Sandcastles & Speculative Practices

Toward Research Thinking & Cross-disciplinary Discourse through Visualization in Digital Humanities

Abstract: In this talk I will examine the role that visualization can play as part of (digital) humanities research and related cross-disciplinary collaborations. While the potential of visualization to facilitate humanities research practices is widely acknowledged, the predominant terminology used to describe visualizations in this context focuses on their use as a means to an end: we create visualization “tools” that then can be applied to (hopefully) facilitate the exploration of humanities research questions or the communication of insights and discoveries. This narrow perspective can hamper the recognition of rich, but unexpected discoveries that are born out of synergies emerging as part of collaborations between visualization and humanities researchers, but that may not align with the initial research goals.

What if we consider visualization in DH as “sandcastles” – idiosyncratic, transient structures that, in the process of their construction, facilitate the exploration of research questions, and, in their final stage, reflect detours and lessons learned?

Drawing from previous case studies and theory, I will illustrate this metaphor further, and make a case for a more holistic approach to cross-disciplinary knowledge generation that embraces visualization as (1) a dynamic interdisciplinary process where speculation and re-interpretation advance knowledge in all disciplines involved, (2) a mediator of ideas and theories within and across disciplines and (3) an aesthetic provocation to elicit critical insights, interpretation, speculation and discussions within and beyond scholarly audiences.

Topics

The focus of this workshop is on applied visualization in the digital humanities, as well as highlighting domains in the digital humanities with unmet visualization challenges. These applications and domains include, but are not limited to:

• Literature
• Philology and Linguistics
• Art and Art Criticism
• Political Science
• Performance (Music, Dance, Film, and Theatre)
• Cultural and Historical Studies

We are especially interested in a number of open questions in this space, including:

• The impact of visual analytics systems on research in the digital humanities:
  • How can interactive visualizations support new questions, and new scales of research, in the DH community?
  • How can we encourage DH scholars to seek out visualizations, or collaboration with visualization researchers?
• Characteristics of visualization for the digital humanities:
  • How does visualization with a DH focus differ from general research in the visualization community?
  • How do their user groups differ? How can debates in public humanities scholarship inform DH visualization practices?
  • How can we remove obstacles for humanities scholars wanting to use visual analytics approaches for their research?
• How digital humanities research questions and tasks can push the frontier of visualization research:
  • What challenges are there for developing systems with novelty in both visualization and DH communities?
  • How do we evaluate visualizations where we lack ground truth data?
  • How can we build bridges between salient issues in the humanities (uncertainty, interpretative complexity, critical theoretical approaches) and the conceptual languages of visualization?

Based on the result of last year’s panel and paper discussions, this year, we invite contributions focused on common problems in digital humanities projects, such as:

• Blending Close and Distant Reading
• Supporting Serendipitous and Guided Discovery
• Linking Outside Resources into Analysis
• Aesthetic Experiences
• Annotation of Resources

Submissions

This workshop is seeking work from scholars in both visualization and the humanities who use visualization as part of the process of analyzing and interrogating human culture. Submissions will present original research ideas or results as they relate to visualization for the digital humanities. Each submission should clearly state its specific contribution to this growing field of research.

Submissions will take the form of short (2-4 page - excluding references) papers, falling into one of three submission types:

• Short Papers: These submissions are meant to summarize more mature work in visualization for the digital humanities, including case studies, system descriptions, and empirical results. Of special consideration are works that highlight the difficulties (and propose solutions) of designing visualizations for the digital humanities. Applied work from the digital humanities that is highly visual in nature would also be considered for acceptance.
• Position Papers: These submissions are meant to present viewpoints and opinions on the interplay between visualization and the digital humanities. These positions should be informed by a deep involvement and experience in one (or ideally, both) fields. Position papers should be thought-provoking but also well-supported.

Authors of accepted short and position papers will be invited for a 9-minute research presentation (including 2 minutes for audience questions). Additionally, they will participate in a moderated panel discussion.

Submissions should be in two-column IEEE TVCG format. Latex and Word templates are available at: http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Tasks/camera_tvcg.html Submissions will be optionally double blind. Authors wishing to submit their work double-blind should remove author information from the cover page of their submitted document, and take care to avoid identifying information in the submission itself (e.g., references “our” work). Submissions should be submitted via https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vis4dh2017 by 5 PM PST, 21 July 2017. Submissions should be in pdf format, clearly indicating the paper type: extended abstract, short paper, or position paper. Submissions should not exceed four pages of content.