date
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
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about
DAHJ Conversations brings together artists, researchers, students, and other collaborators to discuss the processes, questions, and interdisciplinary exchanges that shape work presented through the Digital Art History Journal. In this inaugural conversation, artist and educator Steve Rossi, hydrologist Dr. Sam Zipper, and computer science student Makenzie Gallagher discuss the collaborative development of 39.409001, -100.645781, an interactive online artwork examining relationships among landownership, water rights, agricultural irrigation, and diminishing groundwater in western Kansas. The conversation will explore groundwater stewardship and the Sheridan 6 Local Enhanced Management Area, the intersections of art and scientific research, the art-historical and pedagogical contexts informing Rossi’s Transitional Spaces series, and Gallagher’s custom coding and engagement with the visual language of the early internet. Together, the speakers consider how interdisciplinary collaboration and digital practice can make complex environmental systems—and the possibilities for collective action within them—more perceptible.
bios
Mackenzie Gallagher she/they
Computer Science Major, Saint Joseph's University, class of 2027
Steve Rossi
Associate Professor, Sculpture Program Head, Saint Joseph's University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
As an artist and educator, Steve Rossi has broad interdisciplinary interests that are reflected in his creative practice and pedagogy. His most recent work explores how we live in relation to water in our built environments. Referencing both the paths of rivers that have historically been polluted by heavy industry as well as groundwater-management policy in the Great Plains region, his work is informed by natural resource stewardship considerations, labor histories, and geological formations.
Dr. Sam Zipper
Associate Scientist/Professor
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas
Department of Geology, University of Kansas
Sam is an interdisciplinary water scientist specializing in the ecohydrology and hydrogeology of human-dominated landscapes, particularly agricultural areas. Areas of expertise include agrohydrology, stream-aquifer interactions, and interactions between humans and the water cycle. Sam leads the HydroEcology of Anthropogenic Landscapes group at the Kansas Geological Survey and KU Department of Geology which includes a mixture of students, postdoctoral researchers, and staff.