2022 16.2
Minimal Computing
Editors: Roopika Risam and Alex Gil
Essays
[en] Ensuring Minimal
Computing Serves Maximal ConnectionGrant Wythoff, Princeton University
Abstract
[en]
Originally devised as an insult by Richard Wollheim, the term “minimalism”
described a 1960s movement that foregrounded the relationship between an art object and
its museum viewer. Today, minimalism is the guiding ethos for a surprising variety of
pop cultural phenomena, from belongings that spark joy to
contemplative practice that increases mindfulness. This article first takes a broader
view of minimalism to register several problematic echoes of minimal computing among
digital detoxers and disaster survivalists in intensities ranging from Luddism to
asceticism. Attention needs to be given to these echoes, especially when valorizing DIY
infrastructures built out of necessity by Indigenous, poor, or coastal communities and
out of privilege by doomsday preppers. Second, this article asks what becomes of minimal
computing now that we have seen the vital importance of maximal connection during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Do arguments for minimalism still hold in a socially-distant,
unevenly-connected world? I argue that it will be important to reframe the digital
minimalist conversations of the 2010s for the demands of digital equity in the 2020s.
Going forward, we should ask: which of these competing claims to minimalism — as a form
of attention, mindfulness, and agency — are compatible with maximal connection, with
maximal choice, with maximal investment in communities and infrastructures? And when we
hold up minimalism as a virtue, is that virtue a property of particular tools or
specific techniques for using them? Finally, this article profiles the ways that
academic conversations on minimal computing have independently taken root outside
universities through grassroots organizing and activism under the banner of community
technology. I close by suggesting ways that minimal computing can be led by community
input, while also playing a role in public scholarship and community partnerships that
extend existing academic research.
[en] Minimal Computing
from the Labor Perspective Tiffany Chan, University of Victoria Libraries; Jentery Sayers, University of Victoria
Abstract
[en]
The process of making digital objects available and discoverable demands a great deal
of labor, from digitization, to creating metadata, to preservation, to importing it
into a digital asset management system, and finally to presenting it. We begin this
essay with a case study of one such system, called “Vault,” in the University of
Victoria Libraries, and the work required to migrate from a Software as a Service
(SAAS) model (called ContentDM) to a free and open-source software (FOSS) model (a
customized instance of Samvera).
Vault illustrates what we call “minimal computing from the labor
perspective,” which seeks to reduce the opacity of software through
“low-tech” practices such as pseudocode, thereby reducing the alienation of
practitioners from their projects. Drawing from feminist ecological work on
capitalism, affective labor, and care, we advocate for the “degrowth” of digital
projects by resisting tendencies to reinvest surplus labor and value into increased
productivity. Instead, degrowth as minimal computing prompts practitioners to
articulate a project’s needs and desires; what work is required and from whom; and
how or whether to sustain this labor for the future.
[en] Minimizing Computing Maximizes LaborQuinn Dombrowski, Stanford University
Abstract
[en]
This paper focuses on the practical realities of implementing the most common minimal computing methods for web development. It addresses the amount of technically-oriented detail-work required to configure the complex set of components that underpin widely-used platforms for static site generation. When going “minimal” requires a great deal of technical labor, what implications does that have for its adoption by scholars without ongoing technical support, or the money or connections to delegate that work? What is the added emotional labor for technical collaborators who are only allowed to “consult” with scholars, when they attempt to coach scholars through implementing a minimal computing site on their own? What opportunities are lost when a web development methodology cannot reasonably be taught in a hands-on way in a short workshop? After describing these challenges, this paper proposes that an infrastructural intervention — encompassing everything from writing better documentation, tutorials, and templates, to developing interfaces that mediate between users and technical complexity — is necessary to realize the potential of minimal computing as a framework for sustainable websites.
[en] Hidden in
Plain-TeX: Investigating Minimal Computing WorkflowsNabeel Siddiqui, Susquehanna University
Abstract
[en]
Drawing on software studies, data feminism, digital rhetoric studies, information
science, and the history of computing, this paper foregrounds Markdown as a cultural
object to analyze the social, cultural, and political pressures surrounding the
digital humanities. Rather than beginning with contemporary discourse, it draws
parallels between Markdown and Donald Knuth's TeX. From the 1970s to 1990s, academic
researchers used TeX to construct plain-text scholarship in mathematics and the hard
sciences to enhance typography. Most academics saw these concerns as holding marginal
importance and quickly abandoned the approach for WYSIWYG word processors. Drawing on
queer theorist Michael Warner, I argue that the community surrounding TeX responded
reactionarily to these transformations by forming a counterpublic constituted through a
circulation of texts bemoaning word processors . This
counterpublic persisted well into the 2000s but only made headway amongst niche
users.
