Class Blog 1

What makes a good DH Project?

~ Annie Swafford

Five qualities of a good DH project

– Clarity/ Readability and Legibility
– Understandable Composition/ Stylizing – Good use of space, color, etc.
– Preciseness of information
– Accessibility
– User-friendly format and layout

What makes a good DH project?

A good DH project has to be backed up with many sources and information. Only using a few DH tools doesn’t cut it; they help support or begin a project but more research and thought has to go into a good project. Also, your claim has to be clear. This goes for any thesis or research point but it is still important for DH as well. As DH projects usually involves visuals, these images have to be legible. Labels, color use, positioning, size, etc all must be easy to read. This will only help strengthen your claim/ argument. The format of the project should also be easy to use.

If the project is hard to understand and use, and boring to boot, forget it. DH has the potential of the digital world – make it interesting! Maybe even fun! Information and knowledge can be presented in many ways but that does not mean many people will be interested. Make it accessible! This does not only include where the project can be found (a private database vs. a public blog of forum, for example) but also the language! Save the overload of jargon for the publishing companies. To me, a good DH project should be understandable to all people, not matter education level in the area of study.

How does DH let scholars ask new questions?

Digital Humanities allows many people to communicate in a fraction of the time. Scholars can receive and give information or opinions from around the world. With this accessibility comes the opportunity for more dialogue and, therefore, questions. Also, digital humanities uses many different tools to analyze data – we can use visualizations from different tools and distant reading while still incorporating more “traditional” forms of data gathering. I think the additional of new methods can only expand the quantity of questions and expand discussion.

What it Takes to Have an Awesome DHM Project

~ Annie Swafford

Qualities of a Quality DH project

1. Easy to Navigate

2. Clear and Concise  information

3. aesthetically pleasing

4. Multiple sources are used and they are all cited

5.  If there is a search engine, the results are not too narrow or broad so the person browsing can search for what they are looking for and find many relevant sources

Creating a successful DH project is not simple, but that does not mean it cannot be done. The best DH projects contain information that is easily interpreted and understood. The people looking at the DH project should be able to find trends and correlations in the research if the project is topic modeling, visualizations, etc. If the project is a digital archive, all the information sources should have relevance to one another so readers are able to draw common conclusions from the multiple sources. The information in the DH project should be relevant and useful– scholars should be able to use this information knowing it is accurate to the original source.

And once a DH project is successful, it will allow scholars to ask new questions. Digital mapping can allow a scholar to start wondering why a certain epidemic was concentrated  in a certain place– what during this time and place could’ve been going on to cause this epidemic?  DH projects opens ends for more research– it makes scholars wonder why and how certain research is a certain way. In the same sense, DH projects show trends that might not have been seen before, so scholars can look into these trends more. For instance, if topic modeling reveals a before unseen trend of women in a literary work , scholars can then start looking into the role of women in that literature. Are women prevalent through out? How are they portrayed? DH projects allows for scholars to do research in a different light, it allows them to look more in depth and at their topic and question aspects of the topic they might not have considered if DH projects did not draw attention to them.

 

What Makes A Good DH Project?

~ Annie Swafford

Five qualities of a good digital humanities project are:

1. A unifying theme and scholarly purpose for the information

2. Ease of navigation, including organization by topic, date, etc…

3. Aesthetically pleasing – readable, organized design and images related to the project

4. Properly cited sources and references for credibility

5. Option for users to search for specific information within the project and/or interact with the information

A good digital humanities project has a unifying theme and scholarly purpose, so that all of the information is related in some way. A good DH project should also allow users to navigate the project using a search feature or other interaction tools. A good DH project should always be simple to navigate and aesthetically pleasing, since these qualities will encourage other scholars and students to make good use of the project. Finally, a good DH project should properly cite its sources and references. Without proper citations, the project is not credible and others cannot properly use it in a scholarly manner.

DH allows scholars to ask new questions because it combines today’s vast technological tools with old information, history, or stories, allowing data to be digitized and shared quickly and efficiently. Tools such as Google Ngrams and Juxta Editions allow scholars to look for trends from thousands of texts at once without a close reading of those texts, and can be manipulated to provide information on specific topics and/or time periods. Finding new trends and patterns using these tools allows scholars to raise questions that otherwise may not have been thought of, since such trends would not have been as easily and efficiently recognized. In addition, digital humanities allows scholars to better collaborate in a virtual setting, allowing for endless perspectives and sources to meet in one place.

