DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly

2020 14.4

Digital Humanities & Colonial Latin American Studies

Editors: Hannah Alpert-Abrams and Clayton McCarl

Front Matter

[en] Introduction: Digital Humanities & Colonial Latin American Studies

Hannah Alpert-Abrams, Independent Scholar; Clayton McCarl, University of North Florida

Abstract [en]

Articles

[en] Modeling Amerindian Sea Travel in the Early Colonial Caribbean

Emma Slayton, Carnegie Mellon University

Abstract [en][en]

[es] El Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego. Avatares para conformar su canon de autoridades

Mercedes I. Salomón Salazar, México - Biblioteca Histórica José María Lafragua; Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

Abstract [es] In 2010, the José María Lafragua Historical Library (Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla) and the Franciscan Library (Universidad de las Américas Puebla - Province of the Holy Gospel of Mexico) published the “Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego” (CCMF). Marcas de fuego (fire brands) are burned imprints made with a heated iron instrument that capture the distinctive seal of a book’s owner on one or several of the volume’s edges. The use of marcas de fuego to claim ownership over books proliferated mainly in conventual libraries during the Colonial period in Mexico. The first priority of CCMF was to go online with an initial selection of 120 marcas de fuego from various convents, institutions, and individuals, in order to show the variety of provenance that can be found in the print and manuscript collections of colonial libraries. Arriving at this first stage of the project did not present exceptional complications since it started as a collaboration between only two institutions. As other libraries joined, however, it became necessary to work systematically to standardize provenance as well as the names of authors. The complexities of standardization and international collaboration are examined in this article, as well as our experiences trying to make the catalog a reliable instrument for other institutions that hold books that bear marcas de fuego. This article considers the inception and development of the project to date, looking in particular at the experience of coordinating the efforts of multiple institutions in different countries. We offer this essay as a case study and analysis that may serve for other similar projects, especially in Latin America.

[en] The Form of the Content: The Digital Archive Nahuatl/Nawat in Central America

Laura Matthew, Marquette University; Michael Bannister, Independent Programmer Analyst

Abstract [en] The digital archive “Nahuatl/Nawat in Central America” (NECA) assembles and makes publicly available a growing corpus of Nahuan-language documents produced in Spanish Central America. Many are fragments within larger Spanish-language documents and difficult to locate in the archive. NECA has succeeded in bringing attention to this understudied corpus but has so far failed to attract users to its transcription and translation tool. We consider the reasons for this creative failure based on user data, and suggest that the specialized skills and distinct academic communities needed to move this project forward require other workspaces, including the non-digital, in advance of online collaboration.NECA is a joint effort between the authors that has also depended on the generous support of others. We thank Marquette University's College of Arts and Sciences for start-up funding, Sergio Romero for helping assemble the core document list and translations of sample text, Héctor Concohá Chet for photographing documents in the Archivo General de Centroamérica in Guatemala City, Rafael Lara Martínez for Spanish translations of the primary pages, and Jorge Lemus for his collaboration in El Salvador. Ann Hanlon at the Digital Humanities Lab, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Adriana Álvarez, Davíd Dominguez Herbón, and Miriam Peña Pimentel of the Red de Humanidades Digitales, Universidad Autónoma de México, Sharon Leon at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University, and David Bodenhamer of the Polis Center, Indiana University-Purdue University were invaluable sounding boards, as were advisory board members Michael Swanton, Janine Gasco, Matilde Ivic de Monterroso, and Karl Offen. Julia Madajczak and Agnieszka Brylak tested the transcription tool, and graduate assistants Ben Nestor and Cory Haala explored mapping applications. We especially thank the many contributors of documents to the site, listed at http://nahuatl-nawat.org/aboutus.

[en] Decolonizing “The Digital” in the Classroom: Reflections on the Intersection of Colonial Latin American Art History and Digital Art History Pedagogy

Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank, Independent Art Historian

Abstract [en][en]

[en] Ticha: Collaboration with Indigenous communities to build digital resources on Zapotec language and history

George Aaron Broadwell, University of Florida; Moisés García Guzmán, pueblo of San Jerónimo Tlacochahuaya; Brook Danielle Lillehaugen, Haverford College; Felipe H. Lopez, Haverford College Libraries; May Helena Plumb, University of Texas at Austin; Mike Zarafonetis, Haverford College Libraries

Abstract [en][en]

[en] Developing Geographically Oriented NLP Approaches to Sixteenth–Century Historical Documents: Digging into Early Colonial Mexico

Diego Jiménez–Badillo, Museo del Templo Mayor, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; Patricia Murrieta–Flores, Digital Humanities Hub–History Department, Lancaster University; Bruno Martins, The Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa, INESC–ID, University of Lisbon; Ian Gregory, Digital Humanities Hub–History Department, Lancaster University; Mariana Favila-Vázquez, Museo del Templo Mayor, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia; Raquel Liceras-Garrido, Digital Humanities Hub–History Department, Lancaster University

Abstract [en]

Digital Humanities & Film Studies: Analyzing the Modalities of Moving Images

Editors: Manuel Burghardt, Adelheid Heftberger, Johannes Pause, Niels-Oliver Walkowski, Matthias Zeppelzauer

Front Matter

[en] Film and Video Analysis in the Digital Humanities – An Interdisciplinary Dialog

Manuel Burghardt, Leipzig University, Germany; Adelheid Heftberger, Bundesarchiv, Germany; Johannes Pause, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Niels-Oliver Walkowski, Université du Luxembourg, Luxembourg; Matthias Zeppelzauer, St. Pölten University, Austria

Abstract [en]

Articles

[en] The Phenomenon of Interwar City Symphonies: A Combined Methodology of Digital Tools and Traditional Film Analysis Methods to Study Visual Motifs and Structural Patterns of Experimental-Documentary City Films

Eva Hielscher, Independent Scholar

Abstract [en] The 1920s and 1930s saw the rise of the city symphony, a film phenomenon of experimental-documentary city films that took the modern metropolis as their protagonist and presented it in its multiple facets and kaleidoscopic nature. While Ruttmann’s Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Grosstadt (1927) and Vertov’s Chelovek s kinoapparatom (1929) gained canonical status and exert a considerable influence on filmmaking to this very day, the city symphony has remained a somewhat downplayed and neglected phenomenon in film history. Indeed, besides the handful of well-known titles, there have been more than eighty films made around the globe, many of which fell into oblivion and have received little or no scholarly attention at all. Moreover, even the canonical examples have never systematically and structurally been analyzed in detail in a comparative way. The result is the lack of a sophisticated and clear definition of the city symphony, based on both the canonical films and the greater city symphony corpus. My research sets in at this point, addressing the conspicuous absence of an analysis of city symphony characteristics. It does so by making use of a combined methodology of traditional film analysis methods and digital tools. This article reflects on the methodology applied and tools chosen and put into practice to study and analyze the visual material of city symphonies, which with their highly complex structure, dense imagery, and themes as well as their experimental techniques and striking editing patterns, are a perfect fit for a computational film analysis. Particularly, the digital film/video annotation software ELAN, the Cinemetrics method, a bar chart representation of shot lengths, and the grid visualizations of multiple film frames created with ImageJ play a role in this case study, which also broaches the aspect and benefits of manual digital analysis.

