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ISSN 1938-4122
Announcements
DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly
2020 14.3
Lab and Slack. Situated Research Practices in Digital Humanities
Editors: Mila Oiva and Urszula Pawlicka-Deger
Front Matter
Lab and Slack. Situated Research Practices in
Digital Humanities - Introduction to the DHQ Special Issue.
Mila Oiva, University of Turku (Finland); Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, Aalto University
Abstract
[en]
Although the concept of digital comes with an assumption of
placelessness and detachment from physical space and geographical location,
these matters still play a significant role in the way the digital humanities
research is practiced today, and also in the future. The location, the
surroundings and infrastructure open the questions of accessibility and
equality: space shapes the opportunities for doing digital humanities research,
both enables and hinders collaboration, and both unifies and divides
scholars.
The purpose of this special issue is to examine the different aspects of situated research practices of the digital humanities
covering two perspectives: physical and virtual. The
physical places of research refer to the various digital humanities sites
(laboratories, centers, departments) all over the world and more widely to the
surroundings a location in a particular city, country, cultural sphere or
continent affecting research practices. As virtual environments of digital
humanities scholarship, we define the digital internet-based platforms,
services, and tools that enable research and scholarly collaboration. The
aspects that determine digital humanities research in both physical and virtual
places are infrastructure (material and non-material), social interaction
(communication and collaboration), and context (social, cultural, and political
situatedness). The aspects influence each other and changes in one of them can
affect the others. They have also impact on what is studied, the ways research
can be done, and, in the end the results of our knowledge, what kind of
knowledge digital humanities research can provide.
Cluster 1: Physical Situatedness, Digital/Humanities Labs, and Infrastructure
Scholarly Infrastructure as Critical Argument:
Nine principles in a preliminary survey of the bibliographic and critical values
expressed by scholarly web-portals for visualizing data
Jo Guldi, Southern Methodist University
Abstract
[en]
What values does infrastructure-building represent? This article begins by
situating scholarly practices around infrastructure within a broader
transformation of twenty-first century life and indeed scholarship and learning
by infrastructures, and distinguishing “scholarly”
infrastructure from other kinds of infrastructure designed to share information
that nevertheless lack scholarly engagement with analysis. This article
compares the role of scholar-builders in crystallizing a set of theoretical
concerns, data, and analyses to that of the architects of opera houses during
the golden age of European opera, who structured, illuminated, and constrained
possible future creations of art. The article next attempts to excavate a set
of implicit values, while making room for the possibility that the list of
values put forward here is only incomplete, and that the list of values itself
is the subject of potential debate, critique, or dissent, some of which may take
the form of building infrastructures differently than the patterns laid out
here. A first section outlines a set of bibliographic values;
while the article’s second half turns to the power dynamics of infrastructure
and a set of critical values encompassed by particular projects,
before turning to the issue of why understanding these values is so essential to
understanding infrastructure projects as a form of scholarly production that
merit support and recognition by the community at large.
The Laboratory Turn: Exploring
Discourses, Landscapes, and Models of Humanities Labs
Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, Aalto University
Abstract
[en]
The goal of this paper is to track the path of the formation of
the laboratory turn in the humanities and understand the
conditions, meanings, and functions of humanities labs. The
first section investigates three discourses that gave rise
to the emergence of a laboratory in the humanities: the
transformation of the humanities infrastructure within the
university, paradigm shifts in the social sciences, and the
expansion of cultural categories of innovation, the maker
movement (the proliferation of makerspaces), and the idea of
community. Next, the author presents a history of the
laboratory in the humanities and determines the shift from a
laboratory as a physical place to
conceptual laboratory. The last section
analyses five models for humanities labs based on
laboratories’ statements and operations: the center-type
lab, the techno-science lab, the work station-type lab, the
social challenges-centric lab, and virtual lab. The research
shows that the laboratory turn has emerged in the humanities
as a part of a wider process of the laboratorization of social life, which has
been occurring since the 1980s. Next, the study indicates
the role of digital humanities as the driving force behind
building a laboratory space, which supports situated
practices, the collaborative, and technology-based projects.
