Thinkering

Can video games be a serious research topic or are they only entertainment products? At the Gamescom Congress in Cologne, a series of talks and panel discussions were dedicated to video games from many different perspectives. In this blogpost, I will discuss some of them illustrating that video games can and should be taken seriously.

The annual conference of the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations (ADHO) took place on 8-11 August 2017 in Montréal (Canada) on the campus of McGill University, and was co-organised by McGill University and the Université de Montréal. This blog entry will draw a few impressions from the attended presentations.

The exhibit features interview highlights, various Sephardi artefacts, and gallery text providing historical context and an overview of the project. The exhibit will run from June 8th until September 7th, 2017.

From 12 to 14 July 2017, the University of Glasgow hosted the 24th International Conference of Europeanists which explored the theme of “Sustainability and Transformation”. Elena Danescu (C²DH) gave a presentation entitled “Shaping Economic and Monetary Union in the 1970s – Theoretical Debates and Political Networks.

Last week I attended the Oxford Digital Humanities Summer School and took part in the Linked Open Data workshop. The Summer School started out with TEI courses in 1997, but has now grown to include eight workshop strands for over 250 participants.

Nearly everyone uses search engines such as Google on a regular basis, and that is no different for researchers at our institution. Powerful as this tool can be, we should be mindful of what lies hidden behind the search bar and what information we receive through these search portals. Search engines are not impartial, nor do they search the entire web. Perhaps we need to think of other places to look for information that are less commercially oriented and supports Open Access.

In this essay, I would like to reflect upon what happens when archival material and research are transferred into the three-dimensional physical space of a museum. A main focus will be on what happens when restored, digitised and partly retouched glass plates are framed and staged in a museum setting.

Last week I was at the fourth DHBenelux conference held in Utrecht, the Netherlands. With over 200 participants attending two days of almost a 100 presentations, demos, and posters, this conference has become an interesting snapshot of the state of digital humanities in the Benelux.

The fourth DHBenelux Conference was hosted by Utrecht University (the Netherlands) from 3 to 5 July 2017. Dr Florentina Armaselu presented a paper co-authored with Dr Elena Danescu, entitled "The Quest for Questions in Digital History: A Comparative View on Werner- and Delors Report on Economic and Monetary Union".

The Jewish Museum in Prague currently shows an exhibition that presents the situation of the Jewish community during the “normalisation” period. The majority of the documents and photographs are being exhibited for the very first time and it is interesting to see audiovisual propaganda against the European Zionist movements captured on several newly accessible recordings.

Within the framework of the research project "Failure and Success of Dummy Head Stereo: An innovation history of 3D listening", Stefan Krebs and Andreas Fickers produced a binaural radio play about the history of binaural stereo.

Le C²DH cherche des volontaires pour aider à mesurer l’impact des outils numériques sur l’innovation et la découverte en histoire.

The following blogpost is a personal report on the ninth Federal Congress on Cultural Policy, which took place in Berlin on 15th and 16th of June.

What was/is European security in the context of the Cold War? How was and is it conceived? What role did “non-powers” play in European security, and how did they help define it? These were the main questions discussed during the conference held by the C²DH in March 2017.

Digital history provides new opportunities, but the use of digital tools should not blind historians to the existing challenges. An uncritical belief in the power of digital tools would be wrong, as much as an outright dismissive stance.

Was hat die soziale Ungleichheit von gestern mit dem Historiker von morgen zu tun? Einen Teil der Antwort hierauf gab Hartmut Kaelble in seinem Auftaktvortrag der tri-nationalen Doktorandenschule, der am 18. Mai 2017 an der Universität des Saarlandes stattfand.

During this conference digital history will be addressed through a triple spectrum: academic research, public history, and pedagogy, in order to trace continuities and transformations in history as a discipline; and contribute to explore the broader digital humanities field through this case study.

An exhibition and book project resulting from a collaboration between the FAMOSO research team (C²DH) and the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA – National Audiovisual Centre).

In May 2017, the first edition of the tri-national doctoral school was organised in Saarbrücken, Germany, with the participation of three universities. The following blogpost is a report of the event with some personal reflections.