[en] Matching Computational Analysis and Human Experience: Performative Arts and the Digital Humanities

Jan-Hendrik Bakels, Freie Universität Berlin; Matthias Grotkopp, Freie Universität Berlin; Thomas Scherer, Freie Universität Berlin; Jasper Stratil, Freie Universität Berlin

Abstract [en]

[en] Exploring Digitised Moving Image Collections: The SEMIA Project, Visual Analysis and the Turn to Abstraction

Eef Masson, University of Amsterdam / Rathenau Institute; Christian Gosvig Olesen, Utrecht University / University of Amsterdam; Nanne van Noord, University of Amsterdam / Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision; Giovanna Fossati, University of Amsterdam / Eye Filmmuseum

Abstract [en]

[en] The Stylometry of Film Dialogue: Pros and Pitfalls

Agata Hołobut, Jagiellonian University in Kraków; Jan Rybicki, Jagiellonian University in Kraków

Abstract [en]

[en] The Voices of Doctor Who – How Stylometry Can be Useful in Revealing New Information About TV Series

Joanna Byszuk, Institute of Polish Language, Polish Academy of Sciences

Abstract [en]

[en] Methods and Advanced Tools for the Analysis of Film Colors in Digital Humanities

Barbara Flueckiger, University of Zurich; Gaudenz Halter, University of Zurich

Abstract [en] Colors are one of the most difficult stylistic elements of film to analyze, but — as this paper elaborates — a most rewarding one too. A long-neglected topic in film studies, film colors have gained increasing attention over the last decade. With the development of database-driven analysis, deep-learning tools, and a large range of visualization methods the research project ERC Advanced Grant FilmColors set out to provide a more comprehensive approach to analyzing the manifold aspects of color in film. This paper focuses on a set of strong theoretical and analytical concepts of film colors — including human interpretation — that connect the stylistic, expressive, and narrative dimensions with the development and evaluation of digital methods. A corpus of more than 400 films have been analyzed with a computer-assisted workflow that has been integrated into the video annotation and analysis software VIAN since 2017. VIAN is connected to the online platform VIAN WebApp for the evaluation of results, queries, and visualizations on segment, film and corpus level. Compared to traditional, mostly language-dominated approaches to the aesthetics, technology, and narratology of film colors, the digital humanities tools turn evidence created through the mapping of results into an instantly accessible array of visual representations. By relating detailed human annotation and interpretation to these visual representations, the integrated workflow consisting of the VIAN visual analysis software in combination with the crowdsourcing portal VIAN WebApp has created a comprehensive ecosystem for the investigation of film aesthetics and narration. It thus significantly extends established methods in film studies.

[en] Automated Visual Content Analysis for Film Studies: Current Status and Challenges

Kader Pustu-Iren, Leibniz Information Centre of Science and Technology (TIB), Hannover, Germany; Julian Sittel, Institute for Film, Theatre and Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Mainz, Germany; Roman Mauer, Institute for Film, Theatre and Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Mainz, Germany; Oksana Bulgakowa, Institute for Film, Theatre and Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Mainz, Germany; Ralph Ewerth, Leibniz Information Centre of Science and Technology (TIB), Hannover, Germany; L3S Research Center, Leibniz University Hannover, Germany

Abstract [en]

[en] Unknowable Facts and Digital Databases: Reflections on the Women Film Pioneers Project and Women in Film History

Sarah-Mai Dang, Institute of Media Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg

Abstract [en]

Articles

[en] “Vivas to those who have failed:” Walt Whitman Electric and the (Digital) Humanities

Nicole Gray, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract [en]

[en] Playing With Unicorns: AI Dungeon and Citizen NLP

Minh Hua, University of California, Santa Barbara; Rita Raley, University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract [en]

Reviews

[en] Review of Sean Cubitt’s Finite Media: Environmental Implications of Digital Technologies

Richard Snyder, Washington State University

Abstract [en]

Author Biographies

URL: http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/14/4/index.html
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Announcements

2020 14.4

Digital Humanities & Colonial Latin American Studies

Editors: Hannah Alpert-Abrams and Clayton McCarl

Front Matter

Articles

Digital Humanities & Film Studies: Analyzing the Modalities of Moving Images

Editors: Manuel Burghardt, Adelheid Heftberger, Johannes Pause, Niels-Oliver Walkowski, Matthias Zeppelzauer

Front Matter

Articles

Articles

Reviews

Author Biographies