Living out loud: The Visionary Cross Project and the Public

HumanitiesHeather Hobma, Daniel Paul O'Donnell,

Marco Callieri, Matteo Dellepiane, James Graham, Catherine Karkov, Roberto Rosselli Del Turco

CMRS/ETRUS. University of Saskatchewan. January 16, 2014

Informational vs. Critical

● Critical: Scholars writing for scholars– Low accessibility

– Little broad context

– Not for popular audiences

● Informational: Interpreters writing for public– High accessibility

– Broad context

– Popular audiences

Digital Humanities

● From early digital editions that mimicked print/critical models (Humanities computing)

● To current generation editions/projects that have heavier public engagement– Crowd-sourcing

– Open annotation

– Linked and open data

Public wants in

● “You” wants to be/is very active– Wikipedia

– Museum attendance is up (online and in person)

● Public's proxies (government and funding agencies) stress mobilisation and dissemination– Increasingly important part of funding applications

Stuff is gorgeous

We are all (going to be) interpreters

● We are the people who both study AND present objects

● Becoming responsible for both critical and educational/informational aspects of our projects

● Run into same issues museum directors etc. have had to face.

Partially ready

● Computation requires us to go back to first principles (in this case UI design)

● DH has a sense of self of itself as being engaged with the world

● We recognise that our material is great and potentially popular

But we need to get more serious

● Easy to see the work as trivial– Not at the research coal face

– Can seem an additional/bureaucratic add on

● And yet popular dissemination/instruction is actually very hard

The Visionary Cross Project

Dumfries Peninsula

Hadrian’s WallRuthwell Cross

Birrens Roman Fort

Hoddom

Bewcastle

Caerlaverock Castle

Dumfries/Burns museum

The Ruthwell, Hoddom, and Bewcastle Connections

Hoddom

But the actual Anglo-Saxon site is on the terraced hill, in the opposite direction.

The sign orients visitors towards the river.

Bewcastle

Bewcastle’s exhibition centre

Exploding Bewcastle’s Interpretive CentreCastle

Cross and church

Interpretive Centre

Roman Bath

(Long Bar)

Roman Fort

(Modern farm)

Castle Roman Baths

Long Bar

Ruthwell

Presenter

Google Earth

Thank you

Heather.Hobma@uleth.caDaniel.odonnell@uleth.ca