Promontory Project: A Case Study
Summer 2018
Partial NEST grant awardee for project in collaboration with multimedia artist Laura Hyunjhee Kim
Notes from Promontory is a joint collaboration between multimedia artist Laura Hyunjhee Kim and human-computer interaction researcher Jen Liu that re-examines the visual and sociocultural history of the technological wild west. Golden Spike National Historic Site, located in Promontory Summit, marks the point where the Transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Bridging the American East and West Coast across mountains, prairies, deserts and forest, this railroad marks an “annihilation of space and time,” a popular catchphrase from the 19th century used to describe how new communication and transportation technologies, such as the railway and telegraph, can rapidly influence a society. Through re-envisioning this particular site, the collaborators weave together stories of systematized innovation, immigrant labor, and the formation of the American West.
PDF Write up our project: Notes from Promontory