Issues in digital representation of knowledge in the Humanities: Some

examplesChristos Chatzimichail

Helen GoulisDora Konstantellou

Irakleitos SouyioultzoglouYorgos Tzedopoulos

Academy of AthensNational and Kapodistrian University of Athens

• Restructuring Knowledge/State of the Art

• ‘Invasion’ of information technologies in the Humanities

• Need to restructure the traditional classification systems

• Need to develop coherent information schemata

• Need to develop structured knowledge representation systems

Building Thesauri for the Humanities: Processes and needs

Thesaurus Maintenance Working Group (DARIAH-EU):Aims

• Establish an overarching thesaurus for the Humanities

• Identify the top-level-concepts (facets and hierarchies) that will become its common basis, meeting the demands for objectivity and interdisciplinarity

• Define the essential properties of the general concepts in order to render the classification consistent and objective

• Facilitate sustainable and manageable expansion of the thesauri into new areas of knowledge

Content providers: Academy of Athens, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens School of Fine Arts

Academic fields: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and History of Art, Classics, History and Philosophy of Science, Linguistics, Modern Greek Literature, Modern History, Ottoman Studies, Philosophy, Theatre &Theatre Studies

Digital infrastructure developer: ICS-FORTH

Thesaurus for the Humanities (DYAS)

Issues of knowledge representation IComprehensibility of terminology and definitions

Virgin Paraklesis (The Virgin intercessor ) This type shows the Virgin almost in profile holding a scroll on which are inscribed the words of a dialogue with Christ in which she pleads for mankind. Christ’s image is often included in the upper corner. Related terms: Virgin Hasiorotissa, Virgin Eleousa, Deisis

Virgin Blachernitissa /Platytera /EpiskepsisThis type shows the Virgin orans with a bust of Christ Emmanuel in a medallion on her breast. The context of the image must play a role in determining the specific meanings to be associated with the type. The term episkepsis, derived probably from the word skepe, underlines the protective role of the Virgin’s robe, or maphorion.

Issues of knowledge representation IIInherent symbolic meaning

Saint Sebastian (1480) by the Early Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna, the Louvre Museum

Japan’s best known author, poet, playwright, actor, and film director of the 20th century Yukio Mishima posing as Saint Sebastian

Issues of knowledge representation IIIAmbiguity

Toga: The distinctive garment of Ancient Rome possibly deriving from the Etruscans. It was established by Augustus as the main garment of the (male) Roman worn at the forum and political gatherings. The toga was seldom worn by young women as well. Under the toga the Romans wore a short tunic (tunica). It differed according to the quality of the fabric and the colouring indicative of a differentiated social class, or administrative office. The form and way of wearing the toga changed throughout time. Initially it was a semi-circular fabric worn diagonally from the right leg to the right shoulder, leaving the right hand bare and reaching till the middle of the shin, without the two angles (laciniai) extending till the ground (toga exiqua). During the Augustan times the toga becomes bigger and is worn like the Greek rectangular himation covering also the right hand (togatus bracchio cohibito). From the time of Augustus onwards the toga’s size becomes bigger (with a length of 4,8 to 5 metres for a man of 1,8 m. height).

Along the straight selvage is added one more part of cloth in the shape of an arc, which is folded back and gives the toga a particularly opulent shape as it forms a second group of round creases at the right side (sinus). The contour of this part of the garment is usually formed as a scarlet stripe (toga praetexta). The part of the garment that leads from the angle (lacinia) between the legs to the right shoulder is wrapped above the part leading from the right hip to the left shoulder forming the umbo. This variation of the toga, known as “imperial”, lasted until the 4th century AD. From the 3rd century AD, though, the umbo becomes bigger in size and is carefully folded back at the length of the scarlet stripe. Thus it takes the shape of a wide straight band from the breast until the arm (contabulatio).

The initial definition of a roman garment under the hierarchy of conceptual objects:

Issues of knowledge representation IVRecapitulation: Need for intersubjectivity

Since a classification may be based on any set of properties that can be attributed to the

terms being classified, it is essential to identify correctly the various properties of each

concept from different angles or disciplines. In the framework of a thesaurus for the

Humanities, interdisciplinarity, in order to be functional, needs an intersubjective approach

that also aims at preserving the semantic layers of the terms.

Methodological Axes

• Provide and manage content

• Embed the content into different contexts, by preserving in the definition only the relevant information for each discipline

• Clarity of information (content providers)

• Building of a structure depicting the semantic categorization of the content (knowledge engineers)

• Collaboration of humanists with knowledge engineers

Modus OperandiFocusing on the essential properties

Hierarchy: Epochs>Artistic movements>Realism

Realism in art (applied in visual arts, theatre, and literature) is the portrayal of scenes, objects, and people in ways that are immediately intelligible to the viewer, spectator or reader, with the themes focusing on the reality of life as it is, without idealisation.

Realism was an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic Movement. Instead it sought to portray real and typical contemporary people and situations with truth and accuracy, and not avoiding unpleasant or sordid aspects of life.

Modus OperandiManaging the differences of meaning

Theatre: Building having a stage or projection screen for the presentation of dramatic performances and providing seating areas for spectators.Material Objects>Built environment>Buildings

Theatre: A collaborative form of art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance.Activities>Disciplines>Production of works and/or phenomena of aesthetic value

Migration (human)Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another with the intention of settling temporarily or permanently in the new location.

Migration (Zoology)Seasonal migrations occur in many species of insects, birds, marine mammals, and large herbivorous mammals. These migrations often provide the animals with more favorable conditions of temperature, food, or water.

Other fields: Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Information Science

Within the same discipline Across disciplines

Modus OperandiSemantic breakdown by using polyhierarchical terms

The multidimensional character of communities:

Community (propositional object) The conceptual scheme that refers to the nexus of common values, perceptions and actions that characterize collectivities and groups. The conceptual construction of the community concerns the composition of collective identities and the emergence of symbolic boundaries, which shape the consciousness of common belonging into a distinct and coherent whole.

Communities (institutions)The conception and establishment of communities as institutionalized vehicles of collective identity that perform concrete operations and develop distinct power hierarchies, organizational structures, and forms of reproduction.

Communities (social groups)Groups of persons who are interconnected through immediate and constant relations, recognize and display their common cultural and/or social features. Communities are socially constructed and reproduced through the interaction of their members.

Communities (collectivities) Groups of persons who are constructed on the basis of common aims, cultural and/or social features, and are characterized by common beliefs, perceptions and practices, as well as by collectively accepted values and orientations.

Communities (geopolitical entities)Administrative units that include a settlement with its immediate territory. They are managed by persons and bodies elected by the inhabitants.

Modus OperandiIntersubjectivity/Interdisciplinarity

Social classes from a historical

Social classes (Groups and collectivities): Social groups, the members of which have a similar position in regard to productive activity and socio-political power relations, and share common interests.

and a sociological point of view:

Social classes (Propositional object): The conceptual schemes, which emerged in the context of the industrial revolution and the formation of modern nation states, and refer to the classification of society in social groups according to their position in economic production, power relations and the formation of common interests.

• Descriptive adequacy for the intended domain

• Technically “good” definitions may result in loss of meaning and detach data from their context

• Development of semantically-rich vocabularies

• Avoid ambiguity leading to misinterpretations by the users, i.e. clarity of meaning

• Interdisciplinarity

• Scalability

Thesauri building in the Humanities:Prospects and Challenges