On the Eve of Revolution

On the Eve of Revolution: The East German Artist in the 1980s investigates the cultural politics and artistic output of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the 1980s through the lens of the GRI’s Deutsche Demokratische Republik Collections. Our primary data source was approximately 2,800 application forms from artists seeking to be included in the GDR’s 9th Quadrennial National Exhibition in 1982.

As project manager and DH specialist for this project, I facilitated the iterative development of a custom mapping tool for observing how artists in the GDR moved during their lifetimes. This process included:

• organizing and leading meetings with subject specialists and technical experts
• advising on data modeling
• producing data visualizations (Tableau)
• advising on changes and improvements to the mapping tool to serve project research questions
• making project data available and browsable in Airtable
• presenting work to subject specialists in a May 2023 workshop