This project uses the techniques of data science to challenge current trends towards cultural inequality and find value in the “long tail” of culture. As with wealth today, culture is dominated by a state of affairs in which a small minority of artists or works accrue the vast majority of sales or critical attention. And yet over the last two decades we have witnessed a massive proliferation of content online. This is the new “long tail” of culture, the cultural equivalent of the 99%. Until recently, we have had no real way of understanding this space or valuing it. This talk is about exploring our current state of inequality and the ways computation can be used to create more democratic and open forms of cultural valuation.

—co-sponsored with Temple’s Digital Scholarship Center and the Tri-College Digital Humanities Program