Notes on Chapters 3&4 of Burdick Text

Chapter 3: The Social Life of the Digital Humanities (DH)

Focuses on social aspects & impacts of DH
Analyzing economies humanities were created in & how it’s changed (with open-source models, IT, and social media)
- These models have reshaped contemporary practices and promote social transformations that have an affect on the relevance of humanities work
2 economies this article contrasts: the 1^st Industrial Revolution and the globalized economy of this networked information age
Viewing universities as an ‘ivory tower’ doesn’t work anymore – it’s becoming more of a “nodal point” amidst the constant change

Chapter 4: Provocations

Humanists are working across the digital/analog environments (it’s slowly becoming a more blurred line)
Complex adaptive systems theory (p.106)
Much of DH work is team-based (like in STEM fields) and involved bringing in different experts to work on projects together
Large amounts of historical materials are being collected/documented now – resulting in a backlog of work
- Solution: new models for preserving and processing the work be created and models become user-centered rather than object-centered
Creation of digital archives – can become dated, each piece of information is effected by each interaction involving it, helps tackle cultural memory
Comprehensive models for graduate training in humanities has gained more traction with the increase in the number of subfields
- Doctoral students now become experts in a specific area and determine how they can tie that specialization into other areas (theory is often used as a bridge between areas)
Because outside skills are becoming more incorporated into careers today (computer programming skills, library science, digital media/design skills) – making the job market more diverse and making it even more complicated to find
- Question: How do fellow grad students think the job market is going to change as we continue in our degrees? What skills will be more highly valued?
Tech skills and research questions aren’t synonymous, but with the growth of DH it’s more & more important to understand how having the tech skills can assist in research

Experimentation & Emerging Methods/Genres

In this blog post, I am focusing on the code, software, and platform studies aspect of Digital Humanities (DH) research. In terms of the Veterans Legacy Project (VLP), this “emerging area” carries a lot of potential impact. VLP is a growing project in terms of its scope and the projects that fall under its umbrella. Its projects focus on spreading information to visitors to cemeteries, veterans, and there are projects specifically for teachers to use with their students. As a PhD student, I have been continually seeking out a better understanding of coding and programming so that I will be able to use it in my dissertation research as well as be more employable after my degree is complete.

As Burdick states on page 53, “The basic binary language of digital media is the foundation of all programming code, but software and computer languages have their own history as forms with grammar and syntax.” One of the most important balancing acts of a digital project is the balance between coding the what the code is going to represent, what information the website created by the code is able to impart. Being able to create an effective web presence for a project such as VLP (or any Digital Humanities project) requires having a web developer, or someone with the skills to build the website using at least three front-end programming languages (usually HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript). Even more important than finding someone with these technical skills is finding a developer with the ability to understand the project and its needs so that they are able to create the web presence needed to help propel the project forward.

Burdick also goes on to discuss the scholar’s point of view in regards to the use of encoding in technology and other fields: “Scholars fascinated by the encoded protocols and instructions that constitute the language of software also look at the cultural contexts in which business, defense, or communications industries fueled the development of increasingly sophisticated approaches to encoding” (pg.53). This fascinated perspective could offer further support for the need for recruiting experts to DH projects so there will be a professional that is able to keep the potential uses of encoding and coding in perspective in terms of long-term and short-term goals. As a budding coder and web designer, there have been multiple instances of associates telling me stories of having to manage a client’s expectations because the client wanted a final website produced in the fraction of the time it would actually take.

In going forward in consulting with VLP, it has been important to understand that any work created throughout the iteration of this course would be a draft or beta test that would be fleshed out and built upon throughout the summer. As it is stated in the fifth case study of the Burdick piece, “The prototype will be employed to beta test a new way of accessing information, interacting with knowledge, and experiences data research in physical and virtual space” – any product created for VLP would have to go through beta testing as well to ensure it is functioning correctly without any nasty surprises. Besides consulting for VLP, any coding and programming that I do for my own research projects would also be completed in a similar process of creation, beta testing, debugging, and finally release/publishing. The Digital Humanities is a field with enormous potential to incorporate technical experts into the projects, and this would probably improve the field overall. If a project team included a humanities expert working with a software developer, and the two were able to understand the other’s perspective, the potential products could be unlimited.