This plain-text focused counterpublic mutated in response to the neoliberalization of
higher ed. Rather than viewing plain-text as “sustainable
scholarship,” academic lifehacking and minimal computing embraced what
David Golumbia calls “computationalism,” an ideological construct postulating social,
political, economic, and cultural ills as cybernetic systems to be optimized — or
“hacked.” Minimal computing’s fetishization and casting of
plain-text as transformative mirrors similar discourses amongst older lifehacking
enthusiasts. Although plain-text scholarship is not representative of minimal
computing as a totality, minimal computing's emphasis on workflows leads to few of
the supposed benefits advocates profess, and in many cases, worsens inequalities.
[en] Lessons from the
Library: Extreme Minimalist Scaling at Pirate Ebook PlatformsMartin Paul Eve, Birkbeck College, University of London
Abstract
[en]
At 33TB of data in its main collection, the highly illegal Library Genesis project is
one of the largest repositories of copyright-violating educational ebooks ever
created. Established over a decade ago in 2008, the goal of Library Genesis is nothing
short of a modern Library of Alexandria, albeit without anyone’s legal sanction. As
one of its administrators wrote: “within decades, generations of
people everywhere in the world will grow up with access to the best scientific
texts of all time. [...] [T]he quality and accessibility of education to the poor
will grow dramatically too. Frankly, I see this as the only way to naturally
improve mankind: we need to make all the information available to them at any
time”
. Rooted in its homeland’s Russian communist principles and
particularly the Soviet isolationist copyright policies of the twentieth century,
Library Genesis is a formidable resource and threat to conventional academic publishers.
The Library Genesis database had just short of 1.2m records (books) in 2014 . As of January 2020, this capacity has doubled to 2.5m
books. In this article, I examine the minimal computational design choices taken
by this maximal-in-intent, illicit archive of epistemological dissent and how such
decisions have shaped the scalability and growth of the platform. This includes
Library Genesis’s numerical subdivision of record identifiers into “buckets” to work around
directory file limitations in the GNU/Linux operating system; its use of md5 hashing
of filenames within directories capped at 1,000 files to avoid future hashing
collisions while allowing for on-disk integrity checking; and its use of the MySQL
socket/network server as opposed to SQLite or similar disk-based database.
Beyond these computational details, though, the theoretical tension that this article
highlights is the path dependencies that are set in (illegal) computational projects
that have goals of absolute abundance and maximalist capacity, and the minimalist
design principles that they must instigate at the outset to ensure a degree of
scalability. I also query the ways in which the project’s contested mission
statements target an economic (geographic) audience demographic with only minimalist
access to high-capacity computing resources. I finally examine the limits on
scalability of the distribution of the Library Genesis through its torrent archive
and other distributed networking technologies such as IPFS, which despite their
promise of peer-to-peer redundancy fall down on an archive of this size.
Case Studies
[en] Relocating
Complexity: The Programming Historian and Multilingual Static Site GenerationMatthew Lincoln, JSTOR Labs; Jennifer Isasi, Pennsylvania State University; Sarah Melton, Boston College; François Dominic Laramée, University of Ottawa and Université de Montréal
Abstract
[en]
In this case study, we show how the challenges of maintaining a sustainable
static-site architecture for the Programming Historian
are deeply intertwined with the logistical challenges of expanding the original
project into a multilingual set of publications. In our desire to democratize access
to knowledge, we constantly encounter situations where easing the complexity of one
workflow requires increasing the complexity of another, in turn relocating complexity
(and the labor it entails) between different members of our project team.
[en] Power and Precarity:
Lessons from the Makers by Mail ProjectChristina Boyles, Michigan State University; Andy Boyles Petersen, Michigan State University
Abstract
[en]
This article examines notions of precarity within the Makers by Mail project to
interrogate the relationship between minimal computing methodologies and academic
austerity. Doing so pushes us to reconsider the question “What do we need?” to
center not only technological tangibles but also human(e) requirements for effective
and ethical engagement. While this piece focuses on Makers by Mail, we hope our
experience can bring attention to the ways in which precarity operates and is
operationalized by individuals and institutions to reinforce traditional notions of
power, limiting opportunities for marginalized peoples and groups. We hope that our
experiences offer insight into the lives of precarious digital humanists, and that
they continue pushing our field to reconsider when and how we support digital
scholars and their projects. There are many ways to push against precarity in digital
humanities — providing better contracts, paying higher wages, offering funding
opportunities, developing mentorship networks, giving appropriate credit, supporting
career growth, and promoting structural change. Any of the above can help shift our
work away from precarity and toward praxis — working with and supporting communities.
While minimal computing methodologies can help us alleviate some of the structural
inequalities within higher education, we cannot achieve maximum justice until we
address the problem of precarity within our own communities.
