About the Talk

The past decades have witnessed the shift from print-based to screen-based visual culture. The use of digital media and technology has become even more intertwined with our everyday lives due to the pandemic. Confronting the big transformation of knowledge and technology in the digital age, arts and cultural institutions, humanists and artists started to experiment with the use of big data as well as explore the potential forms of collaborations. Moreover, learning to think critically about digital tools and culture has never been more important. Digital Humanities (DH) is one of the experimental fields.

DH explores the design and use of computing software and systems to support humanities activities ranging from the text mining of historical materials to Artificial Intelligence art generators. It is creating a new way of examining humanistic questions, and working with other disciplines such as computer science, information science and media studies.

This talk will introduce the following issues around DH:

- Definitions and debates of DH: what do we know so far?

- From historical big data to machine learning art history: mapping DH projects and tools

- An open and cross-disciplinary field: think critically about data and culture

About the Speaker

Dr. Qiuzi Guo is lecturer in Division of Humanities, HKUST, and Digital Humanities Specialist at Lee Shau Kee Library, HKUST. Her research and teaching interests are history of photography, digital humanities and digital art and culture. She received her Ph.D. in Chinese art history from the University of Heidelberg. Prior to joining HKUST, she was a postdoctoral fellow in Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Berlin.