Environments in and as Networks: A Digital Humanities Hackathon

Save the date! Potsdam, 15-17 April 2026

Ecology is about relations: “Nothing is connected to everything; Everything is related to something” (Donna Haraway). In this sense, human-environment-relations and more-than-human-relations are important notions in the Environmental Humanities. The network’s relational model – as a data structure, a method of visualisation, and an epistemic metaphor – in turn has become a central paradigm in Digital Humanities. Concepts such as embeddedness, the prevalence of interactions and connections over entities and actors, and the systemic openness and dynamism of network-like structures inform both formal and cultural network theory as well as Environmental Studies. 

In our Digital Humanities Hackathon we will probe the ties between network thinking and environmental research through digital methods. On the one hand, we will examine how environments (captured in environmental data or media) can be modeled and analyzed as networks. On the other hand, we will explore how environments themselves are represented within the media networks of the past and present.

The hackathon welcomes researchers who would like to join us in our exploration on the interplay of networks and entangled environments from the perspective of Digital Humanities and Media Studies. 

A detailed “Call for Challenges and Teams” will be published in September. Stay tuned and save the date(s).

Timeline