Designing Digital Humanities

Electing the House of Representatives 1840-2016, a project by the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab, uses data visualization tools in order to show the outcomes of elections over 176 years. While I cannot speak for everyone, I do think there are large quantities of individuals that struggle with understanding the political layout of the United States and would like to better comprehend the political inclinations of each state. This project provides a highly developed interactive graphic that users are able to manipulate to learn about the outcomes of the House of Representative elections from 1840-2016. Among the various information a user can glean from exploring the image and manipulating the settings is the winner in each district, the strength of that victory, if it was a flipped victory in that district, and the map can be represented as either a cartogram or a map. Beneath the map is a timeline that shows the amount of seats Democrats and Republicans won in each election through history, accompanied by a short narrative statement as well.

Why is a graphic such as this so valuable when election results can be found on various new outlets? Politics are an important topic to be aware of yet they are also highly charged with anxiety and stress which can lead to greater difficulty for some individuals to keep up with. When a layman tries to learn about the history of his or her district in order to learn about the likely outcome of upcoming elections, an interactive graphic such as this one allows the user to directly connect with the data and creates a better understanding of the election results. The effective design of this project ensures the controls of the graphic are easy to use, the colors and images chosen are communicative (and do not clash with accessibility, such as color-blind users), and each element of the graphic is clearly labeled.

Looking at this project’s argument, it exhibits a clear aim of understanding the history of elections by placing more context around them – in the introduction of the project it is stated that, “This project aims to recapture the role of Congress as an equal branch in governing, worthy of studying side-by-side with the Presidency, by offering comprehensive and fine-grained data on the history of Congressional elections. To understand the most momentous periods of reform in American political history, we must give attention to all branches of government.” As a result of illustrating the data, the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab has brought these past election results to life so that they can almost speak for themselves – with the data clearly displayed there is no way to deny when a state was flipped or when Republicans controlled more districts, or when Democrats were in the lead – this information cannot be hidden in reports or scoffed at as being dated when it is made into a graphic that could be found on any cutting edge, or high-end website. Perception is an incredibly important element in spreading information, and the acceptance of the information, and reinterpreting this election result data into an interactive graphic makes data from 1840 current.

In conclusion, Electing the House of Representatives 1840-2016 is an excellent example of a Digital Humanities (DH) project that should be used for a model in future projects. This project illustrates the potential for using technology (either via web design, data visualization, or interactive graphics) to bring historical data from centuries past back to life. Before DH projects started becoming more common, it was more difficult to revitalize historical information. Now there are growing numbers of examples of DH project focused on different facets of history.

Link to the Electing the House of Representatives 1840-2016 project:

https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/congress/#view=map&year=2000&xyz=216.322/70.597/1&show=strength

VLP Consulting Project, Part 1: The Project as Basic Unit

The Veteran’s Legacy Program is a Digital Humanities (DH) project that memorializes and honors veterans and brings history to life for those seeking to learn more about the Seminole Wars and World War I. UCF’s History department and Center for Humanities and Digital Research (CHDR) have been working collaboratively to create a variety of digital tools and teaching materials for educators in K-12 education. A project of this scope and longevity contains multiple moving parts, I want to focus on the types of players involved in this DH project, how it incorporates skillsets outside of academic research/training, and what this project stands to contribute to society.

Digital Humanities projects generally involve a large amount of collaboration. Generally this includes professors, students, professionals within the targeted field, educators, and volunteers. The VLP project involves most of these collaborators, though most of the work is conducted through UCF professors, employees, and students. The collaboration within this project largely depends on which prong of the project is involved: the main professors in charge of the project oversee every element of collaboration while other collaborators focus on their portion of the project. Students within the Text & Technology department will work closely with involved educators to develop exciting and appropriate materials for the classroom in the hopes of enticing students interest. Other students involved with digital tools and representations (such as Tableau) will work more closely with Dr. French and Dr. Giroux to ensure their representations of the data convey the information in an effective manner.