[es] United Fronteras como
tercer espacio: Modelo transfronterizo a través de las humanidades digitales
poscoloniales y la computación mínima[en] United Fronteras as
Third Space: A Transborder Model Through Postcolonial Digital Humanities and Minimal
ComputingSylvia Fernandez, University of Texas in San Antonio; Rubria Rocha de Luna, Texas A&M University; Annette M. Zapata, University of Houston
Abstract
[es][en]
En el 2019, el proyecto de United Fronteras (UF) surge con la intención de
contrarrestar la representación oficial o hegemónica de la frontera
México-Estados Unidos en el registro cultural digital e impulsar el
cuestionamiento y desarrollo crítico de materiales o proyectos que utilizan
tecnologías digitales para representar la frontera desde un número mayor de
perspectivas. Este artículo aborda el proceso de cómo UF crea un modelo de
trabajo transfronterizo entre académicos de distintas disciplinas de las
humanidades y miembros de la comunidad no académica para hacer uso de prácticas
y metodologías de las humanidades digitales poscoloniales y la computación
mínima y generar un tercer espacio digital que muestre la multiplicidad de
historias de la frontera y resguarde la memoria pública de la producción
digital de esta región. Además, plantea el uso de la computación mínima como
parte fundamental en proyectos que trabajan de forma independiente y autónoma y
se dedican a resistir las estructuras de poder y vigilancia física y digital en
regiones fronterizas al permitir tener autonomía, independencia, accesibilidad,
funcionalidad, seguridad, neutralidad y estabilidad del material en ambos lados
de la frontera.
In 2019, the project United Fronteras began with the intention of countering
the official or hegemonic representation of the Mexico-United States border in
the digital cultural record and to inspire the questioning and critical
development of materials or projects that utilize digital technologies to
represent the border from various perspectives. This article touches on the
process of how UF creates a transborder model of work between academics from
various humanities disciplines and members of the community outside of academia
to make use of postcolonial digital humanities and minimal computing practices
and methodologies to generate a third digital space that demonstrates the
multiplicity of (hi)stories from the border and to document the public memory
of the materials and projects in this region. Additionally, the article
suggests the use of minimal computing as a fundamental part of independent and
autonomous projects that dedicate themselves to resist the structures of power
and physical and digital vigilance in border regions because of its ability to
provide autonomy, independence, accessibility, functionality, security,
neutrality and material stability across borders.
[en] Open, Equitable, and
Minimal: Teaching Digital Scholarly Editing North and SouthRaffaele Viglianti, Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, University of Maryland, USA; Gimena del Rio Riande, National Council on Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina; Nidia Hernández, National Council on Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina; Romina De Léon, CONICET (National Council on Scientific and Technical Research, Argentina)
Abstract
[en]
In this paper, we present our preliminary reflections on whether minimal computing as
a practice can extend beyond “computing done under some
technological constraints” to served as a common ground between different
digital humanities research dynamics in the Global North and South. We explore this
question by commenting on our experience in developing and teaching an undergraduate
course to students enrolled from both the University of Maryland, College Park in the
United States and Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The class was
delivered for its first iteration in September–November 2020 and introduced students
to digital publishing and textual scholarship of bilingual Spanish and English texts,
presenting minimal computing as a shared set of values including: use of open
technologies, ownership of data and code, and reduction in computing
infrastructure.
[en] Minimal Computing for
Exploring Indian PoeticsZahra Rizvi, Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia; Rohan Chauhan, Department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi; A. Sean Pue, Department of Linguistics, Languages and Cultures, Michigan State University; Nishat Zaidi, Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia
Abstract
[en]
This paper explores multilingual minimal computing and plain text for Indian literatures. It focuses on our workflow designed to produce multilingual, annotated digital critical editions of Indian-language poetry, and to model, explicate, and visualize their poetics. In the absence of digital scholarly corpora, resources developed by citizen scholars working outside of academia are essential; for our team and audience, this includes free and open source solutions — including optical character recognition tools — developed in other contexts. Modeling formal, metrical, thematic, and rhythmic structures opens up the possibility for computer-assisted scholarly analysis across the variously related languages and literary histories of India, which are usually treated in isolation. Positioning our work as a form of minimal computing, we discuss our workflow as a jugaad — a North Indian term for reuse and innovation in the presence of constraints.
[en] Open Arabic
Periodical Editions: A Framework for Bootstrapped Scholarly Editions Outside the
Global NorthTill Grallert, Orient-Institut Beirut
Abstract
[en]
This paper introduces and evaluates the project Open Arabic
Periodical Editions (OpenArabicPE) as a case study of minimal computing.
It confronts hyperbolic promises of mass digitization and computational methods for
the exploration of digitized cultural heritage as a hegemonic episteme
rooted in 20th-century, English-speaking, neoliberal capitalism from the margins.
