samyabrata

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Aditya, in his post, titled: Why Digital Humanities do matter? raised certain interesting questions which I felt the need to answer before writing anything on my own.

Are ‘digital’ and ‘humanities’ really two contradictory terms that are being bridged together? Is this a reiteration of the ‘two cultures’?This is something that I have wondered from the very start of the event, that what exactly is the “Digital Humanities”? It has indeed been clarified that it is about specifically answering the questions of Humanity while using the tools of the ‘Digital’ that are available to us. But, more often than not we do see people being carried away by the gizmo at hand and end up reducing the humanities to graphs and numbers. In this regard, Professor Nayak’s statement also holds very true where we can ask if people are just using the digital ‘tag’ to appear ‘hip’ in the name of being truly interdisciplinary or, are people using it to conform to the scientific attitudes which prevail? ( for it will be easier to have grants? ) These are indeed uncomfortable questions but we certainly cannot shy away from them. Rather, we should come back to them time and again to ask ourselves why are we doing something. Personally, I would also like to add, that the aspects of the ‘digital’ and the so-called ‘human’ are but one and the same to me. I say this, because, our existence in the modern milieu cannot be really separated from the digital if we are allowed to call it that. I believe that both the concepts are now intertwined, having formed a new hybrid of the digital-human or human-digital. This hybrid, however, only exists in the more privileged echelons of society.
What are the changes in the object of inquiry in humanities disciplines due to the advent of the internet and digital technologies?

In this respect, I believe that, since the advent of the digital and the marriage of the human with the digital, we have become more dependent towards the later even in our core humanistic approach to research. As said earlier, the tendency now is to use technology first and then tackle the questions or issues relating to the human. I think we should not let technology take precedence over the human, because, that is how, my friends, something like a Skynet is born.
What methods are to be used to study and work with digital objects? How are these affecting the traditional methods of the humanities, Social science and Journalism?I don’t think that there can be any particular method so as to speak. People can actually choose whatever mode it suits them. If someone gets carried away by all the “bells and whistles” that are on offer then, as discussed, we are forgetting to ask the core questions. We are then only tinkering with technology to know the obvious. For me, that is where it hurts the most.
Is Digital humanities confined academic phenomena, and can it be related to academic disciplines only? With several groups of practitioners appealing with questions and methods related to DH outside universities, how do we define its boundaries?

I do not believe that anything can be compartmentalised like that. Exactly that is what makes it interdisciplinary!
What are the new skills, ideas and tools/technology emerging with, and in turn defining, digital humanities practices in India?
I think that Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality will impact the most.
Is changing of person behaviour due to digital humanities?
Can’t be generalised like that really.
How digital humanities help in public health? How does it make more assessable?
How digital humanities play a vital role in journalism for advertisement? Now in India 10% of GDP comes from travel and tourism, how we can increase this by using digital humanities with the help of journalism?
How is digital humanities is going to help in the education sector?

For all the above questions, I believe, it is more a question of using digital tools rather than applying the discourse of digital humanities. From the pedagogic perspective, however, the thing that is most important is the awareness of the digital literacy which Sara Hassan was talking about in her lecture yesterday.

This is basically a question that I have had in the back of my mind for a long time now. It is that:

Do we have too much data right now? Will the abundance of the availability of the said data influence our ability to actually make some effort to reach out for it? From the Old English period, only the epic Beowulf survived, therefore it is studied with so much care today! There might have been other epics for all we know! But, today, even, my blog will survive until the internet is there and so will everyone else’s! So, when someone writes the history of our age, what do they do? Is archiving, therefore, a double-edged sword?

That is to say because everything is available at our fingertips, are we, therefore, being lazy?

I just had to share what I had in mind. Excuse my naivety peeps!

Featured Image: https://blog.dataiku.com/self-service-analytics-or-operationalization-which-should-i-implement