Tag: Moravian Lives

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Olivia Smith- Blog Post #1

Creating digital artifacts from archival documents has allowed for historical documents to become more accessible. For those who are interested in viewing and researching such topics related to those artifacts, they are able to view them digitally through websites like the ones we have explored in class. The benefits of utilizing digital artifacts is that it decreases the chances of them being destroyed. Over time many of these documents can get lost, so converting them into a digital form will help prevent this from happening. A disadvantage to this method is that when they become digitized, the person who is transcribing them could be challenged by the language or handwriting of the artifact. Important information could have the potential to get lost in this process.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BXfNKGrbhVY/maxresdefault.jpg

After exploring the Moravian Lives project, I was able to connect it to the other large-scale DH projects we have explored because of how interactive it was. Many of these projects take old archives and make them more interesting with a technological twist that is both educational and involving. Personally, I found the Moravian Lives project website to be the most educational because I was interacting with the artifacts. I was plugging in information and learning about the different migration routes that people took from the Moravian Church. This website and the Old Weather website also allow people to add their own contributions to the project by helping transcribe. In addition, already transcribed material is easily accessible on these website. Viewers can access this material at any point.

Moravian Lives Transcription Desk

Since transforming historical texts can sometimes inadvertently remove the history of the actual artifact, transcribers can work to create an online reading interface that still presents the history of the document. It could be something as simple as photoshopping the transcribed digital artifact onto the document. Also, if it is possible, the website could include a 360 degree view of the artifact so that the viewer could gain full experience as if being in the actual presence of it. I know that it is very hard to completely replicate the idea of reading an actual artifact, but creating a way that the viewer can both see and move the document digitally is very close to replicating the physical experience of reading it.

Because these websites are easily accessible, it has allowed for a shift in educational opportunities. Students can now access historical documents at any point in their education due to the work that transcribers have done. These documents might be ones that students would have never been able to see if it weren’t for their digitization. Though they are not provided with a hard copy of the material, what they can access is free and attainable. This material can provide educational experiences, just like the Moravian Lives project, that contains interactive material that can benefit many students learning experiences. Digital artifacts has greatly enhanced educational experiences for students around the world because it has combined historical artifacts with modern day technology to create a way that everyone can enjoy history.

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Blog #1: On Material and Digital Archives

After visiting several websites that are based on archival materials and browsing through the DH project sample book, I have been able to explore many DH projects. While browsing, I have seen the advantages and disadvantages of creating a digital artifact from archival documents. Specifically, many artifacts are in remote archives and only certain scholars are permitted access. By creating a digital artifact, the documents become widely available for research for people who are restricted by both travel and accreditation. Additionally, these documents are often delicate, sensitive to light, and require extremely special handling. But, when these artifacts are digitized, they no longer require such delicate conditions. This allows the researchers to put more effort into analyzing the document, rather spending time trying to maintain adequate conditions for the document.

On the other hand, there are some disadvantages. Specifically, when an archival document can be accessed digitally, it takes away from the special experience of traveling to the archive and handling the actual document. When a document is digitized, the document is often static, presented as a photograph or transcription. This presentation could potentially make a researcher miss an important aspect of the document, such as something that is written more lightly, that they would have been privy to if they were in the presence of the actual document.

As I explored the Moravian Lives projects, the biggest similarity I found was with another DH project, “Transcribe Bentham”. Both projects utilized crowdsourcing. The projects don’t have a sole contributor, but rather many. This method allows for more transcriptions to become available in a shorter amount of time, simply because so many people are able to be working on the project at once.

In the digital age, we are increasingly interacting with textual material on the screen more than on the printed page. Personally, my high school utilized the “iPad Program” and all our readings were digital. Because the interaction with the digital material is overpowering interaction with the printed material, our research practices changed. Post-It notes and highlighters have been replaced with digital annotations. 

Additionally, our physical and emotional relationships with our objects of study are drastically shifting in a digital age. Because archival documents are more accessible now digitally, researchers lose a special bond with the material that they would have felt had they accessed the material in person. This digital difference causes a slight detachment from their objects of study. The sense of seeing the document on a screen is much different than being able to see and potentially touch the document in real life. 

In the physical archive, there are different sources of knowledge and serendipitous discovery than in the digital archive. In the physical archive, researchers may be more likely to interact with other scholars that are studying a similar topic. Physical archives also offer the “wide-angle perspective” (185) that Whitley spoke about. However digital archives offer a different experience. As Whitley writes, “In browse mode, digital archives allow for a wide-angle perspective on their material by trusting to the wanderings of a curious mouse clicker. In search mode, the hope is that a search engine will serendipitously discover information that a browsing scholar or student might otherwise miss” (186). I would not say that the digital archive is better than the physical archive and vice versa, just that the two offer very different experiences. In my opinion, a combination of both may be the best approach for a browsing scholar or student. 

