What is Digital Humanities? Blog Post 1
As simply put by the Digital Humanities Course Book, digital humanities is "work at the intersection of computational methods and humanities materials."
According to other sources, digital humanities is still far from being well-defined. The website, whatisdigitalhumanities.com shows an array of diverse answers such as "computer aided social science" to "'Digital' Humanities is a misnomer: there nothing to essentially distinguish it from the disciplines of Arts and Letters as practised for centuries. Just as scientists who utilise grid-computing are not 'digital scientists' but still 'scientists', and fiction authors who publish in hypertext are not 'digital novelists', those working in Arts and Letters who use and generate digital materials and digital tools remain 'humanists.'" There is no pretty or put-together way to define the subject according to this website.
I, however, enjoy a neat and pretty little definition of the subject. After reading the first chapter of the course book I found that the basic principles of digital humanities gave me a more concrete understanding of this discipline.
Materials are the raw forms of content to be digitized or displayed in a project; like maps, literature, or physical artifacts. Processing involves the tools used to turn the materials into digital forms. furthermore, it involves thinking deeply about the digital medium's effect on the presentation or narrative of the project. How does a picture compare to a 3D model? The Presentation is the finished product, and when formatting must be considered. Elements such as font, color, and layout have an impact on how users view the project. These elements showcase the discipline almost as a set of tools that can be used to aid in projects that deal with the humanities. Digital Humanities dives a bit deeper in understanding to purpose and effect of each tool used throughout the process. Questions must be asked to ourselves throughout the entire process of each project.
Because digital humanities combines the works of digital media and the study of humanities, I imagine large sectors of digital humanities work to be in libraries, museums, and databases. The purposes of these places is to take pieces that were written, painted, sculpted, and/or performed by humans and to turn them into widely accessible formats. This seems to be the vain of digital humanities.
I agree with your paragraph at the end because I feel like based on what I've read, digital humanities isn't necessarily producing new concepts and ideas. Instead, it seems like people are taking existing information and art and expressing it in a digital format. This allows more exposure for people who don't have immediate access to a library or museum. Digital humanities allow people to view art and obtain information on a digital level which is extremely convenient.
ReplyDeleteYes, archival and analysis of existing art forms, but also creating new art with digital tools!
DeleteI love this intersection as a commonality in the posts this week: "work at the intersection of computational methods and humanities materials." It gives us a broad but definite place to land, your "neat and pretty" definition. However, by allowing for the open-ended messiness is how we promote experimentation and creativity. :) You've hit on a lot of the scope here!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you stated that digital humanities is a topic that isn't so easy to understand and define. I agree with the fact that digital humanities can be a tricky thing to fully understand when defining it at a broader scale, so breaking it down into parts make it much easier to understand. according to what you said materials, processing, and presentation all seem to be the biggest contributing factors in what digital humanities is. Overall, it seems that digital humanities can be defined as, using the technology we have to present materials and concepts involving humanities. This post was definitely really insightful and really helped me understand digital humanities a lot more.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your claim that Digital humanities does not fit into a "Pretty little definition" which can seem overwhelming when trying to define DH as a whole. I also picture digital humanities residing in existing within the confines of databases and really anywhere that combines humanities and the digital world!
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said throughout this post. The fact that DH doesn't fit into a certain definition is something that I have seen multiple times in these responses and it is complex and cool at the same time because it is constantly changing and it does have a lot of moving pieces. I liked how you broke it down into three different principles.
ReplyDeleteI found your point about DH being utilized by museums to be especially compelling. I'm a frequent visitor of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston MA. The MFA has various interactive exhibits including a virtual simulation of what a giant statue of Athena would have looked like draped in color in its original location in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. The simulation of Athena was made accessible to museum goers as they were free to touch the screen it was on and zoom into different details of the statue to get a closer look. When interacting with this 3-D model I thought of the amount of time a team of digital humanists must have put into it in encapsulating each detail of the statue and scientific processes necessary to finding out what colors would've been used. The world of DH is so interesting to me as it is a lot of tedious, calculated, and detailed work for little financial payoff. Therefore it seems the field of digital humanists must consist of people with a dedication to their work/interests. I liked how you emphasized the importance of presentation in DH as a project such as the Athena simulation requires solid aesthetic presentation in order to catch the eye/attention of and be as accessible to the majority of museum goers.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I agree with your statement that DH doesn't adhere to one concrete definition. I found the fluidity of DH interesting as technology is ever-changing, allowing us to constantly develop new ways of expression. This idea makes DH one of the most interesting topics for me to study, being able to develop new ways of expression through things we already have (fonts and colors) and things we can't do just yet.
ReplyDeleteI really like how throughout your paragraph you make sure that it is known that digital humanities simply cannot be explained with a simple one definition. However, you provided very insightful quotes that attempt to explain as specifically as they can what DH is all about. It's so interesting to see what others have to say about it and how they describe it when it is such a wide and general topic with so many aspects to comprehend. One thing I did also like that you said too is how you used things as simple as font, color, and layout in writing because I think putting it in terms that everyone has experience in helps greatly.
ReplyDeleteFrom Victoria: I love the iCarly meme, haha! This blog definitely shines in breaking down that each part of the DH project process is: Materials, Processing and Presentation. Also in laying down that DH is a misnomer, which is what I thought during our first class deciding it. The website, whatisdigitalhumanities.com shows an array of diverse answers such as "computer aided social science" to "'Digital' Humanities is a misnomer: there nothing to essentially distinguish it from the disciplines of Arts and Letters as practiced for centuries.
ReplyDeleteI like your definition of “digital humanities” and how you used multiple sources to come up with the best explanation, especially since I was originally confused trying to understand what exactly it was. Splitting up the definition into three key factors (materials, processing, and presentation) makes it easier to understand the term. This reminds me of how the book seems to split the term in its own way by separately defining its two parts, “digital” and “humanities,” and then explaining how the two words fit and work together. I feel that breaking down such a complex study into smaller parts like this is the most effective way to explain to someone what the study of digital humanities is.
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