[en] Why Digital Humanists Should Emphasize Situated Data
over CaptaMatthew Lavin, Data Analytics Program, Denison University
Abstract
[en]
This essay looks back on Johanna Drucker’s “Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display” (2011) ten years after its initial publication in Digital Humanities Quarterly, in particular Drucker's call to “reconceive all data as capta.” Drucker makes several crucial points about humanistic inquiry, but this essay argues against her embrace of capta as a replacement term for data in two ways: (1) furnishing a revised and expanded etymology for the terms data and (2) exploring the benefits of embracing concepts such as situated data rather than capta.
[en] Hands-On Reading: An Experiment in Slow Digital
ReadingAditi Nafde, Newcastle University; Matt Coneys Wainwright, Newcastle University; Kate Court, Newcastle University; Fiona Galston, Newcastle University; James Cummings, Newcastle University; Tiago Sousa Garcia, Newcastle University
Abstract
[en]
This paper offers a case study of the development of Hands-On Reading (https://hands-on-reading.atnu.ncl.ac.uk/login), a web app that explores the
interconnections between digital reading and writing. The app was created as part of
the AHRC-funded project “Manuscripts after Print c.1450-1550:
Producing and Reading Books during Technological Change,” which ran at
Newcastle University between February 2019 and July 2020. It was initially designed
to enable the project to ask two crucial questions: why does handwriting have an
enduring relevance in a digital age; can a more hands-on approach to reading lead to
a deeper engagement with a digital text? However, as this paper will show, the
creation and testing of this app also raised a number of conceptual issues and
technical challenges of broader relevance to the DH community, relating in particular
to the question of whether reading and writing practices can be translated to the
digital world.
[en] Towards Hermeneutic Visualization in Digital
Literary StudiesRabea Kleymann, Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research; Jan-Erik Stange, Freie Universität Berlin
Abstract
[en]
In this article, we present our reflections on hermeneutic data visualizations
for digital literary studies. Hermeneutic approaches in the digital humanities
have been rather agnostic about the epistemological premises of hermeneutic
theory. These can be summarized as (1) differentiation author/text, (2)
hermeneutic circle and (3) dependency text/recipient. In this article, we
present the concept of hermeneutic visualization as a means of bridging the gap
between “classic” literary hermeneutics and the emerging
practice of digital literary hermeneutics. Since data visualization is based on
epistemological premises stemming from the natural or social sciences, it is not
well-equipped to meet hermeneutic demands. In this article, we argue that the
digital humanities can meet hermeneutic demands through a critical interface and
visualization concept. We discuss four postulates that can be used as guidelines
and help transform “more traditional” data visualization into
hermeneutic visualization, while respecting the epistemological foundations of
hermeneutic theory. We demonstrate the usefulness of the postulates with an
interactive prototype Stereoscope designed to
support them.In our article, we refer to the discussions and results of
the three-year research project Three-Dimensional
Dynamic Data Visualisation and Exploration for Digital Humanities
Research (3DH) at the University of Hamburg (04/2016–12/2018).
The considerations on hermeneutic visualizations presented here are
therefore the result of a very productive collaboration. Therefore we cannot
claim the presented ideas as our own.
[en] Imagining the Continuously Present Past:
Visualizing William Faulkner’s Narratives and Digital
YoknapatawphaJohannes Burgers, Ashoka University
Abstract
[en]
Hosted out of the University of Virginia and funded by the National Endowment for
the Humanities, Digital Yoknapatawpha is an
international and collaborative project composed of William Faulkner scholars
and technologists. Its goal is to create a comprehensive database of all the
locations, characters, and events in Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha fictions with the
aim of visualizing the data through a series of “deep
atlases” and other displays. This paper traces the development
cycle of a supplementary narrative structure analysis dashboard that allows
users to explore the chronology, narrative status, and date range of all of the
texts set in his mythic county. In doing so, it bridges some of the significant
gaps between narratological theory and computational methods, opens up a
conversation about representing narrative data, and suggests some possible
avenues for research with the dashboard.