One of the lovely elements of any collaborative project is its incorporation of a variety of skillsets and backgrounds – and the VLP Consulting Project is no exception. The overall aim of the project is the preservation and spread of information to everyone – child and adult. By having CHDR fill a role in VLP development, this does ensure that the historical information is presented in new ways outside of books and journal articles (as might be expected from traditional history-based projects). Students involved in the creation of the AR applications and digital representation of data are also able to bring a wide pool of knowledge as well because they see the project from a different perspective than the professionals running the project: they are a different age demographic, have different perspectives and thoughts regarding what is effective in absorbing new information, and also bring different academic backgrounds to this interdisciplinary project.

VLP stands to make a large contribution to the fields of History and Digital Humanities, and to museums/curation. This project doesn’t focus on some far away location or far away time that has no connection to society today – this is part of our history. The methods used in this project can serve as a model for ways history education can be updated in this digital age so that future students don’t write it off as ‘boring’ or ‘not important’. The augmented reality app being developed offers an innovative way for visitors to the cemetery to engage with history as they are now able to directly access information about the individuals buried at each cemetery from their smart phone.

My background is filled with varied experiences in Anthropology and Linguistics, and now a majority of my time is spent incorporating my liberal arts/social skills into technology. I think I could best help this project through public outreach – either via social media or working on interactive data visualizations. I have experience in conducting research in different fields and in different countries, and this have given me a strong understanding of how to manage projects containing multiple individuals – the organization and communication needed. So even if I did not work on a forward-facing part of the project, I believe I would still be a strong asset for helping to manage the backend side of VLP.

Big Data and Data Visualization

This week we are exploring big data in Graham et al.’s work Exploring Big Historical Data: This Historian’s Macroscope. Throughout this text, the main theme was exploring the digital tools that can be used by today’s historians (or already are in use). Among these skills is Zotero – a tool that enables users to save and export citations, which can be a lifesaver for researchers. On page 6 of Big Historical Data Zotero is cited as a tool for finding commonalities: “Using a plugin, a little program or component that adds something to a software program, for the open source reference and research management software Zotero, Fred Gibbs at George Mason University developed a means to look at specific cases (e.g. those pertaining to “poison”) and look for commonalities…Through comparing differences in documents (using Normalized Compression Distance, or the standard tools that compress files on your computer) one can get the database to suggest trials that are structurally similar to the one a user is currently viewing.” This is one example of the tools historians are using to conduct big data research in order to gain a better scope of ‘the big picture’ in historical occurrences. Using tools such as Zotero (which I picked because I also use it in my work) have made it possible for big data research to be conducted without the headache-inducing amount of resources it would have required before the availability of open source tools.

As Graham et al. state, “There are three issues of critical importance to understanding big data as a historian: the open access and open source movements, copyright, and what we mean by textual analysis” (p.38). While this quote outlines the topics that a historian needs to understand in pursuing big data, it also shows the limitless potential those tools possess to a historian capable of seeing ways of reimagining data to catch a person’s attention. Up until a short time ago, information was only reported with fairly uniform methods: in itemized tables and lists with accompanying reports arranged by topic (generally chronological). Now it has become acceptable to display data in new ways that can spark understanding in a variety of observers. Data is being analyzed and displayed into word clouds, in line graphs, and scatterplots (at times using colors to contrast different topics and their frequency) – these new means of data visualization allows historians to reach many more people. And this new incorporation of data visuals increases comprehension in users.

An excellent example of the applications of big data research and data visualization for historical research is the Viral Texts project. This project has several components: the Love Letter Exhibit, Fugitive Verses edition, and a visualization of the network of “Viral Text” sharing from 1836-1899 – these are a few examples of the work the Viral Texts project has done. Among these, I want to focus on the visualization for the “Viral Text” network: this interactive graphic allows users to zoom into the image and select nodes from within the mass of connections in order to isolate one node in order to see its information and which nodes with which it connects. Users are able to zoom in and out of the image to get a better view of the hundreds of nodes. I think interactive visualizations like this are able to communicate more information than a written report ever could – the interactive component is far better for keeping a user’s attention (especially if the user is not a history major and may have come across the website by coincidence).

