maps
Early cartography was impacted by scientific revolution and enlightenment but also driven by hegemonic forces: our ancestors needed "to know where the 'loot' was and then get back home with it safe and sound" (quoting Dr. Shaowen Wang).
"Redlining California," a project started by Richard Marciano at the San Diego Supercomputing Center, was previewed at HASTAC's very first gathering in 2003 or 2004. By crunching demographic statistics, guidelines offered by the Federal housing commission back to the 1930s, and global positioning systems, Marciana showed how early policies of discrimination map onto continuing segregation, economic disparity, and poverty in southern California, with implications for the whole country. Come to HASTAC II to see how far this remarkable project, now co-directed by Marciano and David Theo Goldberg, Director of UCHRI and HASTAC co-founder, has progressed and to see what a true collaboration across the humanities, social sciences, and computational sciences can yield. Their maps of then-and-now, prejudice in motion and poverty locked-down, will shock you and break your heart.
