Digital Humanities/Exhibitions (DH/DX)
DH/DX at the Bard Graduate Center is a comprehensive curricular approach to decorative arts, design history, and material culture studies that leverages emerging digital tools and methodologies to support the creation and investigation of new modes of scholarship in the human sciences.
DH/DX begins in the classroom with BGC’s Digital Literacy Initiative, a program that actively seeks creative solutions to object-based research challenges and trains all students to use a variety of digital tools. Students then implement these skills in their own research and have opportunities to collaborate on course-based projects such as BGC’s Focus Project exhibitions. This wide array of projects includes multimedia online exhibitions, location-based applications, 3D printing and modelling, mapping, and extended and mixed reality (AR/VR) experiences, with a particular focus on the development of interactive features for galleries, museums, and cultural heritage institutions.
To support this work, students have access to BGC’s Digital Media Lab (DML), a well-equipped space with significant hardware and software resources that serves as a hub for digital project development, training, and collaboration within the institution. In addition, throughout the year, an extensive offering of digital-focused workshops, lunch-time talks, and events further connects the BGC community to important conversations, projects, and professionals from cultural and academic institutions in New York City and beyond.
Jesse Merandy is the Director of DH/DX.
Dr. Merandy has more than 20 years of experience developing digital projects in the academic, commercial, and cultural heritage sectors. Over the past five years he has collaborated with students and faculty to realize many innovative digital interactive projects at the BGC. His research interests include interactive technology and pedagogy, location-based mobile experiences, digital exhibition design, and nineteenth-century New York City.
Contact: [email protected], (212) 501-3061
Digital Literacy at BGC
The Digital Literacy Initiative is an innovative component of the DH/DX curricular plan that aims to provide BGC students with a robust set of digital experiences which they can leverage in their academic and professional careers.
Throughout their course of study, BGC students undertake a series of intensive project-based workshops and training sessions in which they gain hands-on experience working with a variety of digital tools. The Digital Literacy Initiative challenges students to think critically about the application of these tools to illuminate new insights and pathways in their work. Students apply these skills to their own research projects, which become important additions to their portfolios and provide experiences that prepare them for positions in cultural institutions, non-profits, and academia that increasingly require strong digital backgrounds.
Digital Project Information Sheet
Digital Project Requirements Form
Featured Digital Literacy Project
Kettle of Community, Jordane Birkett
Featured Course Project
Body of the Poet
MDP Concentration and Digital QP
Students wishing to further explore the use of digital tools and methodologies in their research/academic studies can pursue the Concentration in Museum Practice, Digital Scholarship, and Public Engagement (MDP) or develop a digital project for their capstone Qualifying Paper (Digital QP). In undertaking these opportunities, students gain additional experience producing material culture research through multimodal and multidisciplinary approaches, developing equal mastery of both content, the tools of advanced scholarship, and the innovative application of digital ideas.
Featured Digital QP Project
A History of Trash In Sight, Jaime Ding
With its world-class gallery and yearly slate of exhibitions, the Bard Graduate Center provides incredible opportunities for students interested in the role of digital tools in exhibition design and material culture studies.
Through participation in Focus Projects, small-scale, academically rigorous exhibitions originating from the research of BGC faculty and postdoctoral fellows, students collaborate with curators and gallery staff, the director of DH/DX, and outside design firms to develop digital interactives that explore the stories, cultures, and histories of exhibition objects. These experiences prepare students for highly sought-after positions working with digital tools in museums, galleries, and cultural heritage spaces and provide a public record of their work and scholarship.
Featured Digital Exhibition Projects
Fabricating Power With Balinese Textiles
Visualizing 19th-Century New York
Explore more DH/DX Projects below.