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Blog #1: “On Material and Digital Archives”

Creating a digital artifact from archival documents allows for a much more pleasurable experience for research. Digital artifacts are able to compile vast amounts of information into one place. This allows for much more accessibility, than traveling the world viewing artifacts in each location. Many more people are able to view artifacts online, where they do not have the time or money to view all those artifacts in person. Additionally, many artifacts are in old handwriting styles that not everybody can understand, so digitizing these allows everybody to be able to easily view. Also, many artifacts are old and very fragile, but digitizing these allows anybody to view artifacts without risk of damaging preserved materials. I feel these digital artifacts are sufficient enough that there is basically no need to view the physical original artifacts. When transcribed and put together well, these digital artifacts provide all the information you would acquire from viewing the physical artifact. These articles are often categorized allowing you to more specifically research your interests.Overall, digital artifacts allow for viewers to easily find more information in one place than ever possible before. 

One problem I could see occurring from digital artifacts is human error. When texts are transcribed by humans, there is always the possibility of something being transcribed poorly. This would result in the research of an inaccurate representation of an artifact. Another issue is these digital artifacts need to be maintained well also. The digital world is constantly evolving, so these resources need to have people making sure their artifacts are staying up to the standards. This causes more time and money to go into the process. However, if everything is transcribed well, digital artifacts are much more efficient for researchers, though take much effort from authors.

I believe while the world is evolving, so are the research strategies. Researchers are often interacting more with the material on the screen rather than the printed page. This allows for accessibility to more researchers, creating even more information. As research continues to evolve into the digital world, we will continue to have more information provided at the click of a button. This is truly a remarkable evolution, as there has never been so much knowledge in one place than we have today.

Also, digitized texts are able to highlight key pieces of information one might not even notice through printed texts. Long artifacts would be skimmed through by most people. But through design of a digital source, authors are able to highlight pieces of information they find important. For example, the Selfie City (http://selfiecity.net/#) page I explored provides statistics on what they believed to be their most important findings. This clearly shows viewers the key pieces of information they might not pick up on while researching on their own.

The Moravian Lives project contains a map, which shows viewers where the authors found all their information. This is the same experience I had when viewing The Early Map of London (https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/agas.htm). These authors make sure to provide exactly where their sources come from allowing users to easily verify the authenticity of their work, limiting any possibility of error in one’s research. Additionally, they both start with a distant view, but allow you to zoom in on areas of focus, giving researchers full control over their work.

 

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As our overall understanding of modern technology progresses, so does the potential of Digital Humanities. One of the main advantages of Digital Humanities is that these archival documents can be processed onto a digital library, where they can be easily accessible from all over the world. Somebody can be continents away, and still be able to read the manuscript of Jane Austen. Another major advantage of creating a digital artifact from archival documents is that finding individual words or sections is made extremely easier and more convenient.  This could help better process all of the messages that the specific author was trying to convey in his/her work or manuscript.

There are few disadvantages to creating a digital artifact from archival documents. In my opinion, the rarity of these documents that have been preserved for hundreds of years is significantly decreased when this digital transfer happens. These documents are now easily accessible, and thus lose part of their historical importance .With the digital version of the manuscript, one would be missing so much of the actual piece. Mainly, the digital transfer impedes on the aesthetic of the documents.

As I explored the Moravian Lives projects, I found it shared quite a few similarities with other large-scale DH Projects. I found out that along with these other projects, Moravian Lives heavily relies on crowdsourcing to keep it running. Many people contribute to help trace the history of the Moravian Church.

A page on the Moravian Lives website

I believe we are interacting with the textual material more on the screen than on the page. In the age of digital humanities, the physical interaction with the textual material is primarily composed of transcribing it to digital format. There are not really efficient ways to analyze the material when it is presented as one long, physical manuscript. We are interacting a lot more with the material on the screen than on paper. With all of the material digitized, it makes it easier for us to analyze the text based on word usage (find the prevalence of a specific word with respect to each author) or find a certain part of the manuscript without having to read through the entire thing first. Our research practices are changing to involve more textual analysis than anything, and this allows us to make useful diagrams such as word maps or frequency charts.

Open-source and free digitized materials offer unbounded pedagogical opportunities. After doing a little bit of research, I found a website called DIRT, which is a registry of digital research tools for scholarly use. It provided an extensive list of downloadable programs for about forty or so different digital research techniques that could range from analyzing data relationships to even transcribing manuscripts!. DIRT is a public domain website, so student are able to use this for all of their digital humanities needs.The opportunities are seemingly endless in that there are so many different sources. For example, when I clicked “analysis”, there were at least one hundred different websites or programs that were provided. According to Whitley, this allows for “distant reading”. The data can be analyzed better because more connections are being established.

DIRT provides a great amount of resources to aid analysis

I believe that instead of supplanting our need to view the physical originals, digitized materials enhance the necessity and desire for archival work. Whitley explained how digital tools can help create more questions, which could result in a more complex look into the data. The realm of humanities has never been more excited than in this digital era. With digital humanities, we can now process manuscripts and data with more efficiency than we ever have in all humanity. This makes the necessity of archival work at an all time peak, because we have gained the ability to ubiquitously transcribe and analyze documents that were previously untouched and unmarked. The significance of humanities right now is at an all time high, and the more crowdsourcing we can get working on it, the more we’ll really be able to analyze all those who came before us!