OpenArabicPE is a framework for open, collaborative, and scholarly digital editions
of early Arabic periodicals from the late Ottoman Eastern Mediterranean. It addresses
the specific affordances of a historical multilingual society, whose material
heritage continues to be looted, destroyed, and neglected; whose material heritage
resists digitization efforts by being dependent on non-Latin scripts and, for
instance, non-Gregorian calendars; and whose contemporary heirs cannot draw on the
vast resources in wealth and socio-technical infrastructures of the Global North.
Centered around generosity and minimal computing, OpenArabicPE is run by volunteers
and currently hosts six editions with some 630 journal issues and more than 7 million
words, without any funding, by re-purposing data, software, and
infrastructures.
[en] Minimal Computing
with Progressive Web AppsChris Diaz, Northwestern University
Abstract
[en]
Caravans of Gold is a multilingual digital exhibit that was built as both a static
website and Progressive Web App (PWA). This case study describes the process of
developing Caravans of Gold, situating PWAs as minimal computing technologies. PWAs
are websites with mobile app features that specifically help disseminate digital
content to people who rely on mobile devices for access to the internet. Caravans of
Gold was built using Wax, a Jekyll-based framework, and demonstrates the similarities
between PWA requirements and minimal computing approaches.
[en] Simple but Beautiful:
A Case Study on the ZHI Project of Traditional CraftsmanshipJing Chen, School of Art, Nanjing University; Mengqi Li, Shanghai Traditionow Culture Development Corp; Wensi Lin, Shanghai Museum, China; Yinzhou Zhao, Art Institute of Nanjing University; Mengyue Zhang, Nanjing University; Han Chen, Nanjing Art Institute; Qiang Hu, N/A; Yongqing Xie, Nanjing Art Institute
Abstract
[en]
This essay offers a case study of the ZHI project, a digital craftsmanship project
showcasing the beauty of traditional craftsmanship at three levels: knowing, making, and
intelligence. The project began with a Designer Residency Program and was developed to
answer three crucial questions: (1) How could we bridge the gap between enthusiastic
outsiders and little-known creators of intangible cultural heritage? (2) How could we
help students understand and participate in craftwork? and (3) How could we facilitate
sustainable knowledge production about intangible cultural heritage among the audiences,
students, and craftsmen so everyone benefits and contributes? The ZHI project uses
minimal computing strategies to encourage craftspeople to pass their skills and
knowledge onto others, particularly younger generations, through digitization and online
exhibitions that use minimal computing practices. The project provides user-friendly,
accessible information to researchers and craftspeople who do not possess expensive
digital equipment or high-level technical skills. This offers them opportunities to
virtually present their craft and research, share knowledge, and tell their own stories
to audiences unfamiliar with craftsmanship.
[en] The AudiAnnotate
Project: Four Case Studies in Publishing Annotations for Audio and VideoTanya Clement, University of Texas at Austin; Ben Brumfield, Brumfield Labs; Sara Brumfield, Brumfield Labs
Abstract
[en]
Access to audio collections is often restricted by institutions for copyright,
privacy, and preservation reasons, but it is the lack of descriptive metadata and
annotations that stands in the way of all levels of access and use. Libraries,
archives, and museums (LAMs) often hold physical audio artifacts that are unmarked
and lacking important identifiable information such as title, date, location,
subject, participants, or context. Annotating is only one of a list of scholarly
primitives including discovering, comparing, referring, sampling, illustrating, and
representing . IIIF (International Image
Interoperability Framework) is one standardized solution that LAMs have adopted for
giving users the ability to perform these primitives with images held in cultural
heritage institutions. The AudiAnnotate project builds on the new IIIF standards for
AV to address the gaps in engaging with audio by developing a solution to bring
together free audio annotation tools and the Web as a standardized collaboration and
presentation platform. The AudiAnnotate use case presented here includes a
presentation by Tanya Clement titled “Zora Neale Hurston's WPA
field recordings in Jacksonville, FL (1939)” which provides context to
three recordings of Hurston created during the Works Project Administration Federal
Writers Project from 1937-1942 and made available online at the Library of Congress
as part of the Florida Folklife Collections Florida Memory (FM) project.
Articles
[en] Linked data from TEI (LIFT): A Teaching Tool for
TEI to Linked Data TransformationFrancesca Giovannetti, University of Bologna; Francesca Tomasi, University of Bologna
Abstract
[en]
The purpose of this paper is to introduce Linked data from
TEI (LIFT), an open source tool written as a set of Python scripts
for generating linked data from TEI-encoded texts. LIFT’s goal is to walk users
through the transformation process from TEI to linked data step by step, as well
as to promote a better understanding of the theoretical and methodological
aspects that underpin the transformation. LIFT was created in the context of the
University of Bologna’s Master Degree in Digital Humanities and Digital
Knowledge as a teaching tool for students encountering linked open data for the
first time as a method of organizing and publishing cultural knowledge and,
specifically, digital scholarly editions on the web in a perspective of data
integration.
