October 2, 2024 • 32 mins
In this episode of Digication Scholars Conversations, host Kelly Driscoll interviews Brittany Linus, a recent graduate of African and African-American Studies and Digital Humanities (Dual Degrees.)
They discuss Brittany's transformative journey to Stanford University, her groundbreaking project 'Visible Bodies,' and her innovative thesis work combining web design and Pleasure Activism.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear partone of my conversation with Brittany
Linus, an undergraduate studentpursuing a dual degree in African and
African-American Studies and DigitalHumanities at Stanford University.
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
(00:25):
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication ScholarsConversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll, and I amso excited today to introduce Brittany
Linus, an undergraduate student athlete.
(00:46):
She's a graduate student at StanfordUniversity, where she's pursuing a dual
degree in African and African-AmericanStudies and Digital Humanities.
And I'm just going to read a little bitfrom Brittany's bio here to provide some
context into this conversation today.
Uh, I'm.
Just thrilled to talk to you, Brittany.
(01:07):
You're an amazing human being.
Brittany is a Nigerian-AmericanUI designer, Digital Humanities
Scholar, and Pleasure Activist.
I just love this.
She believes self care, even in thesmallest form of a smile, is activism.
Currently, Linus is completing aCreative Honors Thesis in collaboration
with the Department of African andAfrican-American Studies and the
(01:33):
Institute for the Diversity in the Arts.
Thank you for joining me today, Brittany.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate you reaching out.
I'm so excited to be here.
Oh, I am just thrilled.
So Brittany created a project portfolio inDigication that I just happened to stumble
(01:56):
across through my work with Stanford,and I literally gasped when I opened
it, you know, it's titled Visual Bodies.
I saw that right in the thumbnailin Stanford's Portfolio Directory
on Digication and I was like,Ooh, what is this about?
(02:18):
And literally was like, Oh, Wow.
Wow.
So, I had to track Brittany down.
I appreciate it, by the way.
That was And I was so pleased thatshe was excited to hear from me.
(02:38):
So here we are, finallyhaving a chance to talk.
And Brittany, I just thought it wouldbe great for our listeners, for you to
just describe a little bit about how youfound yourself at Stanford University
and talking a little bit about the thingsthat you're studying and, and why you're
so passionate about what, you know,what you're pursuing at Stanford and
(03:02):
also just what you're doing as a person.
I just think it's remarkable.
Thank you so much.
Um, it has been quite the journey, notonly being a student at Stanford, but
the entire process of becoming one.
And I'll be honest, when I was a seniorin high school, and it was, I think
(03:23):
it was around August, that was whenAll of our teachers and our counselors
were advocating for us to consider whatuniversity are you going to apply to?
Did you do your SAT and ACTs?
Um, and I just didn't know whereI wanted to go specifically.
And so it was just weighingdown on my mind a little bit.
(03:48):
And I remember my aunt, my AuntieVivian, she came over to my house.
She sat me down.
We were having a conversation catching up.
And she asked, you know, what is,
when you go to university, what isbiggest thing, the biggest takeaway
that you want to have for yourself?
(04:11):
And I told her, you know what,I just want to transform.
I want to go from a larvae to a butterfly.
I don't know what institutionis going to get me there.
I don't know how I'm going to get there.
But that metamorphosis.
I want to experience that.
And she said that there are twoschools that will allow you to go
(04:32):
through this transformative journey.
There's one on the East Coast andthere's one on the West Coast.
There's Harvard and then there's Stanford.
Stanford That was somethingthat I hadn't necessarily put
in a lot of thought to consider.
(04:53):
So I remember going on Google, I pulledup Stanford University, the website,
and I was just perusing the homepage.
And I was just like, of course, everywebsite and every school is going
to have Short, concise information,all the beautiful pictures of the
campus and then in the classrooms.
(05:14):
I'm looking for the dirty stuff.
I'm looking for what is going on inthe maker spaces, the artist spaces.
I want to know really whatStanford is all about.
And that's when I discoveredStanford University's Design School.
Yes.
And I remembered on literally on thewebsite, when you scroll down, it
(05:37):
said, we are here to get stuff done.
And to get stuff done creatively.
And so you see students in thelab with their goggles, like laser
cutting acrylic and with wood.
Yeah.
And in the classrooms with sticky notesand putting it on like makeshift cardboard
boxes that they're turning into robots.
(05:59):
It was so cool.
Yeah.
You know, I've heard and I was like.
That's the school I want to go to.
I totally, I mean, I get the appeal.
I didn't want the polishedkind of view or perspective.
I wanted to see the workthat was being done.
And that was what led me toapply to Stanford University.
(06:19):
Once I applied, honestly, I'm going to beso honest, that one sit down that I did to
just kind of see what Stanford was about.
That was the only one that I did becauseI realized, oh my gosh, Stanford has
like a full percent acceptance rate.
Logistic.
Little competitive.
I was just like, well, youknow, maybe we shouldn't really
(06:41):
get our expectations too high.
Lo and behold, I got in.
And so that was, That wasamazing, an amazing experience.
So when I finally landed and I could seefor myself the pictures of the campus
that were on the website versus whatI was seeing and feeling and touching
in real life, it was astounding.
(07:04):
But what I was really excited forwas the student experiences that
were on the design school's website.
So it's my first day of classesand I just so happen to enroll
in a black studies course.
It was one of those, those courses that Ihave always had an interest in, I either
(07:28):
just did not have the time to take them,or they just didn't fit in my schedule.
