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Humanist Archives: May 20, 2019, 6:37 a.m. Humanist 33.27 - what happens when we 'invent' by digital means?

                  Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 33, No. 27.
            Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
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        Date: 2019-05-20 05:20:23+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty 
        Subject: what happens when we 'invent' by digital means?

What is happening when we discover something new by digital means -- 
not afterwards but during, as this new thing emerges from the previously 
unknown or otherwise unknowable? 

The rigid disciplinary structure of the academy tends, I think, to 
confine research in digital humanities to this or that host discipline, 
be it literary studies, sociology, history or whatever. In consequence 
of our reward structure, researchers tend to focus on results that are 
relevant to whatever their discipline of origin may be, neglecting 
exploration of the methodological common ground. We have made 
considerable fuss over modelling, for example, but not done much to 
probe the workings and limitations common to all modelling.

Or have we? If the above is wrong, I hope that contradictions or at least
qualifications, spelled out in some detail, erupt. If not, then perhaps
you might comment on what you think is happening during digital inquiry,
or whatever others have said about it, when its pursuit leads to the
discovery/invention of something new.

Comments?

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty (www.mccarty.org.uk/),
Professor emeritus, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College
London; Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
(www.tandfonline.com/loi/yisr20) and Humanist (www.dhhumanist.org)




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