[ONLINE] An Ontology for Multivocality: Embracing Diverse Perspectives in Machine-Readable Form

This presentation delves into the intersection of semantic technologies and multivocality, emphasizing the evolution of polyvocal knowledge representation from its historical roots to its integration with artificial intelligence and large language models. Highlighting the development of an ontology designed to embrace multiple perspectives—the output of the Sloane Community Fellowship—the talk outlines how this framework enables the representation of historical biases and diverse conceptualizations in a machine-readable format, enhancing the accessibility and interpretation of digital collections. 

The potential reuse of the Multivocality Ontology in various contexts and its effectiveness in educational settings focusing on history and colonialism are also explored. By facilitating a more inclusive and comprehensive understanding of the world, the ontology aims to accommodate the complexities of representing multivocality in the digital age, offering insights into future research and application avenues in artificial intelligence. This exploration contributes to a richer, more nuanced understanding of knowledge representation, acknowledging the importance of multiple perspectives in today’s interconnected and diverse world. 

Register for the Zoom event and view the full seminar series programme: https://critical-creative.eventbrite.co.uk

The Sloane Lab Seminar Series is convened by Marco Humbel (Sloane Lab & UCLDH), Nadezhda Povroznik (TU Darmstadt), Julianne Nyhan (TU Darmstadt & UCL) and Andrew Flinn (UCL). Administrative support is provided by Lucy Stagg (UCLDH & UCL IAS).

This joint virtual seminar is co-hosted by University College London, TU Darmstadt, the British Museum and the Natural History Museum.

The symposium is funded by the Towards a National Collection programme (Arts and Humanities Research Council) as an activity of the Sloane Lab Discovery Project.