King's College London Digital Humanities

In a 2016 report on ‘Connecting Refugees’, the UNHCR argued that ‘a lack of connectivity constrains the capacity of refugee communities to organise and empower themselves, cutting off the path to self-reliance’. Connectivity thus articulates the simultaneous improvement of refugees’ lives and the transformation of humanitarianism by developing a new digital ecosystem for refugees. In fostering digital modes of refugee existence, humanitarian organisations, NGOs and corporations also produce and intensify new modes of algorithmic governmentality.

We explore the social and political consequences of these developments and how datafied and digital relations emerge both between refugees and humanitarian organisations, and between non-state and state actors involved in the digital ecosystems. We propose to conceptualise relations in a digital world as human/nonhuman entanglements, as digital connectivity can emerge through refugee practices on social media, but also through machine communications in the refugee ecosystems.

King’s lead researchers: Tobias Blanke; Claudia Aradau

King’s College Digital Humanities together with the Institute of Historical Research investigates ‘Born-digital data and methods for history and the humanities’. Partners in the Network are The National Archives, the British Library, Web Archives and the Universities of Cambridge, Sussex, Glasgow, Oxford, Goldsmiths, Sheffield, Leeds, Warwick and Waterloo (Ontario).

The project will be led by Professor Jane Winters (IHR) and Dr Tobias Blanke (King’s College London).

The Network brought together researchers and practitioners to discern if there is a genuine humanities approach to born-digital data, and to establish how this might inform, complement and draw on other disciplines and practices. Over the course of three workshops, one to be held at The National Archives in Kew, one at the University of London, and one at the University of Cambridge, the Network addressed the current state of the field; establish the most appropriate tools and methods for humanities researchers for whom born-digital material is an important primary source; discuss the ways in which researchers and archives can work together to facilitate big data research; identify the barriers to engagement with big data, particularly in relation to skills; and work to build an engaged and lasting community of interest.

King’s Project lead Tobias Blanke

Associated organisations: School of Advanced Studies

SoBigData proposes a Social Mining & Big Data Ecosystem for ethic-sensitive scientific discoveries and advanced applications of social data mining on the various dimensions of social life, as recorded by “big data”. SoBigData opens up new research avenues in multiple research fields, including mathematics, ICT, and human, social and economic sciences, by enabling easy comparison, re-use and integration of state-of-the-art big social data, methods, and services, into new research. It not only strengthens the existing clusters of excellence in social data mining research, but also create a pan-European, inter-disciplinary community of social data scientists, fostered by extensive training, networking, and innovation activities.

King’s lead researchers: Tobias Blanke; Mark Cote; Marco Braghieri

Associated organisations: CNR (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), UNIPI (Università di Pisa), IMT (Scuola Istitutuzioni, Mercati, Tecnologia) and SNS (Scuola Normale Superiore) from Italy; USFD (University of Sheffield) from the United Kingdom; FRH (the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems and The Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research) and LUH (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover) from Germany; UT (Tartu Ulikool) from Estonia; AALTO (Aalto University) from Finland; ETHZ (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) from Switzerland; TUDelft (Technische Universiteit Delft) from the Netherlands.

SoBigData is the European Research Infrastructure for Big Data and Social Mining, which is being built within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project consortium features 12 research institutions based in seven different countries, including Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands and Switzerland. \n\nSoBigData proposes to create a Social Mining & Big Data Ecosystem, by building a research infrastructure based on an integrated ecosystem for ethic-sensitive scientific discoveries and advanced applications of social data mining on the various dimensions of social life, as recorded by ‘big data’. \n\nThe project aims to open up new research avenues by enabling easy comparison, re-use and integration of state-of-the-art big social data, methods, and services in multiple research fields, including mathematics, ICT, and human, social and economic sciences. Thus, SoBigData intends to sstrengthen the existing clusters of excellence in social data mining research, but also create a pan-European, inter-disciplinary community of social data scientists, fostered by extensive training, networking, and innovation activities.\n\nSoBigData, as an open research infrastructure, promotes repeatable and open science. The project Data is built around six thematic clusters which comprise text and social media mining; social network analysis; human mobility analytics; web analytics; visual analytics and social data. \nAlthough SoBigData is primarily aimed at serving researchers’ needs, the open available datasets and open-source methods and services will also impact other groups of stakeholders, such as industrial entities, government bodies, policy makers and non-profit organisations. Moreover, the project is contributing to create a community of data scientists, preparing them to exploit the opportunities of big data and to incorporate data-driven science and innovation in their research. SoBigData is the European Research Infrastructure for Big Data and Social Mining, which is being built within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The project consortium features 12 research institutions based in seven different countries, including Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands and Switzerland.

SoBigData proposes to create a Social Mining & Big Data Ecosystem, by building a research infrastructure based on an integrated ecosystem for ethic-sensitive scientific discoveries and advanced applications of social data mining on the various dimensions of social life, as recorded by ‘big data’.

The project aims to open up new research avenues by enabling easy comparison, re-use and integration of state-of-the-art big social data, methods, and services in multiple research fields, including mathematics, ICT, and human, social and economic sciences. Thus, SoBigData intends to sstrengthen the existing clusters of excellence in social data mining research, but also create a pan-European, inter-disciplinary community of social data scientists, fostered by extensive training, networking, and innovation activities.

