Good morning, friends,
Before we can make a better future for higher education, we need to get through today.
For four years, November 3, 2020 has been a precipice. A chance to choose a different path from where we’ve found ourselves since 2016. Four years of talk and planning and hope, and now it’s here. You’ve woken up, the sun has risen, maybe you’ve made coffee and breakfast already. Because as much as November 3rd is an event that we’ve anticipated, it’s also another Tuesday in COVID times.
If you haven’t voted yet, and you can, please vote. If you are able, donate some time to a gotv initiative. And then, find an activity or a community that can support you as we wait for the ballots to be counted, and juggle hope and fear about what happens next. We may not know the results today, but that makes being together even more crucial.
—Nika, Liz, and Quinn for the VFC
Things you can do today
6pm-11pm EST: Animal Crossing New Digital Humanities: Election Night
Join Quinn Dombrowski and Liz Grumbach for in-game scavenger hunts and crafts (kid-friendly), a conversation about radical self care, a special report from the DataSitter’s club, fortune telling from ⅓ of the VFC’s Coyote & Bones, and more. A schedule for the event can be found here.
Join us on Discord for a community voice chat, whether or not you play ACNH. We’ll share the Dodo code on Discord.
Or, join us on Twitch.
5pm-10pm EST: Chillout (Zoom) Tent
For those that need community but also need a quiet room, join us on Zoom. Everyone will be on mute, participation in chat is optional, and Liz Grumbach will be DJ’ing chill music and taking music requests all afternoon and into the evening.
For the Zoom link, DM Liz Grumbach on Twitter (@EMGrumbach), send an email (egrumbac@asu.edu), or post on the ACNDH Discord group.
Noon PST: Discorrelation, or: Images between Algorithms and Aesthetics
Art historian Shane Denson will present material from his new book, Discorrelated Images (Duke 2020). Looking particularly at the ways in which digital glitches have been implemented in post-cinematic audiovisual narratives, this presentation argues that new forms of sensibility and collectivity may become thinkable in the spaces opened up by post-cinematic media – that new ways of being and relating to the world may arise from the recorrelatation of the disgraded minor ontology of the second sex.
All day: Little girl & manatee
Jojo Karlin (the artist behind Digital Humanities as “Difficulty Manatees” and live-illustrator at many DH conferences) will be sharing a “tale of rallying support for all the people needing a little comfort! Checking in on people, validating people’s fears with hope and courage, and generally coping via the plush distraction of kids and stuffed animals.” Follow along on Instagram or Facebook!
All day: #DHElection
Use the #DHElection hashtag today, tomorrow, this week, and in the future to connect with a community on social media, and especially on Twitter, that’s holding space for us all.
Tarot Reading: The message we need
Dear Coyote & Bones: What message do we need to hear right now?
This week sucks. It fucking sucks. Yesterday was the worst Monday of 2020 so far, and today will be the worst Tuesday. Before we get started today: please take a breath with us. Take several breaths. Coyote & Bones, and the whole VFC, are here in solidarity with you. Whether you’re working a poll, home with the kids, doomscrolling (please, take a break), or having your fourth cup of coffee (or your first drink), we see you. We make space for you.
We drew The Undergraduate today. This is the optimist’s card, and that may be hard to hear right now. Being optimistic about our current moment in history is maybe the hardest challenge we could pose to our community today, but the cards are telling us to channel authenticity, positivity, and joy. The undergraduate looks at us from a relaxed position, chilling with a book underneath the life-giving sun that is just-rising in the background. Their legs are kicking as they stare at us from behind their mask, whispering to us that we should relive our favorite memory, recall what success felt like, and brace ourselves for the present moment by radiating support, care, and compassion.
We can be there for each other. We can listen to each other. We can find joy and hope in the darkest moments. We can.