Esi 752008

A&H E-SCIENCE Stuart Dunn AHeSSC Centre for e-Research, King’s College London E-Science Institute, 7th May 2008

‘ The development and deployment of a networked infrastructure and culture through which resources - be they processing power, data, expertise, or person power - can be shared in a secure environment, in which new forms of collaboration can emerge, and new and advanced methodologies explored' Arts and Humanities e-Science in the UK - AHDS e-Science Scoping Study, 2006

Arts and Humanities e-Science in the UK 2005: AHRC-JISC e-Science Initiative begins 2006: - AHeSSC begins - EPSRC joins initiative - 3 small scale demonstrator projects funded by EPSRC - 6 research workshops funded by AHRC 2007: 7 research projects and 4 PhD studentships announced

Arts and Humanities e-Science in the UK - 2006

Workshop projects (AHRC)

User Requirements Gathering for the Humanities (Professor Alan Bowman, University of Oxford)

Geographical Information System e-Science: developing a roadmap (Dr Paul Ell, Queen’s University Belfast)

Performativity/Place/Space: Locating Grid Technologies (Dr Angela Piccini, University of Bristol )

The Access Grid in Collaborative Arts and Humanities Research (Professor David Shepherd, University of Sheffield)

Building the Wireframe: E-Science for the Arts Infrastructure (Dr Gregory Sporton, University of Central England)

ReACH: Researching e-Science Analysis of Census Holdings (Dr Melissa Terras, University College London)

Demonstrator Projects (EPSRC)

Virtual Vellum: Online Viewing Environment for the Grid and Live Audiences (Professor PF Ainsworth, University of Sheffield)

A Virtual Workspace for the Study of Ancient Documents (Dr CV Crowther, University of Oxford)

Motion Capture Data Services for Multiple User Categories (Dr SJ Norman, University of Newcastle)

http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/projects

Example 1: Virtual Vellum Prototype manuscript viewer by Colin Dunn, Scriptura Ltd. Images © Stonyhurst College, Lancashire and Scriptura Ltd The Froissart Chronicles. From ‘Incipit’ portal, Peter Ainsworth, Leverhulme Research Fellow and Director of the Froissart Chronicles Project. © Besançon Public Library (ms 865, f. 133v)

http://www.shef.ac.uk/hri/projects/projectpages/virtualvellum.html http:/ahessc.ac.uk/virtual-vellum Example 1: Virtual Vellum

Project report http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/files/active/0/VV-report.pdf

Example 1: Virtual Vellum

Supports networks of very high resolution images

Utilization of image tiling technologies and JPEG2000

Scalable

Collaborative - integration with Access Grid

Extensible - can be applied to any area of research involving large or

hi-res images

Example 2: Associated Motion Capture User Categories “ a prototype data retrieval tool, allowing movement features or sequences to be called up from a motion capture database”

Example 2: Associated Motion Capture User Categories

Ultra-sensitive method of capturing dance movement

Involved a huge range of collaborators

The project was built around a dialogue between CS experts and performance researchers

Information retrieval

Project report: http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/files/active/0/VWSAD-report.pdf

Co-directors Research Associates Lorna Hughes Sheila Anderson Tobias Blanke Stuart Dunn

Support, co-ordinate and promote e-Science in all arts and humanities disciplines, and to liaise with the e-Science and e-Social Science communities, computing, and information sciences. AHeSSC:

Practical assistance and liaison

Helpdesk function

- support@ahessc.ac.uk

Information on funding opportunities:

Other national support services

Access Grid Support Centre

National Grid Service

National Centre for e-Social Science

National e-Science Centre

AHRC/EPSRC funded activities Other projects/centres of activity

http://www.arts-humanities.net Torsten Reimer, Methods Network

http://www.ahds.ac.uk/ictguides

Scoping survey

Expert seminars:

Library and information studies (Melisssa Terras)

Archaeology (William Kilbride)

Literary and textual studies (Peter Robinson)

History (Mark Greengrass)

Visual arts (Sue Gollifer)

Performing arts (Angela Piccini)

Language and linguistics (Paul Rayson)

Reports on e-science tools and projects

Scoping survey I. Guiding principles - Agenda must be by and for arts and humanities - Must be inclusive - i.e. not just for the tech savvy - e-science is about empowerment and democratization - innovation - new forms of collaboration across domains and sectors - redefining the concept of e-science - international collaboration - scalable and sustainable - evidence of value

II. Grand challenges: Content - Data deluge - information inaccessible in analogue form - Access to commercial data - Need for deep mining technologies - Curation of complex digital content

II. Grand challenges: Collaboration - Access grid - VREs - ‘share and contest ideas and theories, share source materials and other data collaborate to create to create new forms of online editions…’ - Cultural shift - Institutional issues

II. Grand challenges: Needs for new methods and tools - Tools to aid search, retrieval, annotation and visualization - Tools for data management and standards - ‘Reservoir’ of user data - A&H are interprative - ‘cycle of interpretation and debate’ www.ahessc.ac.uk/scoping-survey