This week our readings covered the digital humanities (and humanities generally) debate on instrumentalism vs criticism. This idea that digital humanities is solely product-oriented, neglecting the traditional humanities’ concern with criticism is a divide with which I struggle. Since JJ does display a critical approach, perhaps this is an artefact of her take on digital humanities. But I’m inclined to think that this divide is an artificial wall we’ve constructed, rather than anything inherent in either DH or humanities. Continue reading “Digital Humanities vs Humanities?”
Blog Posts
Open Access: Increasing participation in scholarship
I have spent majority of the past week discussing the value of education vs. degrees and the barriers a significant portion of the population face in obtaining the credentials and associations required for respected participation in scholarship. Continue reading “Open Access: Increasing participation in scholarship”
Pedagogy & Digital Media
When I heard Jaskot’s talk, I realized that I was missing out on a new and interesting approach to art history. I had previously used technology to record, organize, and even represent my work as part of a larger conventional framework. I had not used technology to help me better understand my work or to help me draw new conclusions. —Nancy Ross, Dixie State University
This comment from Nancy Ross’ article “Teaching Twentieth Century Art History with Gender and Data Visualizations” gets at the heart of digital humanities research as we’ve understood it in this class. For most scholars, digital humanity tools are a means of producing an accompanying visualization. This neglects how digital humanity tools can actually serve as a new means of Continue reading “Pedagogy & Digital Media”
Experimenting with 3D Scanning
Autodesk 123D Catch desktop & smart phone app
Last week, we visited the Ackland Museum to use one of their objects for our first foray into 3D scanning. I chose a squat, spouted object for my first project. Continue reading “Experimenting with 3D Scanning”
Folksonomies in the GLAM context
Folksonomies, also known as crowd sourced vocabularies, have proved their usefulness time and again in terms of deepening user experience and accessibility, especially in cultural heritage institutions. Often termed GLAMs (Gallery, Library, Archive and Museum), these institutions can use folksonomies to tap into the knowledge base of their users to make their collections more approachable.
For example, Continue reading “Folksonomies in the GLAM context”
Google Maps as a means of enacting digital humanities
For our second assignment in JJ’s Digital Art History course, we created a map that would incorporate multiple layers and associated multimedia. For my map, the layers represent the places in which I’ve lived. The individual locations and routes represent oft frequented or well enjoyed locations. Continue reading “Google Maps as a means of enacting digital humanities”
A Reaction to Image Digitization Standards
After reading through suggested standards for scanning processes based on each type of material or object, I can thoroughly understand why institutions—despite enthusiasm for access and digital humanities—might shy away from long term and collection-wide scanning projects.
The Harry Ransom Center recently launched a digitization project entitled Continue reading “A Reaction to Image Digitization Standards”
Scalar Book of Coptic Stitch Binding
Our first digital project is due this week. JJ asked us to create a collection of media objects in either Omeka or Scalar, using the built-in tools to play with footnotes, annotations, linking and adding metadata.
I chose Scalar, since Continue reading “Scalar Book of Coptic Stitch Binding”
Thinking about media and oral history annotation
This week we worked with several media annotation programs and studied oral history recording and transcription processes.
MEDIA ANNOTATION
Thinglink provides a handy means of annotating media for Continue reading “Thinking about media and oral history annotation”
Digital Art History: a first reaction
My first semester at Chapel Hill, in Carol Magee’s Art Historical Methods course, our class read “Is there a Digital Art History?” by Johanna Drucker [1]. Subsequently, I attended a session of the Digital Salon Series at UNC titled “What is Digital Art History?” in which we discussed our responses to the Drucker article and heard JJ Bauer and Carolyn Allmendinger reflect on their experience working in digital art history. Now, in my second semester, JJ Bauer asks once more for consideration of the realities and possibilities of digital art history, this time for her course on Alternative Methods: Digital Art History. Continue reading “Digital Art History: a first reaction”