CFP: Sound and (Moving) Images in Focus

Call for Papers: Sound and (moving) images in focus
How to integrate audiovisual material in Digital Humanities research?
Workshop at DH2014, 8 July 2014, Lausanne, Switzerland

Introduction
The issue that will be addressed during this workshop is how to overcome the contrast between audiovisual material being a steadily increasing body of data and the fact that it is relatively poorly represented in the field of the Digital Humanities. When considering the available DH tools, projects and publications it is clear that sources such as television, film, photos and oral history recordings have not yet received the same level of attention from scholars as written sources. This can be considered as problematic in the light of the expected exponential growth in volume of audiovisual sources and of the abundance of information for researches contained in this type of data that is largely overlooked. One can envision how a single document could satisfy the needs of various disciplines if tools would be available to identify, retrieve and analyse the various dimensions of a video-recording such as language, emotions, speech acts, narrative plots and references to people, places and events. This richness not only holds the promise of multidisciplinary collaboration between e.g., computer sciences, social sciences and the humanities, but also makes audiovisual material a potentially valuable playground for the Digital Humanities.

Workshop Programme
The workshop aims to bring scholars and computer scientists together to discuss the following key questions in four subsequent sessions.
1.  Why are audiovisual data/archives scarcely used within the (Digital) Humanities?
2.  What are possible strategies to stimulate the use of audiovisual data/archives within the  Digital Humanities?     
3.  Which examples of digital tools applied on audiovisual data/archives can serve as best practices?
4. What should be the priorities on the  agenda for the future uptake of audiovisual data/archives in the Digital Humanities?

The keynotes within the first two sessions will be delivered by Andreas Fickers, professor of contemporary and digital history at the University of Luxembourg, and Dr. Arjan van Hessen, specialist in speech technology and member of the Executive Board of CLARIN-NL. The first will talk about the use of audiovisual sources within humanities research, and the second will discuss the necessary technical and infrastructural provisions for the analysis of these sources. For the third session scholars are invited to submit papers and demos that illustrate the potential of applying DH approaches to audiovisual data with a focus on lessons learned. The final session is dedicated to the assessment and evaluation of the findings and aims at formulating a research agenda for the future. To disseminate the results of the workshop among a broader audience, the initiators intend to propose a special issue on this topic to a Digital Humanities journal.

Submission of proposals
For the third session on applications of DH on audiovisual data, the workshop organisers invite papers and demos  that deal with experienced challenges of integrating AV in DH.
Submissions should include the following:

  • General abstract (should not exceed 800 words)
  • Contact info and a short description of research interests of the authors.
  • The committee aims to select a balanced set of abstracts that cover the various media (film, television, photography, oral history, digital storytelling, recordings of sound and movement) and tools that are needed at the various stages of the research process (exploration, annotation, analysis, presentation, curation and preservation)

To submit a proposal, please send an abstract  (docx or pdf)  to avindhworkshop@gmail.com
Accepted abstracts will be published on the Erasmus Studio website.

Important dates
Abstract submissions due: 16 May 2014 23:59 (CET)
Acceptance notification: 28 May
Workshop: 8 July 2014
 

Further information

For further dissemination of this call, please use this page or the call for papers PDF

Organisers
This workshop is initiated in the context of  the collaboration between  the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision and the Erasmus Studio, an interfacultary  institute  at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, that promotes and initiates e-research across disciplinary boundaries, with an emphasis on multimedia archives.

  • Dr. Stef Scagliola (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Studio)
  • Dr. Martijn Kleppe (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Studio)
  • Max Kemman MSc (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Studio)
  • Dr. Roeland Ordelman (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, University of Twente)
  • Prof. Franciska de Jong (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Studio, University of Twente)