Dealing with the complexity deluge: VREs in the arts and humanities

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to review the concept of the virtual research environment (VRE) in the light of its development over the past five years, and assess its applicability to the arts and humanities disciplines.Design/methodology/approach – Evidence from a number of case studies exemplifying the VRE approach is reviewed, and the case of a VRE in archaeology, the Silchester Roman Town project, is discussed in detail. The interpretive implications of using computers as a means of dealing with artistic and humanistic data, are highlighted.Findings – There is a critical comparison to be drawn between VREs in the sciences and the humanities/arts. This is caused by the “fuzzy” nature of data and workflows in the latter, as compared with the more formal and definable research practice in the former. It is proposed that, to deal with this, the plan of any project which seeks to set up a VRE in the humanities should consider the research process under three headings: processes which the VRE seeks to ...

[1]  Helen Bailey,et al.  Choreographic morphologies: digital visualisation of spatio-temporal structure in dance and the implications for performance and documentations , 2008, EVA.

[2]  Michael A. Fraser.  Virtual Research Environments: Overview and Activity , 2005 .

[3]  Nicholas R. Jennings,et al.  Supporting formation and operation of virtual organisations in a grid environment , 2004 .

[4]  Anne E. Trefethen,et al.  Cyberinfrastructure for e-Science , 2005, Science.

[5]  William Kilbride,et al.  Grand challenges: Grand opportunities? archaeology, the historic environment sector and the E-science programme , 2006 .

[6]  Brian M. Fagan,et al.  Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice , 1992 .

[7]  Michael Fulford,et al.  Silchester Roman Town Insula IX: the development of an urban property c. AD 40-50 - c. AD 250 , 2007 .

[8]  Ian Hodder,et al.  ‘Always momentary, fluid and flexible’: towards a reflexive excavation methodology , 1997, Antiquity.

[9]  Michael F. Goodchild,et al.  What does Google Earth Mean for the Social Sciences , 2008 .

[10]  Mark Baker,et al.  VERA: A Virtual Environment for Research in Archaeology , 2008 .

[11]  J. Unsworth.  Our Cultural Commonwealth: The report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences , 2006 .

[12]  Keith W. Kintigh,et al.  The Promise and Challenge of Archaeological Data Integration , 2005, American Antiquity.

[13]  David Charles De Roure,et al.  myExperiment: social networking for workflow-using e-scientists , 2007, WORKS '07.

[14]  Michael Fulford,et al.  Promoting inclusion: facilitating access to the Silchester ‘town life’ project , 2004 .