Towards a Collaborative Research Agenda for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in the Digital Age

The creative partnership between computer science, the humanities, and the social sciences-the core of what we now call "humanities technology"—is the cornerstone of the digital revolution. Knowledge is useless without meaning, and meaning is the essence of the humanities and social sciences. Humanities technology emerged in the 1960s as an interdisciplinary effort by humanists and social scientists to harness the power of the computer for their studies. The early pioneers used computers for textual and quantitative analysis, to provide new insights and new ways to teach. But it is with the advent of the Internet and the ensuing digital revolution of the last decade, which was initiated by the development of the MOSAIC web browser at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, that humanities, as well as social science, technology has truly come into its own. In a world where information can be reduced into bits and bytes and communicated instantaneously, humanities and social science technology has rapidly emerged as a necessary and fundamentally interdisciplinary method of archiving, analyzing, and interpreting human activity and the human record. Humanities technology can, for the first time in world history, securely preserve and provide broad democratic access to the documents, images, languages, sound, and film that constitute the human record and facilitate its understanding. Social Science technology can now allow us to analyze, model, and even predict human social behavior on a scale that was unimaginable just a few years before.

MediaMatrix

Matrix has released a new version of its online, segmentation and annotation tool called MediaMatrix. This release has an interface that is skin-able, allowing users to choose their own look for MediaMatrix. It also has two new presentation layers: one that allows users to embed the digital media they collect and segment into a web page, and the other that allows users to create time-based, multimedia presentations for the web. Sign up for an account to begin using it today!

The Quilt Index

Quilts matter. They are art. They are formal, funny and just as often as they represent the past, they express hope for the future. The Quilt Index provides access to these quintessentially American objects on a large scale and in a broad national context. This online research and display interface contains documentation on American quilts and quilt-making and features quilt patterns ranging from traditional blocks to original designs using cigar box flags or depicting Fredrick Douglass.

With close to 2000 images of quilts, the Index can be searched by collection, pattern, themes, time frame, techniques, and many other characteristics. The collection spans the 19th and 20th century and draws upon collections from a coalition of libraries, quilting groups, and repositories in the United States. The Index demonstrates the results of MATRIX's collaborative partnerships that apply networking technologies to the needs of specific fields of interest in cultural heritage and the humanities.

ExplorePAHistory

ExplorePAHistory is MATRIX's latest implementation of its innovative content-management system that permits designers and users to create new galleries of stored digital objects. Filled with a variety of interactive images, documents, audiovisuals, and lesson plans, ExplorePAHistory is a powerful resource for all Pennsylvania students, teachers, and historians.

The Spoken Word: Transforming Teaching and Learning in the Classroom

Ever since the days of Homer, humans have regarded speech as a distinctive and significant trait. The Spoken Word unlocks the power of historical speech from long-lost, unique and well-known audio recordings in an effort to transform undergraduate learning and teaching. The project integrates media resources, such as digital audio repositories, with undergraduate courses in history and political science to build processes for learning and expand the way students and teachers understand knowledge, knowledge resources, and their complementary roles in higher education.

Michigan State University, in collaboration with Northwestern University, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Scotland's Glasgow Caledonian University, and the BBC Information and Archives, will develop and implement this vision. Visit our project headquarters for information, samples, and more...

Detroit Public Television: American Black Journal

Learn from Bishop Desmond Tutu about the effects of apartheid. Understand the African-American religious experience. Answer the question of "what makes someone riot?" Coleman Young, former mayor of Detroit, Harry Edwards organizer of the 1968 Olympic protest, and Alex Haley, author of Roots (1976), are some of the featured interviews in the historic American Black Journal (ABJ), WTVS Detroit Public Television's award-winning chronicle of black community, politics, culture, and life. Originally titled Colored People's Time, ABJ first aired in 1968 as a televised public forum for black Americans during an historic moment of racial turmoil across the nation. You can explore themes such as community leadership; music, including jazz, Motown, gospel, hip-hop, and techno; and life in the Motor City.

This multimedia exhibit is a collaboration between WTVS Detroit Public Television (DPTV) and MATRIX at Michigan State University. MATRIX uses multimedia to both preserve and provide access to the humanities.

The Celebrity Lecture Series

David McCullough defines history, Joyce Carol Oates discusses the genesis of art, Kurt Vonnegut portrays the "American mindset," and Tom Wolfe illustrates "New Journalism" in the audio recordings at the official online archive of the John W. and Joan Eadie Celebrity Lecture Series. These celebrity lectures are just a few of the 31 scholars, critics, novelists, poets, and creative artists featured in the Celebrity Lecture Series, a ten year sequence of colloquia at Michigan State University.

"The College of Arts & Letters initially brought these speakers to the campus, and we are very glad to see them connect to the world" notes Patrick McConeghy, Acting College Dean. John Eadie, former Arts & Letters dean and impresario for the series, agrees. "The original purpose was to bring great minds to campus to enlighten and instruct students, faculty, and our fellow citizens in East Lansing. It is appropriate that the series now can reach a limitless audience and become useful in the classroom."

To promote use in the classroom and learning, the lectures are divided by topics focusing on issues including "American Culture and Society," "Family," and "The Significance of Art." These topics aid users by presenting complex issues from the scholars' first person perspective.

Mark Kornbluh, Director of MATRIX, emphasizes the significance of new media in making this happen. "MATRIX's knowledge of audio technology and digital archiving methods allows us to rethink the arts and humanities as we preserve and broadcast them," he observes. The Celebrity Lecture Series uses database technology built from open source software.