Notes on Lecture by Svante on Digital Humanities

Introduction

• Reminder set for 2041 to revisit this talk as a time capsule.
• Speaker: Svante, originally from museum studies.
• Fascination with data in museum studies led to the interest in digital humanities.

What are Digital Humanities?

• Definition: A young field, 20-30 years old or dating back to 1950s.
• A multidisciplinary field involving IT, archaeology, philosophy, and history.
• Scholars are not just using better technology, but creating new research methods and questions.

Importance of Digital Humanities

• Focus on new digital methods for old problems.
• Similarity searches in text and images.
  • Questions raised:
    • Finding authors of anonymous works.
    • Expressing similarities in dramas via word counts.
    • Identifying painters through digital image comparison.
    • Analyzing music for patterns and similarities.

Building Digital Research Infrastructure

• Need for a collaborative infrastructure in the digital humanities.
• Transformation in libraries, archives, museums, etc.
• Comparison to historical efforts (e.g., Aurélien Fontaine's card catalog).
• Emphasis on open standards and decentralized infrastructure.

Case Study: Museum Studies

• Early research focused on a turtle shell legend in Merseburg Cathedral.
• Challenges in traditional research methods (time-consuming, limited audience).
• How digital systems could enhance research:
  • Use of similarity searches for faster and broader connections.
  • Aligning data collection, modeling, analysis, and evaluation for publication.

Long-term Digital Preservation

• Importance of preserving cultural heritage in digital form.
• Concerns for future access to digital content:
  • Potential issues: file not found, content restrictions, fees.
  • Example: YouTube's limitations for long-term preservation.
• Call to action for digital humanists, archivists, and librarians to ensure content is curated and preserved.

Conclusion

• Reflect on the evolution and future of digital humanities.
• Importance of collaboration and innovation in preserving cultural knowledge.