The paper shows that the humanities lab does not simply
imitate the science lab but adapts this new infrastructure
for its own purposes and needs.
Digital Humanities as Epistemic Cultures: How DH
Labs Make Knowledge, Objects, and Subjects
James W. Malazita, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ezra J. Teboul, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Hined Rafeh, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Abstract
[en]
This essay develops a conceptual framework for examining and practicing digital
humanities (DH) and DH labs from the perspective of science and technology
studies and laboratory studies. We argue that the
“situatedness” of DH labs extends beyond
physical/institutional space and includes also epistemic, political,
sociological, and disciplinary issues. To explore this, we first outline the
constructivist model of laboratory knowledge practices developed through
feminist laboratory studies, and how that model’s focus on the laboratory as a
producer of research subjects, rather than a container for them, runs counter to
narratives about laboratories in DH. We then show how DH labs produce research
objects, research subjects, epistemic context, and disciplinary legitimacy.
Finally, we present the case of the Tactical Humanities Lab (THL) at Rensselaer,
a DH lab situated through Science & Technology Studies and housed within an
engineering-centered institute. Through the highlighting of two student-led
projects, we show how THL knowledge workers navigate issues of our own identity,
the boundaries of STS and DH, the practice of social justice through DH, and the
social construction of the boundaries of laboratory work.
The Chili and Honey of Digital Humanities
Research:The Facilitation of the Interdisciplinary Transfer of Knowledge in
Digital Humanities Centers
Mila Oiva, University of Turku (Finland)
Abstract
[en]
This article examines digital humanities (DH) centers as focal points of the
interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge. It is based on the assumption that the
manner in which the knowledge-transfer activities of DH communities are
facilitated affects the knowledge they produce. Following an analysis of eight
semi-structured interviews of directors, researchers, and administrators, the
article considers how DH professionals describe the facilitation of the
interdisciplinary transfer of knowledge in DH centers. It demonstrates that the
transfer of knowledge in DH centers is based on overlapping layers of organic
networks and stable organizational structures that support various kinds of
knowledge-sharing practices. The transfer of knowledge in DH centers combines
the exchange of ideas in the same physical space with online communication at
various levels, ranging from outside academia to the internal communication of a
research group. Further, the factors that enable information flow also have the
capability to restrict potentially meaningful information from entering into the
field. As a result, this article suggests that it is important to continue the
discussion on the boundaries for the transfer of knowledge in DH.
[en] Excavating Infrastructure in the Analog Humanities’
Lab: An Analysis of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale
Aleksandra Kil, University of Wrocław (Poland)
Abstract
[en]
In this paper I present Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Laboratoire
d’anthropologie sociale (LAS), established in 1960, as a case study of the
archaeology of the humanities infrastructure. Building on media archaeology and
critical infrastructure studies, I stress the significance of the research
infrastructure in the analog humanities and I show how the LAS was organized around
the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), a vast ethnographical pre-electronic
repository produced at Yale. The paper looks into how the Files were mobilized to secure funding and space for Lévi-Strauss’s lab
and gain infrastructural advantage (boosted by the Files’ paper-ness), helping it then to establish its position as “richly
endowed.” As I suggest, it might be due to these pragmatic considerations – not
recognized as epistemically valid – that the Laboratory has not had any important
place in the readings of Lévi-Strauss’s work. The paper also highlights “care
work” – taking care of resources and relocations – undertaken by Lévi-Strauss
and his collaborators. Finally, examining the rationale and history of the HRAF and
looking at its use at the LAS, I demonstrate how the tool was refitted to serve the
particular needs and ambitions of the Parisian lab.