The Digital Humanities is a field that is rapidly expanding, though I don’t think everyone knows what to do with it. Projects such as the Viral Texts project give in insight into what historians others within the Humanities can do to integrate their work into the ever growing tech world. By incorporating tools such as Zotero, Tableaux, AntConc, and Voyant Tools when publishing research, historians can better claim a platform in this digital age.

Kuhn – Understanding Structure of Scientific Revolutions

In Kuhn’s work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he reviews the history of the science field and the elements within it that culminate into the overarching field and the many subfields within it. Kuhn uses a metaphor of a constellation to organize science and those within it on pages 74-75: “If science is the constellation of facts, theories, and methods collected in current texts, then scientists are the men who, successfully or not, have striven to contribute one or another element to that particular constellation.” This combination of elements (i.e. people, research, publications, education) is not wholly unique to science, which makes Kuhn’s work even more valuable. When examining the history of most (if not all) academic fields there are similar patterns that can be identified: new theories are published that are either accepted or denied by those within the field, research on pre-existing theories is built upon, academic researchers and professors within the field build their careers on the research/theory they believe has the most promise. All of these are dependent on there being accepted paradigms within the field, such as Kuhn identified within science as “accepted examples of actual scientific practice—examples which include law, theory, application, and instrumentation together—provide models from which spring particular coherent traditions of scientific research” (p.111).

When contemplating this book’s relevance to the study of science, technology, culture, and society it is my opinion that its value is in its highlighting the key occurrences that happen within academia in general even while focusing it within the scientific field. Science has always been a highly valued field in terms of employment, prestige, and value to society – while other fields have not been as highly valued (i.e. Liberal Arts fields such as Anthropology and Sociology) because the applications of these fields are not as valued financially by society. One of the strokes of genius in Kuhn’s work is that he highlights the creation of paradigms (and their use within science) and in its essence I believe humanists see the similar use of paradigms within other academic fields. For example, within Linguistics, Chomsky’s work can be seen a largely utilized paradigm within Linguistics research.

In regards to my research interests, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions makes me think of how research within technology is almost like a race that is impossible to catch up with. Specifically in examining Digital Media research (and my intended focus on Augmented Reality and Digital Media), the research being done is often a blending of AR with pre-existing work/art/technology. In designing research within the Text and Technology program (and Digital Media/AR), my task usually involves researching pre-existing theorists within both technology (AR) and the humanities because the research is usually a blend of technology with humanities. As a result of combining these very different fields, it can lead to applying paradigms from one field to another field – resulting in interpretations of theory that do not always follow the framework within either field the research falls into.

For example, in a study measuring the effectiveness of a digital tour of a Peruvian Textile Museum and weaving community this would involve researching already established research in Peruvian weaving, digital curation and information systems design in order to have a well thought-out hypothesis before carrying out the study. As technology and science have advanced and the applications of these research fields have been realized, encouraging pursuing a college education has become more present in American education. A prime example of this is the STEM movement in education: Science, Technology, Information, and Math. It is important to also incorporate art into education (rather than cutting it out), which led to STEM becoming STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Art Technology). I see this as a subtle yet firm way to remind society that Art should not be undervalued (even though it is not as immediately profitable in the workforce as science-related fields are).

Ultimately, my takeaway from reading Kuhn is that the structure he outlines for science in terms of paradigms, achievements, normal science, the politics within that field – these are not unique to science. Instead, these can be applied to any academic field.

*Note: page numbers are based on the iBooks format

Is Technology Slowly Folding Us All into the Matrix?

Sven Birkerts’ work Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age focuses on how a person’s ability to pay attention has changed with the growing presence of technology in everyday life. Throughout the book, Birkerts insists that he is not against technology and sees the value of it, but he does think that technology has lowered a person’s initial ability to focus and notice everyday detail and beauty. In a way, it’s as though today’s population has allowed itself to be folded into the Matrix and only those who take the time to notice art is able to wake themselves up.

