Techniques and Visualization in the Digital Humanities Need to Address the Needs
Techniques and Visualization in the Digital Humanities Need to Address the Needs of Humanists
Humanities approaches can potentially have a large impact on digital scholarship. For example, markup languages, initially considered as helpful tools for the digital humanities, have become the objects of substantial controversy, especially in the late 1990s. For instance, there was the perception that the hierarchical structure of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) was limiting to digital humanists and conflicted with the manner with which humanities scholarship was carried out. However, these discussions did not result in techniques being more grounded in the theoretical principles of the humanities. Indeed, the focus has been how computational, “digital” technologies have affected work in the humanities. Another, perhaps more important question is how the humanities can affect computational techniques, visualizations, and interfaces. That is, can graphical interfaces and digital platforms be developed from and based on methods used in humanities work? Put another way, the focus of humanistic studies need not be exclusively fixated on technological innovations but should shift towards a theory of technology development in design, information modeling, data representations, and interfaces, all embodying humanistic concerns (Drucker, 2012).
For work in the humanities, the objective, mechanistic, positivistic, quantitative nature of standard data processing and visualizations is not sufficient, and in fact precludes humanistic theoretical principles and thought patterns. Even in the domain of visualization, objective graphics, such as street-level satellite imagery or maps from geographical information systems cannot be taken by humanities scholars as simple objective measures. The two areas – quantitative and humanistic – start from different epistemological bases. For instance, texts are generally thought to be objective expressions. However, humanists consider texts to be produced by the act reading itself, and are therefore not deterministic, objective constructs.
As Drucker states, “… this is a critical moment to identify core theoretical issues in the humanities and develop digital platforms that arise from these principles” (Drucker, 2012).
Information visualization, data mining, and other data science techniques have different epistemological foundations than those in the humanities. Graphs and charts are overly objective and do not represent the nuances inherent in the humanities.
A dichotomy also exists between the quantitative, mathematical, and ultimately deterministic methods offered as tools to the digital humanities, and the probabilistic, performative models preferred by practitioners of those disciplines. Advanced models of simulation need to be developed to align more closely with the practices of humanists. Statistical modeling, dealing with probabilities instead of certainties, offers benefits. However, the goal is to model ambiguit