Infrastructure and Social Interaction: Situated
Research Practices in Digital Humanities in India
Shanmugapriya T, Indian Institute of Technology; Nirmala Menon, Indian Institute of Technology
Abstract
[en]
The computational tradition in India goes back to the two historic archival
projects Project Madurai, a digitised collection of ancient Tamil classics and
Bichitra, a digital variorum of Rabindranath Tagore’s works which remarked the
genesis of Digital Humanities in India. Subsequently, few public and private
universities, non-academic organisations and individual scholars are actively
involved in digital humanities projects: digital library, digital archive and
digital databases. Though these digital establishments underpin Indian
humanities scholars to engage in digital humanities research practices, the
challenges in infrastructure impede them from leveraging the computational
techniques and resources. In this paper, we will study the specific challenges
of physical infrastructure such as digital humanities lab, digital humanities
pedagogy, digital tools and software, and institution and government support. We
will also discuss the brief survey report and few interviews which we conducted
from the Indian DH community to reinforce our arguments.
Case Studies
Digital Humanities Lab: Case Studies
Digital Humanities on Reserve: From Reading Room to
Laboratory at Yale University Library
Catherine DeRose, Yale University; Peter Leonard, Yale University
Abstract
[en]
A 1930s reading room at Yale University Library is the site of an architectural
transformation that seeks to make DH praxis visible in a collaborative, open setting.
What design and policy interventions lead to the best use of this central and
symbolic space? Ethnographic study, user-centered design and a focus on the
materiality of both physical and digital collections combine to suggest one pathway
for research libraries to support collaborative digital work in the humanities. In
this article, two digital humanities staff at Yale Library discuss the relationship
between inclusion v. separation, security v. transparency, and historicizing v.
“modern” design in the context of a space for Digital
Humanities.
Organic and Locally Sourced: Growing a Digital
Humanities Lab with an Eye Towards Sustainability
Rebekah Cummings, University of Utah; David S. Roh, University of Utah; Elizabeth Callaway, University of Utah
Abstract
[en]
In 2016, the Digital Matters Lab at the University of Utah launched a temporary
“pop-up” space in the Marriott Library, the culmination of eighteen months of
discussions between the College of Humanities, the College of Fine Arts, the College
of Architecture+Planning, and the Marriott Library. After a previously unsuccessful
attempt at creating a digital scholarship center in the late 2000s, our second
attempt was rooted in skepticism. Why would this version be any more successful than
the last? This paper chronicles how, learning from our mistakes, the Digital Matters
Lab negotiated between a loose community of scholars and administrative stakeholders
to navigate complex institutional legacies and bear a formal center with a
cross-campus partnership, mission, and identity. The Lab’s focus on environmental,
financial, and technological sustainability emerged in response to the situated
environment of Utah where water rights, public lands, and air quality are critical
concerns. As a second iteration digital humanities/scholarship center, the Digital
Matters Lab’s emphasis on sustainability also reflects awareness of its vulnerability
to the vicissitudes of administrative temperament or shifts in budgetary priorities.
This case study concludes by looking to the future of the Digital Matters Lab in
terms of scalability and permanence.
Inside the Trading Zone: Thinkering in a Digital
History Lab
Andreas Fickers, University of Luxembourg; Tim van der Heijden, University of Luxembourg
Abstract
[en]
The goal of this article is to critically reflect on the practical and
epistemological challenges of doing historical research in the digital age. The
analysis is based on a case study of the Doctoral Training Unit (DTU) “Digital History and Hermeneutics”, an interdisciplinary
research and training programme that was established at the Luxembourg Centre
for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) of the University of Luxembourg. The
DTU is designed as interdisciplinary trading zone that applies the
method of “thinkering” – the tinkering with technology combined with the
critical reflection on the practice of doing digital history. Based on this case
study, the article addresses the question of how to constitute an
interdisciplinary trading zone in practice and how to situate this trading zone
in physical working environments, like a Digital History Lab and shared office
space.
