‘Digital Transformations’ is one of four major stretegic themes currently being developed by the Arts and Humaniies Research Council. In this presentation, the Theme Leader Fellow will explore some of the work that has been undertaken by projects funded within this strand and will consider how they reflect the wider possibilities and challenges presented to the arts and humanities by such developments as data analytics, linking of data, visulalisation and the internet of things. The way in which the arts and humanities can also offer a distinctive perspective on such issues as identity, authenticity, cretivity and the digital economy will also be discussed.

1. Professor Andrew Prescott, King’s College London
AHRC Theme Leader Fellow
JISC Digital Festival, 11 March 2014
Digital transformations: new challenges
for the arts and humanities

2. AHRC Digital Transformations
Theme
• Exploring the transformative potential of
digital technologies in arts and humanities
research
• Developing flagship activities to exemplify the
possibilities
• Ensuring that arts and humanities research
contributes to wider agendas around such
issues as big data, the digital and creative
economy, intellectual property, identity,
privacy and security

3. AHRC Digital Transformations
Theme
• Research fellowships and networks under highlight calls
• Research Development Awards
• Large grants
• Community co-creation awards (with RCUK Connected
Communities theme)
• Big data research grants
• Award amplification awards (recently closed)
• Possible theme highlight later this year
• Collaboration with institutions like JISC at heart of
theme’s development

4. Manuscript of Peter of Capua’s Distinctiones Theologicae, 13th cent.:
University of Wales Trinity St David, MS. 1
Distinctiones intended to help preachers locate texts more quickly; among
earliest experiments in alphabetisation

5. Biblical concordance in a 14th-century manuscript
from Rochester: British Library, Royal MS 4 E.V

6. The Biblical Concordance:
an innovation in
information handling
• Team working: compiled by c. 500 Dominicans under
direction of Hugh of St Cher
• Radical approach to a sacred text, providing more rapid
ways of locating and juxtaposing information
• Reflects recent intellectual developments (Langton on
numbering of bible; use of logic in canon law and
elsewhere)
• An enormous scholarly achievement in itself, but seen
as a tool
• Wide-ranging in its impact and significance, but difficult
to pin down

7. http://www.corpusthomisticum.org

11. www.janeausten.ac.uk

12. Electronic Beowulf: ebeowulf.uky.edu

13. What is Changing?
• No longer an easily defined set of methods
• Reflects Web 2.0 agenda, but increasingly look beyond
• Wide variety of formats: not just text but sound, image, moving
image, animation, visualisation, making
• Recycling: visualising, linking, mash-up
• Cannot be confined within single disciplinary practice or structures
• More experimental and ad hoc
• Stronger cross-connections with practice-led research of different
types, particularly in arts
• Requires fresh appoaches to initiating and conceiving research
• Reflects increasing availability of born-digital data; digitisation no
longer at centre of agenda

14. The political and literary papers
of Gladstone preserved in the
British Library comprise 762
volumes containing approx.
160,000 documents

15. George W. Bush Presidential Library:
200 million e-mails
4 million photographs

16. Analysis of 11,616 SIGACT (“significant action”) reports
relating to the war in Iraq from December 2006:
jonathanstray.com
Blue=‘criminal event’
Green= ‘enemy incident’

17. Visualisation of languages used in tweets in London in
Summer 2012: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, UCL:
http://mappinglondon.co.uk/2012/londons-twitter-tongues/

18. A Distant Reading of Hamlet

19. A Thousand Words: Advanced Visualisation in the
Humanities
Texas Advanced Computing Center
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvOuJ2RwBTA

21. Mapping Metaphor Project: University of Glasgow
http://blogs.arts.gla.ac.uk/metaphor/

22. www.oldbaileyonline.org

25. www.connectedhistories.org

26. www.digitalpanopticon.org

27. www.fragmentedheritage.com

30. transforming-musicology.org

32. Data objects developed by Ian Gwilt, Sheffield Hallam University:
http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/c3ri/projects/data-objects

33. www.tangible-memories.com

34. www.productresearch.ac.uk

35. www.bareconductive.com