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No signal without symbol: decoding the digital humanities
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posted on 2023-06-09, 00:11 authored by David BerryDavid Berry, M. Beatrice FaziM. Beatrice Fazi, Ben Roberts, Alban WebbAlban WebbThis chapter outlines signal processing as the paradigmatic model of knowledge production in the digital humanities. Drawing from information theory, and from Wolfgang Ernst’s understanding of signal as “the physical layer below symbolically expressed culture”, we adopt the idea of signal processing as a way of thinking about the encoding and quantifiable analysis of culture often undertaken in DH. Like others, we see dangers in a vision of the digital humanities as signal processing. We argue that the lens of information theory can help us to assess and develop critical work in the digital humanities and, therefore, make a meaningful contribution to digital public culture. In common with Alan Liu and Alexander Galloway, we worry that DH might tacitly conform to what Antoinette Rouvroy calls “the ideology of big data”, that is, the idea that signal (data) and signal processing (data analysis) can be substituted for symbolic interpretation and fully account for knowledge production. Our contention is that symbol and signal need instead to be thought together, and that to do so should change the way in which we think the importance of method and theory in the digital humanities.
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Publication status
- Published
Publisher
University of Minnesota PressPage range
61-74Pages
472.0Book title
Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019Place of publication
MinnesotaISBN
9781517906931Department affiliated with
- Media and Film Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Humanities Lab Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
Lauren F Klein, Matthew K GoldLegacy Posted Date
2016-02-01Usage metrics
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