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Shawn Graham: Do It Yourself Digital Golems. Experiments with various AI, neural networks, and other technologies for archaeology

The golem is a creature animated by the words in its head. Emerging from Jewish traditions, the words that did the animation had connections with divinity, but the golems themselves despite this spark of the divine toiled at mundane chores. But sometimes, the golems would get out of control, and become figures of terror. My none-too-subtle analogy is this: animated by the ‘words in their heads’, the anthropomorphized neural networks of contemporary ‘ai’ (and ‘agi’: artificial general intelligence) are similar figures, with similar connections to the divine (we are told: ‘agi’ will transcend us; ‘agi’ will bring about the singularity; ‘agi’ will make us all posthuman). In this talk, I will explore some of my experiments trying to teach these technologies ethically and critically. I will explore some of the ways I have been trying to raise my own digital golems for my mundane archaeological needs. This is a talk filled with failure and experimentation. But maybe, also, something useful.

„Shawn Graham: Do It Yourself Digital Golems. Experiments with various AI, neural networks, and other technologies for archaeology“ weiterlesen

Folgert Karsdorp & Mike Kestemont: The application of unseen species models in history: correcting registration bias in nineteenth-century police reports from Brussels

Researchers of the past – whether historians, literary scholars or archaeologists – depend on the sources that have stood the test of time. That sample of history is usually far from complete, however. There are numerous reasons for this, such as natural causes (e.g., fires or floods), decisions at the level of archival policy (what do we preserve and what do we not?), and biases in the formation of the archives themselves. Data representing lower classes were long considered less relevant, for example, and thus socioeconomic factors likewise play a role in the survival of sources. In a series of recent experiments, we have explored how statistical methods from ecology can help us identify such gaps and biases in our knowledge. Those methods all find their basis in “Unseen Species Models,” which were originally developed to estimate the number of unique species in an environment. Just as ecologists try to estimate biodiversity from an incomplete sample, we apply the models to incomplete historical archives to measure the actual cultural diversity.

„Folgert Karsdorp & Mike Kestemont: The application of unseen species models in history: correcting registration bias in nineteenth-century police reports from Brussels“ weiterlesen

Amanda Regan: Mapping the Gay Guides: Using Digital History to Explore LGBTQ Travel Guides, 1965 – 2005

Mapping the Gay Guides (MGG) relies on the Damron Guides, an early but longstanding travel guide aimed at gay men since the early 1960s. An LGBTQ equivalent to the African American “green books,” the Damron Guides contained lists of bars, bathhouses, cinemas, businesses, hotels, and cruising sites in every U.S. state, where gay men could find friends, companions, and sex. The online mapping project explores different dimensions of American gay life through time, from bars and nightlife, bookstores, cinemas, and churches. Users to the site are able to navigate and investigate the dynamic and sometimes disappearing nature of LGBT spaces over time.

„Amanda Regan: Mapping the Gay Guides: Using Digital History to Explore LGBTQ Travel Guides, 1965 – 2005“ weiterlesen

Moritz Feichtinger: Just a Little Bit? Historicizing Born-Digital Objects

The information age is intrinsically digital. Knowledge, culture, and communication are increasingly created, transmitted, processed, and stored in digital formats. Consequently, historical inquiry, particularly when engaging with the latter half of the 20th century and beyond, must grapple with digital artifacts. These artifacts, often termed “born-digital” objects, are created by and within digital environments. Their scale, diversity, and inherent technical and cultural characteristics present distinct challenges for historical research, requiring historians to adapt established methodologies, particularly source criticism, to address these nuances.

„Moritz Feichtinger: Just a Little Bit? Historicizing Born-Digital Objects“ weiterlesen

Studentische Veranstaltung: DH-FuckUp-Outing 2024/1

TL;DR: Donnerstag, 19.12., ab 18 Uhr c. t.;
Input, Austausch und Snacks; Anmeldung formlos via Mail.

»Ohne die richtige Einstellung ist erfolgreiches Scheitern unmöglich. Man muss Scheitern wollen – sonst wird es nur eine peinliche Niederlage.«
Alexander Florin, 2013: Erfolgreich Scheitern (via DWDS-Korpussuche)

Erzählen vom und Sprechen über das Scheitern – das ist die Idee hinter dem Konzept ‘FuckUp-Night’.1 Über die Kommerzialisierung dieser Idee und den Grund für den legally distinct Namen dieser Veranstaltung lässt sich streiten; das Konzept hat sich aber bereits seit mehr als zehn Jahren bewährt.
Dem gemeinsamen Sprechen über Scheitern wohnt eine radikale Kraft inne: Wir alle scheitern im Großen wie im Kleinen – meist eine sehr einsame Erfahrung. Aber genau diese Einsamkeit gilt es gemeinsam zu durchbrechen!

