a cultural and historical significance to be found in moviegoing. The primary research question is: How did racial differences create different experiences in watching films in urban areas, more specifically the South?

Most of the information and results of the study are labeled poorly which makes it hard to find it. There are randomly placed hyperlinks that lead to different pages of the site, but also take you to external pages within the same tab. The important information is featured in Special Features and has different sections that include a timeline (very challenging to navigate through) The project sheds new light on the experience of moviegoers while taking race into account. Most theatres were segregated and were known as black theaters. There is a map that list the different theaters but seems to be outdated. The google map is unable to load properly and has overlays that take away from the learning experience. The layout of the website is simple, yet cluttered. The similar blue colors throughout the project make it hard to find certain things. Although the labels are along the top, there is no clear distinction between any visual aids or more textual information. When reading the special features tab, I was trying to find more subsections about the cultural and social effects of moviegoing in North Carolina. I had to stumble across the thin blue sidebar labeled “contents” to find more info. The site does have great info on the moviegoing activities of people in North Carolina, but it uses outdated technologies.

The mapping software references Google Earth, which is the older term for google maps. This makes it hard to find information on the theaters through the map. There is also a timeline of the theater’s existences, but it is a jumbled mess. The technologies used to create the timeline were very simple and make it hard to know how to navigate through it. I would use more contrasting colors for the site and a better outline for the tabs and info. You can label visual aids in one tab where the maps and timelines are. Then the other labels can consist of textual info and pictures accompanying the info. A lot of the theatres don’t have any information when looking for more context on the theatre. I would have linked the theaters to the textual info under special features to add a historical context to it. Overall, the website successfully provides an in-depth analysis of the cultural differences in moviegoing from 1896 and so on. However, the website is poorly organized, and the technologies used are outdated, so they don’t load properly. The search feature is the most organized and is more helpful in finding information on theaters in specific towns or cities.

This booklet is for an organization known as Lesbian Solidarity from July 17 1982. “Celebrate our diversity, our unity, our past and future!” is written on the front cover below a drawing of four women. The group held this event at San Diego City College. With some research, I found that 1982 in San Diego was the first year with no Pride rally, since 1975. San Diego LGBT Pride (sdpride.org) writes that “the lack of of a rally was probably due to the continued split between Pride and many members of the lesbian community, many of whom were political activists.” Another digital platform “Out on the Left Coast” mentions the Lesbian Solidarity March at City College which took place the summer of 1982. The document is part of the Lambda Archives and is currently on showcase in the San Diego History Center. It is showcased in the “Lesbian Feminism” labeled box along with several other historical San Diego lesbian items.

This 1984 document is a call-to-action for citizens to voice their support for California State Assembly Bill 1 (A.B. 1), the gay and lesbian employment rights bill, becoming law from California Assemblyman Art Agnos. Headed with a bold “ALERT” message, the document describes the prejudiced resistance to A.B. 1 and notes the comprehensive need for Californians to respond to such opposition. The use of quotes from oppositional State Senators John Doolittle and H. L. Richardson conveys urgency as their vitriolic hate speech includes egregious arguments such as putting state citizen’s lives in jeopardy with the AIDS epidemic. By citing the detractors’ “coordinated and well-financed” attempts to “intimidate” the Governor to veto the bill, Agnos prompts citizens to contact the Governor in support of the bill through personal, hand-written messages. This document is significant in revealing the harsh opposition to the LGBTQ+ community within the last 30 years, but also the successful mobilization to protect their rights, which are notably referred to as Human Rights in the document’s title.

This document from 1984, intended to inform and spark action in citizens of California, details part of the fight for Assembly Bill 1 (AB 1), the lesbian and gay employment rights bill. The author, California state assemblyman Art Agnos, cautions that Californians must maintain pressure on governor George Deukmejian if they wish to see the bill become law. This is necessary, Agnos claims, due to the strong and blatantly homophobic opposition to the bill within the minority of the California legislature. Agnos calls for a concentrated letter writing effort to counteract this opposition and influence the governor’s decision, allowing the bill to finally become law. This document demonstrates some of the progress the gay and lesbian community had made in fighting for civil rights protections in early 1980s California. But it also shows the tone of the opposition and the challenges that needed to be overcome to consolidate those gains.

Published by the San Diego Lesbian Organization (SDLO), this is Thursday’s Child December 1979 issue. Made up of twelve pages, this is a newspaper focused on the lesbian community of San Diego. Included in this newspaper are events for the month of December, news articles, poems, short stories, letters to the editor, reprinted articles from other newspapers that focus on lesbians, announcements, and an advice section. Among those, the newspaper also has ads spread throughout the issue that are geared towards lesbians and women in general, such as the ad for a women only workshop on racism that was sponsored by the Lesbians of Color and the Lesbians for Political Action. The front-page article for this issue focuses on the SDLO moving to a new location in San Diego, with meetings for the organization taking place at the new location starting on December 6, 1979.

