Digital Humanities

My working definition of digital humanities is using technology to conduct interdisciplinary research, answer questions, and display information in a way by which creativity can be invoked and the possibilities are endless. With the digital age arising, there are many ways to display information, and as a result, anything can be created as long as someone does it. For example using the YouTube digitization on whaling, the creator was able to make a magnificent virtual display of every single ship path. This enables us as scholars to not only to have a visual, but also gives us the ability to freeze at any point in time what the paths were like and this comes all at the expense at the click of a button. In my opinion this is a much more interesting and convenient way to display information and it allows us to quickly access information that would take a long time to find. With this said, I am very intrigued about the display of digital humanities as there are no boundaries and people can present history in any way they want and imagine.

An example that displays digital humanities is the online museum http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/americas.aspx. This allows anyone to virtually explore several different countries histories without having to physically go there. With this, you can both briefly read about and see pictures that you normally would see at a regular museum. Although it is virtual, it still provides the same information and knowledge you would receive if you were physically at a museum. Its digital images are available for use and its convenience provides another example how valuable and important digital humanities is and can be in the future. The image below displays what the site looks likes, and from it, there is a still a museum “feel” in the sense of the setup.