Creating Spaces for Interdisciplinary Research
across Literature, Neuroscience, and DH: A Case Study of The Digital Humanities
and Literary Cognition Lab (DHLC)
Natalie Philips, Michigan State University; Alexander Babbitt, Michigan State University; Soohyun Cho, Michigan State University; Jessica Kane, Albion College; Cody Mejeur, University at Buffalo; Craig Pearson, Michigan State University
Abstract
[en]
The Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition (DHLC) lab at Michigan State
University was founded in 2012 with the mission of bringing together scholars
from disciplines including literature, neuroscience, education, computer
science, and digital humanities to investigate the cognitive processes involved
in reading texts of all kinds. The real story is much more complicated: emerging
through a combination of institutional risk-taking and serendipitous accident,
the lab was — and remains — an example of how conventional definitions of a
“laboratory,” and particularly the rather fraught label
of “humanities lab,” often come short of capturing the true
cross-disciplinary nature of this type of work. More than any academic or
methodological template, the DHLC lab emerged through the curiosity and
enthusiasm of the students who inhabit it. For that reason, this case study — a
brief history of the DHLC’s development, cultural practices, and ongoing work —
has been written collaboratively with multiple voices, including the lab
director (Natalie Phillips) and the student researchers. Together, we describe
the challenges and opportunities created by embarking on a radically
interdisciplinary research effort. We report the elements that enabled the DHLC
lab to find success through a willingness to abandon expectations and adapt to
rapidly evolving research practices, while maintaining our core focus on the
humanities. We hope this case study proves useful for those who, like us, seek
to explore the vast potential of interdisciplinary lab space for DH practice,
the pedagogical benefits of collaborative research, and how to prioritize
humanities in a STEM-focused world.
Ooligan Press: Building and Sustaining a Feminist
Digital Humanities Lab at a R-2
Kathi Inman Berens, Portland State University; Abbey Gaterud, Chemeketa Community College; Rachel Noorda, Portland State University
Abstract
[en]
How can practitioners outside of R-1s afford to build a DH lab? How to connect a
lab’s output to the communities it serves? This essay is a case study of Ooligan
Press, a student-run trade press housed within a R-2, teaching-intensive university.
Two elements make Ooligan Press distinctive as a DH lab. First, Ooligan is a
not-for-profit business folded into a Master’s program in Book Publishing. Profits
from sale of Ooligan Press books sustain the lab, which would collapse if its books
were steadily unprofitable. Second, the essay uses the DH feminism “M.E.A.L.S.” framework to explain how Ooligan's horizontal
management structure and student ownership of the press manifest in an ethic of care.
Unlike most R-1 DH labs, where priorities are set by senior scholars and directors,
graduate students decide which projects the lab will develop, and which skills they
want to master in exchange for their labor. Because Ooligan is self-sustaining, it
can also be self-directing.
Cluster 2: Virtual Situatedness, Digital Practices, and Collaboration
An “Open Lab?” The Electronic
Textual Cultures Lab in the Evolving Digital Humanities Landscape
Randa El Khatib, University of Victoria; Alyssa Arbuckle, University of Victoria; Lynne Siemens, University of Victoria; Ray Siemens, University of Victoria; Caroline Winter, University of Victoria; ETCL Research Group, University of Victoria
Abstract
[en]
As the scholarly landscape evolves into a more “open” plain, so do the
shapes of institutions, labs, centres, and other places and spaces of research,
including those of the digital humanities (DH). The continuing success of such
research largely depends on a commitment to open access and open source
philosophies that broaden opportunities for a more efficient, productive, and
universal design and use of knowledge. The Electronic Textual Cultures
Laboratory (ETCL; etcl.uvic.ca) is a
collaborative centre for digital and open scholarly practices at the University
of Victoria, Canada, that engages with these transformations in knowledge
creation through its umbrella organization, the Canadian Social Knowledge
Institute (C-SKI), that coordinates and supports open social scholarship
activities across three major initiatives: the ETCL itself, the Digital
Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI; dhsi.org), and the Implementing New Knowledge
Environments (INKE; inke.ca) Partnership, including sub-projects associated with
each. Open social scholarship is the practice of creating and disseminating
public-facing scholarship through accessible means. Working through C-SKI, we
seek ways to engage communities more widely with publicly funded humanities
scholarship, such as through research creation and dissemination, mentorship,
and skills training.
