“Digital Humanities is a production-based endeavor in which theoretical issues get tested in the design of implementations, and implementations are loci of theoretical reflection and elaboration.”
Burdick et al., “One: From Humanities to Digital Humanities” in Digital_Humanities (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012), 13.
The above passage appealed to me because I saw how different Digital Humanities was compared to the idea of humanities that I used to hold in mind. The humanities were always associated in my mind with reading, writing essays, and discussing various concepts. However, from this reading, I learned that making a thing is also a way of thinking and learning. Rather than talking about an idea, we can make it and explore whether this concept works in practice.
From my college experiences, I have seen how most of the work that I was asked to do involved making some product or coming up with answers. I enjoyed the approach of the author who focuses on the idea of experimenting since it shows that failure is not a bad experience but rather a step towards success. According to Burdick et al., Digital Humanities involves “rapid cycles of prototyping and testing,” thus making it look like some kind of investigation. Making a model myself showed me how different designs and approaches influenced the information perception.
In this particular course, I am interested in data visualization, digital mapping, and different techniques to represent information. I believe that such techniques are appealing since they allow identifying connections and patterns which may not be easy to spot in the regular essay format. Also, it is nice to see how design goes beyond the aspect of making something look good, as it also influences how information is organized and presented, which affects the perception of an argument.
In general, my interest in Digital Humanities is based on the possibility to combine traditional research with creativity and use of technology. I would like to find out how the digital media tools can provide me with different perspectives in expression of my ideas.
Highlighting the way digital humanities allow for a more practical approach to learning and exploring was an interesting angle. While there is a lot one can learn from a lecture or discussion, the act of building something visually to interact and play with can make the learning process more engaging for both the teacher and the student. You mentioned that you were interested in different ways to display things digitally in non-traditional formats, I wonder if you would enjoy learning HTML? There are a lot of cool tricks you can achieve with it, like rotating a textbox a certain number of degrees.