[en] Universal
Dependencies and Author Attribution of Short Texts with Syntax AloneRobert Gorman, Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Abstract
[en]
Improving methods of stylometrics and classification so that they give good results
with small texts is the focus of much research in the digital humanities and in the
NLP community more generally. Recent work has suggested
that an approach using combinations of shallow and deep morpho-syntactic information
can be quite successful. But because the data in that study were taken from hand
annotated dependency treebanks, the wider applicability of such an approach remains
in question. The present paper seeks to answer this question by using
machine-generated morphological and syntactic annotations as the basis for a
closed-set classification experiment. Texts were parsed according to the Universal
Dependency schema using the “udpipe” package for R. Experiments were carried out
on data from several languages covering a range of morphological complexity. To limit
confounders, consideration of vocabulary was excluded. Results were quite promising,
and, not surprisingly, a more complex morphology correlates with better accuracy
(e.g., 100-token texts in Polish: 88% correct; 100-token texts in English: 74%).The
method presented here has particular advantages for stylometrics as practiced in
literary analysis and other fields in the humanities. The Universal Dependency
annotation categories are generally similar to those used in traditional grammars.
Thus, the variables which serve to distinguish the style of a given author are
relatively easier to interpret and understand than, for example, are character
n-grams or function words. This fact, combined with the availability of easy-to-use
dependency parsers, opens up the study of a syntax-centered stylometrics to persons
with a wide range of expertise. Even students at the early stages of their studies
can identify and investigate the morpho-syntactic “signature” of a particular
author. Therefore, the characterization of texts based on computational annotation of
this type deserves a place in classification studies because of its combination of
good results and good interpretability.
[en] The Making and
Re-making of The Philadelphia NegroStephanie Boddie, Baylor University, Diana R. Garland School of Social Work, the School of Education, and the George W. Truett Seminary and University of South Africa, Institute for Gender Studies; Amy Hillier, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice
Abstract
[en]
This article sheds light on the methods and meaning of W. E. B. Du Bois’ 1899 study
of the everyday lives of Black residents of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward. It does so
by juxtaposing the way Du Bois conducted his research with our contemporary efforts
to recover, recreate, and preserve The Philadelphia
Negro using digital and geospatial technologies to document historical and
contemporary patterns relating to race and class. Beginning with an exploration of
primary source documents that provide new details about how Du Bois went about his
original research, we focus on the humanities and social science research methods
that he employed. Of note is the color-coded parcel-level map Du Bois created to
illustrate Black social class status, which reflected both the influence of the
Social Survey Movement and Du Bois’ efforts to present a new understanding of the
color line. His findings were groundbreaking, considering that most white scientists
of his time assumed Black people to be biologically inferior and socially homogeneous.
Instead, he documented the variability and social stratification within
Philadelphia’s Black population and the systematic exclusion they faced because of
anti-Black racism. Our ongoing project — The WARD: Race and Class
in Du Bois’ Seventh Ward, which seeks to recreate Du Bois’ study —
includes new technologies and participatory research methods that engage high school
and college students. In-depth, intergenerational oral histories conducted with
students also add a new dimension to this work and complement our high school
curriculum, which incorporates online mapping, documentaries, a board game, a walking
tour, and a mural to engage others to create their own primary sources. This research
provides a historical context for today’s racial tensions as we seek new ways to
address the 21st century color line.
[en] Scholarly Primitives of Scholarly Meetings: A
DH-Inspired Exploration of the Virtual Incunabular in the Time of COVID
19Jennifer Edmond, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Nicole Basaraba, Maastricht University, the Netherlands; Michelle Doran, Centre for Digital Humanities, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Vicky Garnett, DARIAH-EU; Courtney Helen Grile, School of Creative Arts, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Eliza Papaki, DARIAH-EU; Erszébet Toth-Czifra, DARIAH-EU
Abstract
[en]
This article documents the theoretical and practical considerations underpinning
the COVID-19-inspired digital humanities event: “The
Scholarly Primitives of Scholarly Meetings.” Drawing from both the
long tradition of work on scholarly primitives as well as the rush of new work
that appeared in the early months of 2020, the event described here was designed
as both an exercise in critical making and a response to the constraints of the
virtual incunabular state so many organisations found themselves in, attempting
to recreate their planned face-to-face meetings in virtual formats without due
consideration of the affordances and constraints of each context. As a
structurally distributed organisation, the DARIAH European Research
Infrastructure as event host was able to bring its experience of virtual
interaction to the recosideration of these challenges, but also the sensitivity
to research processes and practices that is central to our positioning in the
digital humanities. As such, the resulting model for a virtual event, realised
in May 2020 and described in this paper, was built upon a very self-conscious
set of considerations, meta-reflection, and goals regarding what we might
tacitly and could expect from a virtual event. The instruments designed to
deliver this, as well as their performance in practice, is documented alongside
consideration of what lessons the experience delivers about both virtual
meetings and more generally about the interactions of scholarly communities.