One Loveheart at a Time: The Language of Emoji and
the Building of Affective Community in the Digital Medieval Studies
Environment
Lawrence Evalyn, University of Toronto; C. E. M. Henderson, University of Toronto’s Centre for Medieval Studies; Julia King, University of Bergen, Norway; Jessica Lockhart, University of Toronto, Mississauga; Laura Mitchell, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan; Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Institute for Advanced Study
Abstract
[en]
The Old Books, New Science (OBNS) Lab began using Slack in May 2016 to facilitate the
work of a diverse research group at the University of Toronto. Yet the OBNS Slack
does not simply facilitate scholarly communication: it also serves as a powerful
affective network, bringing together scholars in new and sometimes unexpected
configurations. The affective language of emoji is fundamental to the growth of this
community. Lab members coin new emoji that are taken up by the community eagerly,
many of which are meaningful only within the OBNS environment. It is common to
reference Slack emoji in in-person conversation; equally, the OBNS Slack is often
home to advising sessions or meetings that in another workplace would take place
face-to-face. In this way, the online environment of Slack and the in-person
environment of the lab are mutually constitutive. Such usage of Slack may, however,
also have a dark side: by celebrating affective community in the workspace, what
happens to the distinction between home and office, and consequent erosion of leisure
time? We consider whether the affective practices of the OBNS Slack might allow
personal and professional boundaries to be blurred in such a way as to prioritize the
personal.
Theatre analytics: developing software for theatre
research
Clarisse Bardiot, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France
Abstract
[en]
How can digital traces of the performing arts be interpreted? What methodologies can
be proposed to “make them talk”? The specificity of these traces
leads to specific methodological responses, especially as the aim here is to
interpret the traces in both directions of understanding and replayability. It is as
much a question of advancing a reflection on the conditions for the recovery of work,
as it is of analyzing an artistic approach based on its digital traces. Starting from
these epistemological issues, I present the development of two softwares, Rekall and
MemoRekall. These tools are part of a larger trend which I call “theatre analytics”. Theatre analytics is based on data from the traces of
the performing arts. Unlike the general approach of “big data in the social
sciences and humanities,” where we seek to determine general, average, profile
categories or repeatable (or even predictable) patterns, our primary concern remains
to capture the singular, the detail, the difference, the anomaly, in a constant round
trip between the micro and the macro dimensions. The ambition of theatre analytics is
to offer a different way of looking at big data, more oriented towards complexity
than the quantity of data.
A Case Study Protocol for Meta-Research into Digital
Practices in the Humanities
Maciej Maryl, Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland; Costis Dallas, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto; Digital Curation Unit, IMSI-Athena Research Centre; Jennifer Edmond, School of Languages Literatures and Cultural Studies, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; DARIAH -EU; Jessie Labov, Center for Media, Data, and Society, Central European University, Hungary; Ingrida Kelpšienė, Vilnius University Faculty of Communication; Michelle Doran, Trinity College Dublin; Marta Kołodziejska, Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland; Klaudia Grabowska, Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Abstract
[en]
This paper presents a multicase study protocol for meta-research in Digital
Humanities, prepared by Digital Methods and Practices Observatory (DiMPO) Working
Group of the Digital Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities in Europe (DARIAH).
The protocol is intended to help researchers in conducting meta-research and adopting
this methodology for different purposes, disciplines and approaches. As many of the
issues raised here are already covered in manuals for social research, our focus is
the specificity of meta-research in the DH environment. The specificity of DH in this
respect relies on an intrinsic challenge of bringing together generally
undertheorised approaches of the humanities with very formal and process-driven ICT
approaches.
The main assumption behind this research is that a meaningful change in scholarly
practices is taking place and is worth investigating. Moreover, a full assessment of
this transformation should not focus exclusively on pioneering research, but rather
on the selective uptake of digital practices and methods by researchers in the
humanities: those who do not necessarily affiliate themselves with DH but simply use
digital tools to explore particular problems. Hence, this paper should be of interest
not only to researchers willing to conduct meta analysis, but to all DH practitioners
willing to gain critical perspective on their work, as well as for those working on
funding, evaluation and research policy.