Qualities of a good Digital Humanities project

~ Annie Swafford

Five qualities of a good digital humanities project:
1) The project is aesthetically pleasing
2) It is easy to navigate/clean interface
3) Includes context about the data and proper credit/citations
4) There is a functioning search feature
5) It incorporates a vast amount of relevant material

How each person defines a “good” digital humanities project will vary depending on who they are, what they are building, and their perception of the world and the way everything operates. Each person has their own cultural lens of experience that they understand and interpret everyday life with. With that in mind, I feel that in my own experience, a good digital humanities project will incorporate each of the five qualities I listed above. The purpose of a digital humanities project seems to be a tool or interface that is created not only to display information and data for a particular agenda but also to benefit the greater community of people doing research. Projects should be attractive and easy on the eyes. People will be more inclined to use your project or database if the colors and layout appeal to them. This also connects to the idea of simple navigation. I feel that a good project will be straightforward, clean, and easy to peruse. If there was a project or archive we looked at in class that was hard to read or navigate, I found myself straying away from it. Context is critical for a good project. If someone does not know the context of the material they are viewing, how are they expected to effectively use it? A good project should explicitly describe the mission of the project and provide adequate background information on what is being presented. Citations of any sources is also crucial for a good project. If there is one thing I learned, it is to give credit where credit is due. Having a search feature for a project may not be necessary depending on what type of project is chosen, although with an archive or other similar type of project, incorporating a functioning search feature is very helpful for the researcher. Having a search engine allows user to quickly browse for exactly what they are looking for in order to extract whether or not the project is something they could benefit from using. The final quality on my list discusses using a vast amount of evidence that is relevant to your topic. I feel that in most cases the more data you have, the stronger your project will be. Having a lot of information may be a lot of work to find and incorporate, but it will be worth it for strengthening the final product.

Digital humanities is a significant and exciting emerging discipline. It is constantly evolving and creating new perceptions on how academic research is done. Through different digital tools and archives, the creator enables scholars to actively engage and interact with what they are studying. It challenges classical methods of academic research and allows researchers to understand topics in different perspectives. Using digital outlets to display information allows participants to collectively collaborate and share ideas which is a fantastic benefit to digital humanities. Seeing topics in different lights enables scholars to raise new questions about what they are studying. Projects can create new ideas and discussions that may not have been easy to identify using classic methods of research. Digital humanities is an important, growing, and interesting field that allows scholars to research in new ways and raise questions that had never been thought of before.

What makes a good DH project?

~ Annie Swafford
  1. Easy to navigate
  2. Has sufficient data and citations to make it scholarly and informative
  3. Contains information/images etc.. relevant to the topic/topics being focused on
  4. Aesthetically pleasing, images are good quality/easy to zoom in
  5. Has a search bar/about page-explains all that is included in the project/allows users to look for specific things

 

A good digital humanities project is intuitive and user friendly. If it is not easy to navigate by an average person, it is limiting the information that could be useful/of interest to someone who sought out the information in the first place. I think a good digital humanities project is simple and not too overwhelming, but includes multiple forms of media that are relevant and helpful to the person studying the topic (ex- Songs of the Victorians archive includes text analysis, images and sound media of the songs which all work together to help the user understand more). A good DH project is also aesthetically pleasing and includes proper citations to make it a scholarly source (unlike the Art in the Blood archive). After doing the previous blog post project, it is also helpful to have a search bar or more specific about page to be able to know what is included or not included in the DH project and to be able to find information about something specific.

DH projects lets scholars examine patterns and trends that occur over a large period of time/large amounts of data that otherwise would be inhumanly possible to look at over someones lifetime. With the digital humanities, scholars can look at things that occurred in the past and make inferences and ask questions about the values and important issues that went on in the past and how they influence the way things are going on in history and literature today.

 

Discovering Goodge Street

~ Annie Swafford
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Goodge Street shown on Victorian Google Maps

I chose to research Goodge Street from Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.  Goodge Street appears in this story as the location in which the man’s hat was found: “found at the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at 221B, Baker Street” (Carbuncle).

