Penn State Digital Humanities Lab

DIGIT and DH at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College

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Digital Media Festival

The Digital Media Festival will be held March 30-April 1 at Behrend.Consider the following: Less than 10 years ago, there were no iPhones, Androids or tablets. Hashtag was not yet a word. Tweets were sounds reserved for birds.

Technology has forever changed the way we learn, work and interact. That theme will be emphasized during Penn State Behrend’s first-ever Digital Media Festival later this month.

The three-day festival will be held Wednesday, March 30, through Friday, April 1, in the college’s Reed Union Building. All festival events are free and open to the public, and reserved parking for attendees will be available in the Reed lot.

“Equipping students with the necessary skill set for the ‘21st century global economy’ has become one of the college’s top priorities,” said Heather Cole, the lecturer in digital arts who helped coordinate the festival. “To this end, a collaborative team from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and beyond came together to provide this unique interdisciplinary experience for the Greater Erie community.”

Presentations on photography, video game development, public relations as well as musical performances will all be part of festival. The complete schedule, including speakers and room locations, is as follows:

March 30

  • 4 p.m., Kris Wheaton, “Skills Beyond Your Craft,” 113 Reed
  • 5 p.m., Todd Scalise, “Visual Public Relations,” 113 Reed
  • 7 p.m., David Watkins, “Music Performance: Dulcet Tones and Ardent Drones,” 117 Reed

March 31

  • 4 p.m., RendrFX, 77 Kochel
  • 5:30 p.m., Christopher Via, “Psychology Within Video Game Design,” 117 Reed
  • 7 p.m., Charlie Roberts, “Music Performance: Live Coding Music,” 117 Reed

April 1

  • 5 p.m., Game Developers Conference Post-Mortem, 114 Reed
  • 6 p.m., Richard Sayer, “The Camera in Your Hand,” 114 Reed
  • 7 p.m., “Ethics in Digital Media” Panel, 114 Reed
  • 8 p.m., Student Digital Concert and Screening of Works, 117 Reed

Penn State Behrend’s Digital Media Festival is sponsored by the college’s Digital Media, Arts, and Technology bachelor’s degree program. Abbreviated DIGIT, it is Penn State’s only undergraduate degree in digital humanities and meets the growing employer demand for professionals capable of both critical analysis and creative production of digital media.

 

Past Events

 

Glorious Failures

Chris Coulston_Maker_2016

Abstract

The differences that arise between an idea and its realization represent a failure of our imagination to encompass the limitless number of design alternatives existing in the design process.  We will refer to these differences as a schism.  While it’s true that in any significant design the existence of a schism is guaranteed, there are best practices that help mitigate their negative effect.  In this talk, I will present several projects, some of which have fallen woefully short of their objectives, lessons learned, and some resulting best practices.

Biography:
Dr. Chris Coulston received his B.A. in Physics in 1989 from Slippery Rock University, his B.S. 1991, a M.S. 1994 and a Ph.D. 1999 in Computer Engineering, all from the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Coulston taught at the University Park campus from 1993-1998.

He is the former chair of Electrical, Computer, and Software Engineering programs. Dr. Coulston leads the efforts in his department to maintain ABET accreditation.

He received the best paper award for Constructing Exact Ooctagonal Steiner Minimal Trees, at the Great Lakes Symposium on Circuits and Systems, April 2003 and was the first runner-up for best theoretical paper, Ants and evolution: The non-uniform Steiner Minimal Tree problem, at Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering in November 2002.

Faculty and students are encouraged to attend.
Register Here!

 

 

An Introduction to 3D Printing

3d Printing Poster

Abstract:
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing (AM), refers to various processes used to synthesize a three- dimensional object. In 3D printing, successive layers of material are formed under computer control to create an object. These objects can be of almost any shape or geometry and are produced from a 3D model or other electronic data source. Come learn how a MakerBot printer can bring your designs, concepts, and models to life and maybe even transform your research!

Presenter Biography:
Heather Cole, Lecturer of Digital Arts at The Behrend College, is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on community building through the arts and teaching the flexibility between traditional and new media art.

Faculty and students are encouraged to attend.
Register Here!

