Digital Harlem: The Necessity to Reframe Ontology

What is “Digital Harlem”?

The mapping project that I chose to analyze and discuss is the Digital Harlem project. Digital Harlem seeks to re-present the “lives of ordinary African New Yorkers” between the years 1915 and 1930 through an online and interactive map based on legal documents and black newspapers of the time.

What kinds of assumptions, and whose point of view, does the map you’ve selected reflect?

The map reflects the assumption that conventions of representation (nominal, map projection, etc.) are a decidedly Western construct. Of course, it may or may not prove useful to address these conventions, according to the Historians; however, the point of view of the Historians is marked by Western ontology that may not accurately reflect the intent of the project, which is to re-present the lives of ordinary people. The lives of individuals cannot be reduced to locations and arbitrary measurements used in mapping, such as measurements, lengths, cardinality, etcetera. Turnbull uses a definition of a map that can prove useful in framing Digital Harlem: “ . . . conventions often follow cultural, political and even ideological interests” (Maps Are Territories). This is important because legal documents, particular to the time of the project, used, whether implicitly or explicitly, a framework of “anti-blackness,” therefore the point of view of the legal documents is skewed in favor of “Whiteness”.

What does the map reveal and what does it obscure?

The map places particular events and people in specific locations over a specific time period; however, it obscures the personal experiences and stories of these “ordinary African New Yorkers”. My understanding that sports and church played an important role for this vibrant community is second-hand, that is I learned this not by a personal anecdote or recount, but rather through the observation of the Historians who created the project. Likewise, it becomes difficult to imagine what life was like for these New Yorkers based purely on legal documents that reduce the experience of these inhabitants and which focus on matters of court and law rather than everyday life.

Imagine and describe an alternate map.

An alternative map must be framed through an acceptable ontology that accurately represents the individuals of Harlem between 1915 and 1930. That ontology is entirely dependent on the project creators and their intent; however, framing the project in this manner dissolves the inherent bias and anti-blackness found in legal documents. An example that can be proven useful in trying to understand the everyday lives of African New Yorkers in Harlem could be a visual (digital) narrative that takes into consideration politicking, stories, songs, and the experiences of these individuals: perhaps a VR project that allows one to walk through the footsteps of an “ordinary African New Yorker,” or perhaps an interactive online website that allows one to click on various objects in a house or neighborhood that recount a particular story and experience of an individual. These are just two suggestions among many that can better serve the intent of the Digital Harlem project: to re-present the “lives of ordinary African New Yorkers” in Harlem.