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Poverty Map of Victorian London

According to the Charles Booth Online Archive Poverty Map, the general area of Goodge Street was middle class and ranged from “Mixed. Some comfortable others poor” and “Middle class. Well-to-do” people. The British History Online archive was able to give me more information about the actual architecture of the street.  The houses were “kept to a fairly uniform height,” and below the third floor of every house there was a modillion cornice.  A modillion cornice is a type of extravegant molding that can be used in architecture or even on certain types of furniture.

Example of modillion cornice
Example of modillion cornice (http://blog.classicist.org/?p=145)
Example of pediment used in Victorian Architecture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Pediment_%28PSF%29.png)
Example of pediment used in Victorian Architecture (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Pediment_%28PSF%29.png)

A pediment was above each window of the upper range windows.  Today, parts of this design are still in place.  Of course, over the decades, Goodge Street has faced architectural changes. The neighboring street, Charlotte Street, was rebuilt, which affected the design of Goodge Street as well as any damage that was accumulated by “the raids.”  After doing a quick Google search I realized the raids the author was talking about were the air-raids in World War II.  Today, Goodge Street houses the Goodge Street underground tube station, but during the second World War it was used as a bomb shelter for Allied forces.

(British History Online)
(British History Online)

Besides their height, the houses themselves had very little “uniformity in the size of the units, some having three and others two windows in their width according to requirements” (British History). When this sketch was drawn most of the buildings had shops on the first floor.

The information I have gathered about Goodge Street reflects on the Sherlock Holmes’ story because it is located near Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes lives.  Most of his detective work happens in his surrounding neighborhood, so it makes perfect sense that he would be walking through Goodge Street and then find a clue to a case.  More specifically for the story, it makes sense that it took place on Goodge Street because of the financial state in that neighborhood.  The citizens who lived there were a mix of middle class, “well to do” people.  When Sherlock finds the hat he has trouble placing exactly where the owner would stand financially.  It makes sense that the owner was once wealthy, and then down on his luck and living in a neighborhood of middle class.

Sources:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=zs2aHyi7W8Ek.kggHTef2F49I&hl=en

Researching the Streets of London: Goodge Street

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=65160

‘Goodge Street’, Survey of London: volume 21: The parish of St Pancras part 3: Tottenham Court Road & neighbourhood (1949), pp. 34-35. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=65160 Date acc

Edgeware Road

~ Annie Swafford

Edgeware Road was mentioned within Sherlock Holmes “A Scandal in Bohemia” when Sherlock had followed Irene Adler to what was the Church of St. Monica. Looking at this road, it is clear that it is one of the main roads for this area, with a wide street with several other branching off from it. On this road, there is the Mable Arc, which is a landmark well known for this area, especially since the veranda directly across from it would be where officials, such as police officers and sheriffs, would stand when there would be an execution of any sort ( Simon Rees. 2014. historicaleye.com ).

Looking about on this road, several churches can be seen lining it as one goes along it, as well as several schools and small businesses, such as printing offices and banks. On one side, this had to have been a bustling portion of the area, which would give all the more sense of urgency for when Irene Adler had the sudden, almost on the spot, marriage. However, on the more northern side of the road there were mansions and the and other such buildings. Clearly, this area would not have been in the lower class regions of London, in actuality, it was all mainly consisting of the middle and upper class ( http://goo.gl/JgRmhL). For a woman who had not been married before hand, Irene Adler was clearly making a living for herself in London to be able to only about twenty minutes of so from this area.

London screenshot (Picture from Google maps)

Sherlock on Oxford

~ Annie Swafford

Oxford street

Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 1.11.16 AM

I chose to look into the history around oxford street because its near the Cumberland gate. Oxford street is home to one of the biggest markets in London. “For two centuries been one of the worlds largest shopping streets.”[1] This street has a mile long shopping section which would probably seem more packed than our New York’s Time Square today. This street would have a high population volume which would be an ideal place for Sherlock to be a master of disguise once more. Public executions ceased to take place circa 1780[2], around the same time that it becomes a center for retail and shopping.

You can see how this street develops from before it was a prime shopping district to when it is an established shopping center.

This is a map of 1746 Oxford street

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This is a map of 1869-1880 London

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You can visualize the tremendous amount of renovation it must have took develop this street so drastically.

From this research I was able to learn that London had an early fashion atmosphere since the 18th century and that Oxford street was at the center of this development.

Works Cited

1. ‘Oxford Street: Introduction’, Survey of London: volume 40: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings) (1980), pp. 171.

