Building Open-Source Digital Curation Services and Repositories at Scale

The focus of this article is to share several in-progress research and development open-source approaches that seek to design, build, and test digital curation services and repositories that have the potential to scale (the IMLS-funded Fedora DRAS-TIC and the NSF-funded Brown Dog). We also discuss the creation of a big records testbed of justice, human rights, and cultural heritage collections (100 TB and 100 million records), the emergence of Computational Archival Science (CAS), and the resulting efforts at integrating digital curation education and research. We ultimately seek to develop a sustainable community of users and developers, with solutions that serve the international library, archives, and scientific data management communities. We are also focused on digital curation training and education in these innovative environments

Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning as Practical Toolsets for Archival Processing

Peer ReviewedPurpose – This study aims to provide an overview of recent efforts relating to natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning applied to archival processing, particularly appraisal and sensitivity reviews, and propose functional requirements and workflow considerations for transitioning from experimental to operational use of these tools. Design/methodology/approach – The paper has four main sections. 1) A short overview of the NLP and machine learning concepts referenced in the paper. 2) A review of the literature reporting on NLP and machine learning applied to archival processes. 3) An overview and commentary on key existing and developing tools that use NLP or machine learning techniques for archives. 4) This review and analysis will inform a discussion of functional requirements and workflow considerations for NLP and machine learning tools for archival processing. Findings – Applications for processing e-mail have received the most attention so far, although most initiatives have been experimental or project based. It now seems feasible to branch out to develop more generalized tools for born-digital, unstructured records. Effective NLP and machine learning tools for archival processing should be usable, interoperable, flexible, iterative and configurable. Originality/value – Most implementations of NLP for archives have been experimental or project based. The main exception that has moved into production is ePADD, which includes robust NLP features through its named entity recognition module. This paper takes a broader view, assessing the prospects and possible directions for integrating NLP tools and techniques into archival workflows

How not to return to normal

In a March 2020 article published in Le Monde, Bruno Latour defined the Covid-19 emergency as "the big rehearsal" for the larger disaster to come: one that extends to all forms of life on Earth. The ongoing crisis, in his eyes, becomes both a risk and an opportunity to trial and develop new action plans necessary for the continuation of life. "The pandemic is a portal," wrote author Arundhati Roy a few days later, calling for a more equitable and sustainable post-pandemic future. The pandemic is an opportunity for un-learning and changing direction, particularly in how we approach risk and disaster. The dominant narrative for politicians and the media, however, is one of “returning to normal” as soon as possible, bouncing back, relying on established models of resilience based on the management of economic risk. They are also rehearsing, or modelling, worst- or best-case scenarios. Artists, designers, and institutions are shaping discourses around the growing extinguishment of our resources, but also performing, visualising, simulating and modelling responses to possible risks and imagining resilience differently. Design and art can foster new visions, pilot new modes of communication and knowledge sharing, and drive the interdisciplinary collaborations necessary to address common issues. This panel explores ways in which art and design practices can be mobilized to transform current approaches to risk and disaster in imaginative, sustainable and equitable ways. The papers selected for this session reflect a need to reassess, reframe, and reimagine the roles of museums, art and design, and thus contribute to a space for critical reflection to inform action, strategy, and practices. It is important to remember that our fields are far from immune from being complicit in the creation and reinforcement of the kinds of inequalities and injustices that have been made even more unmistakably clear in the last year: as Sasha Costanza-Shock, author of the book Design Justice, has pointed out, designers are ‘often unwittingly reproducing the existing structure of [...] who's going to benefit the most and who's going to be harmed the most by the tools or the objects or the systems or the buildings or spaces that we're designing.’ The urge to respond in an emergency, whether it's a design challenge in the context of COVID 19 or exhibition on climate change, requires space for critical thinking, inclusive conversation and production. This necessity comes across on the three papers brought together for this panel, and in the opening presentation by Emily Candela and Francesca Cavallo

Updates

Richard Bud Meade worked in Human Resources at the College at Brockport from 1968-2000. He knew many of our faculty and staff and in retirement he began to circulate an email newsletter which passed on stories and news about various college retirees. This remarkable, ongoing project has captured a tremendous amount of information about the folks who built the college over the last 50 years. This collection of his Update is searchable, and covers from the beginning in 2001 up to August, 2020. More will be added as time goes on..