And I said, you know what?
I'm gonna take this class for me.
I never looked for this CS degree.
They're saying I have to takeintroduction to Python and all of
these different programming courses.
But this particular literatureclass, I want to take it.
(07:53):
And I remember enrolling in it andit was one of the most transformative
classes that I have ever taken.
What was beautiful about it was.
I saw the student experiencesthat were on the Stanford
University Design School's website.
People in the lab making things.
It translated into that classroom.
(08:15):
We were not only readingabout Black scholars, right?
We're not only reading their speechesor looking at their autobiographies,
we were put in conversationwith them through our artistry.
And so we were invited to usedifferent mediums for our art, graphic
design, web development, and evenstimulating conversations around Okay,
(08:39):
so what, what is the rhetorical useof graphic design when you put it
on a website or when you're tryingto invoke some level of activism,
but your only mode of communicationis Instagram with other people?
How can you leverage thetechnologies that are available?
To cultivate and tell your own story andnot only your own story, but a Black story
(09:02):
that is in conversation with other people.
So you can build up this globalcommunity that digitality
allows for you to cultivate.
It was a stimulating conversationbecause I had never viewed technology
as more than a means to an end.
I didn't view it as an art.
Such a transformative experience.
(09:24):
Um, and from there, my interest ingraphic design, web development,
It kind of blossomed a little bit.
I was like, wait, wait, I can do so much.
I have so many tools at my disposal.
And most importantly, I'm in aspace that values experimentation.
(09:47):
I'm in a space where the work andthe readings that I'm doing, they
don't want to see the readings.
They want to see how thereadings impacted me.
Right.
Yeah.
With this in mind, I can cultivate aformula for myself that allows me to
develop a user experience that impartsthe same feelings that I had as a student
(10:10):
onto those as viewers, as audiences.
So for you to come to me, And like, thatwas what happened with my first ever in
the Digication website, Visible Bodies.
That was literally my first everstab at web development, graphic
design in an academic space.
(10:32):
It was so affirming to the feelingsthat I harbored in my heart at that
time as a student, as a freshmanat Stanford, who didn't really know
what I was doing, but I had theseintuitions and these interests in mind.
Um, and so I just, I think Loveout there because it's exactly
(10:58):
platforms like these that allow methe space of so many other students.
So just deeply reflecton how far we've come.
And so that's literally startingalso with this question is just
allowing me to see how far I'vecome and where I started from.
Yeah.
Oh, well, thank you so muchfor this introduction and.
(11:19):
It was immediately apparent to me whenlooking at the project that you created
that you approached it as this kind of newmedium, you know, almost like, you know,
someone who hasn't touched a paint setbefore or hasn't used watercolor pencil.
(11:43):
You know, you really approached it withthis kind of mindset of exploration
and Just beautifully put in differentimagery at a scale that just brought
me in as a viewer right away.
(12:04):
You incorporated videoin interesting ways.
You had music.
that one could listen to right onthe introduction as you're reading.
I mean it was just so thoughtfullycrafted and I really appreciated the
(12:27):
kind of scale that you were using andthe intentional use of the kind of
Parallax and squinting kind of optionsthat one has because you're just kind
of revealing these different layersand, and parts of your kind of story of
(12:47):
the project and why it's so meaningful.
So it's really an experienceas you're going through it.
It's not one that would, One would kindof consider as a traditional sort of
website, or even what one would describeas a traditional kind of portfolio that
people are using Digication for often.
(13:10):
It's definitely a portfolio, a projectoriented portfolio, but you really
pushed kind of the boundaries of what thetechnology could do and got under the hood
and clearly spent a lot of time exploringall of the different setting options, you
know, design capabilities that were there.
(13:31):
And it was so exciting to see.
Um, so you were talking a littlebit about how you kind of just
Happened to come into this course.
Could you tell us a little bit abouthow you were introduced to the project?
How you discovered Digication?
And maybe, you know, I, I'm talkingabout how there are all of these
(13:55):
different layers, but what was theprocess like for you as you were
kind of building this and what wasit that you really wanted to express?
Oh my gosh.
So I'm going to start.
With a very, I would say,universal experience as a student.
I was a freshman, it was my secondquarter at Stanford, and I had started
(14:20):
that quarter under the belief thatI was still going to be pre med.
Oh wow, okay, yes.
I was taking this chemistry class.
We had one of our first quizzes, andI'm not going to, I'm, I'm not kidding.
I literally got a 40 percent and Iunenrolled from the class that same day.
(14:43):
That same day.
Not meant to be.
Yes.
I was just like, no,that's just how it is.
And I remember because, um, the quiz.
The grades had released, I think itwas a day or so before the last day
where you could finalize your schedule.
So I was desperately in need of a class.
(15:04):
Yeah.
I just was like, I don't know where to go.
So I went on Stanford's catalog,it's called Explore Courses.
And I saw that there was this courseoffered, it was called Visible
Bodies, Black female African authors.
And the Politics of Publishing in Africa.
(15:24):
That was the complete name of the course.
And it falls under this category ofan Introductory Seminars Program.
I was like, what is that?
I mean, this class looks cool.
What is an introductory seminar?
And so introductory seminars atStanford are exploratory courses
(15:47):
cultivated by all disciplines acrossthe campus in order to advertise,
right, the discipline to students.
It's a test run.
They purposefully make it interesting.
