Agenda Offcourse Meeting 10-5-2016
11:00 - 11:30 Coffee, tea & introductions
11:30 - 12:00 Where are we now?
Welke techniek past het best bij het begrip 'werkelijkheidseffect'?
a. spiegelen
b. representeren
c. uitvergroten
d. fotograferen
Waarom is de avonturier een problematische figuur voor de literatuurwetenschapper?
a. literatuur is intrinsiek saai
Students and scholars in the humanities generally rely on prefabricated tools to guide and instruct their learning and research. We are reluctant to engage with technology through coding. This remains a major distinction between the humanities and the sciences. The sciences design, create and maintain their own digital research environments and tools, while the humanities make do with prefabricated, and often inappropriate, tools.
At the moment, there are no broadly available academic programming courses aimed at humanities scholars. For various reasons, however, coding skills are needed now more than ever, and even more so in the future:
Knowledge of programming helps students and researchers to understand the various technologically mediated objects that they are studying.
Developing custom tools, rather than using ready-made ones, can improve the actual practice of humanities research as well as (the quantity and quality) of its output.
Students and scholars in the humanities generally rely on prefabricated tools to guide and instruct their research and are reluctant to engage with computers and technology through coding. This remains a major distinction between the humanities and the sciences. The sciences design, create and maintain their own relevant digital research enviornments and tools, while the humanities make do with prefabricated, and often inappropriate, tools.
At the moment, there are no broadly available academic programming courses aimed at humanities scholars. However, coding skills are needed more now than ever, and even more so in the future:
New ASCA Research Group: Data Drive
Organizers: Prof. Robin Boast, Dr. Jan Hein Hoogstad, and Prof. Sander van Maas
Note: This text is work-in-progress and will periodically be updated as the project advances. The most up-to-date version can be found here: https://gist.github.com/datadrive/5049600
In 'The Age of the World Picture' (1938), Martin Heidegger argues that modern science and technology rest in their entirety on computation. Importantly, he warns that these ever-growing numbers and increasingly complex calculations come with a uncontrollable, and all-encompassing shadow. According to Heidegger, however, this shadow does not only designate a loss of control, it also announces the coming of a new era :
"Everyday opinion sees in the shadow only the lack of light, if not light's complete denial. In truth, however, the shadow is a manifest, though impenetrable, testimony emitting of light. In keeping with this concept of shadow, we experience the inc