There is no Frigate like a book To take us lands away Nor any Coursers like a Page Of Prancing Poetry This Traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of Toll How frugal is the Chariot That bears a human Soul. –Emily Dickinson, www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19730 Alexandria is a port, the busiest seaport in Egypt. Of course…
What is the role of design in modeling digital humanities? Can we imagine new forms of argument and platforms that support interpretative work? So much of the computationally driven environment of digital work has been created by design/engineers that humanistic values and methods have not found their place in the tools and formats that provide…
In the last few years, I’ve noticed a certain kind of job ad appearing with more and more frequency. I think of it as the “make digital humanities happen” postdoctoral fellowship. Often based in a library, these positions’ descriptions include some combination of “liaison,” “catalyst,” and “hub,” with a heavy dose of coordinator syndrome thrown in. The…
Introduction by Dene Grigar Associate Professor and Director, The Creative Media & Digital Culture Program, Washington State University Vancouver. The Electronic Literature Exhibit at the 2012 Modern Language Association Convention was a watershed moment for both the MLA and for e-literature. Never before in its 129 year history had the organization held an exhibit in…
It’s pretty obvious that one of the many problems in studying history by relying on the print record is that writers of books are disproportionately male. Data can give some structure to this view. Not in the complicated, archival-silences filling way–that’s important, but hard–but just in the most basic sense. How many women were writing…
Most neighborhoods in America have a public library. Now the biggest neighborhood in America, the Internet, wants a library of its own. Last week, Ars attended a conference held by the Digital Public Library of America, a nascent group of intellectuals hoping to put all of America’s library holdings online. The DPLA is still in…
April 28 and 29 was Transparency Camp 12 (TCamp), an unconference to gather journalists, technologists, activists, and others to work on ways to promote and work with openness in government. The 30th was a special hack day on the Voter Information Project. Turns out, I was over my head in that context and couldn’t really…
Every once in a while, a new project comes around bearing a message loud and clear: this is a sign of things to come. ORBIS, the Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World, is one such project. ORBIS was created by Walter Scheidel, Elijah Meeks, and a host of others. At the very beginning, I…
I’ve gone on record as saying that the digital humanities is not about building. It’s about sharing. I stand by that declaration. But I’ve also been thinking about a complementary mode of learning and research that is precisely the opposite of building things. It is destroying things. I want to propose a theory and practice of…
Digital Conversations @ British Library is hosted by the Digital Research and Curator Team. In this bi-monthly series, inspirational and creative individuals and organisations are invited to give short, thought-provoking presentations on a topic relating to the digital environment. The series offers an invaluable opportunity for colleagues to engage in a lively discourse about digital…