Fun, inviting, um, they center,a lot of them center the arts in
order to allow students to kind ofget an insider view into what this
(16:11):
discipline could entail for them beyondthe academics, beyond the theory.
Now it's time for us to work.
So you have an idea of what youwill be doing as a student and not
what you're going to be reading.
I love the premise.
The title of the coursewas so exhilarating.
And so I sent an email to the leadinstructor, Joel Cabrita, and I
(16:36):
was like, I know it's kind of late.
I am in desperate need of a course,but, and I just so happened to stumble
upon your class that you're teaching.
Visible bodies.
I want to be a part of it.
Could you send me the syllabus?
Joel got back to me and Joelwas like, here's a syllabus.
(16:58):
I enrolled you in the class.
I love that at it.
And we're in the course now.
Joel is going over or doing acomprehensive review of the syllabus.
And I see On the syllabus, there isthis portfolio presentation component
that is not just for our particularcohort, but it is across the entire
(17:23):
Introductory Seminars program.
So you could be in the chemistrydepartment, human biology, um,
African and African-American studies.
They work literally cultivating asymposium for you to present your work.
To all of the students who happenedto take introductory seminars
courses just like you that quarter.
(17:44):
Yeah.
And the tool that we wereintroduced to was Digication.
So as we were working through andcultivating our, our experiences within
the course, um, and specifically forVisible Bodies, what we were asked to do,
our literal one assignment was to buildand envision our own publishing house.
(18:05):
And we did everything from the pitchingto, um, the financial, logistical
planning to the business strategy.
How are we going to market this?
From there, we actually partnered up withBlack female authors across the world.
So we had their oversight, we weredocumenting everything, and eventually we
(18:27):
were invited by the actual introductoryseminars program to further extend.
What we were doing or cultivatingwithin the class beyond, I mean,
really beyond that to start thinkingabout, okay, if this publishing house
was real, how would you compensatepeople who say, submit their work?
(18:48):
How would you, what is the communityengagement component of this experience?
And could you share these conversationsthat you're having with these
authors and with these publishers?
Could you make that informationaccessible to others?
And so that was the utility, orrather that is where the utility of
(19:09):
the portfolio kind of took shape.
It was this key presentation componentthat I was introduced to as a student
from the introductory seminars.
So we are given this website.
I'm perusing it and I'm like,wait, I don't, I mean, I haven't
really done web development before.
I mean, honestly, I was scared.
(19:29):
Like at that point, I hadn't coded ever.
So I was just like, I don't know whatto expect when I log onto this platform.
And I remembered, um, Joel came to me.
And Joel was like, it's okay.
Because everything is listed out foryou and how you interact with the
(19:49):
page and how you want to lay it outis literally on the left hand side.
So whatever, say it's the font,you want to add an image, you
want to add a description, youwant to add alt text, it is there.
It is an option for you.
And that opened my eyes, right?
Because I was able to considerthings that I hadn't even considered.
(20:13):
When you're allowed to uploada file, it'll tell you the type
of files you can upload, right?
And with Digication,it did more than that.
It showed me the icon, itgave me a little description.
And so I, the idea of adding like a GIFor, or GIF, um, memes or adding photos
(20:35):
and pictures and videos, I wouldn't havethought of those things if the option
on the interface was not available.
It was almost like the platformwas giving me permission.
To imagine things beyond whatI thought I could imagine.
And so that's exactly what I did.
I was literally just, as you said,the curiosity in my mind, how could I
(20:58):
represent this concept using imagery?
How could I represent this conversation?
Using a video, what is thevalue of a multimedia approach
to this particular process?
And how will it aid in my storytellingsuch that when I step away from the
(21:19):
website, someone who is interactingwith it will still have that same
impression as if I am still in the room.
And that was the utility of Digication.
It was the fact that Digicationjust through the sheer...
I love the way that it is like, format it.
Everything is just there for you.
You are given permissionto be imaginative.
(21:43):
Oh, well, thank you for that description.
And I mean, I can tell you from myperspective, you know, the whole team
here put so much thought and, you know,we want that for the users, right?
We want to be able to not justprovide them with a tool, but provide
(22:04):
them with kind of some openness andopportunity to explore and, you know,
we're kind of quietly suggestingdifferent options that are available.
So, for those that are coming into thiswith, you know, this feeling of, oh gosh,
(22:24):
you know, I've never, Created a website.
Um, I, I don't know what a portfoliois, you know, I have some ideas
about this project that I'mcreating, but how do I express that?
You know, we're, we're hoping to kindof lead users through that by making
those tools easy to get to and kind ofpresenting it throughout the experience
(22:50):
of navigating through the platform.
So I, I appreciate that.
Description very much.
And it sounds like, you know, when Ireached out to you that this experience
that you had in this course and developingthis project really opened up, you
know, it was transformative for you.
It kind of opened upsome new avenues for you.
(23:13):
I mentioned earlier that now as partof your bio that you really describe
yourself as a UI Designer now, and Iwould like to hear a little bit about
You know, what, what that experience waslike and how you've kind of moved forward
from that to what you're doing now.
(23:34):
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
Digication played a huge, a hugepart in that because after I had made
that and that portfolio, um, I wasreached out to by some of the heads
of introductory seminars program.
(23:55):
And they said, we want to bringyou on as one of our employees.
You're going to help us teach others.
How to do what you did.
So my first on campus job.
My first on campus job.