„Studentische Veranstaltung: DH-FuckUp-Outing 2024/1“ weiterlesen

Wonhee Cho: Rethinking ‘Sinicization’ through Data: A Network Analysis Methodology for Yuan Dynasty Studies

This presentation revisits the concept of “Sinicization” during the Yuan dynasty by employing network analysis to evaluate the centrality and cooperative dynamics of officials in Yuan court. Using data derived from the Official History of the Yuan (Yuanshi), this research interrogates the validity of traditional narratives of cultural assimilation, particularly the extent to which the Mongol administration in China adopted Han Chinese governance practices. By focusing on the relationships among central officials, this study sheds light on the evolving power dynamics between Han and non-Han elites under Mongol rule.

„Wonhee Cho: Rethinking ‘Sinicization’ through Data: A Network Analysis Methodology for Yuan Dynasty Studies“ weiterlesen

Clemens Neudecker: Context matters. Chancen und Herausforderung bei der Arbeit mit Künstlicher Intelligenz und Kulturellem Erbe

A banana on a table and an image of a banana on a laptop on the same table. Each of the two bananas has a white frame around it with the word ‚Banana‘ sticked on top of it

Für Bibliotheken bieten die auf dem Gebiet der Künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) erzielten Fortschritte vielfältige Chancen. Die Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SBB) entwickelt im Rahmen von Projekten wie Mensch.Maschine.Kultur KI-Technologien für eine Vielzahl von Anwendungsbereichen: von Text- und Layouterkennung über Bildanalyse bis zu maschinell unterstützter Sacherschließung und nicht zuletzt Datenbereitstellung und digitaler Kuratierung. Andererseits sind bei der Anwendung von KI-Technologien für das Kulturelle Erbe immer auch die historischen und kulturellen Kontexte zu beachten.

„Clemens Neudecker: Context matters. Chancen und Herausforderung bei der Arbeit mit Künstlicher Intelligenz und Kulturellem Erbe“ weiterlesen

Shih-Pei Chen: Treating a genre as a knowledge system: Analysing Chinese local gazetteers and daily-use encyclopedias with quantitative approaches

Many digital humanities research projects rely on large amounts of digitized primary sources to elevate research from manual, close reading to large-scaled, computer-assisted quantitative analyses –– sometimes called distant reading or birds-eye views. This presentation reports on the case of Chinese local gazetteers (difangzhi), in particular the Local Gazetteers Research Tools (LoGaRT), designed and developed at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) to bring a collective, quantitative lens to research the genre.

„Shih-Pei Chen: Treating a genre as a knowledge system: Analysing Chinese local gazetteers and daily-use encyclopedias with quantitative approaches“ weiterlesen

Ob Werkzeugkoffer, Werkstatt oder Baumarkt: offene, community-kuratierte Tool Registries mit Wikidata

Wikidata Logo

Isabell Trilling, Till Grallert, Jascha Schmitz

In diesem Blogbeitrag wird das an der HU angesiedelte Projekt zur Erstellung eines offenen, community-kuratierten Werkzeugverzeichnisses für die Digital Humanities als Kollaboration von “Kompetenzwerkstatt Digital Humanities” (KDH) an der UB und des “Methods Innovation Lab” der NFDI4Memory am Lehrstuhl für Digital History vorgestellt. Das Projekt adressiert die fundamentalen Probleme etablierter Ansätze mit einer sowohl auf der Daten- als auch der Infrastrukturebene radikal offenen Implementierung. Ihren Ansatz einer auf Wikidata aufsetzenden Tool Registry stellten Till Grallert (IfG, NFDI4Memory), Sophie Eckenstaler (IfG, KDH), Claus Michael Schlesinger (KDH), Jacqueline Banford (KDH) und Samantha Tirtohusodo (KDH, IBI) auf der diesjährigen Jahreskonferenz der Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum 2024 in Passau (26.02.2024 — 01.03.2024) vor.

„Ob Werkzeugkoffer, Werkstatt oder Baumarkt: offene, community-kuratierte Tool Registries mit Wikidata“ weiterlesen

Sebastian Kawanami-Breu, Johan Malmstedt: The Similarity Engine. Steps Towards a Media History of Vector Modeling

Our project revolves around the historical epistemology of vector space models, which we attempt to situate within a larger history of the human quest to measure, quantify, and analyze “similarity”. Starting with current applications and classic works such as Salton’s definition of vector models (Salton 1975, 1989), we will explore the technological history of similarity, the media, and the epistemic practices that gave rise to these models.

„Sebastian Kawanami-Breu, Johan Malmstedt: The Similarity Engine. Steps Towards a Media History of Vector Modeling“ weiterlesen