After fielding a robust pool of applicants in our inaugural year, we are thrilled to welcome the winner of our 2025-2026 Data Art Prize, Sara Arribas Colmenar, to the Scholars’ Lab.  Her winning peice will be available to view during the event, and will be on display in the Scholars’ Lab community space (Shannon Library, Room 308) through the 2025-26 academic year.

Nails and Nodes: Making Digital Social Networks Analysis Tangible

This talk explores the intersection of digital scholarship and art through the String Data Art: the Social Network Analysis of Concurso de Cante Jondo (1922) project. Drawing on the DH Makes practices, Dr. Arribas Colmenar will discuss how visualizing social networks in Gephi inspired a physical translation of complex collaborative connections into a tangible string art installation. Attendees will see how data-driven analysis can move beyond the screen, becoming an interactive experience that illuminates patterns of collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and artistic networks around flamenco music in early 20th-century Spain. The showcase demonstrates how digital tools and analog practices can mutually inform and enrich our understanding of cultural history.

Sara Arribas Colmenar (Christopher Newport University; Ph.D. in Spanish and Visual Studies, Penn State), specializes in early 20th-century Spanish literature, dance, and performance. She currently implements digital storytelling and Social Network Analysis projects in both teaching and research at CNU. As a Data Artist, she maps and materializes interdisciplinary networks of writers, musicians, choreographers, and visual artists, combining digital tools such as Gephi with art. Previously, she has collaborated on digital text editing projects and served as a Graduate Research Assistant in Digital Liberal Arts at Penn State University.