Was literally being sort of like thisstudent advisor on the platform, kind
(24:19):
of showcasing and helping studentstranslate what they have going on in
the classroom, what they want and desireto kind of cultivate that lies within
their mind, and then putting it on aplatform in a way that is streamlined.
So it tells a story fromthe way that it looks.
The type of images, text that isused, and then how you actually
(24:43):
navigate through the platform.
It is you, it, it introduced meto design in a different way.
From Digication, I really startedthinking about the value of digital.
Digital Storytelling and lookingat web development as sort of this
soft launch into the discipline.
(25:04):
And so I found myself literally in everycourse since then, every course making
some flyer Making a little typing upa little code and presenting it to my
professors like, oh, this is what Ilearned in the classroom This is the the
platform that I'm using and this is whereI started from and they would have like
(25:26):
that base eventually I had an opportunityto meet with, um, here it's called the
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis.
I like to call it the Centerof Digital Humanities.
It's a beautiful space.
I love it.
So great.
Um, And there, they just kind of helpedme craft and polish the ideas that I had.
(25:53):
And so that's really all it's been.
Digication launched me into there and nowit was kind of like, I'm hammering it in.
Like, it was, I guess the way thatI would describe it is, Digication
was like the clay that I had and Iwas like, now I was like molding it.
And now like as a sculptor,I'm cultivating the skills
so you can see the details.
You can see the stone becoming skin.
(26:16):
It was such a beautiful experience.
So now I'm entering myjunior to senior year.
I have to start thinking about my thesis.
Yeah.
For African and African-American Studies.
And I wanted to utilize webdesign and web development.
Because it is a space ofpersonal creation, right?
(26:41):
There is no set way to design, so long asyou understand the guidelines, the bylaws
for the interface that you're using.
And the thing about it is, My job as aBlack Studies scholar is to push those
boundaries, is to rethink them, is toreshape them, and to imagine beyond
the borders that are superimposedby, say, the technological limits
(27:06):
that we interact with every day.
It could be I mean the face, theliterally the dimensions of the screen
that you're looking at right now.
So I'm thinking about my thesis.
I go to my advisor, Michelle Elam,and I am really interested And graphic
design, web development, and this notionof pleasure activism, because something
(27:30):
that I was intrigued by was that I woulddesign something, and it was probably
the most maximalist version of it.
The whole screen, and it has so manyvisuals that are popping out, the
colors are saturated, there's texture,and people will feel good about it,
which ran contrary to Every other kindof platform design expert that had
(27:56):
that I had interacted with as of late.
And I wanted to cultivate a thesis thatkind of honored that because that's the
style of web development that doesn'tnecessarily It's not, I would say
it's not in the mainstream as of late.
It exists in very limited spaces.
(28:18):
And so that's when MichelleElam was like, you can do that.
That's called a creative honors thesis.
You can do that.
So that's what I'm doing.
Um, and right now I am not onlyfocusing on web development.
I'm focusing also on video games.
Because that's one of theliminal spaces where maximalism
(28:41):
actually is deeply valued.
You're adding character to not onlythe interface, the platform, the brand,
but you are adding character to youas not only a user, but as a player.
It's very multidimensional, multi faceted.
And so, Just to hone in on thestory a little bit more, I'm
(29:04):
interested in web design development.
I'm interested in how websites and theway that they're designed make you feel.
And that translates into so many differentdigital phenomena, especially video games.
And that is literally my thesis.
How video game changes, right, as a user,that are deliberate, that are personally
(29:25):
decided, communally negotiated, andgenerally a human yes to me feeling good.
How can video game changes be good?
Be a pleasure activist tool.
And no one really talks about it thatmuch from that particular standpoint,
how oppression, right, from the bordersthat it's simply imposed to the dominant
(29:49):
narratives that exist, how thoseparticular narratives, the first thing
that is under attack is how you feel.
Especially when you're feeling good.
So that was my thesis.
And I'm using, I'm actually goingto format it as a virtual magazine
in the format of Digication, theinterface, the way that it has you
(30:10):
scroll down, that's exactly right.
It's simple, but it, it allows themost minimal interaction with the
interface but that gives you moretime to just see what is going on.
And from there, so I'm cultivatingmy thesis into a magazine, which will
then be showcased on a website thatI'm building, I mean, for myself.
(30:33):
And it was just beautifulto see the sheer evolution.
First.
I mean, I had no idea, noexperience coding websites.
I didn't know HTML.
I didn't know what CSS was.
I was like, what is JavaScript?
I just wanted to getinto the design process.
Digication was a useful tool there.
(30:53):
And eventually through the courses,through my own personal exploration
and challenges, I was able to expandmy thinking and start looking at ways
in which I can start cultivating.
Those technical skills.
And so now I'm at the end of myjourney at Stanford where I now
have those technical skills.
I'm putting them to work.
(31:13):
I'm building the website from scratchand the experiences that I had,
even the very first one That I used,Visible Bodies, that project is all
informing the way in which I designand structure my thesis as of today.
And so it is just like, it'sliterally like the culmination
(31:34):
and it should be, right?
The culmination of my journey as anundergraduate student at Stanford.
And it really starts withDigication at the front and center.
Here's a preview of what's coming upnext in part two of my conversation
with Brittany Linus, a recentgraduate of Stanford University.
I got to think about myselfand my experience and how
(31:56):
I'm going to translate that.
It was all about me.
It was all about me andI had help with that.
From the way that the interfacewas designed to the example
templates that are available.
