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

DHI presents Melissa Terras

By Amanda Malel Trevisanut
@ScreenVsLife

On the 31st of October this year, Professor Melissa Terras, Director of the UCL Centre for the Digital Humanities came to The University of Melbourne to deliver a public lecture and masterclass for DHI. For the lecture Melissa spoke to us about the challenges of digitalising the Great Parchment Book.

Live tweets of the public lecture can be found via Storify here, and also Fiona Tweedie's interview with Melissa can be found here.

Thank you Melissa.

THATCamp Pedagogy, Melbourne 2014

By Amanda Malel Trevisanut
@ScreenVsLife

THATCamp Pedagogy, sponsored by DHI at the University of Melbourne on the 10^th October, harboured many fruitful discussions addressing pedagogical issues arising from digital engagement.

Consistent with the tradition of THATCamp, the day’s schedule was workshoped by participants over breakfast, with considerable interest in the Bootcamp sessions run by Steve Bennett (Mapping workshop) and Fiona Tweedie (Natural Language Processing), of Melbourne Uni’s own Research Bazaar. The final schedule listing all workshops can be accessed here.

The early afternoon session on Big Box Edumacation, led by Leigh Blackall, discussed some of the key problems with centralised systems for administering and teaching coursework (LMS, MOOC, etc). For instance, many of the free tools available on the web are more amenable to the individual requirements of different courses, enabling tutors to engage students using programs with which they are already literate. This of course dovetails with the issue of investment in centralised systems, and their lack of interoperability with other systems and tools.

The mid-afternoon session on Personal Digital Archives and Security. This discussion was based upon research being undertaken in Computing and Information Systems and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne, and discussed what happens to the digital files created when a person dies, including facebook accounts, photos and emails. For instance, there are currently 300,000 facebook profiles for deceased peoples, of which only 30,0000 have been memorialized. Also, what happens to research stored on the cloud or on university servers if the researcher dies?  There is, in general, a lack of understanding about the rights individuals have over the digital files they buy or produce that has implications in the context of death.

THATCamp is an open, inexpensive meeting of people, of all skill levels,  who share an interest in digital technologies and how they reshape humanities practice. It is a relaxed event, with participants setting the agenda, to organize your own THATCamp visit http://thatcamp.org/

Fiona's Natural Language Processing Workshop

Thanks to all the participants who attended THATCamp Pedagogy, Melbourne 2014, and also to my co-conveners Craig Bellamy and Fiona Tweedie, the Digital Humanities Incubator for sponsoring the event, 1888 Catering and the Melbourne School of Graduate Research for providing us with spectacular facilities.

Working with the Great Parchment Book: Digitisation and Primary Historical Texts

Time and place

9.30 to 10.45am

31st October 2014

Linkway, 4^th Floor John Medley Building, 

The University of Melbourne

DHI is very excited to host  a public Lecture by Professor Melissa Terras on the 31st October 2014.

Melissa will be discussing the Great Parchment Book of the Honourable The Irish Society, a major survey compiled in 1639 by a Commission instituted by Charles I, of all the estates in Derry, Northern Ireland, managed by the City of London through the Irish Society and the London livery companies. Damaged in a fire at London’s Guildhall in 1786, it has been unavailable to researchers for over 200 years. The manuscript consists of 165 separate parchment membranes, all damaged in the fire. Uneven shrinkage and distortion has rendered much of the text illegible. Traditional conservation alone would not produce sufficient results to make the manuscript accessible or suitable for exhibition, the parchment being too shriveled to be returned to a readable state. Much of the text is visible but distorted; following discussions with conservation and imaging experts, it was decided to flatten the parchment sheets as far as possible, and to use multi-modal digital imaging to gain legibility and enable digital access (http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/3-1/great-parchment-book-project/). 

This talk by Melissa Terras (one of the members of the GPB project) will look at issues involving using advanced imaging methods within cultural heritage, particularly regarding the relationship the resulting model has to the primary historical text. Using the Great Parchment Book as a focus, she will ask how best can we integrate multi-modal imaging into our humanities research practices? What issues are there for both research and practice?

Professor Melissa Terras is Director of UCL Centre for Digital Humanities at University College London. Her presentation will include an overview of the advanced imaging technologies used in projects such as the Great Parchment Book (http://www.greatparchmentbook.org/), and the virtual shipping gallery at the Science Museum in London.

Admission is free.

Bookings are required

Seating is limited

To register email:

jose.gonzalez@unimelb.edu.au

For further information contact the Digital Humanities Incubator

E: jose.gonzalez@unimelb.edu.au

W: http://dhunimelb.blogspot.com.au/

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DHI has a new logo

Yes, it is cause for much celebration. The University of Melbourne's Digital Humanities Incubator has a new logo. You'll also noticed that we have revised our name, deciding that our name should reflect our broader interests, which extend beyond research into pedagogy, the archives and so on. Thanks to David Lloyd and his team at Juggle for their work.

Storify and its research potential

By Beth Driscoll

@Beth_driscoll

I research literary culture on twitter, and one of the challenges I face is describing the shape of these conversations to a general audience: twitter can seem like a disorienting, fast-flowing river for those who do not use it frequently. I decided to try using Storify, and chose as a case study the live twitter stream that accompanied a session with author Gerald Murnane at the Melbourne Writers Festival on August 22nd, 2014. I was in the audience too and couldn't help tweeting some of his great one-liners!

What I liked about Storify was that it allowed me to group tweets, show the flow of mini conversations, highlight the participation of those who weren't there physically, and add supplementary notes e.g. where I noticed a disjuncture between what happened physically at the session and how it was reported on twitter. 

So this is a first go by me at this visualisation tool:

https://storify.com/Beth_driscoll/gerald-murnane-at-the-melbourne-writers-festival-2

After creating this Storify and posting it using my twitter account, I was pleased to see it re-tweeted and favourited a few times, suggesting this methodology has potential for the dissemination of research in an accessible format.