Trained in literature and languages and now working in “research computing,” Mark DeLong studies the interplay of meaningful human life and the fruits and tortures of technology, medieval history, cars of all sorts, and the urge that people have long had for artistic expression and its products. He’s currently working on a study of the car and its artistic representation (and the power that arises from the mix). In that work, he’s used natural language processing to characterize “communities of interest” who play with and toil over collectible automobiles, and he has dissected the design of the Jaguar E-type by applying a simple geometrical shape. He’s interested in the ways that digital tools transform the products and the experiences of research, especially in the humanities. For him, STEAM is important mainly because of the questions it poses – and can only be explored with the discerning powers of art and humanities.