 

 

An Introduction to JavaScript

Intro JS

Abstract:
A thorough grounding in foundational technical skills is necessary for the success of digital humanities projects and research. There is a range of impressive digital humanities activities on the UVic campus; however, there is a lack of skills training opportunities to support the research, project, and professionalization interests of the UVic digital humanities and digital humanities-aligned community. Although the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI) provides invaluable annual training every June, sustained training throughout the academic year is necessary. The Electronic Textual Cultures Lab is partnering with the UVic Libraries to respond to this desire for further digital humanities skills training.

Presenter Biography:
Aaron Mauro is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and English at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. He teaches on topics relating to digital culture, computational text analysis, and scholarly communication. Learn more at sites.psu.edu/aaronmauro

Faculty and students are encouraged to attend through Periscope.

Download Working Files Here

 

 

Digitizing the ‘Sound Explosions’ of Caribbean Performance Poetry

Carribean_Janet

Abstract:
Digital recording technologies hold great potential for Caribbean poets who privilege performance to promote oral ways of knowing, allowing them to reach broader audiences and to document the sonic elements of their work. Yet Caribbean performance poetry has remained relatively silent online. How can we ensure that the Internet does not drown out already marginalized voices? Join Dr. Neigh for a discussion about how the digital humanities can encourage diversity in literary studies.

Presenter Biography:
Janet Neigh is an Assistant Professor of English at Penn State Erie. She teaches courses in world literature, Caribbean history, women’s studies, and film.

Faculty and students are encouraged to attend.
Register Here!

 

 

An Introduction to Text Analytics and Digital Scholarly Editing

TextualEditng

“Digital Scholarly Editing” with Dawn Childress
Postponed

Abstract: Digital Scholarly Editing
This workshop will provide a brief introduction to digital scholarly editing and building a scholarly apparatus. What we’ll cover: 1) an overview of scholarly editing; 2) examples of digital scholarly editions; 3) affordances of the digital over (or as counterpart to) print; and 4) tools and standards for a variety of scholarly editing tasks. Time permitting, there will be short TEI exercises using the oXygen XML Editor. A license key and instructions will be provided prior to the workshop.

Presenter Biography:
Dawn Childress is Humanities Librarian at Penn State Libraries, where she serves as liaison to the departments of German and Slavic languages and literatures, French and Francophone studies, Comparative literature, and Philosophy. She regularly consults and collaborates with faculty and students on projects related to digital scholarship and pedagogy. Her background is in German literature, philosophy, book history, and textual studies.

“Text Analytics” with James O’Sullivan
Postponed

Abstract: Text Analytics
Participants will be introduced to the fundamentals of a range of computational approaches to text analysis, leveraging a number of open access tools that can be deployed in both research and pedagogical contexts. A variety of supervised and unsupervised techniques will be addressed, building from simple word frequency analyses to more complex forms of natural language processing.

Presenter Biography:
James O’Sullivan is the Digital Humanities Research Designer at Penn State, a dual appointment between Publishing & Curation Services and the College of the Liberal Arts. He holds qualifications in both computer science and literary studies, and has published across a variety of interdisciplinary fields. For more, see josullivan.org.

 

 

Digging Into Research Management

Digging into Research
Abstract:
Keeping track of large amounts of data can be a daunting task. It is common for researchers to adhere to their tried and true “Old School” practices relying on note cards, sticky notes, and manila folders full of photocopied articles. Others make use of digitized pdf documents, but struggle with organizing them in folders on their computer and then the cumbersome task of finding the crucial citation and bibliographic information when they need it. Zotero is an easy-to-use data management program to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources –a critical tool for research and publication in the digital age. An added bonus is that it is free!

Dr. Leigh-Ann Bedal will demonstrate her use of Zotero to organize the numerous notes and documents collected over years of research, and the ease of accessing and citing that information during the writing and publication phase. Following the demo, Dr. Aaron Mauro will provide a technical demonstration of the Zotero software to those who wish to download and set up the program.

Presenter Biography:
Leigh-Ann Bedal is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the History Program and the Director of the Petra Pool and Garden archaeological excavation in Jordan.

Aaron Mauro is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and English at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Faculty and students are encouraged to attend.
Register Here!

