Digital Arts and Humanities - Doctoral Theses
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Item Digital Humanities: a bridge between computer vision and study of art(University College Cork, 2024) Xiao, Shuang; Murphy, Orla; Allen, Graham; China Scholarship CouncilFrom Humanities Computing to Digital Humanities, the development of digital technologies has brought many possibilities to the Humanities disciplines, including the exploration of painting research through deep learning. Such research currently focuses primarily on improving algorithmic performance, mainly derived from the field of computer vision, while technical barriers and disciplinary jargon make it difficult for Humanities scholars to engage in this type of research. However, effective interdisciplinary research requires communication and dialogue across multiple fields. On the one hand, the participation of Humanities scholars can make deep learning technologies more targeted in exploring painting research, thereby providing valuable research insights. On the other hand, Humanities scholars can critically examine deep learning, offering feasible suggestions for technological improvement, and identifying and avoiding potential ethical issues. Based on this research objective, this thesis conducts the following studies. The thesis first introduces the context of this research: “Digital Humanities,” “Artificial Intelligence,” “Computer Vision,” “Digital Art History,” and “Cultural Analytics.” and reviews existing research on deep learning in painting studies, critical research in Digital Humanities, and ethical issues in AI. Then, the thesis details the application process of deep learning in painting research in four parts: “Data Preparation,” “Model Training,” “Evaluation and Optimization,” and “Analysis and Interpretation,” each part including an introduction to basic knowledge, the application of technology (experiments), and reflections on deep learning. Chapter One, Data Preparation, introduces the basics of art image datasets, discussing how to assess, select, and clean image datasets. The experiment demonstrates how to organize datasets with code according to one’s research objectives, preparing for model training. The reflective section discusses the subjectivity and biases of datasets, the characteristics of art data itself, and the ethical, copyright, and technical limitations of datasets, proposing some targeted and feasible suggestions. Chapter Two, Model Training, uses CNNs as examples to introduce the internal structure of neural networks and various types of CNNs. The experiment demonstrates how to train a simple neural network model to predict the authors of paintings. Lastly, it reflects from a Humanities perspective on the potential issues that may arise during the model training process, including programming challenges, ethical issues and transparency of algorithms, the comparison between machine learning and human learning, and the effectiveness of transfer learning in art images. Chapter Three, Evaluation and Optimization, introduces methods for evaluating and optimizing models, and through experiments, evaluates and optimizes the model trained in Chapter Two. The reflection section discusses minimal computation, model accuracy, as well as issues with weights and biases. Chapter Four, Analysis and Interpretation, differentiates between model explanations from a computational perspective and model interpretations from a Humanities perspective. Based on the objectives and themes of painting research, it proposes five potential ways in which deep learning can assist painting research, including recognition of features and patterns, comparative studies, object detection, unsupervised clustering, and image generation, with detailed case explanations for each path. After completing the introduction and exploration of deep learning, this chapter ultimately suggests a research approach that combines Humanities and computing and discusses the value of AI-generated art based on current research trends. The biggest contribution of this thesis is in linking the fields of painting research and deep learning, which have vastly different research goals and methods, to form a research approach that allows for mutual communication and contribution. This approach represents a Digital Humanities research approach, promotes equal and dialogical exploration between Humanities research and Computer Science, where technology offers new insights and possibilities for Humanities research, and Humanities research provides critical suggestions for technological development.Item Things in time: a digital synchronic analysis of manuscript newsletters (1575-76)(University College Cork, 2023) Kreuze, Wouter; Dooley, Brendan; Cosgrave, Michael; Irish Research CouncilThe development of a news culture in early modern Europe profoundly affected the perception of time. Because political conceptions are generally understood to be historically rooted, this also affected the way in which political identities and unities were defined. I have therefore analysed and described the news network as it functioned within one moment in time using two different collections. This description has been made for the timeframe 1575-76, as for these years the archival documents have been well-preserved and coincide with an important political event in Genoa that is symptomatic for how the news system functioned. As the principal news genre of the sixteenth century the manuscript newsletter (or avviso) was created according to certain formal and textual properties that defined it as a genre. Its very recognizable lay-out, repeated in every document, divided