Visual Analysis with Digital Tools

The Digital Humanities enhance the methods of traditional research in the humanities through automated data acquisition and processing. Visualisations can play a central role in analysing such data. This Summer School will address a set of fundamental problems, such as requirements for scientific visualisation or visual strategies. The main goal, however, is to focus on the practical side to enable the participants to tackle specific visualisation problems in order to advance their own research. The natural sciences have a long tradition of interest in visualisation methods (just compare magazines like "Science" or "Nature" to any magazine with a humanities background). The humanities are catching up, though, and starting to apply visualisation techniques to answer their own research questions. A set of tools has emerged in recent years and has introduced a number of visualisation practices into the humanities. Charts, graphics, 3D visualisations or "Maps, Graphs, Trees" (to quote the title of a well-known recent book on the subject), should not only illustrate, but also create new knowledge. Only then can we call visualisations a true method in the Digital Humanities