Qazi Arka Rahman, a doctoral candidate in English, received the 2023 Art in the Libraries Graduate Student Exhibit Award for his exhibit “Rectifying New Digital Record,” on display in the Downtown Library, Graduate Commons.
The exhibit includes digital art that showcases how real-world inequalities transpire in the world of web. It highlights an issue of substantial social impact — the extent of influence of language and print texts on the digital domain — and the need for multilingual collaboration between “hypercentral” language — English — and non-central languages, such as Bangla.
The visualization is made to be like an art, rather than data charts, to evoke emotional responses. It operates with the logic that sustainable and effective change requires emotional engagement from individuals and communities.