The Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU : A DH Ecosystem of Cross-Disciplinary Approaches

• BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATIONThe particular exploration of new ways of interactions between society and Information Communication Technologies (ICT) with a focus on the Humanities has the potential to become a key success factor for the values and competitiveness of the Nordic region, having in mind recent EU and regional political discussions in the field of Digital Humanities (European Commission, 2016; Vetenskapsrådet’s Rådet för forskningens infrastrukturer, 2014). Digital Humanities (DH) is a diverse and still emerging field that lies at the intersection of ICT and Humanities, which is being continually formulated by scholars and practitioners in a range of disciplines (see, for example, Svensson & Goldberg, 2015; Gardiner & Musto, 2015; Schreibman, Siemens, & Unsworth, 2016). The following are examples of current areas of fields and topics: text-analytic techniques, categorization, data mining; Social Network Analysis (SNA) and bibliometrics; metadata and tagging; Geographic Information Systems (GIS); multimedia and interactive games; Music Information Retrieval (MIR); interactive visualization and media.DARIAH-EU (http://dariah.eu), is Europe’s largest initiative on DH, comprising over 300 researchers in 18 countries, thereby opening up opportunities for international collaboration and projects. Among the Nordic countries, Denmark is the full partner with four universities, Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and University of Southern Denmark (DARIAH-DK). Danish DARIAH-EU activities are facilitated by the national DH Infrastructure DIGHUMLAB, hosted at the DARIAH-DK coordinating institution, Aarhus University. Sweden’s first academic institution, Linnaeus University, joined in May 2016 as a collaborative partner. Finland (University of Helsinki) and Norway (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) also became collaborative partners, in November 2016. The Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU (DARIAH-Nordic) held its first meeting on 8 November in Växjö, Sweden, in connection with the International Symposium on Digital Humanities (Växjö, 7-8 November, https://lnu.se/en/research/conferences/international-digital-humanities-symposium/).The Digital Humanities in the Nordic Countries (DHN) organisation was established in 2015 in order to create a venue for interaction and collaboration between the Nordic countries, including the Baltic countries. The ambitions behind the DHN initiative thus largely overlap with the recently formed Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU. The panel would like to present different perspectives on Nordic contributions to DH as well as the aims of the DARIAH-Nordic and discuss possible joint opportunities and challenges in Nordic DH. With its tradition in supporting the Humanities research and development, Nordic countries may serve as a bastion for (Digital) Humanities. The Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU and DHN may pave the way forward towards reaching that aim.A DH ECOSYSTEM OF CROSS-DISCIPLINARY APPROACHESMats Malm (previous chair of DHN) will present the visions and ambitions behind DHN and the recently established Centre for Digital Humanities at the University of Gothenburg, which will start a Master programme in Digital Humanities in the autumn of 2017. While both the Centre for Digital Humanities and DHN aim at broad inclusiveness, he will here focus on the use of textual databases for re-examining the history and cultural heritage of the Nordic countries. This implies collaboration on common textual resources and technologies for mining, at the same time as it raises a number of questions concerning cross-disciplinarity and exchange of perspectives and methods.Mikko Tolonen will present the ongoing developments at the University of Helsinki (and in Finland) regarding Digital Humanities. This includes the recently launched Heldig (Digital Humanities Centre, https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/helsinki-digital-humanities) and how it can relate to collaboration in DARIAH-EU. Tolonen will particularly discuss the relationship between the Digital Humanities infrastructure designed to be implemented at the University of Helsinki and how it relates to ongoing grassroot research projects.Andreas Bergsland will discuss the role that the arts might play within Digital Humanities. As a starting point, he will take the work that has been done at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU): establishing ARTEC, an interdisciplinary task force at the intersection of art and technology. He will argue how some of ARTEC’s initiatives might have both opportunities and challenges partly converging with those of the DH field, but might also expand and enrich current practices. One such initiative, Adressaparken, is a commons area in Trondheim for exploration of sensor-based digital storytelling and an open arena for test and experimentation of new experiences and new digital media. While most DH initiatives in Europe seem to focus on computational humanities projects, Bergsland will explore the unique potential of integrating artistic and creative practices into DH/ARTEC initiatives at NTNU.Koraljka Golub and Marcelo Milrad will present and analyse the cross-sector and cross-disciplinary Digital Humanities Initiative at Linnaeus University (LNU) along the axes of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Their long-term vision is to: 1) create a leading and innovative educational programme in this field; and, 2) to establish a prominent research regional centre that combines in novel ways already existing expertise from different departments and faculties working in close collaboration and co-creation with people and different organizations (both public and private sector) from the surrounding society. The main goals of this new initiative (launched in February 2016) at the first phase (12-15 months) are twofold; first, to establish the foundations for the creation of a DH educational programme and second, to carry out research and create an innovation centre at the wider region surrounding LNU, encompassing east southern Sweden. A combination of cross-disciplinary, cross-sector and international aspects would provide a solid ground to build a more or less unique international distance Master-level programme. Addressing future societal challenges would be eventually possible, 1) by highly skilled professionals whose education has been markedly enhanced by practice-informed education, and, 2) through joint, cross-sector innovation.Marianne Ping Huang will present DARIAH-EU related activities in a Danish and European context, focusing on initiatives for cultural creative participation, including born digital cultural data and a presentation of open cross-sectoral innovation with DARIAH-EU Humanities at Scale (2015-2017). DARIAH-EU will set up its new Innovation Board in 2017 and host the first DARIAH-EU Innovation Forum with the Creativity World Forum in Aarhus, November 2017, intersecting with Aarhus European Capital of Culture 2017. DARIAH-EU’s move towards digitally enhanced public humanities, closer collaboration with GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) institutions, and public-private innovation will be discussed in light of the scope of DH and the Nordic Hub of DARIAH-EU.DISCUSSION POINTS: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGESThe great breadth of cross-disciplinary and organizational initiatives presented above presents significant potential for DH in Nordic countries. Major opportunities lie in the collaborative democratic tradition that supports re-combining already existing expertise and resources encompassing 1) different universities, 2) various disciplines, and 3) the wider community through input from related public and private sectors. These points serve to unite and consolidate already existing expertise in order to create new constellations for collaboration leading to new knowledge and products (expertise, education, research, public and relevant commercial services). Possibilities to collaborate across Nordic countries can take place at a number of levels, including joint research and innovation, education efforts, expertise and experience exchange, bringing in international views to address more regional challenges. Ensuing important value for the general public could be a (re)-affirmation of the value of humanities in particular, and academic practices in general.Challenges would be discussed in terms of the emerging job market, the low number of students pursuing carriers in humanities at the Master level (e.g., in Sweden), and the fact that DH as a field is still in its infancy, leading to it being quite difficult to get funding and grants to carry out long-term research that sustain our efforts over time. Related to sustainability is the question on how to promote a dialogue and collaboration with potential industrial partners in order to run collaborative projects that go beyond just research. Not the least, epistemological, conceptual and terminological differences in approaches by the different disciplines and sectors may present further challenges and therefore may require additional resources to reach an understanding. Further, while there is a strong collaborative spirit across Nordic countries, there will certainly be administrative issues with cross-university collaboration as the current working structures are based on individual units.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

web archiving

digital preservation

digital born content

collaboration

tools development

curation

use cases

Humaniora

Humanities

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