Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre A&H E-SCIENCE Stuart Dunn AHeSSC Centre for e-Research, Kings College London E-Science Institute, 7th May 2008

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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 Support Centre 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 Support Centre Arts and Humanities e-Science in the UK 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, Queens 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)

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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)

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre Example 1: Virtual Vellum

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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 Project report

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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:

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre Co-directors Research Associates Lorna HughesSheila Anderson Tobias BlankeStuart Dunn

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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:

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre Practical assistance and liaison Helpdesk function - 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 Information on funding opportunities:

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre Torsten Reimer, Methods Network

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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

Arts and Humanities e-Science Support Centre 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