So it was a beautifully curated.
experience as a student and it mademe less hesitant about building and
(32:17):
cultivating a portfolio for myself.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll.
In this episode, you'll hear partone of my conversation with Brittany
Linus, an undergraduate studentpursuing a dual degree in African and
African-American Studies and DigitalHumanities at Stanford University.
More links and information about today'sconversation can be found on Digication's
(00:25):
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Full episodes of Digication ScholarsConversations can be found on
YouTube or your favorite podcast app.
Welcome to DigicationScholars Conversations.
I'm your host, Kelly Driscoll, and I amso excited today to introduce Brittany
Linus, an undergraduate student athlete.
(00:46):
She's a graduate student at StanfordUniversity, where she's pursuing a dual
degree in African and African-AmericanStudies and Digital Humanities.
And I'm just going to read a little bitfrom Brittany's bio here to provide some
context into this conversation today.
Uh, I'm.
Just thrilled to talk to you, Brittany.
(01:07):
You're an amazing human being.
Brittany is a Nigerian-AmericanUI designer, Digital Humanities
Scholar, and Pleasure Activist.
I just love this.
She believes self care, even in thesmallest form of a smile, is activism.
Currently, Linus is completing aCreative Honors Thesis in collaboration
with the Department of African andAfrican-American Studies and the
(01:33):
Institute for the Diversity in the Arts.
Thank you for joining me today, Brittany.
Thank you for having me.
I really appreciate you reaching out.
I'm so excited to be here.
Oh, I am just thrilled.
So Brittany created a project portfolio inDigication that I just happened to stumble
(01:56):
across through my work with Stanford,and I literally gasped when I opened
it, you know, it's titled Visual Bodies.
I saw that right in the thumbnailin Stanford's Portfolio Directory
on Digication and I was like,Ooh, what is this about?
(02:18):
And literally was like, Oh, Wow.
Wow.
So, I had to track Brittany down.
I appreciate it, by the way.
That was And I was so pleased thatshe was excited to hear from me.
(02:38):
So here we are, finallyhaving a chance to talk.
And Brittany, I just thought it wouldbe great for our listeners, for you to
just describe a little bit about how youfound yourself at Stanford University
and talking a little bit about the thingsthat you're studying and, and why you're
so passionate about what, you know,what you're pursuing at Stanford and
(03:02):
also just what you're doing as a person.
I just think it's remarkable.
Thank you so much.
Um, it has been quite the journey, notonly being a student at Stanford, but
the entire process of becoming one.
And I'll be honest, when I was a seniorin high school, and it was, I think
(03:23):
it was around August, that was whenAll of our teachers and our counselors
were advocating for us to consider whatuniversity are you going to apply to?
Did you do your SAT and ACTs?
Um, and I just didn't know whereI wanted to go specifically.
And so it was just weighingdown on my mind a little bit.
(03:48):
And I remember my aunt, my AuntieVivian, she came over to my house.
She sat me down.
We were having a conversation catching up.
And she asked, you know, what is,
when you go to university, what isbiggest thing, the biggest takeaway
that you want to have for yourself?
(04:11):
And I told her, you know what,I just want to transform.
I want to go from a larvae to a butterfly.
I don't know what institutionis going to get me there.
I don't know how I'm going to get there.
But that metamorphosis.
I want to experience that.
And she said that there are twoschools that will allow you to go
(04:32):
through this transformative journey.
There's one on the East Coast andthere's one on the West Coast.
There's Harvard and then there's Stanford.
Stanford That was somethingthat I hadn't necessarily put
in a lot of thought to consider.
(04:53):
So I remember going on Google, I pulledup Stanford University, the website,
and I was just perusing the homepage.
And I was just like, of course, everywebsite and every school is going
to have Short, concise information,all the beautiful pictures of the
campus and then in the classrooms.
(05:14):
I'm looking for the dirty stuff.
I'm looking for what is going on inthe maker spaces, the artist spaces.
I want to know really whatStanford is all about.
And that's when I discoveredStanford University's Design School.
Yes.
And I remembered on literally on thewebsite, when you scroll down, it
(05:37):
said, we are here to get stuff done.
And to get stuff done creatively.
And so you see students in thelab with their goggles, like laser
cutting acrylic and with wood.
Yeah.
And in the classrooms with sticky notesand putting it on like makeshift cardboard
boxes that they're turning into robots.
(05:59):
It was so cool.
Yeah.
You know, I've heard and I was like.
That's the school I want to go to.
I totally, I mean, I get the appeal.
I didn't want the polishedkind of view or perspective.
I wanted to see the workthat was being done.
And that was what led me toapply to Stanford University.
(06:19):
Once I applied, honestly, I'm going to beso honest, that one sit down that I did to
just kind of see what Stanford was about.
That was the only one that I did becauseI realized, oh my gosh, Stanford has
like a full percent acceptance rate.
Logistic.
Little competitive.
I was just like, well, youknow, maybe we shouldn't really
(06:41):
get our expectations too high.
Lo and behold, I got in.
And so that was, That wasamazing, an amazing experience.
So when I finally landed and I could seefor myself the pictures of the campus
that were on the website versus whatI was seeing and feeling and touching
in real life, it was astounding.
(07:04):
But what I was really excited forwas the student experiences that
were on the design school's website.
So it's my first day of classesand I just so happen to enroll
in a black studies course.
It was one of those, those courses that Ihave always had an interest in, I either
(07:28):
just did not have the time to take them,or they just didn't fit in my schedule.
And I said, you know what?
