The UAB creates Digital Humanities

17/05/2016

The UAB has constituted the Digital Humanities Network as part of Research Week at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, taking place from 17 to 19 May, with the aim of fostering collaboration in research, teaching and transfer between the humanities, arts and languages and information and communication technologies.

The initiative, one of the first of this type at university level throughout Spain, has been established as an open network which will integrate researchers in several fields of the humanities with those from other departments and centres found on campus, such as centres in computer engineering, artificial intelligence and computer vision. It aims to explore the research potential of the university in this new discipline, foster the training of professionals and research staff, and favour that the knowledge generated through digital technologies is made available to society.

“Digital technologies are changing the way the humanities are studied and researched. There are examples of digital philology, digitalisation of music archives and collections, and archaeology. They are also transforming the objects under study, such as languages and artistic expressions; the way in which art and culture is communicated, received and experienced; learning methods and the necessary skills to work professionally in these fields", explains Ramón Valdés, lecturer in Spanish Studies, coordinator of the master's degree in Digital Humanities and one of the network's founding members.

Cutting-Edge Projects
The new network will consolidate and expand the important task the UAB carries out in a leading discipline, with years of experience and outstanding projects, such as the digitalisation and cataloguing of the historical archive of the Liceu theatre and the digitalisation of pianola rolls with the collaboration of the Computer Vision Centre; the online edition of works from Lope de Vega, such as “La dama boba” and “Mujeres y criados”, the development of new models of digital and interactive museology, the Digital Library of Hispanic Art History, as well as projects in progress on the simulation of prehistoric socieities, 3D reproduction of archaeological objects and the adaptation of the scenic arts to accessibility systems for people with special needs.

The coordination of the network will be carried out with the support of the Strategic Research Community, CORE, in Cultural Heritage belonging to the UAB's Office of the Vice Rector for Research, which will be responsible for making digital humanities a priority within the university's current scientific context and under the framework marked by the European research programme Horizon 2020.

Research Week at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts

The digital humanities are included in a wide array of activities of Research Week, which will be celebrated from 17 to 19 May to display the research conducted by the departments and groups in the past five years.

In addition to the presentation of the network, several conferences have been organised such as the one offered by Paul Spence, researcher at King's College London, on digital culture and new ways of participating in the humanities, and the one offered by researchers and lecturers of the master's degree in Digital Humanities Joan Anton Barceló (Prehistory) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Archaeological Museum of Catalonia, “Conèixer el passat per predir el futur? L’ús de les noves tecnologies digitals” and Jordi Roquer (Musicology), entitled “De la pianola al Guitar Hero”, on Thursday at 11:45 a.m. at the School of Engineering.

The Computer Vision Centre will also be present on Thursday to explain its digital humanities projects and offer demonstrations where visitors can check and experiment with some of the solutions created at the “Library Living Lab” of the Volpelleres Library, Sant Cugat. A clear example of how citizens participate in the process of creation of new ways of enjoying cultural products thanks to digital technologies.

Programme of the Research Week at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts