DHI Roundup

The DHI was constituted as an open research network that aimed to develop expertise and knowledge, through dialogue, on Digital Humanities within the School of Culture and Communication. The Digital Densities Symposium, which we hosted back in March 2015, capped off a stimulating year of dialogue with colleagues working within the Digital Humanities. You can find a full report of DHI’s activities for 2014 here. Members of DHI are now pursuing a range of research projects and collaborations, and we will be sure to report back on these in the coming months.

Digital Densities Program

The full program for the Digital Densities symposium is now complete and ready to view at your leisure.

Please click here to view the program.

Schedule for Digital Densities Symposium

The Digital Densities Symposium features papers, from leading academics, that explore the intersection between digital and material culture across a variety of disciplines including the performing arts, art history, publishing and new media. The official program will be ready to circulate in a few more days, however the schedule has been locked down and will proceed as follows:

Thursday 26 March

6.00        8.00      Public Lecture/ Keynote Address by Sarah Kenderdine

                            McMahon Ball Theatre, Old Arts Building

Friday 27 March

8.45        9.00      Registration and coffee/tea

                            Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

9.00 – 10.30        Session 1: Different Densities (chair: Paul Rae)

                            Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

                            Gillian Russell
                            Miguel Escobar
                            Christopher Thompson

10.30 – 11.00      Morning Tea break

                            Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

11.00 – 12.45      Session 2a: Temporalities (Chair: Joseph Hughes)

                            Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

                            Nick Thieberger
                            Erik Champion
                            Kim Doyle
                            James Manning

                             Session 2b: Digital Practices (Chair: Susan Lowish)

                             VCRC Third Floor, John Medley Building

                             Harriette Richards
                             Nina Buchan
                             Rosemary Wrench

12.45 – 1.15        Lunch break         

1.15 – 2.45           Session 3: Political Archaeology (Chair: Jane Brown)

                             Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

                             Susan Lowish
                             Sybil Nolan
                             Philip Batty

3.00 – 4.30           Session 4a: Manuscript/Digiscript (Chair: David McInnis)

                             Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

                             Sarah Balkin
                             Beth Driscoll and Mark Davis
                             Fiona Tweedie

                              Session 4b: Assemblages (Chair: Amanda Malel Trevisanut)

                              VCRC Third Floor, John Medley Building

                              Claire Smith
                              Robbie and Luke
                              Gavin Findlay

4.30 – 5.30           Closing panel (Chair: Joseph Hughes)

                             Fourth Floor Linkway, John Medley Building

                             Paul Arthur
                             Rachel Fensham
                             Erik Champion
                             Deb Verhoeven

Remember to register your attendance at go.unimelb.edu.au/m8gn

If you have any enquires please contact Amanda Malel Trevisanut at amandat@unimelb.edu.au

Registrations are now open to attend the Digital Densities Symposium

Digital Densities: A symposium examining relations between material cultures and digital data  

26^th and 27^th March 2015

Hosted by the Digital Humanities Incubator (DHI) in the School of Culture and Communication
The University of Melbourne

In his key text Mechanisms, Matthew Kirschenbaum identifies a need to reassess theories of electronic textuality in light of “the material matrix governing writing and inscription in all forms: erasure, variability, repeatability and survivability” (2008, xii). In the academy, this material turn co-exists with an increasing utilization of digital resources and digital methodologies to preserve and disseminate the findings of our research. These shifts are accompanied by divergent affective responses that include an interest in tactile sensations and a mourning of the loss of the object. There is also a new awareness of the forms of lightness or weight attached to the transmission of ideas in and beyond our research communities. These numerous moments of contact between material culture and digital methodologies open up debates about the densities of our culture and scholarship.

The Digital Densities Symposium features papers, from leading academics, that explore the intersection between digital and material culture across a variety of disciplines including the performing arts, art history, publishing and new media.

Presenters include Sarah Kenderdine, Paul Arthur, Erik Champion, Miguel Escobar, Rachel Fensham, Gillian Russell, Nick Thieberger and Deb Verhoeven

Thursday 26^th March 2015, 6-8pm
McMahon Ball Theatre, Old Arts Building
Keynote Address: Prof. Sarah Kenderdine
To register attendance please click here

Friday 27^th March 2015, 9am - 5.30pm
Linkway, 4th Floor John Medley Building
Registration 8.45am
To register attendance please click here

Admission is free.
Bookings are required.
Seating is limited.

