[-empyre-] Engineering the University : Week 03 : Bettivia and Flanders

[B. Bogart]

Thank you Julia!

I hope I was clear enough in my statement of being unknowledgeable of DH
in general, and only really aware of Lev Manovich's work. Your comments
lead me to think of Manovish as a poor example of DH in general.
Generally, I had not previous considered DH and library/information
science as related, and your examples of what is interesting in DH sound
very promising.


On 15-03-18 06:55 PM, Julia Flanders wrote:
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- To expand
>  a bit here: I don't think the characterization as "application of IT
>  skills in a humanities context" is useful, because it implies that 
> the skills and the context retain their distinctness. <snip> I think 
> it's true that DH is a domain in which information technology and 
> digital technologies/methods encounter humanities methods, content, 
> and research agendas, but that encounter is one in which both 
> contributing sides get transformed--I think of it almost as an 
> estuarine zone where there is mixing and where we see an ecology
> that is quite different from what goes on in the spaces on either
> side.

When I think of technoscience I tend to think of optimization, global
metrics, objectivity and so on, while when I think of humanities I think
of thick descriptions, richness, subjectivity and pluralism. This may be
an exaggeration, but is the root of my initial questions regarding DH.

> By analogy, digital humanists serve as bridges because they have a 
> changed understanding of both digital media/representation 
> systems/tools/methods and of humanities research methods/content. 
> (This "changed understanding" isn't necessarily a deeper form of 
> expertise--they are probably not as deeply expert on either side,
> let alone on both sides, as someone who specializes in one or the
> other. But they may have a critical perspective on both sides that
> genuine specialists have a harder time achieving.)

This really resonates with me, as I'm currently attempting to negotiate
a post-doc doing art-research in the context of neuroscience and
philosophy. My past efforts have been of mixed success considering my
work has been seen by artists as science, and by scientists as art.

I'm wondering how this discussion could be folded back into the monthly
topic, but I'm feeling too fuzzy ATM. As mentioned before, even using
the term engineering in the context of education implies some of those
features I ascribe to technoscience above.

I'll leave it there and catch up on new messages.