The “Humanities Lab” Research Centre
The “Humanities Lab” Research Centre created by IULM (Libera Università di Lingue e Comunicazione, or Free Language and Communications University) in Milan, Italy is a structure dedicated to studying the relationship between humanistic disciplines and digital technologies. Open to teachers, graduate students, scholarship holders and students, the Centre concentrates its activities on the following sectors:
• Textual criticism and multimedia systems for textual analysis;
• Computational linguistics;
• The history and form of writing;
• Iconology and iconography;
• New methodologies for teaching languages.
The objectives of the Centre are aimed at:
• Developing models of innovative knowledge by creating interdisciplinary projects in literature, languages and the arts;
• Identifying and studying new strategies for the spread of humanistic knowledge;
• Collaborating with analogous research centres both nationally and internationally;
• Organizing seminars as instruments for the integration of knowledge and the exchange of ideas/experience in methodological approaches.
The Centre’s laboratory is equipped with 12 individual multifunction stations linked to the university’s network.
Its activities are coordinated by Professor Patrizia Nerozzi Bellman.
Top News:
The Humanities Lab at IULM University presents games@IULM. The role of videogames, often considered only a form of entertainment, in the contemporary artistic and cultural world will be under scrutiny. The conference takes place alongside an exhibition of the works of Mauro Ceolin.
Milan, 2-12 May
Exhibition: L’arte videoludica di Mauro Ceolin
The exhibition will present the works of Mauro Ceolin, one of the major proponents of game art in the world. In recent years, Mauro Ceolin has organized many national and international exhibitions
Milan, 3 May
Games@IULM
The aesthetic and cultural role of videogames in collaboration with Stanford University will be discussed.
Projects in progress
• TristramShandyWeb: TSW is critical digital edition of Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Conceived for the web, the project was required to be freely browsable, perpetually in progress, anti-hierarchical, open to a range of methodological and critical approaches, multimedia possibilities and the contributions of specialists in 18th Century English literature and culture. A multi-disciplinary perspective (fostered by digital convergence) defines the way contents are organised in the TristramShandWeb: Arts, Fashion, History, HyperTS, Irishness, Language and Rhetoric, Music, Novel, Poetry, Science to create a sort of “Sternian encyclopaedia” useful to the development of further knowledge.
In July 2005 tristramshandyweb received the special mention of the E-content award (http://www.econtentaward.it/) - an award given to the best digital contents.
The project was presented at the conference “Cultural Heritage Nertworks Hypermedia” (November 29, 2005) organized by Politecnico in Milan in the section “Cultural Content and Services: eArt, eCulture, eLearning, eScience”. The video of the conference is available online: http://www.hmg.polimi.it/events/CHNH/CHNH05/default.htm
One of our aspirations is that TSW becomes an online journal. We are now working on this project too.
The project is supported and appreciated by the Associazione Italiana di Anglistica by means of communication.
TSW is a work in progress. We continually publish new essays. Among them we would like to mention a research by Paola Carbone on the visualization of the narrative development of the novel. (section hyperTS > Critical Studies).
• Art On Line: a study of the diverse forms for the presentation and use of art images on the Internet, designed to develop an innovative model for studying art. Research was conducted on artwork by the artist Cristina Melotti, and culminated in the creation of the website www.cristinamelotti.it. The project was overseen by Professor Stella Wirz, with the initial collaboration of students of the 2002 FSE “Progettisti di Editoria Multimediale” (Multimedia Publishers’ Design) course.
• An agreement has been signed between our University and the “Public Affairs” section of the U.S. Consulate General in Milan for the creation of a project entitled A Cultural Map of New York (www.nyculturalmap.it). The project will be supported in part by sponsorship and a small financial contribution. It will be realized in collaboration with professors and students of the Anglo-American Literature course.
Projects in initial phases:
• The Classics Patrimony in European Culture. Construction of a thematic lexicon: the Centre will participate in IULM University’s FIRB project, building a database for the organization and viewing of research results.
• Between Law and Fairness: the concept of equity in English laws and literature: the Centre will participate in this research project by building a website for the organization and viewing of research results.
