dig.ni.fy
William Paul Wanker
Founder
dig.ni.fy magazine
is produced in partnership with Dignity Projects.
London, England
© 2022, dig.ni.fy magazine.
All rights reserved.
In this Issue ...
Welcome to the second issue of dig.ni.fy!
With this issue, we continue to focus on what
constitutes human dignity by examining not
only cultural traditions but the individuals and
companies moving those traditions forward.
Such a focus is more important than ever, as events since we first launched the magazine six months ago seem to diminish the prospects for people to live a dignified human existence: the COVID-19 pandemic continues to haunt the world with new variants, sending countries back into lockdown as unvaccinated overwhelm health care systems; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report so dire that the secretary general of the United Nations characterized it as a “code red” for humanity; the Taliban once again took control of Afghanistan, signaling invariably the suppression of education, women’s rights, and free and independent thinking; and Russia and America are once again sabre rattling over the Ukraine in a battle for geopolitical control that could well escalate into a new “Cold War” — if not outright war — between the two nuclear powers.
The world appears to many, at the moment, adrift and rudderless. So, as people have done in the past when experiencing similar situations, we revisit
our roots in search of a way forward. And, as art and commerce provide unique insight not only into the beautiful and the good but how we arrived at this particular place in time, we turn to those subjects in hope of finding enlightenment and inspiration.
In this issue, we ask the question of what it means to be regarded as a subject and not as an object to be appropriated by others. We learn about the revitalization of traditional crafts and folk art in Poland to understand why traditions remain important to us; we turn to artists and artisans practicing furniture making and weaving in search of ways through which we can move traditions forward in new ways, engaging new technologies and modalities that resonate within more contemporary settings; we highlight enterprises who engage in profit, but temper unconstrained capitalism through practices that put people and place at the forefront of sustainable communities; we explore newer education technologies that seek to provide students with meaningful skills through practices informed by data presented transparently; and we expose the nuanced but damaging practices of racialized aggression that have come to haunt our online presence, in hope shameful acts of the past may not be repeated in new settings.
Mixing and matching what once was with what currently is, we hope to frame hopeful possibilities for the future. This again is why we chose the title, dig.ni.fy. It is not a noun by which to promote or justify our own bias; it is a verb – a call for engagement and action – challenging us to actively reach out and engage with others and the “Other” to build a better world.
Enjoy!
Wil