2.’Oxford Street: The Development of the Frontage’, Survey of London: volume 40: The Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings) (1980), pp. 171-173.

Fleet Street

~ Annie Swafford

Samantha Harris

Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 1.50.56 AM

^VICTORIAN AGE MAP^

In the stories of Sherlock Holmes, there are many different streets which have major significance.  Luckily because of wonderful archives we are able to read more about the importance these places have in London.  There is one specific street that catches the eye, and that is Fleet Street (Historicaleye.com.  According to the Historical Eye, Fleet Street in 1896 was the center for newspaper enterprise of England.  Also, according to the facts found on this website, this street is associated with Shakespeare and other famous artists (Historicaleye.com).

Today,  Fleet Street is a place with a shining black art building and all the British newspapers stopped being made (Historicaleye.com.  Although this was the case, some UK members are still considered “Fleet Street (Historicaleye.com).”

According to Charles Booth Online Archive, if we are to look up Fleet Street on this website, we are to see that there is a bunch of red coloring on the left side of the screen where on most of the map it is shaded a blue (Booth, 1800s map).  The red indicates that these areas are middle class, well-to-do classes, and the blue represents more of a poorer civilization (charlesbooth) .

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(Charles Booth Archive)

It is interesting to see the history behind these places because it creates more of an image for us as the reader to picture what life was like back win the day when Sherlock Holmes was invented as a story.   According to now though, there is a vast variety of different classes based off of the information provided from Charles Booth (Booth, 1).

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(Charles Booth Archive)

Works Cited

Booth, Charles. “Booth and Poverty Map.” No Records. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2014. <http://booth.lse.ac.uk/cgi-bin/do.pl?sub=view_booth_and_barth&m.l=0&m.d.l=-1&m.p.x=8529&m.p.y=6676&m.p.w=500&m.p.h=309&m.p.l=0&m.t.w=128&m.t.h=80&b.v.x=262&b.v.y=106&b.p.x=14470&b.p.y=8491&b.p.w=500&b.p.h=309&b.p.l=1>.

Rees, Simon. “Fleet Street and The Strand.” Historical Eye. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 Nov. 2014. <http://www.historicaleye.com/index.html>.

Discovering Oxford Street

~ Annie Swafford

Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 12.13.20 AM Screen Shot 2014-11-10 at 12.13.29 AMIn choosing a location from a Sherlock Holmes story, it was easy to settle on Oxford Street. I recently visited London and Oxford Street/Oxford Circus was my favorite place to walk around and spend my time. Oxford Street is located relatively close and even connects with Baker Street, the infamous home of Sherlock Holmes.

Though today it is home to over 300 stores and many tourist attractions, it wasn’t always a beautiful travel destination. During WWII, Oxford Street suffered its share of bombings, unfortunate occurrences that were unfortunately all-too-frequent in London at that time.1 Even earlier than that, however, (even earlier than Sherlock Holmes’ time) Oxford Street was home to an array of less-than-savory attractions including bear-baiting shows and masquerading.2

One famous example of Sherlock Holmes’ time on Oxford Street can be summed up by this observation from The London Of Sherlock Holmes website; “Upon reaching Oxford Street, it’s a short walk east to Regent Street, which curves splendidly to Piccadilly Circus. On the left, just where it curves at the Quadrant, is the Cafe Royal, a splendidly elegant French restaurant since 1865 and the place where Holmes was attacked in ”The Adventure of the Illustrious Client.””3 In The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, Holmes is attacked on Oxford Street by two men, which led to newspapers publishing that he was close to death in order to exaggerate his condition.

During Sherlock Holmes’s time, Oxford Street housed many theatres which could have been frequented by a man like Holmes incredibly often.4

Though in Holmes’s time Oxford Street was a less-than-hot-spot, Oxford Street is now home to many historical landmarks and also houses a grand array of shopping and dining options.

Works Cited:

1. “The Blitz: Oxford Street’s store wars”. BBC News. 6 September 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2011.

2. “Bear-baiting”. Encyclopaedia Britannica 3. Encyclopaedia Britannica Company. 1910. p. 575


3. “The London of Sherlock Holmes.” The London of Sherlock Holmes. Web. 10 Nov.

4. 2014.”Piccadilly to Oxford Street.” Historicaleye.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.