[en] Rediscussing the
Political Struggle in the Light of Reform in Late 11th Century China under the View
of Digital HumanitiesWenyi Shang, School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Winbin Huang, Department of Information Management, Peking University
Abstract
[en]
In late 11th century, a reform carried out by Wang Anshi (1021–1086) brought about
controversies and initiated a series of political struggles between factionalized
reformers and anti-reformers. The origin and nature of these factionalized struggles
have been discussed for a long time among scholars. In this paper, we discuss the
issue based on the literary and political relationships among people in the era of
the reform. First, two matrices are respectively constructed of the literary and
political relations among these people based on the data collected from CBDB (China
Biographical Database). Then a Poission-Gamma factorization model is adopted to
obtain the key factors of the matrices, and the Louvain Modularity algorithm is used
for community detection. The results show that people engaging in similar literary
pursuits were more likely to share political interests and people belonging to the
same literary groups were more likely to join in the same political groups,
suggesting. Ensuing discussions illustrate that people’s differing academic views indeed
played a shaping role in the formation and exacerbation of factionalized struggle,
for which the mechanism unfolded herein of “literati politics” was highly
responsible.
[en] Automated Transcription of Non-Latin Script
Periodicals: A Case Study in the Ottoman Turkish Print ArchiveSuphan Kirmizialtin, NYU Abu Dhabi; David Joseph Wrisley, NYU Abu Dhabi
Abstract
[en]
Our study discusses the automated transcription with deep learning methods of a
digital newspaper collection printed in a historical language, Arabic-script Ottoman
Turkish (OT), dating to the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century. We situate
OT text collections within a larger history of digitization of periodicals,
underscoring special challenges faced by Arabic script languages. Our paper approaches the question of automated transcription of non-Latin script languages, such
as OT, from the broader perspective of debates surrounding OCR use for historical
archives. In our study with OT, we have opted for training handwritten text
recognition (HTR) models that generate transcriptions in the left-to-right, Latin
writing system familiar to contemporary readers of Turkish, and not, as some scholars
may expect, in right-to-left Arabic script text. As a one-to-one correspondence
between the writing systems of OT and modern Turkish does not exist, we also discuss
approaches to transcription and the creation of ground truth and argue that the
challenges faced in the training of HTR models also draw into question
straightforward notions of transcription, especially where divergent writing systems
are involved. Finally, we reflect on potential domain bias of HTR models in other
historical languages exhibiting spatio-temporal variance as well as the significance
of working between writing systems for language communities that also have
experienced language reform and script change.
[en] Stitching the
Fragmented: Feminist Maker Pedagogy and Immersive Technologies for Cultural
LearningMélanie Péron, University of Pennsylvania; Meaghan Moody, University of Rochester; Vickie Karasic, Bryn Mawr College
Abstract
[en]
To immerse and engage her learners in the particularly difficult topic of WWII Paris,
a French instructor, with assistance from the university libraries and digital
humanities lab, embarked upon distinct yet iterative digital projects that allowed
students to connect with course material through critical making. Starting with
digital mapping and moving to 360° virtual reality video projects, instructor,
librarians, and students stitched together fragments of the past to further their
collective experience of this historical period via immersive technology. Students’
work was founded upon feminist maker pedagogy and an ethic of care that allowed them
to step into others’ perspectives and preserve a cultural memory that future students
will build upon.
[en] Varieties of Digital
Literary Studies: Micro, Macro, MesoSimone Murray, School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics, Monash University
Abstract
[en]
Digital literary studies constitutes a broad church. However, the field tends to
divide into, at one pole, quantitative, macro-level studies of historical literary
texts and, at the other pole, close-readings of individual born-digital literary
works, typically hyper-avant-garde in conception. There is, in practice, little
interplay between the two groupings. This article sketches a proposed “meso space”
in between the two extant levels. Drawing on methods from book history, literary
sociology, cultural studies, and digital media theory, this mid-level approach examines digital technology’s role in recasting the institutions of contemporary mainstream literature:
the impact of powerful new digital intermediaries; the blurring of
author/reader/reviewer roles; and the continued existence of print artefacts within
online environments.
