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event: e-Science for Musicology
This workshop is aimed at scholars working in musicological disciplines who are interested in applying e-Science methodologies to their own investigations. As such, we hope that it will provide a unique opportunity for those working on new methodologies and technologies for enabling and enhancing musical scholarship to engage with the target musicological community. Therefore, as well as comprising presentations and practical sessions, we hope to integrate some facility for participants to record their experiences in an online, collaborative and real-time manner, thus providing invaluable data for assessing the impact of new methodologies and technologies on the discipline.
This workshop is being organized in collaboration with the AHRC/EPSRC/JISC e-Science in the Arts and Humanities Initiative funded project, Purcell Plus, hosted at Goldsmiths College and headed by Tim Crawford. The Purcell Plus project is also in the process of planning a workshop-like event to be held in spring 2010. It is hoping to establish a relationship between these two workshops, such that the initial event may introduce techniques which participants then experiment with in projects over the following year and report back their experiences in the later workshop. This process will be aided by the online collaboration mechanism we hope to implement.
This meeting is intended for Musicologists who wish to learn more about employing new methodologies in their research; ICT and e-Science professionals with interests in musicology.
For more information see: http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/996/
Location
Re: e-Science for Musicology
We are live at the event.
As with other A&H Theme events, we are kicking off with a discussion of what e-Science is. One interesting aspect of this is how each humanities and arts discipline differs in its approaches to, and requirements of, e-science. Richard Lewis's opening presentation is considering the musicological research cycle, and how what we term e-science might support it. It will be interesting to tease out the domain specific similarities and differences over the next two days.
when does a toy become a tool?
It has been suggested that the development of digital tools by humanities e-researchers is seen by some - e.g. those involved in making funding/appointment/tenure decisions - as 'building toys', which don't have a substantive research impact. So what functionality/attributes does a software application need to have in order to be a tool rather than a toy?
Re: when does a toy become a tool?
Isn't this more about the way software is used than about the features? Granted, you will need certain features to do a certain job, but as long as the software used helps you to answer a research question I would consider it a tool. There may be other tools and sometimes better ones too, but that does not mean that software would not be a tool in this context.
Re: when does a toy become a tool?
There is an old saying; it is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.
But then again, I have never really understood what a tool is in the Arts anyhow. Is it a violin or a cello or a mark-up language? Strange if I write lovely things about a bloke here then this 'tool' (Drupal) is seen to be doing a good job. But then again if I say bad things about a person here then it isn't the tool that is at fault; it is the author. All of a sudden it becomes all to human.
A tool to me is empathy, argument, historical and cultural imagination; skills that take a life-time to develop. It is a curiosity about the world and its people; not technological jingoism unable to escape the iron-cage of post-industrial vocation. Art doesn't need the useful tools of vocation; it needs the 'useless' tools of perspective (ie. is it a good idea?)
A tool is not a real thing; it is argument often constructed in an empirical and positivist context, and then let free in the diverse world of human culture. A tool isn't a toy; it is neither work nor play. A tool is an idea. A tool may be seen as resurgent European empiricism imposing upon the humanities the rationality of the new-middle classes, or perhaps a tool is a metaphor for the proletariatisation of the academy. A tool lacks academic courage; it doesn't ask questions so how could it possible answer them? A tool cannot think for itself; only offer guidance to the other 'tools' of perspective, judgement and pleasure.
Workshop report
A workshop report has been published in DLib. Please see
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january10/lewis/01lewis.html