I'm gonna take this class for me.
I never looked for this CS degree.
They're saying I have to takeintroduction to Python and all of
these different programming courses.
But this particular literatureclass, I want to take it.
(07:53):
And I remember enrolling in it andit was one of the most transformative
classes that I have ever taken.
What was beautiful about it was.
I saw the student experiencesthat were on the Stanford
University Design School's website.
People in the lab making things.
It translated into that classroom.
(08:15):
We were not only readingabout Black scholars, right?
We're not only reading their speechesor looking at their autobiographies,
we were put in conversationwith them through our artistry.
And so we were invited to usedifferent mediums for our art, graphic
design, web development, and evenstimulating conversations around Okay,
(08:39):
so what, what is the rhetorical useof graphic design when you put it
on a website or when you're tryingto invoke some level of activism,
but your only mode of communicationis Instagram with other people?
How can you leverage thetechnologies that are available?
To cultivate and tell your own story andnot only your own story, but a Black story
(09:02):
that is in conversation with other people.
So you can build up this globalcommunity that digitality
allows for you to cultivate.
It was a stimulating conversationbecause I had never viewed technology
as more than a means to an end.
I didn't view it as an art.
Such a transformative experience.
(09:24):
Um, and from there, my interest ingraphic design, web development,
It kind of blossomed a little bit.
I was like, wait, wait, I can do so much.
I have so many tools at my disposal.
And most importantly, I'm in aspace that values experimentation.
(09:47):
I'm in a space where the work andthe readings that I'm doing, they
don't want to see the readings.
They want to see how thereadings impacted me.
Right.
Yeah.
With this in mind, I can cultivate aformula for myself that allows me to
develop a user experience that impartsthe same feelings that I had as a student
(10:10):
onto those as viewers, as audiences.
So for you to come to me, And like, thatwas what happened with my first ever in
the Digication website, Visible Bodies.
That was literally my first everstab at web development, graphic
design in an academic space.
(10:32):
It was so affirming to the feelingsthat I harbored in my heart at that
time as a student, as a freshmanat Stanford, who didn't really know
what I was doing, but I had theseintuitions and these interests in mind.
Um, and so I just, I think Loveout there because it's exactly
(10:58):
platforms like these that allow methe space of so many other students.
So just deeply reflecton how far we've come.
And so that's literally startingalso with this question is just
allowing me to see how far I'vecome and where I started from.
Yeah.
Oh, well, thank you so muchfor this introduction and.
(11:19):
It was immediately apparent to me whenlooking at the project that you created
that you approached it as this kind of newmedium, you know, almost like, you know,
someone who hasn't touched a paint setbefore or hasn't used watercolor pencil.
(11:43):
You know, you really approached it withthis kind of mindset of exploration
and Just beautifully put in differentimagery at a scale that just brought
me in as a viewer right away.
(12:04):
You incorporated videoin interesting ways.
You had music.
that one could listen to right onthe introduction as you're reading.
I mean it was just so thoughtfullycrafted and I really appreciated the
(12:27):
kind of scale that you were using andthe intentional use of the kind of
Parallax and squinting kind of optionsthat one has because you're just kind
of revealing these different layersand, and parts of your kind of story of
(12:47):
the project and why it's so meaningful.
So it's really an experienceas you're going through it.
It's not one that would, One would kindof consider as a traditional sort of
website, or even what one would describeas a traditional kind of portfolio that
people are using Digication for often.
(13:10):
It's definitely a portfolio, a projectoriented portfolio, but you really
pushed kind of the boundaries of what thetechnology could do and got under the hood
and clearly spent a lot of time exploringall of the different setting options, you
know, design capabilities that were there.
(13:31):
And it was so exciting to see.
Um, so you were talking a littlebit about how you kind of just
Happened to come into this course.
Could you tell us a little bit abouthow you were introduced to the project?
How you discovered Digication?
And maybe, you know, I, I'm talkingabout how there are all of these
(13:55):
different layers, but what was theprocess like for you as you were
kind of building this and what wasit that you really wanted to express?
Oh my gosh.
So I'm going to start.
With a very, I would say,universal experience as a student.
I was a freshman, it was my secondquarter at Stanford, and I had started
(14:20):
that quarter under the belief thatI was still going to be pre med.
Oh wow, okay, yes.
I was taking this chemistry class.
We had one of our first quizzes, andI'm not going to, I'm, I'm not kidding.
I literally got a 40 percent and Iunenrolled from the class that same day.
(14:43):
That same day.
Not meant to be.
Yes.
I was just like, no,that's just how it is.
And I remember because, um, the quiz.
The grades had released, I think itwas a day or so before the last day
where you could finalize your schedule.
So I was desperately in need of a class.
(15:04):
Yeah.
I just was like, I don't know where to go.
So I went on Stanford's catalog,it's called Explore Courses.
And I saw that there was this courseoffered, it was called Visible
Bodies, Black female African authors.
And the Politics of Publishing in Africa.
(15:24):
That was the complete name of the course.
And it falls under this category ofan Introductory Seminars Program.
I was like, what is that?
I mean, this class looks cool.
What is an introductory seminar?
And so introductory seminars atStanford are exploratory courses
(15:47):
cultivated by all disciplines acrossthe campus in order to advertise,
right, the discipline to students.
It's a test run.
They purposefully make it interesting.
Fun, inviting, um, they center,a lot of them center the arts in
order to allow students to kind ofget an insider view into what this
(16:11):
discipline could entail for them beyondthe academics, beyond the theory.