Three pilot studies are discussed in this paper, as they served as a basis for the
protocol. They focused on different “units of inquiry” (individual researchers,
projects, research communities) and varied in methodological directions: (a)
individual interviews with Polish DH researchers; (b) mixed-methods analysis of
digital practice in E-CURATORS, a multicase SSHRC Insight project focusing on
archaeological research sites or projects, integrating individual interviews,
document analysis and naturalistic observation; and, (c) group interviews with
historians and literary scholars conducted within the framework of NEP4DISSENT COST
Action. The resulting protocol is discussed in detail and some directions for further
research are suggested.
The Role of Critical Thinking in Humanities
Infrastructure: The Pipeline Concept with a Study of HaToRI (Hansard Topic Relevance
Identifier)
Ashley S. Lee, Brown University; Poom Chiarawongse, Brown University; Jo Guldi, Southern Methodist University; Andras Zsom, Brown University
Abstract
[en]
This article proposes the concept of the pipeline as a category of tool that
organizes a series of algorithms for users. The pipeline concept, adopted with
limitations by the humanities, documents how a suite of algorithms produces a
particular research result, with the goal of enabling interoperability, transparency,
and iteration by future scholars who may switch out particular algorithms within the
pipeline with different results. A pipeline-based application amplifies the concepts
of interoperability and transparency for users by allowing the researcher to toggle
on and off particular options, for example selecting and deselecting particular
topics of interest from a program of visualizations based on a topic model of a large
body of text. Pipelines support modular, interoperable, transparent, and documented
processes of research that lend themselves to Prof. Guldi's Theory of Critical Search
— the argument that critical thinking increasingly takes place at the design and
research stage of digital processes. The article presents the case of how the
pipeline concept influenced the development of HaToRI
(Hansard Topic Relevance Identifier), an open-source pipeline-based tool for
identifying a cohort of thematically-linked passages in the nineteenth-century
debates of Britain's parliament. In our pipeline, a series of algorithms move through
the steps of cleaning a corpus, organizing them into topics, and selecting particular
topics that are used to extract a sub-corpus that matches the user’s interests. Users
have the option of searching based on multiple topics rather than merely keywords or
a single topic at a time, allowing iterative searches to build upon each other. As an
example of the Critical Search process in action, we follow an inquiry based on
matching parliamentary reports with material from the Hansard British Parliamentary
Debates. Using the pipeline, the user is able to identify multiple common topics of
interest, and from these topics, extract a sub-corpus specific to land use and rent
in the 19th century British Empire.
Articles
Lost Spaces, Lost Technologies, and Lost People:
Online History Projects Seek to Recover LGBTQ+ Spatial Histories
Alex D. Ketchum, McGill University
Abstract
[en]
This article looks at online history projects focused on “lost” spaces, with an
emphasis on lost LGBTQ+ spaces. In documenting lost spaces, these projects also
highlight lost or marginalized historical actors. I position these projects at the
center of debates surrounding how to recover “lost” peoples who have been left
out or erased from mainstream histories. This article will discuss the various
techniques used by digital humanities projects, focusing particularly on Jan Kurth’s
“Lost Womyn’s Space”, Greggor Mattson’s “Mapping Lost Lesbian Bars”, and my own project, “The Feminist Restaurant Project”. This article discusses the
various techniques used and the value these open access history websites serve for
scholars and non-scholars alike. The article finishes by exploring how lost space
projects preserve what was not previously preserved, while these websites are
simultaneously vulnerable to similar preservation issues that plague digital
humanities projects and community archives more broadly, especially those separate
from large institutions. These challenges raise the questions: is lost space doomed
to be lost? Can the history of LGBTQ+ space be recuperated? What role do digital
humanities have in this work? And what does it mean to be found?