 

 

The Ambrose Bierce Project: Ten Years Later

CraigWarren2015

When the Ambrose Bierce Project launched in 2005, it established a scholarly venue for Bierce studies online. Combining a peer-reviewed journal with imagery, bibliographical work, and other resources, the ABP contributed to a renaissance of Bierce scholarship early this century. But ten years later, the site stands at a crossroads. Like other “historic” digital humanities projects, it suffers from outdated technology, a lack of funding, and the need for new objectives and initiatives. This talk charts the evolution of the ABP from its origins to the brink of its second decade. And in a larger sense, it reflects on the life cycle of any digital humanities project within an ever-changing Web environment.

Craig A. Warren is Associate Professor of English and the founder and editor of the Ambrose Bierce Project. Before coming to Behrend, Warren was the Director of Digital Imaging at the Rossetti Archive, one of the founding projects at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities.

 

 

 

An Introduction to WordPress

NutsAndBolts_WordPress_2015

WordPress is a free and open-source blogging platform and website building tool. It was first released in 2003 and has since risen to be the most popular Content Management System (CMS) on the Web. It accounts for more than 60 million websites globally and also represents 25% of the top 10 million sites in existence. It is a flexible and scalable tool for sharing your research, communicating with students, or increasing your online footprint. You will learn how to build a WordPress site with Penn State resources during this hands on workshop.

Aaron Mauro is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities and English at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. He is the director of the Penn State Digital Humanities Lab and teaches on topics relating to digital culture, computational text analysis, and scholarly communication. His articles on U.S. literature and culture have appeared in Modern Fiction Studies, Mosaic, and Symploke among others. He has also published on issues relating to digital humanities in both Digital Studies and Digital Humanities Quarterly.

Registration Closed

 

 

The Perpetual Beta Model: Create, Destroy, and Rebuild

HeatherCole2015

Prepare a syllabus, then teach a class, and finally grade your student’s work. University instructors repeat this process every year, except when permitted to take a sabbatical. A sabbatical is often an important reflective and creative pause in this cycle. In my practice, this pause is integrated into every aspect of making art to teaching it: from a simple jar of acrylic white gesso and a paintbrush to old photographs and scanned drawings that develop into new ideas using Photoshop. This lecture will address an artistic and pedagogical concept I refer to as the “Perpetual Beta Model.” By showing how my art practice translates into my teaching, I will describe the innovative educational praxis I’ve developed at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Heather Cole, Lecturer of Digital Arts at The Behrend College, is an interdisciplinary artist with a focus on community building through the arts and teaching the flexibility between traditional and new media art.

 

 

Reimagining the Humanities Lecture Series Presents

Researching like a Fan: Doing Partial Scholarship Online

Morrison_poster

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Aimée Morrison, a scholar on social media and feminist studies. In her current project, “Deciphering Digital Life Writ- ing,” which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Morrison examines how we construct our identities in online environments. Studying the social dynamics of media such as Facebook, blogs, and email, Morrison aims to create a literary studies for the twenty-first century.

For more information, please contact Janet Neigh (jmn29@psu.edu)

 

 

Blurring Boundaries and Breaking Barriers: Integrating Composition, Improvisation, and Technology in the 21st Century

JoelHunt2015

The music of Joel Hunt challenges conventional distinctions between composition and improvisation, acoustic and electronic media, and the interrelationships between composer, performer, and listener. By employing various technological means—live sampling, computer-aided improvisation, probabilistic playback, and sound spatialization—Joel creates spontaneous musical experiences that encourage freedom of expression while controlling form, texture, density, and tone. In this presentation, Joel will discuss several computer-based processes he developed to integrate composition and improvisation in his recent music.

Joel Hunt is an active composer and performer, specializing in algorithmic computer music and interactive electroacoustic music. As a Lecturer at Penn State Erie, he teaches courses in digital audio and electroacoustic music.

For more information about Joel’s work, please see his website at joelhuntmusic.com.

Joel sharing his research at Penn State Behrend on February 12th, 2015

[vimeo 119764992 w=500 h=281]

Joel Hunt performs an algorithmically improvised composition at Penn State Behrend from Aaron Mauro on Vimeo.

 

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