Hello Readers! This blog is a part of a thinking activity assigned by Dr.Dilip Barad Sir from The English Department, MKBU, Bhavnagar. In this blog I will explore Digital Humanities and delve into the various activities that fall under the umbrella of DH.
What is Digital Humanities?
Digital Humanities uses technology to study human experiences, thoughts, and actions. Think of it like a detective using high-tech tools to solve a mystery about human history and culture. It involves researchers from various fields like literature, history, and computer science working together to understand our world using digital tools. In simpler terms, imagine a giant library filled with books, pictures, and other historical stuff. Digital Humanities helps us understand all this information better by using cool tools like computers and software. It's like having a magnifying glass that lets you see hidden details and connections in the past. The word "Digital" is directly connected to machines and technology, "Humanities" is concerned with the study of human culture, history, and society. This combination of both elements creates an intriguing blend of technology and human- centered perspectives. Thus, Digital Humanities appears to be an oxymoron, representing a self-contradiction within the term itself.
Digital Humanities is a broad field of research and scholarly activity covering not only the use of digital methods by arts and humanities researchers and collaboration by Digital Humanities specialists with computing and scientific disciplines but also how the arts and humanities offer distinctive insights into the major social and cultural issues raised by the development of digital technologies. Work in this field is necessarily collaborative, involving multiple skills, disciplines, and areas of expertise. The use of computers to analyze research data in arts and humanities disciplines such as literature and history dates back to the 1940s. The University of Cambridge was a pioneer in the development of humanities computing, with the establishment in 1964 of the Literary and Linguistic Computing Centre under the chairmanship of Roy Wisbey. The emphasis in these early days was on the potential of the computer to facilitate the creation and sorting of large concordances and thesauri of historical texts. The work of pioneers such as Wisbey led to the growth during the 1970s and 1980s of an international community of specialists in humanities computing across a range of disciplines, who focused on the development of computational methods to accommodate the complex and varied structures found in the primary materials used by humanities scholars.
The founding father of the word “Digital Humanities‟, Padre Roberto Busa, was an Italian Jesuit who began working with Thomas Watson, CEO of IBM, in 1949, on a punch-card concordance of the works of Aquinas. Fifty-five years later, Father Busa contributed the foreword to the Blackwell Companion to Digital Humanities - the publication that introduced the term “Digital Humanities” into the tutorial vocabulary, in 2004. Understandably, given technology trends over that fifty-five years, Father Busa saw the history of digital humanities as a history of miniaturization:
“I began, in 1949, with only electro-countable machines with punched cards. My goal was to possess a file of 13 million of those cards, one for every word, with a context of 12 lines stamped on the rear. The file would are 90 meters long, 1.20 m tall, 1 m thorough, and would have weighed 500 tonnes. In His mercy, around 1955, God led men to create magnetic tapes. the primary was the steel ones by Remington, closely followed by the plastic ones of IBM. Until 1980, I used to be performing on 1,800 tapes, all 2,400 feet long, and their combined length was 1,500 km, the space from Paris to Lisbon, or from Milan to Palermo.
When the world of Digital Humanities first introduced, it had been called “humanities computing,” and while people agreed on a couple of elements of a creation story, there was no coherent account of where this “new” field came from. Over the years, it developed into the many events leading up to the present state of Digital Humanities. Digital Humanities isn't a unified field but an array of convergent practices that explore a universe during which:
1. The print is no longer the exclusive or the normative medium in which knowledge is produced and/or disseminated; instead, print finds itself absorbed into new, multimedia configurations.
2. Digital tools, techniques, and media have altered the assembly and dissemination of data within the arts, human and social sciences.
What do we do Under Digital Humanities?
In the field of Digital Humanities, activities typically involve leveraging technology to study, analyze, and preserve various aspects of human culture and history. Some common tasks include:
1. Digitizing Cultural Artifacts: Transforming physical manuscripts, artworks, and historical documents into digital formats for broader accessibility.
2. Text Analysis: Applying computational methods to analyze and extract insights from large volumes of textual data, enhancing our understanding of language and literature.
3. Data Visualization: Creating visual representations of data to convey complex information and patterns, aiding researchers and the public in interpreting historical trends.
4. Building Digital Archives: Developing and maintaining online repositories of cultural heritage materials, ensuring their preservation and accessibility.
5. Collaborative Research: Engaging in interdisciplinary collaborations, bringing together experts from various fields to address complex questions and challenges.
