| Summary: |
This project aims to use speculative computing to generate new insights for the study of poetry from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing primarily on
techniques from computational literary studies (CLS) and the digital humanities (DH), we will apply computational methods of text analysis to the works of the Portuguese poet António Ramos Rosa (ARR). In order to tackle current and future societal challenges, we aim to gain insights into how vegetable, animal and mineral actors contribute to a poetic construct that conceives the world from an ecological perspective. To achieve this, we will apply topic modeling techniques to find patterns of recurring or clustered words. This systematic processing will offer us a bird's-eye view of the corpora with this ecocritical formulation in mind. Our key assumption, following a cue from a previous article by Coutinho (2004), is that every book published by ARR concentrates on the natural world to some degree and thus taking the question of nature into account is crucial for a full assessment of his work. TAF aims to contribute to ongoing discussions in CLS and DH by proposing an innovative methodology that is experimental and speculative at its foundation.
With this goal in mind, quantitative text analysis will set in motion a further expansion of our core methodological framework. The project is predicated on a tripartite interpretative move which consists of: (1) the design of digital information visualizations, activating the state-of-the-art in information aesthetics and cultural analytics; (2) the detailed examination of the analytical discoveries and close re-readings of the corpora; (3) the creative works commissioned to invited
artists that will work as simultaneous distant+close creative re-readings of the research object. The results of such endeavors will take the shape of: (1) a
multimedia website; (2) a dozen of articles and conference papers on the subject; (3) an exhibition scheduled to take place near  |
Summary
This project aims to use speculative computing to generate new insights for the study of poetry from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing primarily on
techniques from computational literary studies (CLS) and the digital humanities (DH), we will apply computational methods of text analysis to the works of the Portuguese poet António Ramos Rosa (ARR). In order to tackle current and future societal challenges, we aim to gain insights into how vegetable, animal and mineral actors contribute to a poetic construct that conceives the world from an ecological perspective. To achieve this, we will apply topic modeling techniques to find patterns of recurring or clustered words. This systematic processing will offer us a bird's-eye view of the corpora with this ecocritical formulation in mind. Our key assumption, following a cue from a previous article by Coutinho (2004), is that every book published by ARR concentrates on the natural world to some degree and thus taking the question of nature into account is crucial for a full assessment of his work. TAF aims to contribute to ongoing discussions in CLS and DH by proposing an innovative methodology that is experimental and speculative at its foundation.
With this goal in mind, quantitative text analysis will set in motion a further expansion of our core methodological framework. The project is predicated on a tripartite interpretative move which consists of: (1) the design of digital information visualizations, activating the state-of-the-art in information aesthetics and cultural analytics; (2) the detailed examination of the analytical discoveries and close re-readings of the corpora; (3) the creative works commissioned to invited
artists that will work as simultaneous distant+close creative re-readings of the research object. The results of such endeavors will take the shape of: (1) a
multimedia website; (2) a dozen of articles and conference papers on the subject; (3) an exhibition scheduled to take place near the end of the project.
Our point is that each one of these instances represents a unique interpretative act. No less significantly, these different components will inform and reinforce
one another, opening doorways of knowledge production in crossover domains. What this means is that (1) the aesthetically rich designs we will create from the data findings will not merely serve to display the "numbers" in an attractive manner but rather they will constitute new critical interpretative devices; (2) the conference papers and articles produced by the team are directly linked to previous tasks of the project and build on them to search for new ways of dealing with and contributing to emergent fields such as ecocriticism and new materialisms; (3) the practice-based research models, which as largely demonstrated can serve as independent methods of inquiry, gains when informed by previously prepared and structured data.
When brought together, this cross-pollination of disciplines and techniques contributes to the diversification of the reflexive potential of TAF. Thus, the dialogue between the different approaches will fulfill the project's aim to critically think about its own methods of knowledge production and dissemination. In this regard, although TAF may be considered as a national project due to its scope and particular research object, we expect it will have an international impact when it comes to the original interdisciplinary methods here explored. Our framework not only constitutes an unprecedented crossover between research methods, it also offers the possibility of being replicated and improved to accommodate different corpora and expanded modes of research. |