Now it's time for us to work.
So you have an idea of what youwill be doing as a student and not
what you're going to be reading.
I love the premise.
The title of the coursewas so exhilarating.
And so I sent an email to the leadinstructor, Joel Cabrita, and I
(16:36):
was like, I know it's kind of late.
I am in desperate need of a course,but, and I just so happened to stumble
upon your class that you're teaching.
Visible bodies.
I want to be a part of it.
Could you send me the syllabus?
Joel got back to me and Joelwas like, here's a syllabus.
(16:58):
I enrolled you in the class.
I love that at it.
And we're in the course now.
Joel is going over or doing acomprehensive review of the syllabus.
And I see On the syllabus, there isthis portfolio presentation component
that is not just for our particularcohort, but it is across the entire
(17:23):
Introductory Seminars program.
So you could be in the chemistrydepartment, human biology, um,
African and African-American studies.
They work literally cultivating asymposium for you to present your work.
To all of the students who happenedto take introductory seminars
courses just like you that quarter.
(17:44):
Yeah.
And the tool that we wereintroduced to was Digication.
So as we were working through andcultivating our, our experiences within
the course, um, and specifically forVisible Bodies, what we were asked to do,
our literal one assignment was to buildand envision our own publishing house.
(18:05):
And we did everything from the pitchingto, um, the financial, logistical
planning to the business strategy.
How are we going to market this?
From there, we actually partnered up withBlack female authors across the world.
So we had their oversight, we weredocumenting everything, and eventually we
(18:27):
were invited by the actual introductoryseminars program to further extend.
What we were doing or cultivatingwithin the class beyond, I mean,
really beyond that to start thinkingabout, okay, if this publishing house
was real, how would you compensatepeople who say, submit their work?
(18:48):
How would you, what is the communityengagement component of this experience?
And could you share these conversationsthat you're having with these
authors and with these publishers?
Could you make that informationaccessible to others?
And so that was the utility, orrather that is where the utility of
(19:09):
the portfolio kind of took shape.
It was this key presentation componentthat I was introduced to as a student
from the introductory seminars.
So we are given this website.
I'm perusing it and I'm like,wait, I don't, I mean, I haven't
really done web development before.
I mean, honestly, I was scared.
(19:29):
Like at that point, I hadn't coded ever.
So I was just like, I don't know whatto expect when I log onto this platform.
And I remembered, um, Joel came to me.
And Joel was like, it's okay.
Because everything is listed out foryou and how you interact with the
(19:49):
page and how you want to lay it outis literally on the left hand side.
So whatever, say it's the font,you want to add an image, you
want to add a description, youwant to add alt text, it is there.
It is an option for you.
And that opened my eyes, right?
Because I was able to considerthings that I hadn't even considered.
(20:13):
When you're allowed to uploada file, it'll tell you the type
of files you can upload, right?
And with Digication,it did more than that.
It showed me the icon, itgave me a little description.
And so I, the idea of adding like a GIFor, or GIF, um, memes or adding photos
(20:35):
and pictures and videos, I wouldn't havethought of those things if the option
on the interface was not available.
It was almost like the platformwas giving me permission.
To imagine things beyond whatI thought I could imagine.
And so that's exactly what I did.
I was literally just, as you said,the curiosity in my mind, how could I
(20:58):
represent this concept using imagery?
How could I represent this conversation?
Using a video, what is thevalue of a multimedia approach
to this particular process?
And how will it aid in my storytellingsuch that when I step away from the
(21:19):
website, someone who is interactingwith it will still have that same
impression as if I am still in the room.
And that was the utility of Digication.
It was the fact that Digicationjust through the sheer...
I love the way that it is like, format it.
Everything is just there for you.
You are given permissionto be imaginative.
(21:43):
Oh, well, thank you for that description.
And I mean, I can tell you from myperspective, you know, the whole team
here put so much thought and, you know,we want that for the users, right?
We want to be able to not justprovide them with a tool, but provide
(22:04):
them with kind of some openness andopportunity to explore and, you know,
we're kind of quietly suggestingdifferent options that are available.
So, for those that are coming into thiswith, you know, this feeling of, oh gosh,
(22:24):
you know, I've never, Created a website.
Um, I, I don't know what a portfoliois, you know, I have some ideas
about this project that I'mcreating, but how do I express that?
You know, we're, we're hoping to kindof lead users through that by making
those tools easy to get to and kind ofpresenting it throughout the experience
(22:50):
of navigating through the platform.
So I, I appreciate that.
Description very much.
And it sounds like, you know, when Ireached out to you that this experience
that you had in this course and developingthis project really opened up, you
know, it was transformative for you.
It kind of opened upsome new avenues for you.
(23:13):
I mentioned earlier that now as partof your bio that you really describe
yourself as a UI Designer now, and Iwould like to hear a little bit about
You know, what, what that experience waslike and how you've kind of moved forward
from that to what you're doing now.
(23:34):
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
Digication played a huge, a hugepart in that because after I had made
that and that portfolio, um, I wasreached out to by some of the heads
of introductory seminars program.
(23:55):
And they said, we want to bringyou on as one of our employees.
You're going to help us teach others.
How to do what you did.
So my first on campus job.
My first on campus job.
Was literally being sort of like thisstudent advisor on the platform, kind
(24:19):
of showcasing and helping studentstranslate what they have going on in
the classroom, what they want and desireto kind of cultivate that lies within
their mind, and then putting it on aplatform in a way that is streamlined.