Birkerts uses a series of anecdotal stories throughout the book to relate his views about technology and its effect on a person’s ability to connect to the environment. In one chapter, Birkerts both cites and uses the strong statement “It’s not because I’m a cranky Luddite, I swear!” as a defensive statement in regard to his views about where technology is and is not necessary. In the use of this statement he makes a stance that he is not against technology, he just believes there are some places where technology does not need to be inserted into everyday life (though he is unlikely to win this battle). Even in asserting this statement, Birkerts knows this opinion is unlikely to be shared by the majority of the population.

Showing his awareness of this, he goes on in later chapters to describe the experience of flipping through a photography book showing different people posed reading books – and expressed how much less artistic this photo series would be if instead of reading physical books the subjects were reading on a tablet. He points out that part of the beauty in coming upon someone reading is in being able to see the cover of the book, the book jacket art, and in the connotation with the book in question (i.e. if they’re reading a classic, a Young Adult novel, a mystery) and that the artistic value is lessened when all someone sees is an individual looking at a kindle. Seeing someone reading from a kindle (or any type of tablet) removes the romanticism associated with the actual book – there’s no way of knowing what a person is reading when all that is visible is the back of a tablet. This is one example Birkerts uses to illustrate his point that the growing infusion of technology into daily life is removing society’s artistic sense.

Turning Birkerts’ work towards technology’s use in the arts, I wonder how he would view augmented reality (AR). For example, one of Dr. Harrington’s AR projects focuses on the UCF Arboretum. In the project, the user is able to explore the arboretum in ways that are impossible in real life (users can travel off the trails in any direction they choose). To make this project even more impressive, a botanist was an active consultant on the project and collaborated with the artists to ensure that each plant was represented with a high degree of accuracy. This combination of art with technology resulted in a teaching tool that can enable users to appreciate the arboretum in a new way that was not previously possible: every inch of it can be explored, and it can be used to prepare for visits to the arboretum as well.

AR technology can be used to enhance the user experience, and provide a new way to engage with information. While Birkerts makes good points about how technology and its uniform outward appearance can create a sense of uniformity, but when the user engages with technology the experience changes. For example, there are AR apps being created that create a 3D experience with the book that creates new opportunities for the reader to engage with the book. In a course I’m currently enrolled in, we are developing AR app ideas that can be integrated into a local art museum. The central purpose is to create new opportunities for visitors to better connect with museum visitors. These are some examples that show how technology is being used to better connect users with artistic experiences.

Imagined Communities and Looking at Hogwarts

Benedict Anderson’s work, Imagined Communities, examines the creation of nationalism in order to create a sense of camaraderie among sweeping groups of individuals. Examples of this have been seen throughout history from when leaders ruled through dynasties, monarchies, and through religion – all of these have been sources for individuals to separate themselves into groups based on their choices (and in some cases, location). These self-imposed groupings have been the cause of hostilities, wars, and hatred – as can be witnessed through history with numerous examples of crusades, wars over territories (especially those in done in the name of a ruling house), and racial hostilities (from British colonialism to racial hostilities in the United States that is still seen today).

This idea of exploring nationalism as a human construct offers a new way of understanding the “Us vs. Them” mentality. Consider colonialism: European nations in their race to acquire the most land and resources spread their borders to African countries, India, and South America and declared the land theirs. Now groups who have lived in these countries for hundreds of years are fighting to keep their resources, usually with the European colonizers winning in the end (thanks to the possession of guns). Returning to the idea of imagined communities and nationalism, the British Empire is one example of a group that wanted all of its people to look and act the same, while looking down on those who did not fit their idea of a British citizen. For example, India was a British colony for almost two hundred years yet in that time Indian customs were not assimilated into the idea of British nationalism. Rather, British citizens that traveled to India brought their ideas of how to act as a ‘civilized’ citizen in order to maintain their imagined hierarchical status as a British citizen rather than following some of the local customs and dress (which might have been more comfortable given the climate difference between England and India).