[en] Going Digital: Teaching Crevecoeur in the
Twenty-First CenturyMary Mcaleer Balkun, Seton Hall University; Diana Hope Polley, United States Air Force Academy
Abstract
[en]
In this essay, we trace our early and ongoing development in creating a digital
critical edition of J. Hector St. Jean de Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer. We discuss our shift from print to
digital publishing technologies and outline the challenges and lessons learned
as two senior faculty members starting out in the digital humanities. The essay
not only addresses our process in developing the digital edition but also our
various experiences piloting the edition with our students. In several brief
case studies, we analyze the value of integrating print vs. digital mediums into
the classroom as well as our efforts to transfer editorial control over to our
students, using the digital to teach them how to become curators of text.
[en] Interpretable Outputs: Criteria for Machine Learning
in the HumanitiesJames Dobson, Dartmouth College
Abstract
[en]
There are a number of risks to interpretability found in the growing use of
complicated computational methods within the humanities. Greater attention needs to
be given to the format and presentation of the underlying data and the interpretation
of any data-derived results. Visually appealing graphic renderings of data, high
classification accuracy and confidence scores, and impressive summary statistics can
be rhetorically structured to appeal to preconceived notions and commonplace
understandings. While making arguments from the summary of significant features might
be permissible in some applications of what is now commonly called data science,
humanistic uses of computation put forward in the service of academic arguments
require much greater access to and grounding in interpretable digital objects. When
features are derived from text, these underlying features need to be shown and
interpreted. This essay argues that claims made on behalf of computational models
need to be evaluated and warranted by a set of shared assumptions and the ability to
test and verify that the data are indeed comprehensible according to the norms of the
shared interpretative community.
[en] Automatic Identification of Types of Alterations in
Historical ManuscriptsDavid Lassner, Machine Learning Group, Technische Universität Berlin; Anne Baillot, Le Mans Université; Sergej Dogadov, Machine Learning Group, Technische Universität Berlin; Klaus-Robert Müller, Machine Learning Group, Technische Universität Berlin; Berlin Big Data Center; Germany Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea University; Max-Planck-Institut für Informatik; Germany Berliner Zentrum für Maschinelles Lernen; Shinichi Nakajima, Machine Learning Group, Technische Universität Berlin; Germany Berlin Big Data Center; RIKEN Center for AIP
Abstract
[en]
Alterations in historical manuscripts such as letters represent a promising field of
research. On the one hand, they help understand the construction of text. On the
other hand, topics that are being considered sensitive at the time of the manuscript
gain coherence and contextuality when taking alterations into account, especially in
the case of deletions. The analysis of alterations in manuscripts, though, is a
traditionally very tedious work. In this paper, we present a machine learning-based
approach to help categorize alterations in documents. In particular, we present a new
probabilistic model (Alteration Latent Dirichlet Allocation, alterLDA in
the following) that categorizes content-related alterations. The method proposed here
is developed based on experiments carried out on the digital scholarly edition Berlin Intellectuals, for which alterLDA
achieves high performance in the recognition of alterations on labelled data. On
unlabelled data, applying alterLDA leads to interesting new insights
into the alteration behavior of authors, editors and other manuscript contributors,
as well as insights into sensitive topics in the correspondence of Berlin
intellectuals around 1800. In addition to the findings based on the digital scholarly
edition Berlin Intellectuals, we present a general
framework for the analysis of text genesis that can be used in the context of other
digital resources representing document variants. To that end, we present in detail
the methodological steps that are to be followed in order to achieve such results,
giving thereby a prime example of a Machine Learning application in the Digital
Humanities.
[en] “Beyond the Word:”
Immersion, Art, and Theory in Environmental and Digital Humanities
PrototypingHanna Musiol, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Abstract
[en]
“Beyond the Word” explores the entanglements of
Digital and Environmental Humanities (D&EH) with the word and textuality —
but also beyond the word and text — with bodies, art, and digital
apparati at its center as narrative, speculative, performative, and immersive
instruments. Specifically, this article details efforts to incorporate mixmedia
immersive literate, sonic, and visual art as a vehicle for teaching critical,
speculative D&EH at a time of global ecological and digital transformations.
Using two transdisciplinary humanities initiatives developed at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology as test cases, this text focuses on
pedagogical prototyping experiments that encourage nondeterministic uses of, and
thinking about, digital tools as vehicles for poetry, transmedia environmental
storytelling, critical theory, ethics, and immersive archival reimagining. The
article covers the design process and sample activities incorporated to
transform the multimodal literature and theory classroom into inclusive,
immersive commons, and it concludes with a reflection on the ethical
ramifications of such D&EH work.
