8.0144 Rs: Multimedia Research (3/139)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Thu, 11 Aug 1994 21:33:22 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0144. Thursday, 11 Aug 1994.
(1) Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 10:48:21 -0400 (EDT) (43 lines)
From: "Hope A. Greenberg" <hag@moose.uvm.edu>
Subject: Re: 8.0134 Future of Multimedia Research? (1/40)
(2) Date: Mon, 08 Aug 1994 09:21:06 -0700 (MST) (15 lines)
From: ocramer@cc.colorado.edu
Subject: RE: 8.0134 Future of Multimedia Research? (1/40)
(3) Date: Tue, 09 Aug 1994 18:58:50 +0100 (GDT) (81 lines)
From: Edoardo Tortarolo <storstor@rs950.cisi.unito.it>
Subject: Re: 8.0134 Future of Multimedia Research? (1/40)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 10:48:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Hope A. Greenberg" <hag@moose.uvm.edu>
Subject: Re: 8.0134 Future of Multimedia Research? (1/40)
>
> I'd like to hear opinions on the future use of multimedia material in
> research and scholarship, as opposed to teaching. At the moment, we have
> How do you think work on, say, broadsides would be different if the
> scholar could display a large collection of broadsides in an
> essay, instead of the one or two or three we might use in a
> journal article or book?
There are many threads in your message as there are many possibilities in
hypermedia, computing, and interconnectivity. I'll start the ball rolling
by focusing on the question quoted above. Your question highlights what
is, to me, one of the most exciting possibilities of this electronic
realm. It is not feasible (or affordable) to include many images or
examples in a journal or book. Yet most students and scholars would
probably agree that it would be desirable to do so. Hypermedia with its
ability to create multi-layered documents and computers with their large
storage capacity, make the inclusion of many examples or images a simple
reality. This inclusion adds depth and dimension to the subject being
discussed. No longer need we say "Here is such-and-such and here is an
example." Now we can say "here is such-and-such, here is an example, here
is another example, here is a derivative example, here is a conflicting
example, etc."
This is even more useful in a field where providing examples has
traditionally been difficult or where one must rely on the reader's having
a broad and in depth knowledge of the examples, such as music history.
With a multimedia document one need no longer say "Here is such-and-such,
now go out and listen to this entire recording so you can ferret out the
example" which may be a brief passage in a large work. One can simply
provide the excerpted passage.
-----------------
Hope Greenberg Hope.Greenberg@uvm.edu
Academic Computing "Lonc tans me sui tenu de chanter,
Univ. of Vermont Mes or ai raison de joie mener..."
Burlington, VT 05490 - anon.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 1994 09:21:06 -0700 (MST)
From: ocramer@cc.colorado.edu
Subject: RE: 8.0134 Future of Multimedia Research? (1/40)
So far, it looks as JDS says, as though multimedia is more a
snazzy style of textbook than a research tool; in humanities,
the traditional sorts of conaisseurship (using original materials,
going to sites, attending performances/performing for oneself)
are still powerful, and we're content to wow our students with
multimedia displays. Plus, there's the copyright issue in case
we wanted to *publish* stuff: bad enough with traditional photos
(in the case of archaeology collections, e. g.). Maybe the
Dead Sea Scrolls show us the way to the next phase?
Owen Cramer
Classics, Colorado College
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------93----
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 1994 18:58:50 +0100 (GDT)
From: Edoardo Tortarolo <storstor@rs950.cisi.unito.it>
Subject: Re: 8.0134 Future of Multimedia Research? (1/40)
Dear colleagues and friends, my name is Guido Abbattista (Professor of
Modern History in the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, and
co-editor of Storia della Storiografia) and I am answering to Dr.
Saillants questions regarding the impact of CD Rom material in teaching
and research. As I am concerned at the present with teaching basic Italian
history to young people coming from all over the world and without any
historical notions and, as it were, historically-minded approach, I
consider dramatically important the employment of audio-visual material,
which is however not available in large quantities (at least as far as
Italian history is concerned), not even in more traditional forms. My own
experience confirms that a combination of speech and image amd action and
sound may convey many more durable historical and historico-geographical
notions than a simple communication based merely on spoken discourse. With
CD ROM there is evidently a problem of a large availability of PC or
terminals and of production of high-quality teaching tools. I would be
extremely interested to be informed about any example of historical and
historico-geographical materials on CD ROM produced in any part of the
world. Particularly I would like to ask nDr. Saillant more information on
Browns "Who built America ?".
As far as research is concerned, I am extremely favourable to the
diffusion of collection of sources of any kind on CD ROM: let us think of
the project in progress at the British Library for cataloguing and storing
manuscripts on CD ROM. I would like to add that I am concerned myself in
the production of eighteenth century political and historical texts by
scanning procedures. Our journal has started a project for a library of
these texts on diskette or CD ROM. Thank you very much for any
information and replies to: abba@rs950.cisi.unito.it
On Sun, 7 Aug 1994, Elaine Brennan wrote:
> Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0134. Sunday, 7 Aug 1994.
>
> Date: Fri, 05 Aug 94 17:27:41 EDT
> From: John Saillant <SAILLANT@BROWNVM>
> Subject: Future of multimedia research?
>
>
> I'd like to hear opinions on the future use of multimedia material in
> research and scholarship, as opposed to teaching. At the moment, we have
> CD-ROMs like _Who Built America?_, which is a multimedia textbook. I'm
> curious to know, however, how scholars think they will use multimedia
> material in their research, perhaps in publishing CD-ROM "essays" or
> "books" or files available on the World Wide Web?
>
> A few questions come to mind. Just to make a short, spontaneous list,
> what would you do if you had access to photographic-quality images of
> clocks, buildings and building plans, furniture, paintings, title
> pages of first editions, and quilts and could use these images in
> a computerized work? How do you think scholarship will change when
> we store vast amounts of data, say a painter's entire oeuvre, in a
> CD-ROM or a WWW file? How would scholarship in music, say, be affected
> by the ability to include performances in sight & sound, along with
> images of the instruments used or the place in which the music was
> performed? What is the scholarly value of a computer file that can
> show the differences among a number of similar objects, such as a
> collection of clocks or clothing or firearms or shackles?
> How do you think work on, say, broadsides would be different if the
> scholar could display a large collection of broadsides in an
> essay, instead of the one or two or three we might use in a
> journal article or book?
>
> I don't intend this to be an exhaustive list of questions, and they are
> surely conditioned by my own interests in early America. But it's
> evident from CD-ROMs &, even more so, from the WWW, that computers are
> creating new opportunities. I don't have answers to those questions, of
> course, or even really know if computers will result in real
> differences in scholarship. I would like to hear from others,
> particularly in early American studies but also in any area of the
> humanities.
>
> John Daniel Saillant
> Moderator, IEAHCNET
> Visiting Assistant Professor, History
> Brown University, Box N
> Providence, R.I. 02912
> Saillant@Brownvm.Brown.EDU
>