While it is not my main research field, this idea of imagined communities as a way of expressing nationalism made me think of fandoms and how viciously some fans will defend their corner of a fandom. For example, when Marvel began releasing movies (beginning with Iron Man in 2008) it created a divide between fans who are only fans of the movies, and those who have read the comic books. This led to animosity between the two groups, examples of this being debates online on sites such as Reddit and Tumblr as fans debated what would happen in upcoming movies and what should happen based on the comic books (if Marvel decided to stay ‘true’ to the comics or not). Other fandom groups are created based on shows (i.e. Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock) with different fan art being posted online and at times being praised by fans of the same show, denounced for not featuring a preferred character, or heckled for not being the ‘right’ show.

In a similar vein to past individuals who defined their identity by religion or nationality, there are fans of a show, or book, or movie who make it a main factor of how they define themselves and how their view others. A growing example in my generation is Harry Potter. Twenty years ago it would have been the oddest question to be asked what your house is (or a person may have answered that they live in a 2-story townhouse), except now it is an almost commonplace question when learning about someone new. Families can explain their family to an outsider by saying, “I’m a Huffelpuff, she’s a Slytherin, my mom is a Gryffindor, and my dad is also a Slytherin” and it makes sense! In my experience, this is a generally accepted way of explaining a group of people’s personalities without having to provide more explanation, and it also implies that group’s status as big enough fans of Harry Potter that parts of the books lexicon have migrated into their personal lexicon.

Leonardo to the Internet – thoughts and perspective

In Thomas Misa’s work, Leonardo to the Internet, Misa takes the reader through an examination of how technological advances in history were valued by those in power and were used to maintain power. Misa starts in the Renaissance period when cutting edge technology was being created by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci who had varied skills ranging from painting, sculpture, to using engineering to create war machines. Artists and creators with skills such as da Vinci were viewed as assets for wealthy patrons and created symbiotic relationships with patrons – artists were able to pursue their passion to create, patrons benefited from what the artists were able to create by gaining new art and technology that increased their power and prestige at national and (in some cases) global levels. As the wheel of time continued to turn, different nations came into power, but the approach to maintaining power has remained similar: the nation with the more advanced and functioning technology has usually being able to pull ahead for a time in global power.

Throughout Leonardo to the Internet it has repeatedly shown that the dominant nation in any given time period is usually the nation that is farthest ahead in technology. The Dutch republic aimed its technological efforts towards staying ahead in shipping and commerce, which resulted in the Dutch republic being renowned as the main power within that portion of trade. A key requirement of the power in developing new technology was being able to use that technology effectively before another nation also obtains the technology (or learns how to copy it). History has shown that nations that were able to create new advances in technology (while keeping these advances confidential) were able to hold onto power for longer periods of time.

The importance of putting technology to work, not only having the technology, is seen in the British Empire: it is not enough to be in possession of the technological advances (or having more advances than others, as could be argued with Britain’s imperialist expansion into India) if that technology is not patented or kept protected in some way instead of being flaunted. While British scientists did make a number of discoveries that were not necessarily created with the purpose of capitalizing on the discovery, but for the joy of discovery. As a result, these discoveries spread to other nations more freely where others were able to apply the technology to a business and increase their power in that field (within the nation or globally).

Within my own research field of augmented reality (AR), Leonardo to the Internet has been a lesson in the importance of staying aware of current technology. I have grown up watching technology advance at a startling rate and seeing its importance in daily life increase as the general public’s interest has increased. A key element of being a valuable employee is in understanding how technology is being utilized in a field and anticipating how that can change as new technology is developed. I am most interested in augmented reality technology and how it is being applied to pre-existing fields. For example, my primary research project is the development of an augmented reality fantasy game that is set within UCF. My main role is to research how this game can utilize educational theories to be a more effective tool for future UCF students for purposes such as feeling more acquainted with the campus and having a deeper connection with UCF. In order to answer these questions, it is important for me to gain a deeper understanding of augmented reality, and how it is currently being used in the educational field as well as in other fields (in case those applications could be used in education). As it was during the times of da Vinci, being able to blend creativity with science is one of the most important elements in obtaining power in today’s world: power and prestige goes to those who are able to think ahead and create the technology able to show how things could be done rather than how they have always been done.