[en] Detecting and
Characterising Transmission from Legacy Collection CataloguesJames Baker, University of Southampton; Andrew Salway, Sussex Humanities Lab, University of Sussex; Cynthia Roman, Lewis Walpole Library
Abstract
[en]
Catalogue records underpin the audit, curatorial, and public access functions of
collecting institutions. And they are relied upon by many humanities researchers, and
increasingly those looking to analyse collection holdings at scale. However, far from
being a neutral record of collection holdings, catalogues are the products of
cataloguing labour, often spanning many decades, and so are subject to various biases
and inequities. Understanding how collection catalogues are shaped by their histories
is then crucial for addressing many of the contemporary challenges faced by
cataloguing professionals and for enhancing their use in humanities research, as well
as for opening up new directions for historical research. This paper contributes a
computationally-based approach for generating new and important knowledge about
catalogues, in particular for investigating how a catalogue is shaped by an earlier
one. We contend that understanding at scale the transmission of records and style
from one catalogue to another requires the use of computational techniques to detect
and analyse the various ways in which transmission manifests across a catalogue.
Our case study concerns the transmission of Mary Dorothy George’s voice through time,
across space, and between mediums, from the 1930s to the late-twentieth century and
beyond, from the British Museum in London to the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington,
Connecticut, from printed volumes to networked digital data. It aims to show how
transmission happens, how it can be found, and how it can be characterised. Detecting
and characterising transmission is important because cataloguers like George are the
interlocuters between us and the pasts they described, legacy voices that refuse to
stay in their historical place, and whose raced, sexed, and classed influence on the
future should not go unchecked.
Our contributions are relevant both for historical research into catalogues and
cataloguing, knowledge organisation and infrastructure, and cultural organisations,
and for cataloguing practitioners seeking to rationalise/review their catalogues to
improve user experience, address systemic inequalities in object representation, and
develop best practice for future work. Furthermore, in broad terms, by contributing
to the generation of new knowledge about the biases/inequities of catalogues our work
will enable new and better research into the collections that catalogues
describe.
[en] Worlds and Readers: Augmented Reality in Modern PolaxisAnette Hagen, University of South-Eastern Norway; Elise Seip Tønnessen, University of Agder
Abstract
[en]
This article presents a close reading of the augmented reality (AR) comic Modern Polaxis, which was created by Stuart Campbell.
Possible Worlds Theory was applied to discuss how fiction, which creates its own
possible worlds, integrates the additional layer(s) of AR into its storyworld. The
analysis additionally sheds light on the reader’s position and how the augmented
layer may affect the literary experience. We also discuss how the AR interface may
contribute to digital literature more generally.
[en] Using word vector models to trace conceptual change
over time and space in historical newspapers, 1840–1914Jaap Verheul, Utrecht University; Hannu Salmi, University of Turku; Martin Riedl, University of Stuttgart; Asko Nivala, University of Turku; Lorella Viola, University of Luxembourg; Jana Keck, German Historical Institute Washington; Emily Bell, University of Leeds
Abstract
[en]
Linking large digitized newspaper corpora in different languages that have become
available in national and state libraries opens up new possibilities for the
computational analysis of patterns of information flow across national and linguistic
boundaries. The significant contribution this article presents is to demonstrate how
word vector models can be used to explore the way concepts have shifted in meaning
over time, as they migrated across space, by comparing newspapers from different
countries published between 1840 and 1914. We define a concept, rather pragmatically,
as a key term or core idea that has been used in historical discourse: an abstraction
or mental representation that has served as a building block for thoughts and
beliefs. We use historical newspapers in English, Finnish, German and Swedish from
collections in the UK, US, Germany, and Finland, as well as the Europeana collection.
As use cases, we analyze how the different conceptual constructs of “nation” and
“illness” emerged and changed between 1840 and 1920. Conceptual change over time is
simulated by creating a series of overlapping word vector models, each spanning ten
years. Historical vocabularies are retrieved on the basis of vector space proximity.
Conceptual change across space is simulated by comparing the historical change of
vocabularies in newspaper collections from different nations in several languages.
This computational approach to conceptual history opens up new ways to identify
patterns in public discourse over longer periods of time and across borders.
