Diffractive Epistemics: Cultures of Knowledge in the Digital Humanities

This project was dedicated to forms of knowledge modeling as they are currently being negotiated in the Digital Humanities (DH). By focusing on digital knowledge representations as well as statistical reasoning, it addressed the DH as an epistemic culture with its own historicity. The project explored interferences of different knowledge-based systems beyond a reflexive framework of research. As its guiding question, the project asked to what extent knowledge productions are organized and modified under a computational paradigm. Case studies were provided to describe premises, constraints, and implications of computer-based knowledge production in DH. As a category, a mode of observation, and a method, the concept of diffraction, which particularly takes into account a description of differences, opens up three guiding perspectives that were examined in the project:

First, the project dealt with conceptual structures and semantic changes in DH’s epistemic cultures. Here, concepts transferred from other disciplines (e.g., software ecosystems, the data life cycle) were of particular interest. In cooperation with the Computational Humanities Group at the University of Leipzig and the working group Digital Humanities Theorie, this project studied concepts by experimenting with natural language processes as well as community-based approaches.

Second, the project discussed multimodal forms of knowledge modeling in relation to materiality. In the DH, established structures of discursive knowledge are supplemented by new material embodiments of knowledge. The project aimed at viewing software and code as computer-based expressions of DH’s epistemic cultures. Software and code not only manifest in concrete research infrastructures, but also challenge traditional reading and writing practices in the humanities.

Thirdly, this project addressed data-based knowledge modeling and the assessment of research data. In different case studies, questions of contingencies and datafication were highlighted through the use of concrete data collections and algorithms. On the one hand, the aim was to gain distance from technological claims and to reflect on their scope. On the other hand, with reference to New Materialisms and Science & Technology Studies, this project attempted to open up possible alternatives of data practices and the creation of inferences.

By providing three perspectives on concepts, materiality, and data, this project proposed a theoretical approach that takes into account an interdisciplinary positioning of DH between computer sciences and the humanities. In doing so, it explored transitions to other epistemic cultures.

Fig. above: Vectorized version of a sketch by Thomas Young to illustrate the diffraction of light, source: Wikimedia Commons