material into separate header sections consisting of different news items per paragraph. This makes the avviso very suitable for collection in digital repositories and relatively easy to submit to a digital analysis. The analysis carried out here has been able to clarify that most avvisi came from a handful of locations where they appeared with regular intervals. That these really were continuous serials, is shown by the fixed weekdays on which they were usually published. Furthermore, authors writing from the same location seem to have relied on the same sources as testified by the many similarities between the series. This further proves that we are dealing with a proper news network that was impersonal and international. The writing style of the manuscript newsletters can be characterised as descriptive and devoid of embellishments. Yet, in the sixteenth century, news writing was often considered a questionable practice, as it had the reputation of spreading lies. Speculative accounts, furthermore, were seen as an eschatological hazard. That might explain the descriptive writing style and the avvisi’s apparently sympathetic stance towards Catholic causes. That is not to say that the world was regarded from the standpoint of universal values alone. News was probably more than anything an enumeration of particular events. That comes even more to the fore where the news was placed within its historical context. The prime example here is the Republic of Genoa, that was represented as not existing universally and perennially but as moving between key moments in its constitutional history. Having said that, Catholic world views are clearly deeply interwoven in the fabric of the news system. The texts often spoke in terms of ‘ours’ whenever discussing Catholic forces fighting Protestants or Muslims. The newsletters in general had a bias favouring ‘the Catholic kings’ of Spain, who were perceived as being more supportive of the Catholic cause. The Republic of Genoa was perceived as being part of this Catholic world order just as much as other states. There does appear to be a tendency, however, to see the party that did not enjoy the sympathy of most avviso writers, in this case the Genoese nuovi, as lacking in Catholic fervour. We can conclude therefore that in the second half of the sixteenth century, newsletters, notwithstanding their descriptive writing style, spoke with a distinct, especially Catholic, voice. By regularly dispatching news, they harnessed a distinct Catholic identity and created a community of readers. The news, however, was by its very nature transnational and reported upon what happened in remote areas. Its main purpose was to make particular events known to the public, not to communicate universal values. Therefore, it appears that the system was already inclined to the integration of areas with different confessional backgrounds, although this development began to gain momentum only around the year 1600.Item 'Scéal to Storia': creating a framework for cultural heritage education, outreach learning methodologies and international exchange in primary schools(University College Cork, 2022) Hegarty, Aoife; Murphy, Orla; Cosgrave, MichaelThis research was initially inspired by the obvious differences between a childhood growing up in London, to one based in rural Ireland. For instance, regardless of financial status, educational opportunities can vary widely based simply on geographic circumstances. Following some initial reading in public history and outreach programmes, it became clear just how variable learning can be. The development of this investigation grew over time to consider the ways in which educational barriers could be alleviated, and how learning opportunities could be adapted and delivered within alternative settings. The theme of such learning programmes was focused entirely on arts, cultural and historical knowledge using museum-style exhibition-based teaching as its core inspiration. Following a connection with Swiss-based student Giulia Ferrati, the research began to take more focus into addressing the methodologies of arts or museum-based teaching for delivering educational opportunities as an alternative to formal learning practices. This focus was particularly aimed at children who were experiencing a barrier to accessing such opportunities. Shortly following this connection, an intensive collaboration was founded and the creation of Scéal to Storia came into being. This was an international project, practically designed to explore learning methodologies that help primary school-aged children experience arts, cultural and historical education in the classroom. While these topics are often on school curricula, in this instance, the project was concentrating on the styles of learning that normally occurs in an informal setting, such as a cultural organisation; with the intention of bridging the accessibility gaps that can so often occur in education. The research took place in Cork, Ireland and Milan, Italy with the practical delivery of the project spanning the course of one academic year in two primary schools in each respective location. The schools groups followed a framework of learning designed by the researchers, which incorporated a knowledge exchange for the students to interact with each other throughout the duration of the programme. The project was supported by both respective universities, University College Cork (UCC) and Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD), as well as both respective city councils. This thesis examines the development of this project through its design and implementation, and analyses the outcomes. This