Main Page
Welcome to the wiki of the course Foundation of Digital Humanities (DH-405).
Contact
Professor: Frédéric Kaplan
Assistants: Alexander Rusnak
Rooms: Wednesday (CM1110) and Thursday (BC03/BC04)
Links
- Textbook
- Slides
- Time Atlas (Public version)
- Time Atlas (Dev version)
- Projects
- Sources (2024)
- Sources (2024)
Summary
This course gives an introduction to the fundamental concepts and methods of the Digital Humanities, both from a theoretical and applied point of view. The course introduces the Digital Humanities circle of processing and interpretation, from data acquisition to new understandings and services. The first part of the course presents the technical pipelines for digitising, analysing and modelling written documents (printed and handwritten), maps, photographs and 3d objects and environments. The second part of the course details the principles of the most important algorithms in particular deep learning approaches (for document analysis and image generation) and knowledge modelling (semantic web, ontologies, graph databases). The third part of the course focuses on platform management from the points of view of data, users and bots. Students will practise the skills they learn by engaging in a class-wide collective project.
Plan
Part I : Concepts and Fields
Week 1 : What are Digital Humanities?
10.09 :
(2h) Welcome and Introduction to the course
- Getting know each others. Presentation of each student with a Photo illustrating their interest or history.
- Introduction to the structure of the course and the FDH textbook.
11.09 :
What are Digital Humanities? What is their object of study?
- Digital vs Analogue, Abstract vs Concrete, Information, Token, Data/Code equivalence
- Maud Ehrmann, Impresso project and data acceleration regime (2h)
Week 2 : What are Digital Humanities (ctd.)
17.09 :
- Humanities, Hermeneutics. Patterns
18.09 :
Morning :
- Anatomy of a large-scale project : Venice Time Machine. European Time Machine.
Afternoon :
- Manuel Ehrenfeld / Designing the Time Machine Atlas
- Formation of the groups (ideally 2, max 3 students)
Week 3: Subfields Student Presentation
Groups of students will give a 10-minute presentation, using slides, followed by a 10-minute class discussion on the potential of Big Data in various fields of the Humanities. Presentations may include an overview of existing projects and/or projections of future research in these disciplines. (See graduation system below)
For each subfields, groups must
- Define the specific object of study of the subfield,
- Define the opportunities of a change of scale,
- Illustrate with existing or prospective examples.
24.09 :
- Pierre Vann, Julien Jordan / Architecture/Urbanism
- Anaël Donini, Anastasia Meijer / Applied Sociology
- Eliott Bell, Christophe Bitar / Big Data in History
- Camille Dupre Tabti, Olivia Robles / Big Data and Musicology
- Néhémie Frei, Niccholas Reiz Art History: Film Studies
25.09 :
Morning :
- Camille Lannoye, Sophia Kovalenko / Art History
- Yibo Yin, Jiajun Shen, Yifan Zhou / Big Data and History
- Marguerite Novikov / Lingustics
- Xiru Wang, Jingru Wnag / Big data and theology
- Jérémy Hugentobler / Archeology
Afternoon
2.15 pm : Projects presentation by prof and TA. Examples of DH projects that can be selected during the course. It is also possible to invent new one. Each student has to select two and present their ideas the following week.
Part II : Media Pipelines
Week 4: Documents and Writing Systems
01.10 :
(2h) Documents : Definition and Encoding. IIIF Format.
02.10 :
- (2h) Writing Systems
- (2h) Projects presentations. Each group present 2 projects. 5' per project with max 3 slides. At the end of the session, the goal is to select one really fitting the taste and skills of the students and the learning ambition of the course.
