Discovering John Ashbery’s Nest

Virtual tours of historical spaces have become increasingly immersive thanks to digital technologies. A prime example of this is the Digital Humanities project, “John Ashbery’s NEST,” a website that provides users a virtual tour of the American poet’s Victorian home called “Hudson House.” Users navigate through an interactive tour with 360 degree images, still photography, audio clips, and descriptions of Ashbery’s collections of furniture and art. Narrated by audio clips of Ashbery himself, which evokes a sentimental and personal feeling, the tour helps the audience gain insight about the spaces and collections that inspired his work. The levels of this work can be dissected into three parts: sources, processing, and presentation.

The sources of this project include Ashbery himself, more specifically his recounts of his experiences and background stories behind his collections, and his partner David Kermani. Other sources are Ashbery’s house itself, as it contained all of his furniture and artifacts, and carries significance as a space all on its own. The Poetry Foundation provided photography of the objects and spaces within the Hudson House, and the blue prints and builder specifications of the house are found in Architectural Documents.

The processing, or level in which the data/objects are digitized, is carried out through 360° photography, panoramas and still photography. This allows users to fully immerse themselves in the environment as they move through the room and view objects while listening to audio and reading additional descriptions. For example, the Cricket Box is a 360° image which allows users to click and drag to view the object while listening to the history and significance of it to Ashbery’s life. We learn not only about the object itself, but about Ashbery’s personal recounts of his grandparents’ travels.

The presentation, or the final product of the photography, descriptions, and audio which the users encounter is a visually-interactive, web-accessible form that is searchable. The website is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and informational. It can be found through Yale University Library: Digital Humanities Laboratory.

Overall, I enjoyed my experience on this website because instead of simply reading about Ashbery’s house, this project allowed me to experience it as if I was there listening to Ashbery himself giving a tour and allowing us to touch the objects. In this beautifully executed tour, we can see not only the physical environment, but also how it fed Ashbery’s creativity and writing experience.