By Rudolf Ammann, on 28 February 2011
A reminder: in this week’s Painless Introduction on Wednesday, 2 March, Pete Williams will talk about creating usable websites for people with learning disabilities. This lunchtime event will take place from 13:05 to 13:50 in Room G31, UCL Department of Information Studies, Foster Court, London [announcement | map].
See you there!
By Claire Ross, on 25 February 2011
Digital technologies are beginning to play a vital role in the work of museums and galleries, whether on websites and handheld devices or in gallery displays and many are using digital technology in innovative ways to support visitor experiences. They are becoming more embedded, and networked, and are changing the experience of visiting museums be providing more flexible and personalised information and to encourage interaction and discussion between visitors. The distinctions between real and virtual, are already blurred, creating a new set of relationships between objects, visitors and digital technology, in which museums are, above all, places of exploration and discovery.
In particular the development of mobile technology has become very important to museums and many are in exploring how digital and communication technologies can be developed to offer visitors a more interactive, personalised museum experience. This growing emphasis on the interactional and informal nature of museum experience provides the perfect opportunity to showcase digital interactive technologies as important resources for engaging visitors in exhibits and more generally in museums as a whole. In general, however, despite the growing interest in deploying digital technology as interpretation devices in museums and galleries, there are relatively few studies that examine how visitors, both alone and with others, use new technologies when exploring museum content.
At UCL we are trying to change that. It is not enough to claim that digital technology can enhance visitor museum experiences, it needs to be demonstrated. UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, Centre for Digital Humanities (aka us) and Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis are working with UCL Museums and Collections to develop research projects which look specifically at digital technology in museums. The Petrie Museum is currently host to 4 digital projects.
QRator – an iPad-based interactive live object label. This allows everyone to have a say in how an museum object is interpreted. Unique in the UCL technology is the ability to ‘write’ back to the museum interpretation panel. QRator allows member of the pubic to type in their thoughts and interpretation of the object and click send. These comments become part of the objects history and ultimately the display itself.
Talesof Things – connect to object information via QR codes and add your own tale. Throughout the Petrie galleries are a series of QR code tagged objects which can be read by iPhone and Android phones. Once a code has been scanned it connects the visitor to the Tales of Things site which contains text, video, and audio information about the object. Visitors can then add their own tale about that object on the site.
iCurator– curate your own exhibition in a 3D environment and collaborate remotely. ICurator is a computer based design tool which holds a library of 3D rendered objects, display cases and museum spaces which users can combine to create their own displays.
3D Encounters – 3D scanning technologies creating digital models of ancient artefacts. 3D Encounters is an experimental digital exhibition entitled Crossing Over, where visitors can see 3D digital models of artefacts from the Petrie collection. The models can be rotated from angles and perspectives not possible in the real displays.
Last week saw the Digital Think Drink at the Petrie Museum; it gave us a chance to trial and receive some user feedback on the four digital projects which aim to change the way people engage with material heritage. The Petrie Museum was acting as a lab where real world applications for new technologies can be developed and tested. It was great to see people using the technology in gallery and to be able to hear people’s opinions on the research that we are doing. The digital think drink was an experiment, we hope everyone enjoyed it. It prompted a lot of questions which we will be trying to answer as we move forward with the development and research of whether or not digital technology can increase access and engagement with museum collections.
Image by UCL, Petrie Museum / Matt Clayton
By Claire Ross, on 24 February 2011
The InterFace 2011 committee has just announced all the speakers and workshop leaders for the forthcoming InterFace. Including UCLDH’s very own Director Claire Warwick and Deputy Director Melissa Terras!
The keynote speakers are:
The workshops are:
The How To talks are:
The application process is still open. If you’d like to apply to participate in InterFace, please submit your lightning talk proposal at:
http://www.interface2011.org.uk/submit
Friday 25 February is the Deadline for applications, so you better be quick.
By Claire Warwick, on 11 February 2011
We are delighted to report that Julianne Nyhan and Anne Welsh, of UCL Information Studies and UCLDH have been awarded funding from the University of Trier’s Historisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschungszentrum (HKFZ) for a project entitled ‘Digital Humanities as Wissensraum: uncovering hidden histories (c. 1949-1980)’.
The application of computing to the Humanities is not new and can be traced back to at least 1949, when Fr Roberto Busa began researching the creation of an index variorum of some 11 million words of medieval Latin in the works of St Thomas Aquinas and related authors. Notes and contributions towards a history of the computer in the humanities have appeared in recent years; however, our understanding of such developments remains incomplete and largely unwritten.
Anne and Julianne will gather and make available sources to enable the social, intellectual and cultural conditions that shaped the early take up of computing in the humanities to be investigated. The project will draw on an interdisciplinary method bundle from oral history, digital humanities and historical-cultural studies. With the aim of capturing memories, observations and insights that are rarely recorded in the scholarly literature of the field they intend to carry out interviews with ‘pioneer’ or ‘early adopter’ scholars and practitioners from c. 1949 until 1980 (that is, from main frame computing to the coming of the personal computer).
An international symposium in summer 2011 will address all aspects of the project’s methodology as well as bring together a small group of ‘early adopter’ scholars to discuss and record the early days of DH. This will be followed by online and print publications to support future research into the topic.
This should be a great initiative and we at UCLDH are very much looking forward to taking part in it. Watch this space for announcements of the project’s website, Advisory Board and the symposium.
