5th Workshop on Visualization for the Digital Humanities

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

This year, you can contribute to VIS4DH 2020 in two ways - you can submit to the Paper track (just like in previous years), or you can submit to the Provocations track (new this year). Our call for submissions is open to all fields of the humanities/social sciences and all branches of visualization. The workshop is intended to put different ways of seeing, knowing, articulating, and transforming arguments into dialogue in order to foster and to intensify collaborations between humanities and visualization researchers. We are particularly interested in papers and provocations that bring different disciplines together.

Paper Track

Re-Thinking, Re-Defining, Re-Imagining Data

This year, we invite a dialogue on the topic and terminology around “data”, a contested term within and between a range of disciplines - very broadly speaking, the meaning and implications of the term “data” can vastly differ across the sciences and humanities and related subfields. There are varying perspectives on the meaning and use of data that impact how we engage and debate it. “Data” seems core to visualization! Or is it?

We are especially interested in a number of open questions in this space, including but not limited to the following:

What counts as data in humanities visualizations? How are marginalized forms of data mobilized?
What makes data data (or not data)? Is data always digital?
What methods can be explored for constructing, collecting, and/or analyzing data at the intersection of visualization and the (digital) humanities? How does data and its representations affect our interpretations?
What gets lost and/or constructed when transforming data? How can we make constructions/transformations visible?
How do we visually measure and convey differences in data?
How can we maintain a focus on the particular while enabling higher-level views?
What is the role of (interactive) visualization in transdisciplinary data- and humanities-driven exchange?
How do we make sure that interactions with data and its representations are faithful?
How can we re-imagine an engagement with data through visualization that takes an inclusive, embracing transdisciplinary perspective?

We invite papers at the intersection of visualization and (digital) humanities that provide both theoretical and applied perspectives around these and other questions.

For our paper track we are seeking works from scholars in visualization, the humanities, social science, and the arts 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.

Submission format

Submissions will take the form of short (4-6 page - excluding references) papers. Submissions are meant to describe and critically discuss works at the intersection of visualization and humanities research, including applied case studies and empirical results and/or theoretical perspectives. We welcome works that highlight the difficulties (and proposed solutions) of designing visualizations in the context of humanities research and/or applying concepts from humanities research to foster visualization research and design. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to present their paper at the workshop. All presentations will be followed by a lively discussion with workshop participants.

All accepted papers will be archived in open-access online archive arXiv. However, interested authors may also choose to have their papers placed in the IEEE Explore repository.

Submitting a paper

Paper submissions should be in PDF format following the two-column IEEE TVCG Conference Style Template (http://junctionpublishing.org/vgtc/Tasks/camera.html).

Papers should be submitted via EasyChair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vis4dh0) by ~~July 17~~ July 31, 2020 (5pm PST). Notifications will be sent on August 21st, 2020.

Submissions to the Paper Tracks 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.

Provocation Track

Issues with “Data”

This year, we are introducing a new track at VIS4DH: “Provocations.” Submissions to this track will take the form of a paragraph articulating a strongly-held viewpoint that addresses a particular perspective on this year’s workshop topic, Re-Thinking, Re-Defining, Re-Imagining Data. We especially seek submissions likely to elicit back-and-forth debate within the interdisciplinary VIS4DH community.

This years submissions to the Provocations track should reflect on the following question:

What is the most undervalued or misunderstood issue surrounding the use of the term “data” in visualization and (digital) humanities collaborations?

Submission format

Submissions to the Provocations track should take the following format:

Title: Provide a title that roughly describes the topic of your provocation/viewpoint.
Summary of provocation (1 sentence): One-sentence summary that describes the essence of your viewpoint/argument.
Provocation statement & argument (200 words): Provides a brief description of your provocation and its argument.
Counter-Perspective(s) (optional, 100 words): Provides potential counter-arguments to your provocation.

Accepted authors will be invited to present their viewpoint and argument in form of a panel discussion at the workshop. Accepted provocations will also be published on the workshop website. Submissions will be judged based on the quality of the argument they make as well as their likelihood of provoking fruitful discussion.

Submitting a provocation

Submissions to the Provocations Track should be submitted via EasyChair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vis4dh0) by August 24, 2020 (5pm PST). Notification will be sent on September 7, 2020.

Submissions to the Provocations Tracks will be optionally double blind. Authors wishing to submit their work double-blind should indicate this in the submission form on EasyChair and take care to avoid identifying information in the submission itself.