Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage Network (DHSH)

Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage Network (DHSH)

New Network Announcement

Image Credit: Digital encounter with ‘The brain and the senses’,

from Johann Amos Comenius, Orbis sensualium pictus.

(Nuremberg, 1679) (CC BY 4.0)

We are delighted to announce the launch of the ‘Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage: Space, Objects and the Senses’ Network (DHSH), funded by TORCH’s New Network Scheme.

The DHSH Network will bring together researchers, digital technicians, curators, and museum and heritage professionals to critically explore the multifarious ways that digital humanities tools can be leveraged to reconsider heritage and the senses. The DHSH Network is being led by Dr Emanuela Vai (Worcester College), from the Faculties of History and Music, University of Oxford. Dr Vai’s research applies cutting-edge digital technologies to investigate the sensory dynamics of early modern social life.

The network will build and connect a community of researchers who are working at the intersection of sensory heritage and the digital humanities across disciplines and sectors. The aim is to bring scholars into dialogue with cultural heritage practitioners, policymakers, and museum professionals by providing a platform to share knowledge, methods, experience and best practice for digitally investigating historic objects, spaces and events in relation to the senses. The DHSH network will be hosting a range of events, offering an experimental space in which the latest digital humanities tools can be explored, demonstrated and deployed.

The Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage Network is open to everyone, whether you’re an academic, curator, technician, performer, or member of the public. If you would like to join the network or if you want any further information, please contact: dhsh@torch.ox.ac.uk or emanuela.vai@worc.ox.ac.uk

Dr Emanuela Vai, the Academic Lead of the DHSH, said:

'I am extremely excited to be leading the Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage Network. My research frequently involves the use of digital technologies, from 3D reconstruction to digital acoustic analyses, and I’m very aware of the insights that digital humanities tools can bring to the study of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. I’m especially interested in understanding the opportunities (and limitations) of digital tools when it comes to exploring the sensory experiences of people and objects from the past, and to enabling people today to interact and engage with historic objects and spaces through the senses. Thanks to generous funding from TORCH’s Network Scheme, the DHSH Network will be programming an exciting range of events that will be of interest to researchers, heritage professionals and the public, hopefully enabling us to advance understandings of the history of the senses, open new directions for research, and inspire new encounters with history.’

Dr Jean-Philippe Échard, a member of the DHSH, said:

‘The DHSH network is a very exciting initiative. As a researcher and curator of an important collection of musical instruments at the Musée de la Musique in Paris - objects and artefacts that call upon the senses of hearing, sight and touch - I am therefore extremely sensitive to questions of interdisciplinarity, knowledge building and to the public's relationship with the past. Exploring the potential of digital humanities in this context seems essential to me today.’

Find out more about the network here:

https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/digital-humanities-and-sensory-heritage

Follow the DHSH Network on Twitter @DHSHeritageOx

_______________________

We are delighted to announce the launch of the Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage (DHSH) Network @DHSHeritageOx led by @DrEmanuelaVai. The network explores links between heritage and the senses through the latest digital tools. More info: https://www.torch.ox.ac.uk/digital-humanities-and-sensory-heritage