From 2010 to 2018 I co-taught the course Digital Anthropology in the MA Program in Visual and Media Anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Click here for more information.
Below: An outdoor screening of Digital Anthropology final projects at the Freie Universität Institut für Ethnologie, photos by Mike Terry
The following site was used by participants of the Visualizing (Im)Mobility walk, which incorporated smartphone activities at each stop. The project was undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Julia Morris.
Mapping our route, 1961 map of Greenwich Village via the New York Public Library
Join the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility faculty on an experiential walk that will reveal the hidden, invisible, and illegible boundaries that guide and shape our involvement with urban life.
What parts of the city are open or available to you, socially and materially, and via what pathways? At what scale do you experience and conceptualize the city? How does your experience of city change depending on your perspective—your race, immigration status, profession, and historical moment?
The city is an ecosystem where the built and natural environments merge. As such, we will examine places where the boundary between the built and the natural is negotiated. Drawing on Guy Debord’s concept of dérive, we will explore how we as humans have shaped the natural environment, how we protect it—particularly against climate change—and how institutions and governments use both built and natural environments to create social boundaries.
Image sources:
Images 1-3: Viele Map 1865
Images 4-6: Alison Meier, Untapped Cities 2012
Map of the Twelve Avenues in the City of New York, compiled for D.T. Valentine’s Manual, 1850
The Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Egbert L. Viele, View of 2nd Ave. Looking up from 42nd St., 1861. Lithograph
Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Mrs. Wendell T. Bush
Brennan Farm House, 84th and Broadway, 1879
Collection of The New-York Historical Society
Robert L. Bracklow, Fifth Avenue and 117th Street, ca. 1870
Museum of the City of New York, Gift of Sonia and Alexander Alland, Jr.
View south on 94th Street near Riverside Drive, ca. 1895. Cyanotype
Museum of the City of New York, Prints and Photographs Collection
One of the few remaining rock spurs, Bennet Avenue between 181st St and 182nd St
Randel Farm Map no. 27, vol. 1, p. 9, showing 45th to 53rd Streets from Third Avenue to the East River, 1820
Randel Farm Map No. 20, vol. 4, p. 5, showing 37th to 45th Street, from Ninth Avenue to the Hudson River, December 1, 1819. Pen and ink with watercolor on paper
Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters, via PRI
New York's oldest manhole cover, Soho
Coal chute, St. Luke's Place
Cornell Iron Works
Abbott Hardware Co
CT&ES, Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway, the company that put electrical lines underground
CT&ES, Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway, the company that put electrical lines underground
IRT, Interborough Rapid Transit, the forerunner of the MTA
Jacob Mark manhole cover, patented 1870, Madison Ave & 37th St
Jacob Mark manhole cover, patented 1870, Waverly Place
Markouts explained by Nicholas Pevzner
Markouts decoded by Nicholas Pevzner
List of manhole cover abbreviations (Wikipedia)
Images of manhole covers via Hyperallergic, Ephemeral New York and Stephen Sherman
Images of utility markouts via Urban Omnibus and ACS Underground
Photo via Judson Memorial Church
The following images were taken by participants and depict activities at Stop 10. Using the NYC Flood Hazard Mapper, we used chalk to make future flood zones visible in the urban landscape—until such time as they were washed away. Participants were also invited to creatively express their reactions to the threat of rising sea levels.
![Map showing the old high water line along the shores of Brooklyn & New York together with the pier lines as established by law [cartographic material] / R. Graves, City Surveyor. 1855. Source: NYPL](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a2832b99f8dcee54f6cf92f/1541608659128-L7WRLWEUG0X9GKCWUU8K/jMjc3eJ.jpg)