Vote on skills tutorial for Skills sessions
Week 5: Texts
08.10 :
(2h) Reading and Text encoding (2h)
09.10 :
(2h) Text Spaces and Text systems
(2h) SKILL SESSION 1 (Vote for the tutorials) (Alex Rusnak)
Week 6: Paintings, Engravings and Photographs
15.10 :
(2h) Image reading. Image space and image systems
16.10 :
(2h) Example of the Replica Pipeline
(2h) SKILLS SESSION 2 (Vote for the tutorials) (Alex Rusnak)
Week Off
22.10 :
No course
23.10 :
No Course
Week 7: Maps
29.10 :
(2h) Are Maps different than images ? Alex Rusnak's Presentation on 2D/3D map encoding
30.10 :
Morning
(2h) Remi Petitpierre presentation : Cartography at scale
Afternoon
2h) Beatrice Vaienti presentation : Genealogies of Jerusalem's maps
Week 8: Design and Architecture
05.11 :
(2h) 3D Models Systems and Encoding
06.11 :
(2h) 3D Models Processing
(2h)Work on project : Definition of the MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
MidTerm Presentations
12.11 :
- You can select the presentation of this course : Music, Poetry, Fashion, Rituals, Web, Diagrams and Tables, Zeitgeist modelling (simulation of the everyday)
- Summary of the concept viewed so far. Publication of the study guide
13.11 Midterm presentations
| Time | Project name |
|---|---|
| 10:20-10:40 | Group 7 |
| 10:40-11:00 | Group 6 |
| 11:00-11:20 | Group 5 |
| 11:20-11:40 | Group 4 |
| Time | Project name |
|---|---|
| 13:15-13:35 | Group 3 |
| 13:35-13:55 | Group 2 |
| 13:55-14:15 | Group 1 |
| 14:15-14:35 | Group 8 |
Part III : Knowledge modelling and processing
Week 9 : Semantic modelling, Rule systems, simulations and parallel worlds
19.11 :
- (1h) Semantic modelling. RDF, Metaknowledge - (1h) Universal Ontologies
20.11 :
(2h) Rule systems, simulations and parallel worlds
(2h) Preparation of the exam
Week 10 : In class Exam and Non conceptual knowledge systems and topological data science
26.11 :
(2h) In class exam
27.11 :
(2h) Non conceptual knowledge systems (2h) Work on Projects
Part IV : Platforms
Week 12 : Data, User and Agent Management
03.12 :
(2h) Data
04.12 :
(2h) User
(2h) Agents
Project work
10.12 Work on project
11.12 Work on project
Final Week : Project Presentation
17.12
-- Due: GitHub repository -- Due: Report writing
18.12
(4h) Final project presentation (20%)
| Time | Project Name |
|---|---|
| 10:15 - 10:40 | Group 1 |
| 10:40 - 11:05 | Group 2 |
| 11:05 - 11:30 | Group 3 |
| 11:30 - 11:55 | Group 4 |
| 11:55 - 12:20 | Group 5 |
| Time | Project Name |
|---|---|
| 1:15 - 1:40 | Group 6 |
| 1:40 - 2:05 | Group 7 |
| 2:05 - 2:30 | Group 8 |
| 2:30 - 2:55 | Group 9 |
| 2:55 - 3:20 | Group 10 |
Various Resources
Assessment and Notation grid
- (Group work) 3 oral presentations (30%)
- Presention of the potential of Big data for a subfield of Digital Humanities (10%)
- 1 midterm presentation of the project (10%)
- 1 final discussing the project result (10%)
- (Group work) Written deliverables (Wiki writing) (20%)
- (Group work) Quality of the project and code (20%)
- (Individual work) Exam on Course Content (30%)
3 collective oral presentations (30%)
Subfield presentation (10%)
10' max presentation + 5' questions
Notation grid :
- The presentation contains a description of the subfield in relation with Big Data (4)
- + 0.5 The slides are clear and well presented
- + 0.5 The oral presentation is dynamic and fluid
- + 0.5 The applications are relevant
- + 0.5 The students participate well to the collective discussion
Midterm presenting the project planning (10%)
10' max presentation + 5' questions
Notation grid :
- The presentation contains a planning (4)
- + 0.5 The slides are clear and well presented
- + 0.5 The oral presentation is dynamic and fluid
- + 0.5 The planning is realistic.
- + 0.5 The students answer well to the questions
Final discussing the project result (10%)
10-15' for presentation and 5-10' for questions
Notation grid :
- The presentation presents the results of the project (4)
- + 0.5 The slides are clear and well presented
- + 0.5 The oral presentation is dynamic and fluid
- + 0.5 The results are well discussed
- + 0.5 The students answer well to the questions
Written deliverables (Wiki writing) (20%)
- Project plan and milestones (5%) (>300 words)
- Motivation and description of the deliverables (5%) (>300 words)
- Detailed description of the methods (5%) (>500 words)
- Quality assessment and discussion of limitations (5%) (>300 words)
The indicated number of words is a minimal bound.
Quality of the project and code (20%)
- Quality of the realisation 10%
- Code delivered on github 10%
Exam on Course Content (30%)
- A series of questions on the course to ensure the core concepts are understood. Example from last year