[en] The Landscape of Digital HumanitiesPatrik Svensson, HUMlab, Umeå University
Abstract
[en]
The digital humanities is increasingly becoming a “buzzword”, and there is more
and more talk about a broadly conceived, inclusive digital humanities. The field is
expanding and at the same time being negotiated, and this article explores the idea
of a broadly conceived landscape of digital humanities in some depth. It is argued
that awareness across this landscape is important to the future of the field. The
study starts out from typologies of digital humanities, a “flythrough” of the
landscape, and a discussion of what being a digital humanist entails. The second part
is an exploration of four concrete encounters: ACTLab at University of Texas at
Austin, the Humanities Arts Science Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), the
Humanities Computing Program at the University of Alberta, and Internet Studies. In
the third part of the article, it is suggested that a model based on paradigmatic
modes of engagement between the humanities and information technology can help chart
and understand the digital humanities. The modes of engagement analyzed are
technology as a tool, study object, expressive medium, exploratory laboratory and
activist venue.
[en] Crafting the User-Centered Document Interface: The Hypertext
Editing System (HES) and the File Retrieval and Editing System (FRESS)Belinda Barnet, Lecturer in Media at Swinburne University Melbourne, in association with Smart Services CRC.
Abstract
[en]
This article traces the development of two important hypertext systems in the history
of computing, and the new paradigms they created: the Hypertext Editing System (HES)
and the File Retrieval and Editing System (FRESS). HES was the world's first word
processor to run on commercial equipment. It was also the first hypertext system that
beginners could use, and pioneered many modern hypertext concepts for personal use.
Although the idea of hypertext predates HES and FRESS, this article argues that these
two systems were successful because they demonstrated hypertext to a sceptical
public; they were both working prototypes.
[en] Digital Encoding as a Hermeneutic and Semiotic Act: The Case of
Valerio MagrelliDomenico Fiormonte, Università Roma Tre, Dipartimento di Italianistica; Valentina Martiradonna, Università di Roma, La Sapienza; Desmond Schmidt, Queensland University of Technology, Information Security Institute
Abstract
[en]
In this article we propose different methods of encoding, according to the TEI
Guidelines, three different cases of genetic or compositional textual variants found
in the autographs of the Italian contemporary poet Valerio Magrelli. These encoding
experiments reflect the diverse nature of the artifacts and represent a critical
assessment of the effectiveness of present encoding practices for the
multidimensional and pragmatic aspects of authorial drafts. Thus far, it seems that
the TEI has yet to offer a convincing theoretical model and adequate practical
solutions for representing the complex temporal structures normally present in
manuscripts, and in fluid textual traditions in general. Our conclusion is that there
is a potential conflict between the linear and hierchical nature of current formal
language systems such as XML, and the intrinsic dynamic nature of the writing
process. In such cases we may have to rethink present models of document modeling,
and to develop, within an adequate epistemological framework, a new theory of digital
text.
[en] Accessioning the Digital Humanities: Report from the 1st Archival
Education and Research InstituteSarah Buchanan, The Meadows School
Abstract
[en]
Within the field of archival science, recent attention has been paid to identifying
scholastic practices that will ensure the development of innovative research as well
as the preparedness of future archival educators. Information science, long the
academic frame of archival programs in the U.S. and elsewhere, currently allows for
considerable co-expansion with digital humanities innovations when we consider the
possibility of digital libraries, digital archives, and web-based collections
integrating a humanist approach to display and users' interactivity with cultural
objects. This paper reviews a workshop dedicated to charting the relationship between
digital humanities and archival scholarship, as well as the opportunities to refine
curricular and theoretical development in these two disciplines. The concepts
expressed here would facilitate the efforts of practitioners to critically examine
issues of pedagogy, practical training, and disciplinary alignment under a goal of
sustaining the extraordinary expansion of applied humanist theory exemplified in
research ventures we have seen thus far.
[en] The Machine in the Text, and the Text in the Machine Manuel Portela, University of Coimbra
Abstract
[en]
“The Machine in the Text, and the Text in the Machine” is a review essay on Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame, 2008), by N. Katherine Hayles, and Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2008), by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum. Both works make remarkable contributions for the emerging field of digital literary studies and for the theory of digital media. While Hayles analyses the interaction between humans and computing machines as embodied in electronic works, Kirschenbaum conceptualizes digitality at the level of inscription and establishes a social text rationale for electronic objects.
