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Playing The Past: Gaming As Public History

When I first came across the above quote, it made me think back to several successful video games that have been marketed as “historical games,” and really question the accuracy of their historical narratives. As Whitaker explained, many games that are marketed as historical games, even as historical fiction, are disconnected from historical scholarship. As I am…

“Place Names Are Powerful”: Counter-Mapping Indigenous Spaces & Place Names

Colonialism & Erasure Walking around the streets of Toronto, it is difficult to see traces of its long Indigenous history. As a direct result of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing and naming place were replaced with European knowledge systems. While Indigenous place names convey local knowledge about physical landscapes and their histories as a means for navigation, colonial place…

More Than Just A Meme: How To Make Animated GIFs

I came across a tweet by The Archivist that displays a time lapse GIF made from layered historical photographs of Fairmont Hotel in Vancouver. I found it very  interesting to watch as GIFs are typically used as memes to provide humour. However, as “flip books of the Internet,” GIFs can, and have, functioned beyond memes to illustrate tutorial…

Rethinking Social Media Use As Personal Archiving

I came across an article that made me rethink Facebook as merely a platform for sharing and searching information. Published by Cornell University, The Many Faces of Facebook: Experiencing Social Media as Performance, Exhibition, and Personal Archive argues that people experience Facebook through performing and reflecting on their life experiences and identity. It was found that users curating…

R. Luke DuBois: Visualizing Data As Art

For Digital Historians, data visualization is an important means for understanding and interpreting data. When analyzing large datasets, visualization tools can be used to reveal patterns, see connections, and find holes within research. Visualization also offers an effective way to present complex data in a clear and visually appealing manner. For artist R. Luke DuBois, data visualization goes…

Open Access Please: The Importance of “Open” Notes & Research Data

Why Is “Openness” Useful? Historians are not accustomed to sharing research notes and data with the public. Traditionally, research publications are shared for the education of the public, while the research process is left outside of the public’s view. More recently however, historians have began to create “openness” in research through producing open notebooks, and providing open access to research…

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