136033 SE Digital Experience in the (digital) Humanities (2023S)

The digitisation of cultural heritage and historical data has created previously unimagined possibilities for humanities researchers. We now have instant, online access to databases harvested from museum collections, archives and libraries, and researchers can access and use data and materials stored in any location, at any time, from anywhere in the world.

This opens up the possibility to create new digital experiences that exhibit and curate cultural artefacts in completely new ways. This seminar will engage with the question of digital experience in two ways. At first, we will discuss theoretical texts that deal with media experience and the transformation of experience in the digital realm, most recently the attempts to construct a "metaverse". We will use this theoretical knowledge to reflect on already existing digital projects in the humanities. At second, we will construct multi-media experiences (such as media enriched HTML5 Websites and/or virtual spaces with the game engine Unity), and assess those experiences with methods derived from UX research.

By the end of the semester, students should have an understanding of the concepts behind digital curation, user research, and a practical knowledge of how to create digital multi-media experiences. This will include topics such as:
* Media/experience: what is it?
* HTML5 multi-media applications,
* what are game engines? what can be done with them?
* Foundations of UX testing and research,

Practically, students will be taught the basics of working with tools for digital curation including:
* HTML5,
* Unity Game engine,

Students will also devise their own digital project.