21st International Congress of Aesthetics, Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media, Book of Abstracts

The Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade and the Society for Aesthetics of Architecture and Visual Arts of Serbia (DEAVUS) are proud to be able to organize the 21st ICA Congress on “Possible Worlds of Contemporary Aesthetics: Aesthetics Between History, Geography and Media”. We are proud to announce that we received over 500 submissions from 56 countries, which makes this Congress the greatest gathering of aestheticians in this region in the last 40 years. The ICA 2019 Belgrade aims to map out contemporary aesthetics practices in a vivid dialogue of aestheticians, philosophers, art theorists, architecture theorists, culture theorists, media theorists, artists, media entrepreneurs, architects, cultural activists and researchers in the fields of humanities and social sciences. More precisely, the goal is to map the possible worlds of contemporary aesthetics in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia. The idea is to show, interpret and map the unity and diverseness in aesthetic thought, expression, research, and philosophies on our shared planet. Our goal is to promote a dialogue concerning aesthetics in those parts of the world that have not been involved with the work of the International Association for Aesthetics to this day. Global dialogue, understanding and cooperation are what we aim to achieve. That said, the 21st ICA is the first Congress to highlight the aesthetic issues of marginalised regions that have not been fully involved in the work of the IAA. This will be accomplished, among others, via thematic round tables discussing contemporary aesthetics in East Africa and South America. Today, aesthetics is recognized as an important philosophical, theoretical and even scientific discipline that aims at interpreting the complexity of phenomena in our contemporary world. People rather talk about possible worlds or possible aesthetic regimes rather than a unique and consistent philosophical, scientific or theoretical discipline

Morphometric Analysis of Variation in Human Proximal Long Bones Within and Between Populations

Morphological variation and reactivity in human bone underpins many research questions in palaeopathology, osteoarchaeology, and anthropology. Studies on the post-crania primarily pertain to the cross-sectional geometry and epiphyseal or joint morphology and diaphyseal curvature. Very few studies address diaphyseal surface morphology. This study aims to quantify morphology of the epiphyses, diaphyseal surface morphology, and cross-sectional morphology of human proximal long bones in relation to interpopulation and intrapopulation variables including sex, age, childhood stress indicators, and pathology. To provide some diversity in geography and temporality this research uses skeletons selected from the English medieval cemeteries of St. Guthlac’s Priory, Hereford and Fishergate House, York, the Sudanese medieval cemetery 3-J-18 from Mis Island, and the English postmedieval cemetery Coach Lane, North Shields. Cross-sectional geometry was collected via digital sectioning of 3D scans and morphological information was collected using Geometric Morphometrics. The resulting morphological and geometric sets were compared against inter and intrapopulation variables and qualitatively compared to each other to determine which limb and what part of its proximal bone is most reactive to given variables. Morphological variation with intra and interpopulation variables was found, and its expression varied with size, age, population, bone, and morphological or geometric set. Age and morphology vary together in both epiphyseal and diaphyseal morphology, but do not appear as related in values for cross—sectional geometry. Likewise stress indicators do vary with the morphology of the diaphysis or epiphyses but the strength of their relationship often relies on the population sampled. This suggests a wealth of impact on morphology from environment, ontogenetic trajectory and development, population affinity, health, sex, life history, and age. This research highlights variation in reactivity in different anatomical areas. Crucially, this research demonstrates the morphological plasticity of the diaphyseal surface which for some variables was very reactive and is presently largely unexamined

Out of Place

Broad in scope, Out of Place: Artists, Pedagogy, and Purpose presents an overview of the different paths taken by artists and artist collectives as they navigate their way from formative experiences into pedagogy. Focusing on the realms in- and outside the academy (the places and persons involved in post-secondary education) and the multiple forms and functions of pedagogy (practices of learning and instruction), the contributions in this volume engage individual and collective artistic practices as they adapt to meet the factors and historical conditions of the people and communities they serve through solidarity, equity, and creativity. With this critically, historicist approach in mind, the contributions in Out of Place historicize, study, critique, revise, reframe, and question the academy, its operations and exclusions. The extensive range of contributions, emphasizing community-oriented projects both inside and outside the United States, is grouped into three overarching categories: artists who work in academic institutions but whose social and pedagogical engagement extends beyond the walls of the academy; artists who engage in pedagogical initiatives or forms of institutional critique that were established outside of an art school or university setting; and artist–scholars who are doing transformative and inter/transdisciplinary work within their respective institutions. Collectives and projects represented in Out of Place comprise Art Practical, Axis Lab, BFAMFAPhD, Beta-Local, Black Lunch Table Project, The Black School, The Center for Undisciplined Research, Devening Projects, ds4si, Elsewhere, Ghana ThinkTank, Gudskul, The Icebox Project Space, Las Hermanas Iglesias, The Laundromat Project, Occupy Museums, Peebls, PlantBot Genetics, Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts, Related Tactics, Side by Side, ‘sindikit, Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative, and Tiger Strikes Asteriod