Announcing this week’s seminar in the Digital Classicist & Institute of Classical Studies Summer seminars for 2013:

Valeria Vitale (King’s College London)
An Ontology for 3D Visualisation in Cultural Heritage

Friday June 14 at 16:30
Room G37, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

Behind each scholarly 3D visualisation is a thorough study of records, iconography, literary sources, artistic canons and precedents. However, this research process is seldom visible in the final outcome to either the general public or the academy. This paper suggests the use of an RDF ontology to describe 3D models, identify relationships, and connect them to their diverse related sources (photographs, GIS coordinates, academic literature, etc.). If such an ontology can be derived and applied it will optimise the documentation process, and further, allow 3D visualisations to join and enrich the growing network of linked digital resources to study the past.

The seminar will be followed by wine and refreshments.

All are welcome

The full 2013 programme is at http://digiclass.cch.kcl.ac.uk/wip/wip2013.html

Posted by: Simon Mahony (s.mahony@ucl.ac.uk).

Dear colleagues,

Digital Medievalist will be holding elections at the end of June for four positions to its Executive Board. Board positions are for two year terms and incumbents may be re-elected (for a maximum of three terms in a row). Members of the Board are responsible for the overall direction of the organisation and leading the Digital Medievalist’s many projects and programmes. This is a working board, and so it would be expected that you are willing and able to commit a little bit of time to helping Digital Medievalist undertake some of its activities (such as helping to run its its journal, conference sessions, etc.). For further information about the Executive and Digital Medievalist more generally please see the DM website, particularly:

– http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/about.html
– http://www.digitalmedievalist.org/bylaws.html

We are now seeking nominations (including self-nominations) for the annual elections. In order to be eligible for election, candidates must be members of Digital Medievalist (membership is conferred simply by subscription to the organisation’s mailing list, dm-l) and have made some demonstrable contribution either to the DM project (e.g. to the mailing list, or the wiki, etc.), or generally to the field of digital medieval studies.

If you are interested in running for these positions or are able to recommend a suitable candidate, please contact the returning officers, Orietta Da Rold (odr1@leicester.ac.uk) and Takako Kato (TakakoKato123@gmail.com) who will treat your nomination or enquiries in confidence. The nomination period will close at 0000 UTC on Tuesday June 19 and elections will be held by electronic ballot through the whole of the week starting 28 June, 2013.

Best wishes,

Orietta and Takako

Posted by: Takako Kato (TakakoKato123@gmail.com).

The first of this Summer’s Digital Classicist & Institute of Classical Studies seminars is this Friday.

Tom Brughmans (University of Southampton)
‘Exploring visibility networks in Iron Age and Roman Southern Spain with Exponential Random Graph Models’

Friday June 7 at 16:30
Room G37, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU

Are lines of sight between Roman towns important for explaining their location? Through a case study on visibility patterns between urban settlements in Iron Age and Roman Southern Spain, this paper will discuss how Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) can help explore hypothetical past processes of interaction and site location. With these models the frequency of certain subnetworks in random networks and the empirically attested network is compared, to examine the probability that the subnetworks might have emerged through random processes. This paper will critically evaluate the potential and limitations of such an approach for archaeology.

The seminar will be followed by wine and refreshments.

All are welcome.

The full 2013 programme is at http://digiclass.cch.kcl.ac.uk/wip/wip2013.html

Posted by: Simon Mahony (s.mahony@ucl.ac.uk).