What can we done better?

In analysing data from 「The Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890 & Quarry Hill Unhealthy Area, 1900」, we used the name-based gender inference tool Genderize.io to estimate the proportion of male and female residents in the community. While this method is useful for identifying general gender trends, it is based on a simplified binary gender framework that defaults to the assumption that everyone can be categorised as either “male” or “female,” ignoring the cultural context of names and their diversity.

Thinking about digital tools

In our analysis of data from the 1901 Quarry Hill Census, we combine digital tools with historical archives in an attempt to reveal the social structures and gender biases hidden beneath the statistical surface. However, as with all data practices, our approach inevitably carries with it the logic of power and the limits of expression. In the two key aspects of gender classification and visual presentation of data, we realised that the apparent clarity and neatness often hides the complexity and ambiguity of reality. By reflecting on the limitations of the existing methodology and attempting to introduce a more critical visual language in future iterations, we hope to make the “absence” itself a visible narrative object rather than a silent void.

Visual Truth, Absence, and Ethical Re-creation

In the course of making the video, we came to realize that actual images of Quarry Hill in the early 19th century were extremely rare. This ‘absence of images’ is not an accident, but a systematic exclusion of specific groups from the historical record - particularly women, the poor and the working class. In the archive, the ‘absence of records’ is itself a structural political choice (D'Ignazio and Klein, 2020).

Power, Absence, and the Language of Displacement

In the previous presentation seminar, Holly pointed out that we lack critical reflection on the history and consequences behind "reconstruction" and "relocation", so we began to re-examine the seemingly neutral statement such as "They moved out for their own good". As D'Ignazio and Klein (2020) emphasized, policy language that sounds caring often conceals deep-seated power structures - because "what is interest" is never a neutral judgment.

What we learned？

This project made us realize that telling stories about marginalized groups in digital humanities is not only about telling their stories, but also about avoiding erasing their existence again at the level of form and tools. These reflections will become the starting point for our future creations—not only to present the disappeared, but also to reflect on the way of telling stories itself.