6. Educational Initiatives: Designing digital learning resources and tools to enhance educational experiences, allowing students to interact with historical and cultural content in innovative ways.
7. Semantic Web Applications: Implementing technologies to improve the organization and accessibility of information, fostering interconnectedness within digital archives and databases.
8. Community Engagement: Involving the public in digital projects, encouraging participation and contributions to collective knowledge.
In essence, Digital Humanities encompasses a broad spectrum of activities that harness technology to explore, preserve, and make accessible the rich tapestry of human history and culture.
Digital Archives and Libraries:
A digital archive is similar in purpose to a physical archive, but the historical documents and objects that provide evidence of the past have been digitized - often by scanning or photography, unless a document was created digitally in the first place and made available online. Similar ways books are also digitalised.
Internet Archive:
The Internet Archive is a renowned digital library founded on May 10, 1996, and led by Brewster Kahle, a proponent of free information. It offers free access to an extensive collection of digitized materials, including websites, software applications, music, audiovisual content, and printed materials. Serving as both a library and an activist organization, the Internet Archive champions the cause of a free and open Internet. The Internet Archive's mission is to provide universal access to knowledge. The Internet Archive enables the public to upload and download digital content to its data cluster, although the majority of its data is gathered automatically through web crawlers. These crawlers diligently preserve as much of the public web as possible. The Archive's Wayback Machine, which contains billions of web captures, serves as an extensive web archive. Additionally, the Archive oversees various book digitization projects, making it one of the largest efforts in the world.
The Rossetti Archive:
The Rossetti Archive focuses on facilitating scholarly research on Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a prominent figure in 19th-century Britain who excelled as a painter, designer, writer, and translator. Regarded by influential individuals like John Ruskin and Walter Pater as a highly significant and innovative artistic force, Rossetti's work is the subject of study within the archive.
Cultural Heritage Preservation:
The Rajasthan State Archives, established in 1955, holds a special place among Indian archives due to its unique collections. It preserves records and provides information to government departments, the judiciary, and the public. Scholars can access the archives for historical research.
Digital Storytelling:
Twine is an open-source tool for creating interactive stories. It's often used for choose-your-own-adventure style narratives. Canva, primarily a graphic design tool, can be used to create visually appealing digital stories.
Digital Publishing:
In the digital age, platforms like blogs, personal websites, and apps such as Pratilipi, Your Quote, and WordPress provide opportunities for writers to publish their content and connect with diverse audiences.
Natural Language Processing (NLP):
NLP is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) focused on enabling computers to understand text and spoken words. AI tools like Chat GPT, Google Bard, and Language AI have revolutionized language learning.
National Digital Library of India (NDLI):
NDLI is a project initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development that provides access to a vast repository of digital educational resources. It includes books, articles, videos, and other materials, making educational content more accessible. The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur has created a free online library for students with books on all subjects!
Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF):
DEF works towards digital inclusion in India. They use digital tools and technologies to empower marginalized communities by providing digital literacy, creating digital repositories of indigenous knowledge, and promoting digital access in rural areas.
Indian Memory Project:
This project collects and presents personal stories and photographs from Indian history. It uses digital storytelling to share narratives that capture the social and cultural history of India, allowing individuals to contribute their own family histories.
Click the links below to visit the archives & Library
Exploring My Contributions in the Field of Digital Humanities:
This is indeed a very interesting project to explore not only because it's available easily but because it also provides so many Charles Dickon's Books for free to read and also helps us to explore the languages, words, and style of writing of that time. It has also 19th Century works by Jane Austen and other writers who have some tone to write about society of that time.
Conclusion - Future of Digital Humanities:
The future of digital humanities is nuanced, shaped by diverse factors. Opinions vary among experts, with some anticipating a resurgence and others foreseeing a revolutionary shift. Several factors contribute to this uncertainty. One notable trend is the shift in academic institutions towards prioritizing digital humanities over traditional coursework. This shift reflects a growing awareness of the unique learning opportunities offered by computer-based education, enabling students to explore and interact with historical and cultural artifacts from diverse sources. The future of digital humanities is bright. By studying and using the latest technology, we can learn more about the world around us and better understand human behavior. This information will help us make better decisions and address global problems. In addition, by engaging with other people in online communities, we can learn from each other and build stronger relationships. The future of digital humanities is exciting and full of potential.
Words - 1,778
No comments:
Post a Comment