analysis provides insight into a variety of learning methodologies, and arts and cultural education in the classroom. It further provides an examination of cultural exchange and how it can be adapted to maximise its strengths. It looks at how digital innovation can aid the exploration of intercultural learning and the implications of digital humanities and public history in a classroom setting. The study contributes to ongoing research and debates within public history as well as education, and curriculum structures.Item Exploring ethnography and digital visualisation: a study of musical practice through the contextualisation of music related projects from the Seán Ó Riada Collection(University College Cork, 2019) Egan, Patrick; Pitt, Ian; Murphy, Orla; Mercier, Mel; Irish Research Council; University College CorkThis thesis explores how cultural data of musical practice is contextualised during the process of digital visualisation and ethnographic research. The investigation utilises a two-pronged approach to examine music related projects from an archive, the Seán Ó Riada Collection, and focuses on how mid-twentieth century Irish artist Seán Ó Riada rose to prominence. Humanities scholars and digital humanists are increasingly engaged with digital technology in their work. Although ethnography and digital visualisation have often been used in research, both processes are beginning to be used in tandem. This project makes an original contribution to the scholarly literature through interrogations of how a hybrid of concepts and methodologies drawn from digital humanities and ethnomusicology may work in tandem or may be complementary. Practice theory is advanced as a suitable methodology for historical analysis, facilitating an investigation of musical practice in order to reveal evidence of change or continuity during the development of Seán Ó Riada’s career. Analysis of music related documents discovered within the Collection is framed by the circumstances through which projects were rehearsed and presented to audiences in a number of different mediums. I argue that the development of digital datasets and iterations of visualisation enable more informed questions and suitable theories to emerge when engaging with the contents of archival collections. I also argue that as a result of this activity, the selection process for suitable methodology and theory (such as event-based research) are important considerations when attempting to combine the practices of ethnography and digital humanities. This thesis also examines the complexities that emerge with exploring musical practice with digital cultural data, arguing for deeper engagement with data and digital tools in the structures where they are recombined and represented. Digital practices are perceived as challenging, informative and evolving processes of engagement. The debate concerning the use of more elaborate systems of classification for the representation of cultural data is not solved, instead it is utilised constructively and considered as part of an ongoing, self-reflexive process of research that enables knowledge discovery. In addition, this study introduces a series of semi-structured interviews that were carried out in order to assess the accounts of performance related activities, related by contemporaries and critics of Seán Ó Riada. The ethnographic section of this thesis demonstrates how ethnomusicology contributes to an improved interpretation and understanding of digital data. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion about digital humanities activities in ethnomusicology and ethnomusicology in digital humanities. It demonstrates the use of novel digital processes alongside long-form ethnographic fieldwork to contextualise historic materials in archive collections.Item Mapping the works of Manuel de Pedrolo in relation to the post-civil war Catalan landscape(University College Cork, 2019) Nilsson-Fernàndez, Pedro; Buffery, Helena; Murphy, Orla; Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social SciencesPolygraph author Manuel de Pedrolo stands as one of the most prolific Catalan writers in the twentieth century. Furthermore, he is a figure unquestionably associated with Catalan identity and the region’s struggle for self-determination. His corpus comprises over one hundred and twenty titles – poetry, drama, short stories and novels, as well as a number of political articles, mostly written for Catalan newspapers during the 1980s, and later collected in volumes. In spite of the recent revival of interest in his figure and his work, coinciding with the commemoration in Catalonia of the centenary of his birth, there has still not been an attempt to systematically measure his impact, nor even the kind of diachronic mapping of his legacy I propose here. This study will address a representative selection of thirteen short stories and twenty-one novels written by the author between 1938 and 1976 – in the genres of Sci-Fi and fantasy, crime fiction and realism – from a spatial point of view. Through a painstaking charting of the spaces represented by the author in his texts, this thesis maps Pedrolo’s contribution to the (re)construction of the twentieth-century Catalan literary landscape and visualises the scope of his overarching literary project. In order to aid in the deciphering of such a wide and heterogeneous corpus as that of Pedrolo, this study combines a critical approach that draws on a cultural studies toolkit (cultural geography, urban studies, postcolonial approaches) with distant-readings provided by the use of GIS and a text-mining script, benaura.py, specifically created for this project.