The symposium program will be available via this blog closer to the event.

CfP: DHI Symposium 27th March 2015

Digital Densities: examining relations between material cultures and digital data

Call For Papers

27^th March 2015, The University of Melbourne

Hosted by the Digital Humanities Incubator (DHI) in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne.

The ‘material turn’ in Humanities research has seen a celebration of the physicality of things and a revaluing of the weight of experience, including in the case of digital data. In his key text Mechanisms, Matthew Kirschenbaum identifies a need to reassess theories of electronic textuality in light of “the material matrix governing writing and inscription in all forms: erasure, variability, repeatability and survivability” (2008, xii). In the academy, this material turn co-exists with an increasing utilization of digital resources and digital methodologies to preserve and disseminate the findings of our research. These shifts are accompanied by divergent affective responses that include an interest in tactile sensations and a mourning of the loss of the object. There is a new awareness of the forms of lightness or weight attached to the transmission of ideas in and beyond our research communities; the densities of our culture and scholarship. The ever more numerous moments of contact between material culture and digital methodologies open up debates that are of both practical and theoretical significance.

We invite papers that explore any aspect of the intersection between digital and material cultures. We warmly encourage proposals from scholars with a range of disciplinary backgrounds as well as from archival practitioners. Topics and questions to be addressed might include:

-   What are the critical practices in the intersection of digital humanities and the material turn?
-  Where are the material traces in the digital? What labour is involved in the transitions between the material and the digital?
-      How do material and digital objects, practices and networks interrelate?
-      What is lost in translations from material to digital, and what is gained?
-      What is it that archives seek, and are able, to preserve?
-      What are the political and territorial disputes of material conservation?
-   How are creativity, meaning and contemporary resonance expressed in museums, libraries and archives?
-   What material, theoretical and ethical challenges are posed by the collection and use of data?
-  Case studies of particular archival collections and the relationships they create between the material and the digital.
-   What are the opportunities and limitations for pedagogy?
- How have contemporary representations imagined the digital transformation  of contemporary cultures?

The symposium will run for one day. Proposals for 20 minute papers should contain an abstract of 150 words, as well as your paper title, a short biography (100 words), institutional affiliation and contact details. Proposals should be submitted by 4^th February 2015 to amandat@unimelb.edu.au

The Digital Humanities Incubator (DHI) is an initiative of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, and is supported by a collaborative Faculty of Arts Research Grant.

The New Literary Middlebrow

by Amanda Malel Trevisanut
@ScreenVsLife

Congrats to Beth Driscoll, one of our own DHI members, who has recently released a new book into the world, The New Literary Middlebrow: Tastemakers and Reding in the Twenty-First Century, published by Palgrave MacMillan.

The text explores the increasingly dominant force in twenty-first century book culture: the new literary middlebrow. Today's most influential literary tastemakers are descended from the middlebrow institutions of the early twentieth century, operating with new global reach and across the mass media. In this innovative and provocative study, Driscoll defines, describes and defends the middlebrow as a set of institutions and practices that provide real satisfactions for contemporary readers. The New Literary Middlebrow offers a comprehensive definition of middlebrow literary culture, describing it through eight features: it is middle class, feminized, reverential towards elite literature, commercial, emotional, recreational, earnest and mediated. Different expressions of the middlebrow are explored in a series of detailed case studies, including Oprah's Book Club, the Man Booker Prize, literary festivals, teachers, educators and the Harry Potter phenomenon. These case studies reveal new insights into the relationships between tastemakers and readers that are shaping contemporary literary culture.

Happy reading.

Announcing the Research Bazaar: Free training conference for Researchers

The Research Bazaar is an academic training conference presented by Research Platforms and the University of Melbourne. Research students and early career researchers from all disciplines can come to acquire the digital skills (e.g. computer programming, data analysis) that underpin modern research. There will be a range of tools on offer, including Python, R and even mapping. Training will be provided by teachers accredited by Mozilla Science Software Carpentry. The conference will also be an opportunity to meet and network with researchers from around the country from a huge range of disciplines. Applications close November 30. Women and researchers from diverse backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.

When: February 16-18 2015
Where: University of Melbourne
How much: Free!
Apply here: http://resbaz.tumblr.com/conference