Category Archives: Uncategorized

Discussion Session Proposal: Digital Humanities: Imagining a Worst Case Scenario

It is something of a mantra in business that one should imagine the worst case scenario and prepare for it from both a logistical and an ethical standpoint. What if we apply this thought experiment to the digital humanities? Justified or not, digital humanities projects elicit fear and criticism from within and without the discipline — various working groups have warned of the dangers of siloed information and the neglect of physical archives, fellow humanities colleagues often see in the methods of DH an end to the narrative mode of history. We propose to anchor our conversation in a case study of one or more digital resources and come away with some clear proposals for avoiding a worst case scenario.

Ellen Tani and I are proposing to lead this session together.

Talk Session Proposal: Got Data Visualizations?

We propose a session on the use of data visualization tools in the field of art history. In response to large sets of art market data becoming available, we are interested in visually representing relationships within the data to allow for more dynamic analysis of the historical exchanges. Large data set analysis like this provides for a unique opportunity to challenge or supplement traditional art historical narratives through a dynamic process that is iterative and multi-perspectival.

A few questions for discussion are: Do you have large sets of structured data? How are users accessing your data? Do you use any data visualization tools, if so, which and why? Have you hit any roadblocks on your path to aesthetically engaging data visualizations? With unlimited resources, what data visualizations would you build to represent your research? We are specifically looking at art market data but are open to all types.

Teach Session – Creative Coding 101

I am open to teaching or co-teaching a 2-3 hour workshop that would be for beginners and non-coders to get their hands dirty and have some fun learning the basics of computer coding with a focus on the visual and interactive. I could teach it in Processing or in P5.js

I have been teaching creative coding to artists and designers for over 8 years so we can adjust on the fly to explore some things together depending on the interests of the attendees.

Project Demo: METRO – from animation to VR

I am currently working on a project where I am taking a body of work from an initial animation to a VR experience for the Oculus Rift. It started with a set of 3D scans of a day of riding a light rail train which I then turned into a single channel animation using open source 3D software. I then was asked to recreate the project as a 4 walled surround visual experience and am not exploring what it means and what is technically involved in porting the project into an interactive VR space with Unity for the Oculus Rift. I would share the process and love to talk more about creating artworks in VR space in terms of balancing control, interaction, fidelity, performance and so on.

You can see the original project here: digitalcoleman.com/METRO-Re-De-construction

Talk Session Proposal

I’m interested in a discussion of anything about animation. Topics could include working methods in animation process, 2D or 3D digital pipeline, artistic inspiration, the synergy of video games and film or in the academic side of how instructors are developing their courses, key principles and student assignments (objectives).

Session on APIs?

Would anyone be interested in a session on APIs?  Starting with basics: what they are, the various types, how they work (in theory and in reality)? Institutions (particularly museums) often provide access to their data via API’s but I and many others are thwarted from  getting to these data by the whole skill set needed to successfully use APIs.

Kress THATCamp CAA Fellowships available, $500 each

Thanks to the generosity of the Samuel L. Kress Foundation, we have ten $500 stipends to award to grad students and early career professionals to help them attend THATCamp CAA. To apply for a Kress THATCamp CAA Fellowship using this registration, in answer to the question “Why do you want to come to THATCamp?” please let us know whether you would like to apply for a Kress THATCamp CAA Fellowship and write at least one paragraph making the case for your need. You can also write Amanda French at to apply. Please apply by Thursday, January 15th.

Talk session proposal – student e-journal publishing

I’m interested in hosting a session on the use of web publishing in the classroom, specifically in the format of multimedia e-journals. I’m teaching a course next term where my class will be co-editing an online e-journal using WordPress, so I plan to share the course structure and demo our site, and hope to get feedback and maybe generate some brainstorming on best practices for facilitating and producing collaborative student publications online.

Talk Proposal – Teaching with digital tools

I would be interested in creating a course that combines tools and content, specifically for students of art history.  I think we could do a better job of introducing digital tools and methods to undergraduate students, possibly by combining the content with the tool-set.  I’d like to see a combination work/play session, where a group could come up with syllabus that could do this for maybe something as overarching an art history survey class or for maybe something as specific as a set of archival works.  What digital tools would we introduce to the students and use within the class? How would be balance the technical learning with the reading materials? How much of the research methodology processes would need to be covered? This way students could be learning digital tools at the same time that they are learning about the content and theories that make up the discipline of art history.