So it tells a story fromthe way that it looks.
The type of images, text that isused, and then how you actually
(24:43):
navigate through the platform.
It is you, it, it introduced meto design in a different way.
From Digication, I really startedthinking about the value of digital.
Digital Storytelling and lookingat web development as sort of this
soft launch into the discipline.
(25:04):
And so I found myself literally in everycourse since then, every course making
some flyer Making a little typing upa little code and presenting it to my
professors like, oh, this is what Ilearned in the classroom This is the the
platform that I'm using and this is whereI started from and they would have like
(25:26):
that base eventually I had an opportunityto meet with, um, here it's called the
Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis.
I like to call it the Centerof Digital Humanities.
It's a beautiful space.
I love it.
So great.
Um, And there, they just kind of helpedme craft and polish the ideas that I had.
(25:53):
And so that's really all it's been.
Digication launched me into there and nowit was kind of like, I'm hammering it in.
Like, it was, I guess the way thatI would describe it is, Digication
was like the clay that I had and Iwas like, now I was like molding it.
And now like as a sculptor,I'm cultivating the skills
so you can see the details.
You can see the stone becoming skin.
(26:16):
It was such a beautiful experience.
So now I'm entering myjunior to senior year.
I have to start thinking about my thesis.
Yeah.
For African and African-American Studies.
And I wanted to utilize webdesign and web development.
Because it is a space ofpersonal creation, right?
(26:41):
There is no set way to design, so long asyou understand the guidelines, the bylaws
for the interface that you're using.
And the thing about it is, My job as aBlack Studies scholar is to push those
boundaries, is to rethink them, is toreshape them, and to imagine beyond
the borders that are superimposedby, say, the technological limits
(27:06):
that we interact with every day.
It could be I mean the face, theliterally the dimensions of the screen
that you're looking at right now.
So I'm thinking about my thesis.
I go to my advisor, Michelle Elam,and I am really interested And graphic
design, web development, and this notionof pleasure activism, because something
(27:30):
that I was intrigued by was that I woulddesign something, and it was probably
the most maximalist version of it.
The whole screen, and it has so manyvisuals that are popping out, the
colors are saturated, there's texture,and people will feel good about it,
which ran contrary to Every other kindof platform design expert that had
(27:56):
that I had interacted with as of late.
And I wanted to cultivate a thesis thatkind of honored that because that's the
style of web development that doesn'tnecessarily It's not, I would say
it's not in the mainstream as of late.
It exists in very limited spaces.
(28:18):
And so that's when MichelleElam was like, you can do that.
That's called a creative honors thesis.
You can do that.
So that's what I'm doing.
Um, and right now I am not onlyfocusing on web development.
I'm focusing also on video games.
Because that's one of theliminal spaces where maximalism
(28:41):
actually is deeply valued.
You're adding character to not onlythe interface, the platform, the brand,
but you are adding character to youas not only a user, but as a player.
It's very multidimensional, multi faceted.
And so, Just to hone in on thestory a little bit more, I'm
(29:04):
interested in web design development.
I'm interested in how websites and theway that they're designed make you feel.
And that translates into so many differentdigital phenomena, especially video games.
And that is literally my thesis.
How video game changes, right, as a user,that are deliberate, that are personally
(29:25):
decided, communally negotiated, andgenerally a human yes to me feeling good.
How can video game changes be good?
Be a pleasure activist tool.
And no one really talks about it thatmuch from that particular standpoint,
how oppression, right, from the bordersthat it's simply imposed to the dominant
(29:49):
narratives that exist, how thoseparticular narratives, the first thing
that is under attack is how you feel.
Especially when you're feeling good.
So that was my thesis.
And I'm using, I'm actually goingto format it as a virtual magazine
in the format of Digication, theinterface, the way that it has you
(30:10):
scroll down, that's exactly right.
It's simple, but it, it allows themost minimal interaction with the
interface but that gives you moretime to just see what is going on.
And from there, so I'm cultivatingmy thesis into a magazine, which will
then be showcased on a website thatI'm building, I mean, for myself.
(30:33):
And it was just beautifulto see the sheer evolution.
First.
I mean, I had no idea, noexperience coding websites.
I didn't know HTML.
I didn't know what CSS was.
I was like, what is JavaScript?
I just wanted to getinto the design process.
Digication was a useful tool there.
(30:53):
And eventually through the courses,through my own personal exploration
and challenges, I was able to expandmy thinking and start looking at ways
in which I can start cultivating.
Those technical skills.
And so now I'm at the end of myjourney at Stanford where I now
have those technical skills.
I'm putting them to work.
(31:13):
I'm building the website from scratchand the experiences that I had,
even the very first one That I used,Visible Bodies, that project is all
informing the way in which I designand structure my thesis as of today.
And so it is just like, it'sliterally like the culmination
(31:34):
and it should be, right?
The culmination of my journey as anundergraduate student at Stanford.
And it really starts withDigication at the front and center.
Here's a preview of what's coming upnext in part two of my conversation
with Brittany Linus, a recentgraduate of Stanford University.
I got to think about myselfand my experience and how
(31:56):
I'm going to translate that.
It was all about me.
It was all about me andI had help with that.
From the way that the interfacewas designed to the example
templates that are available.
So it was a beautifully curated.
experience as a student and it mademe less hesitant about building and
(32:17):
cultivating a portfolio for myself.
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