SoBigData, as an open research infrastructure, promotes repeatable and open science. The project Data is built around six thematic clusters which comprise text and social media mining; social network analysis; human mobility analytics; web analytics; visual analytics and social data.

Although SoBigData is primarily aimed at serving researchers’ needs, the open available datasets and open-source methods and services will also impact other groups of stakeholders, such as industrial entities, government bodies, policy makers and non-profit organisations. Moreover, the project is contributing to create a community of data scientists, preparing them to exploit the opportunities of big data and to incorporate data-driven science and innovation in their research.

Language Acts and Worldmaking is a flagship project funded by the AHRC Open World Research Initiative, which aims to regenerate and transform modern language learning by foregrounding language’s power to shape how we live and make our worlds. The ‘Digital Mediations’ strand on the project explores interactions and tensions between digital culture and Modern Languages research.

We examine how digitally mediated culture—whether emerging as born digital artefacts or digitised remediations of pre-digital objects—is constructed, and ask what kinds of ‘translation’ are enacted as information enters and leaves the digital sphere. We research the interactions from multiple perspectives, reviewing methodologies for studying digital content from a multilingual perspective, while appraising the extent to which digital data, as a complex cultural product in its own right, represents a meaningful record accessible to Modern Languages research and learning.

King’s lead researchers: Paul Spence; Renata Brandao

Associated organisations: Queen Mary, University of London; Open University; University of Westminster

The project builds directly on our current AHRC project ‘Our Data Ourselves’ , which studies the content we generate on our mobile devices, what we call ‘big social data’ (BSD), and explores the possibilities of its ethical storage. We progress this research by engaging the cultural and technological elements entailed in the ethical sharing of that data. Our proposal addresses a basic research question: How do we transform BSD into open data, and in turn, empower the digital human and cultivate new data communities?

First, we developed an open linked data framework to effectively embed anonymised born digital cultural data. Our technological research developed proof-of-concept demonstrators that investigate the use of advanced anonymisation technologies for publishing cultural data. This was done in collaboration with Dr. Tom Heath, the head of research at the Open Data Institute. Second, we investigated what cultural research can still do with such an anonymised resource, making possible fundamental humanistic research and the investigation of (meta)data in the context of the material turn in cultural and media studies.

King’s lead researchers: Tobias Blanke; Mark Cote

Associated organisations: Open Data Institute

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC has a strong record of achievement in delivering innovation in digital content, resources and services to support the core mission of the museum. To continue to achieve the museum mission in digital “by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards” the Gallery will build on its experience and achievement by producing a digital strategic plan to provide direction, vision and controlled expansion for its digital media activities.

To build a digital strategy means finding a holistic lens through which to map the relationships across the Gallery, to respect the mission and strategy of the whole Gallery ecosystem and to communicate a clear narrative of direction. The strategy will have to balance available resources with desired activities and programs.

King’s lead researcher: Simon Tanner]]>

The Quitting Social Media (QSM) project engages with people who have voluntarily quit, or considered quitting, social media. Through this research, we hope to gain insight into how social media users – and former users – negotiate tensions and pressures around today’s connectivity culture. Amidst recent debates and consumer services addressing digital addiction and detox (e.g. Otto 2016, Löchtefeld et al. 2013, Portwood-Stacer 2013, Brabazon 2012), QSM aims to locate the practices of and motivations behind digital retreat.

King’s lead researcher: Zeena Feldman

Quitting Social Media (QSM) is a research project that seeks to engage with people who have voluntarily quit, or considered quitting, social media. The project is based at King’s College London in the Department of Digital Humanities.

Through this research, we hope to gain insight into how social media users – and former users –  negotiate tensions and pressures around today’s connectivity culture. Amidst recent debates and consumer services addressing digital addiction and detox (e.g. Otto 2016, Löchtefeld et al. 2013, Portwood-Stacer 2013, Brabazon 2012), QSM aims to provide insight into the practices of and motivations for digital withdrawal. To facilitate this understanding, we wish to engage with a broad range of participants. We are especially keen to hear from anyone who:

• has quit a specific social networking site (e.g. Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn);
• has considered quitting social media;
• has abandoned all social media platforms;
• is taking a temporary break from social media use;
• has decided to permanently stop using social media services
• has participated in a digital detox programme (whether formal or informal)
• is concerned about the possibility of social media addiction;
• has stopped using a smartphone.

Participants of all ages and backgrounds are welcome. To learn more about how you can take part in this research, please visit the Call for Participants page.

Keywords: digital detox, digital addiction, quitting social media, social media, information overload, digital retreat

While much has been written about the economic impacts of artificial intelligence in terms of the jobs it might take, much less attention has been paid to AI’s impact on the concentration of capital and the increase in market power.

This project takes as its focus the ways in which AI will reorganise businesses in light of market competition, with a particular focus on the technological necessities that machine learning demands, as well as the strategic ambitions of the leading capitalist firms to dominate this new general purpose technology. Fundamental questions about value and power will be posed in light of these changes, to determine how AI companies may be transforming the economy.

King’s lead researcher: Nick Srnicek