By Claire Ross, on 11 February 2011
InterFace is a symposium for humanities and technology. In 2011 it is being jointly organised by colleges across London and will be an invaluable opportunity for participants to visit this active hub of digital scholarship and practice. InterFace is a conference organised by post-graduates for post-graduates in technology and the humanities. It’s part conference, part forum, part networking opportunity. The aim is to promote collaboration and shared understanding between researchers in the humanities and in computer science, especially where their efforts converge on exchange of subject matter and method.
All the Interface2011 organisers are in varying stages of Doctoral research, and this flexibility and informal approach is something which really appeals to us as organisers. UCLDH has two research students on the InterFace committee - myself and Alejandro Giacometti. We really want InterFace to be a symposium and networking opportunity in order to stimulate collaborations and new research directions. You can find out more about the orgainsers over on the InterFace site.
It combines the best aspects of a skills workshop, conference talks, and networking. I think the networking aspect is what I like the most, because despite working as researcher for a while now, I have just started my PhD, I don’t really know what to expect from it and it will be great to talk to like minded people.
One of the core components, and the aspect I find very appealing, is the Lightening Talks. The challenge is to convey your research succinctly, clearly and quickly in 2 minutes. I am a firm believer if you know your research then explaining it in 2minutes flat should be no problem at all. The call for lightening talk proposals has just gone out, so if any post graduates or early year researchers in Digital Humanities want to take up the challenge, please do send in a proposal. You can submit your application here: http://www.interface2011.org.uk/submit.
The deadline for applications is Friday 25 February 2011.
By Rudolf Ammann, on 9 February 2011
Today it was learned that UCLDH’s Claire Warwick, Melissa Terras and Julianne Nyhan are editing a new book, A Practical Guide to the Digital Humanities:
A cutting-edge and comprehensive introduction to this vibrant and increasingly important global field drawing together a broad spectrum of disciplines. Each chapter interweaves the expert commentary of leading academics, analysis of current research and practice and several exciting international case studies, exploring the possibilities and challenges that occur when culture and digital technologies intersect.
The book, published by Facet, is scheduled to appear in November 2011. This blog is reliably informed that the book hasn’t been written yet and that it will have a dedicated website with additional material.
By Rudolf Ammann, on 8 February 2011
Corinne Welger-Barboza, rédactrice en chef de L’Observatoire Critique, une publication en ligne dédiée à l’étude des ressources numériques pour l’histoire de l’art, vient de poser quelques questions à Claire Warwick au sujet de la création du Master Digital Humanities à University College London:
How do you argue the necessity of a MA degree: is it the very responsibility of the D.H. Centres to assume this kind of courses? Is this part of a strategy that aims to foster an interdisciplinary field? Is the aim to supply to the technological gaps in the Humanities disciplines?
As a university UCL believes that leading researchers in all disciplines should teach and pass on their knowledge to the next generation of potential scholars. Thus we feel that students should be able to benefit from UCLDH’s unique interdisciplinary approach and not just academic researchers. So it seemed obvious to develop a teaching programme that is highly interdisciplinary and allows students to call on the very diverse subject areas in which UCL has expertise. Students may indeed be from a humanities background, seeking more technical content, but we also envisage that some of them will be technical people who might like to work in a humanities or cultural heritage context.
By Claire Ross, on 8 February 2011
The Grant Museum of Zoology is one of the oldest natural history collections in England, dating back to 1827. The collection comprises over 68,000 skeletal, taxidermy and wet specimens, covering the whole of the animal kingdom. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, the quagga and the dodo. Whilst maintaining the intriguing atmosphere of a densely-packed Victorian collection the new Grant Museum space offers the opportunity to showcase the historic collections, but to treat them in entirely different ways and to position the Museum as a place of experimentation, dialogue and debate. UCL is taking the opportunity to rethink what a university museum can be; a place not simply for a passive experience but for conversation – a cultural laboratory for the meeting of minds.
Through the QRator project the Grant will be experimenting with ways of using a natural history collection as a starting point for questions about science. Alongside displays of stuffed chimpanzees and extinct dodos, iPads will be scattered, asking provocative questions about the ways museums operate, and the role of science in society.
The Grant Museum doesn’t open until the 15th March, in the mean time we want people to join the conversation and ask engage in some Current Questions. The first of these investigates the relationships and conflicts between pets and wildlife. It will be really interesting to interrogate what it means to be interested in animals. The Grant wants to get discussions going on how people relate pets to wild animals represented in Natural history museums.
If you would like to join the conversation you can over on the QRator site. (NB. this is a temporary site, until QRator is fully launched in March)
By Claire Ross, on 7 February 2011
Following on from the excitement about the Digital Think Drink at the Petrie Museum, which is now sold out, there will also be some one on one evaluation sessions for those who have missed out on the Digital Think Drink. We would like to hear your views on new digital technology that aims to support research and enhance the visitor museum experience.
If you wish to come along and in and share your opinions it would be very much appreciated. The evaluation days are as follows and your involvement will take no longer than 30 minutes:
If you would like to take part in the evaluation or would like further information, please contact our evaluator Naomi Haywood directly and tell her what day and what time you are able to come and also your contact number.
All feedback received will help shape the development of four exciting new technologies aimed at increasing access and engagement with museum collections.
By Rudolf Ammann, on 7 February 2011
We’ve been working on the UCLDH Events section. New and improved, the section now offers a chronological view of upcoming events and sports separate feeds for the individual event series: Decoding Digital Humanities, Painless Introductions and Digital Excursions. UCLDH events will no longer be announced here on the DH blog but event reminders will continue, and weekly batches might be one way of posting such reminders.
Without further ado, here’s the week’s programme:
Both events are held in Bloomsbury, they’re open to the public, they’re free of charge, and we hope to see you there!
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