Fading Away... The challenge of sustainability in
digital studies
Christine Barats, Cerlis, University of Paris Descartes; Valérie Schafer, C²DH, University of Luxembourg; Andreas Fickers, C²DH, University of Luxembourg
Tremendous Mechanical Labor: Father Busa’s
Algorithm
Geoffrey Rockwell, University of Alberta; Stéfan Sinclair, McGill University
Abstract
[en]
This paper looks at innovations in Busa’s Index
Thomisticus project through the tension between mechanical and human
labour. We propose that Busa and the IBM engineer Paul Tasman introduced two
major innovations that allowed computers to process unstructured text. The first
innovation was figuring out how represent unstructured text on punched cards,
the way data was encoded and handled at that time. The second innovation was
figuring out how to tokenize unstructured phrases on cards into words for
further counting, sorting and concording. We think-through these innovations
using replication as a form of media archaeology practice that can help us
understand the innovations as they were thought through at the time. All this is
framed by a letter found in the Busa archives criticizing the project as a
“tremendous mechanical labour ... of no great
utility.” We use this criticism to draw attention to the very
different meshing of human and mechanical labour developed at Busa’s concording
factory.
The Fold: Rethinking Interactivity in Data
Visualization
Viktoria Brüggemann, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam; Mark-Jan Bludau, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam; Marian Dörk, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam
Abstract
[en]
We propose the philosophical notion of the fold as an evocative vocabulary for the
design and critique of interactive data visualizations. An expanding range of
application areas, such as digital art history and literary studies, illustrates the
potential of data visualization for research and education in the humanities.
Coinciding with the increasing currency of data as evidence in the humanities, this
research addresses a growing interest in data visualization for visual analysis and
argumentation. For example, cultural collection visualizations promise a range of
possibilities for visual and interactive representations of digital cultural
heritage, used both for free exploration and focused research. Based on the concept
of the fold, prominently advanced by Gilles Deleuze, this paper outlines a critical
framework that draws attention towards the complexity of the underlying data. The
fold offers a way to analyze and conceptualize visualizations through the lens of
three integrated operations: explication, implication, and complication. It is an
opportunity to think of interactive visualizations as portals into coherent, elastic,
and ultimately infinite information spaces. Accordingly, it rejects the separation
between interactivity and visual encoding and draws attention to the transitions
between multiple states of a visualization. We identify design patterns of the fold
in data visualizations, devise a framework for the critical interpretation of
interactivity in data visualization, and demonstrate the implications for the digital
humanities.
Reassessing the locus of normalization in
machine-assisted collation
David J. Birnbaum, University of Pittsburgh; Elena Spadini, Université de Lausanne
Abstract
[en]
In this essay we explore the process of textual normalization in the context of
machine-assisted collation, which is a common operation in digital textual
scholarship. The Gothenburg modular architecture for computer-assisted collation
situates normalization as the second stage within a five-stage computational
pipeline, where it contributes to improving the eventual alignment. In this essay we
argue that normalization, in fact, contributes not only to the alignment, but also to
the interpretation of the texts. Furthermore, it occurs at several moments between
transcription and rendering, and should not be regarded as happening all at once and
only in one location.
Playing with Playthroughs: Distance Visualization
and Narrative Form in Video Games
Cody Mejeur,
Abstract
[en]
Studies of video game narrative have long acknowledged that narrative in games is
defined by interactivity — the player’s ability to make different choices and produce
various story endings. Recent ludonarrative scholarship on games and interactive
storytelling has started to account for what this interactivity means for narrative
form, yet it remains difficult to assess how variable narrative is in different
games, or how different players’ experiences with the same game can be. This article
uses ImagePlot, software for visualizing large collections of images, to visualize
playthroughs of a game and compare them. In doing so, it proposes a new method for
analyzing narrative in games and digital media, and argues that games reveal how
narrative form is shifting, emergent, and playful. By focusing on where and how
narrative difference emerges, we can better understand how narrative constructs our
current realities, and how it might contribute to different ones in the future.
Author Biographies
URL: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/preview/index.html
Last updated:
Comments: dhqinfo@digitalhumanities.org
Published by: The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations
Affiliated with: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
DHQ has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright 2005 -
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
Last updated:
Comments: dhqinfo@digitalhumanities.org
Published by: The Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations
Affiliated with: Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
DHQ has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Copyright 2005 -
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