This flyer is for the proposed SDSU LGBT Resource Center to be located in the Student Services building. It is meant to create a safe place for people in the LGBTQ+ community and provides networking and library resources. The proposed plan has a blueprint on the back of the flyer to provide a visual aid for the center and engage the intended audience. It is pretty interesting to see that the Pride Center is the current LGBT Resource Center and located farther from campus by Campanile Walkway. The proposed plan seems to be a better resource center because it would be in the Student Services Building and be bigger than the current Pride Center. I feel like not too many people know where the current Pride Center is because it is in portables and not centrally located on campus.

The 1972 Gay Liberation Front of San Diego Political Campaign Night flyer is festive, informative, and red. Proudly displaying two eagles (or are they seagulls?), this event invited the general public to attend a night of discussion and speakers from most major political parties of the time. There was someone from the Republicans, Democrats, the People’s Party, and a socialist party. The American Independent Party apparently declined to come.

The event was to be held at a Methodist Church near SDSU in mid-September. It was hosted by the Gay Liberation Front and admission was free. There is an address for the church, a postal box for the GLF, and a phone number for the Gay Information Center.

http://niche-canada.org/yearwithoutasummer/

The use of maps, locations, and/or quantitative methods in posing, visualizing, and investigating new research questions pertaining to myriad humanistic disciplines.

1. Impacts of cataclysmic and climatic events are mentioned in geospatial terms. The project is therefore spatialized in its mission, but its application could be improved. The project fits within our definition, because it uses locational differences to analyze the understudied topic of global weather patterns and how various people reacted differently based on region. The definition cites the use of maps first, but overall location analysis remains the crux of Spatial Humanities.
2. Spatial parameters are explicit in that the site specifically discusses a global and regional weather variations and reactions. The organization of newspapers and other documents implicitly relate the regional differences of Canadians. The project organizers also make important claims regarding differences between urban and rural communities in response to the climate shifts.
3. The project’s objective is to inform readers about impacts of climate in myriad related topics (food, farming, charity are mentioned on the home page). Overall, the goal is to boost general knowledge of climate history.
4. The intended audience includes “teachers, history nerds, weather geeks, Canadians, online trolls, everybody…” and specifically addresses goals and objectives for each group.  It lays out specific questions to ask, encouraging a climate of research and classroom-oriented interpretation for both younger and older students. The surplus of colloquial language implies an audience of middle or high school students, though, and could dissuade scholars at the collegiate level and above.
5. The user interface is helpful and spatially-oriented, but dominated by links rather than visualized spaces.  Sources are listed clearly based on geography and in alphabetical order. There is a helpful “Whys and Hows of Using this Site” page that gives people who may be less familiar with digital projects the ability to accurately utilize it. Critically, though, there is no direct mobile site. When typing the URL into a mobile device, it brings you to the larger department website for “Niche-Canada” and not the actual project itself. Each primary source is also transcribed which helps those who cannot read the source’s small print or handwriting.
6. The project is lacking in maps. Those unfamiliar with Canadian geography can be thrown off or incapable of garnering a distinct picture of what the author intends to illustrate. Maps and other visual aids often help readers connect events in a way that words cannot, and they would be an invaluable addition to this particular project. Maps of global air currents, average temperatures, and historical agricultural output would be particularly useful. There may be additional language barriers, assuming a great deal of users are French-Canadian, and there doesn’t appear to be a method to toggle between languages.
7. This project is useful in conveying historical and spatial knowledge, but there is clear room for improvement. The collection of periodicals, diaries, newspapers and government resources allow more users to engage with material and provide materials that a library cannot. The mission statement on the homepage makes it more effective than a few other collections as well. One ineffective presentation element is the use of grossly informal language (i.e. internet trolls be nice). It renders the work far less credible than it could be. While the spatial argument itself is credible, some of its presentation detracts from the overall experience.

Rubric:

4 – Project demonstrates mastery of spatial methods and clearly utilizes plentiful maps, models, and other visual and/or quantitative aids to advance existing historical questions and raise new ones. Interface is accessible and easy to use, even for those with little technological background. There is a clear and concise goal for the project rather than simply a collection of documents.

3 – Project demonstrates above average use of spatial methods and has some maps, models, or other visual aids to assess historical questions, potentially not raising new ones. Project might use location based pages or texts clearly, but does not use maps for assistance or as a tool. Clear interface that may or may not be easy to use but has some type of “How to” page. There is a goal stated, although not explicit.

2 – Project demonstrates some use of spatial methods, but has few to no maps, models, or other visual aids and does not accurately assess scholarly questions. More documents than analysis or engagement. There may be some inconsistencies with interface. There is a goal stated, but it could use improvement. Project authors do not fully elucidate spatial purpose.

1 – Project demonstrates no spatial methods, and it has no maps, models, or other visual means. Simply a collection of documents. Difficult to use interface. No goal, purpose, or mission statement. Spatial aspects ignored or disregarded.