[en] Transmediation as
Radical Pedagogy in Building Queer and Trans Digital ArchivesElspeth Brown, University of Toronto; Cait McKinney, Simon Fraser University; Dan Guadagnolo, University of Toronto; Juan Carlos Mezo Gonzalez, University of Toronto; Sid Cunningham, York University; Caleigh Inman; Zohar Freeman, Harvard Law School; Amal Khurram; Alisha Krishna, University of Toronto Faculty of Law; Mackenzie Stewart, University of Toronto
Abstract
[en]
This article analyzes a one-month, intensive digital collections lab focused on
queer and trans community history, in partnership with the LGBTQ Oral History
Digital Collaboratory, and based at Toronto’s The ArQuives: Canada’s LGBQT+
Archives. This collaboration between ten intergenerational scholars and two
community organizations produced three digital exhibitions, focusing on post-1945
Toronto-based queer and trans activist history: “Not a Place on the Map: The Desh
Pardesh Project,” an oral history project about the queer South Asian diasporic
arts and culture festival Desh Pardesh (1988 - 2001); the Foolscap Gay Oral
History Project, a 1980s community-based oral history project of Toronto gay life
pre Stonewall; and gendertrash from hell, an early 1990s zine published by
transsexual artists, sex workers, and activists Mirha-Soleil Ross and Xanthra
Phillipa McKay.
In analyzing our work within the context of radical pedagogy and critical DH
practice, we focus on how we mapped spaces, (dis)inherited metadata, and designed
interfaces that would offer tactile, affective engagements with these histories.
We analyze our work through the lens of trans(affective)mediation, an approach
that understands the conversion of analog to digital objects for online archives
in relationship to anti-racist trans studies, affect, and the collaborative
potential of community-engaged DH. We argue that this concept offers queer and
trans community-based DH scholars and practitioners a means of challenging the
ways in which white, cis-normativity is naturalized within both LGBTQ+ community
archives and digital humanities tools and practices.
[en] Sentiment Analysis: Limits and Progress of the
Syuzhet Package and Its LexiconsHoyeol Kim, Texas A&M University
Abstract
[en]
Syuzhet is a dictionary-based tool for the sentiment analysis of literary texts that
draws upon the Syuzhet, Bing, Afinn, and NRC lexicons. Syuzhet is a work in progress
with the potential to become an invaluable tool for the sentiment analysis of
literary texts. However, there have been doubts about sentiment analysis in the
digital humanities field, especially after Swafford’s impactful critique of Syuzhet.
Since it is impossible to achieve 100% accuracy in sentiment analysis, we should
embrace the imperfection and continue to use Syuzhet while also making efforts to
fully understand its limits and abilities. In addition, we should continuously
provide feedback for the tool, since the duty of improving digital tools belongs to
all digital humanists who employ digital tools. This article explores the limits of
and improvements made upon Syuzhet by examining and testing its code and functions
with 19th century British novels; the subjectivity of its lexicons; and the validity
of Swafford’s critique.
[en] Applied Digital Humanities and the Creative
Industries in the United KingdomJames Smithies, King's College London; Sarah Atkinson, King's College London; Elliott Hall, King's Digital Lab
Abstract
[en]
The government of the United Kingdom is offering significant amounts of funding to
increase engagement between researchers and technology companies involved in the
“creative economy”, a sector worth £100b per annum. The sector has naturally
evolved into clusters involving actors as diverse as the BBC, the Victoria and Albert
Museum, and freelance game designers. It collaborates and competes with multinational
powerhouses including Google, Microsoft, and Pixar. The imbrication of academic
researchers in the sector makes it a good example of the extension of academia to
industry, raising ethical but also methodological and practical questions. This
article describes a project that embedded a research software engineer (RSE) from a
digital humanities (DH) laboratory into a small technology start-up engaged in high
risk R&D of an immersive narrative story-telling platform. The platform is
enabled by artificial intelligence and has the capacity to remember user input and
modify narrative options and character mood accordingly. The team included a
researcher specialising in narrative theory and digital production. The project
demonstrated the utility of the critical application of DH methods and the need to
develop career pipelines to produce people capable of working at the intersection of
higher education and industry.
Reviews
[en] New Digital Worlds:
Postcolonial Digital Humanities in Theory, Praxis and PedagogyOnyekachi Henry Ibekwe, University of Nigeria
Abstract
[en]
Roopika Risam’s New Digital Worlds interrogates the
ongoing digitization of analog cultural records that came into existence during colonial
times. Risam contends that the processes which produced the initial analog records were
often animated by a mix of ethical egoism, racial bias and cultural caricature. Risam
proposes a way out by embracing decolonial computing: a spectrum of techniques that seek
to elevate historically-disadvantaged worldviews. Risam hopes to employ interventionist
data approaches to address the challenges brought to bear upon peoples continually
affected by colonial aggression.
[en] Data Stories for/from All: Why Data Feminism is for EveryoneYasamin Rezai, University of Miami
Abstract
[en]
Looking through the intersectional feminist lens, Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren
Klein introduce data as a tool of power in the past and present world in their book
Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020) and reveal how
authorities have used data as a weapon to maintain a hierarchy of power in favor of
their position in the unequal status quo. By calling data a part of the
problem, they also conceive of it as a part of the solution by analyzing how “data
justice” can and ought to be redeployed to challenge power.
