Christofer Gass

Hello, and welcome!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my website.

I am a recent master's graduate of Digital Humanities from CUNY, The Graduate Center, and this site is meant to showcase some of the work created in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. These projects have grown from an interest while a student at Columbus State University in Art History and Geography, and have grown while a graduate student at CUNY.

The embedded text-based game, Fair World 64, was my Digital Humanities capstone project and it was completed over the course of the spring 2020 semester. In the game, the player controls an avatar through the 1964 season of the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair in what is now Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. With $2.35 and four hours to spend, the player can visit nearly a dozen of the pavilions within all areas of the Fair.

Throughout my undergraduate and graduate coursework, I took an interest in Geospatial Humanities and the creation of maps with GIS to inform about my research. Before the creation of my text-based game, I hand scrapped the Fair's Official Souvenir Guide Book onto Excel for the course Introduction to Digital Humanities during the fall of 2019. The data for each of the pavilions was then depicted in Tableau after they were georeferenced. An additional project during the course was mapping out the text from the first chapter of Frank Forrester's Warwick Woodlands. Multiple maps were created and linked together for an Esri Story Map that traces the trip by horse and buggy from Manhattan to Warwick, New York. Additionally, maps from other courses from undergraduate and graduate school are represented.

An important aspect of DH that was new to me when starting graduate school was Data Visualization. Within the 'Data Viz' tab there is selection of work created during the fall 2019 semester while in Introduction to Digital Humanities, as well as Data Visualization and Design: Fundamentals.

While an intern with CSU's Gallery Director in the spring of 2016, I had the privilege of creating the exhibition A River Runs Through It: Preserving Progress Along the Chattahoochee for CSU's Simon Schwob Library. Copies of historical photographs for four of Columbus' historic buildings, which are now owned by CSU, were framed and hung next to copies of their 19th century Sanborn fire insurance map building plan. In addition to an exhibition description, three of the University's physical Sanborn map books were placed in display cases. After this exhibition and gallery internship, I was rewarded the opportunity to intern with the Columbus Museum where I worked with the History Curator to co-curate Common Grounds in the spring of 2017. For my efforts with the research and curation for the exhibition, I was nominated for Student Project Award from the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries in 2018 and won. The third exhibition depicted is Facade. Before I left Columbus for graduate school, I had the pleasure to curate an exhibition of my spouse and I's photography for CSU's Rankin Arts Photography Center.

The documentation of Shotgun Homes while I lived in Georgia was a major passion for me. During my brief time in the South I gained an appreciation for the structure and noticed their demise everywhere. I believe Shotgun Homes are an invaluable architectural form that inform of the difficulty Black people continue to face. Unfortunately, these structures are bulldozed and demolished daily wiping away the history of the Black community and their lifelong struggle. I have photographed these historically significant homes throughout the Southeast, mostly in Columbus, and I have selected a few of them from 35mm film to medium format film. The first four in the 'Photography' tab were taken with an Asahi Pentax 67 medium format camera, while the fifth and sixth photographs were taken with a Holga 120N medium format camera with black and white film. The remaining Shotgun Homes and photographs were taken with a Canon AE-1 with 35mm film.

The following projects, whether done personally or within a group, were created thanks to the many brilliant people I've had the pleasure to work with and learn from. To everyone who ever assisted, encouraged, or critiqued, thank you!