Digital Studies Institute: Where Technology and Culture Collide

In June 2020, Snapchat issued an apology for a facial filter that asked users to smile to break the chains of slavery in celebration of Juneteenth. Though the company stated that a diverse group of employees had been involved in the development of the lens, audiences were left scratching their heads about how such a tone deaf message implying an oversimplified solution to slavery could have made it past the concept stage. In today’s electronically-networked global society the ramifications of a misstep like this can be immediate and costly. 

Yvette Granata, assistant professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Media and the Digital Studies Institute, points out that the incident underscores why companies that rely on technology to engage with consumers are increasingly interested in hiring not only tech-savvy but also socially-informed individuals. She notes, “there is a strategic advantage in knowing what goes into designing technology that can responsibly and respectfully communicate with a variety of audiences.”

The Digital Studies Institute (DSI) was established in 2019 to serve as the College of LSA’s home for scholarship on digital technologies and culture, and to equip U-M students with the tools to become the transformative leaders that companies like Snapchat need. The institute applies humanities-centered scholarship to the power and the problems of the digital world, examining how common digital technology absorbs, interprets, and shapes the human experience, including our views of race, disability, gender, sexuality, class, power, and identity.

DSI’s position within LSA, the University of Michigan’s liberal arts college, sets it apart. The institute, which administers an undergraduate minor and a graduate concentration, draws on the expertise of faculty and perspectives of scholars from multiple LSA departments (among them American Culture; Film, Television, and Media; Communication and Media Studies; Philosophy; Computer Science; and Comparative Literature) as well as other U-M schools and colleges, including the STAMPS School of Art & Design, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and the School of Information. Digital studies courses appeal to students from a broad range of disciplines, and blend the exploration of deep and pressing social justice themes with hands-on projects that give students a chance to learn and experiment with the technology.

"Digital Bodies," a course taught by Assistant Professor Granata, combines practice and theory to demonstrate how these humanities-centered insights can make a big difference. Students examine the multiple facets of human identity through art and literature, then design and produce their own digital facial filters to facilitate dialogue about how digital platforms can affect—and distort—cultural perceptions and the representation of people’s bodies.

“Throughout the course, we look at various contemporary artists whose works address themes including surveillance, and biometric and facial recognition systems,” said Granata. One example is artist Zach Blas’s 'Facial Weaponization Suite', which he says “protests against biometric facial recognition–and the inequalities [it] propagate[s].” Such systems have become commonplace in our surveillance culture, especially in the widespread use of smartphones. Facial scanning powers social media filters like Snapchat’s that rely on facial movement (smiles, blinks, mouth opening), or TikTok’s that “reveal” your celebrity twin or show you what you’d look like decades older or younger; it’s also behind the practical Face ID functions that unlock our phones or provide access to our mobile banking apps. But the technology, which includes iris scanning and fingerprinting, is also used by governments and security organizations to predict and verify identity, with more threatening possibilities like weaponization to monitor and control various populations. Built-in human biases around normative conceptions of identity can cloud accuracy and exacerbate discrimination.

Lecturer Tony Bushner’s "Modern Board Games and Crowdfunding" course takes a different approach. One day last semester, small groups clustered around tables in a Mason Hall classroom, each intently focused on a different game. Some game boards were decorated with bright and cheerful graphics. One game was played with a single deck of cards, while others featured a rainbow of tiny game pieces. Dice were plentiful. The class was playtesting the games that they had been developing over the course of the semester. In addition to whether the games were easy or enjoyable to play, they’d also considered the roles that accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability play in board game design and production.

“Board games and digital media share many of the same design fundamentals,” said Bushner. “This course makes studying those concepts accessible to students who don’t have a background in computer science or programming.”

The course is cross-listed by LSA’s Digital Studies Institute (DSI) and the Department of American Culture, where digital studies at U-M began as a pilot program in 2014. Like DSI’s courses on video games, some of which are taught by Bushner as well, "Modern Board Games and Crowdfunding" teaches students about the social, economic, and environmental impact of their favorite games and guides them through the process of making games that will have a positive impact.

Bushner noted that board games have enjoyed a huge renaissance over the last twenty years—just as usage of digital technology has exploded. Compared to classic twentieth century board games like Sorry!, The Game of Life, and Chutes and Ladders, modern board games, including Settlers of Catan, Wingspan, and Dominion, tend to be more complex and sophisticated with themes that often appeal to niche audiences. Studying the characteristics of these analog artifacts through a UX (User Experience) lens helps students understand how to identify and ultimately reduce some of the human bias that gets built into systems. For example, a game that requires players to match a color on a card to the same-colored space on the board in order to advance demonstrates a bias against individuals with color blindness; the fix for accessibility would be to instead require players to match a color and/or a symbol. Environmental impacts of a board game's design might include the materials used in its manufacture (plastic, cardboard, wood, etc.), where it is manufactured, and how it is delivered to retailers and/or consumers. The course also includes a fundraising component in which students create online crowdfunding campaigns to solicit funds for the manufacture and distribution of their games. It’s important knowledge that can be applied across all forms of networked interactions and the interactive media that powers our work and social lives.

Courses like "Modern Board Games and Crowdfunding" bring the institute’s interdisciplinary approach to life, offering humanities students a unique entry point to tech-based material, and attracting greater diversity of thought to encourage collaborative innovation for better and more equitable tech in the future. 

“Students in my section had a wide range of academic backgrounds and skills, which resulted in an interesting microcosm of perspectives and made our team discussions and project work much more dynamic,” said Kim. “For example, one of my classmates, a computer science student, discovered a program that uses similar principles to coding for card deck creation. That helped me pick up some coding fundamentals.”