Sylvia Wynter's Dream

_{My name is Tracy-Ann Guy, a final year English Literature major who has been able to explore the arts through education at the University of the West Indies and the Edna College of Visual and Performing Arts. Through this collaboration, offered through the Humanities department at the University of the West Indies, I have been able to research, study and view the histories of art and literature from many different perspectives. In a course such as Creative Nonfiction Writing and Digital Media, there is opportunity to learn more about the growing use of media and the important role of digital humanity. It is my goal to finish this this course as a better educated and well-rounded individual with improved writing skills and greater admiration for yet another creative skill.}

Amy Earhart challenges whether or not information (as it relates to the creatives and our artistic history) can be unfettered. That is, can it ever be unrestricted or unconfined to a specific narrative. Earhart touches on the history of digital humanities and how it has been accepted, rejected and foreseen to affect humanity in the near future. She also touches on the responsibilities of Humanitists in the preservation and continuation of digital canons through technology. there were several scholars quoted as we explored the different roles digital technology plays and their views on the internet as it relates to the impact it would have on the preservation and authenticity of the arts. There was speculation from many on whether or not the internet would prove a to do more good than bad as it grew more popular and more of a certain demographic flocked to it than others.

Technology seemed to be a way to widely spread information (good and bad) as more people worldwide could be exposed to the arts and humanities of the world. However there was and maybe still is a race struggles as many great African influences were not promoted or given credit where due. Information is presented in a way that it does not have to be verified or from a credited source. This sets us up for wide spread misinformation and targeted manipulation of text among other things.

Though there has been effort placed into recovering the arts and literature of people of color. Many of our history is still riddled with incomplete period and unknown works and faces. To an extent, it seems as if we merely know that people of color have a rich historical and artistic background but do not have the material readily available that they have created. Amy Earhart points out serval projects that were founded (independent and funded projects) and how even as we access the archives that have been created, there are many missing and assumed lost material. There have been several movements that aided the digital humanities and these projects have impacted the how information has been received.

Even today as we observe the history of digital humanities we can note that we believe that a legend such as Pablo Picasso was born hundreds of years ago and his influence came from a deep rooted history. That notion is an effect of negatively used digital humanities to twist our minds into erasing the truth while still relating to the cultural resemblance and familiarities in his works. Due to the work of some humanitists, we are now be better informed on the true history of the humanities. The media that was used to misinform and brainwash is still the fastest way of reeducation and reversal of false information. We can now give credit to various tribes that had their work copied and rebranded and we can use that to support the analysis and discoveries of Earhart who so scholarly pointed our the race relation and conflict of digital media and humanities.

The next generation of digital humanities

I do agree with Earhart on many levels as she made points on both the beneficial and the damaging aspects of digital media. I do believe that today we are more inclined to use technology as a mode or production and creation but it has not stunted the creativity. It has recreated a network that allows us to reach a wider audience

The success of digitalization now seems to be based on the institutionalization of it as we incorporate it in our studies and with the various digital projects over the years we have been able to focus our efforts on special projects to boost materials of people of color. In Earthart’s text, it suggests that the treatment of the digital humanities and how we market it proves important to the standard people hold digital work with I can agree with on some levels. Marketing is now very important in keeping audience invested in your work and affiliations do also contribute to that. Despite all this, we have not lost our appreciation for our history. It is readily at our finger tips and digitalization is merely another mode of publication.