In the works:
• The City in the Garden: a project to make digital Content in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable according to the guidelines of the eContentplus – the Multiannual Community Programme (http://europa.eu.int/econtentplus) Our Project aims at the improvement of public gardens and parks in the urban (and extra-urban) environment of Milan by means of new technologies. Here a list of the contents: mapping of public gardens and parks in the town centre and outskirts in order to define the differences among them and their role in the city and the public they might attract; identification of the urban artistic and cultural areas around parks through (1. the creation a database including artistic and historical resources, 2. the definition of the role of gardens and parks in literature, cinema, painting, and the history of them in Europe, 3. the exploration of the biodiversity of parks); communication of the contents through multi-channel devises (1. creation of website, 2. activation of a thematic channel on the digital TV, 3. information news and video games through mobile, 4. development of digital edutainment); creation of wireless areas (internet access, audio-visual communication); activation of a webcam system (for virtual tours and security); virtual communities (sport communities, single mothers, artists, young people, old people, environmentalists, virtual classes in Europe, etc) .
• Fashion and Art: a project that proposes to create a website dedicated to the relationship between art and fashion in the West from Medieval times to the present day. Material in the website will be organized through a series of image comparisons that compare and contrast artwork with other sources relevant to clothing, accessories, fabrics, embroidery, lace, etc. represented in fashion. These comparisons can be carried out by usgin objects kept in museums and specialized collections, or through iconographic documents from the era such as miniature fashion figures, archival drawings, or books with models, examples, photographs, etc.
• Games@IULM: Videogames, a form of expression neglected or ignored by academic research for some time, are now considered an innovative and exciting field of study. The conference on May 3rd 2006 at IULM University will discuss the aesthetic and cultural role of videogames in collaboration with Stanford University.
The following projects have been realized over recent years:
• Milan’s San Babila Theatre commissioned and financed a research project entitled Theater Culture on the Internet. The San Babila Theatre. This project dealt with the presentation and communication through modern information technologies of the history and contents of a company that vaunts deep cultural roots in Milan and Italy.
• The Body in Art and Literature: a study of the techniques connected with representing the body (the female body in particular) in both figurative and literary environments. Results of the study, available to students in digital format, were presented through a series of classes in the History of Contemporary Art course.
• Please, hold the line… A multimedia CD-ROM designed to teach business English;
• Ne quittez pas, s’il vous plait… A French multimedia CD-ROM designed to teach business French;
CONFERENCES
Beginning in 1996 as the “Centre for Digital Culture”, the Centre has worked to organize conferences that deal with themes like literary writing and digital culture. These conferences have included the participation of illustrious Italian and foreign professionals from these disciplines. Detailed transcriptions of all presentations were part of the proceedings.
- Congenialità e traduzione, 20 maggio 1996 (Congeniality and Translation) – May 20, 1996
- Internet e le Muse, 14-15 novembre 1996 (Internet and the Muses) – November 14-15, 1996
- Comunità virtuali, 26-27-28 novembre 1997 (Virtual Communities) – November 26-28, 1997
- Il viaggio e la scrittura, 3 maggio 1999 (Travels and Writing) – May 3, 1999
- Arts and Literature in e-Publishing, 19-20 ottobre 1999 (Arts and Literature in e-Publishing) – October 19-20, 1999
PUBLICATIONS
In 1997, the Centre founded the “Internet e le Muse” (Internet and the Muses) series. This book series is overseen by Professor Patrizia Nerozzi Bellman for the Editore Mimesis publishing house, and publishes the results of the Centre’s various research efforts.
The following titles have been published as a part of this series:
Silvia Monti, La multimedialità nell'insegnamento della lingua inglese, Mimesis, Milano 1998.
And also:
Patrizia Nerozzi, Paola Carbone, Monica Lancini, “ Teaching Literature: Linearity, Hypertextuality and Multimediality”, TEXTUS, vol.XVI, 2002
Mara Logaldo, Writing for the Media. A Workshop of Text Analysis and Composition, Arcipelago Edizioni, Milano 2003
" La memoria di Tristram", in Roberta Ferrari (ed.), Gli abissi di Alfeo. La dimensione memoriale nella letteratura in inglese, Ed. ETS, Pisa 2003
MIT, Media Laboratory,Cambridge, MA
GVU Center, Atlanta
Dublin Institute of Technology
ICDC, Liverpool
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Culver City
Hexagram, Canada
CONTACTS
The Humanities Lab is located on the 4th floor of IULM University’s main building.
Via Carlo Bo 1
20143 Milan - Italy
tel. (+39) 02/89.14.12.268/282
fax. (+39) 02/89.14.12.314
E-mail: patrizia.nerozzi@iulm.it
|