The CulturePlex Lab
@ Western University
2 | Internal use only2 |
Dr. Juan Luis Suarez (Director of the CulturePlex Lab)
Research:
•Complexity (complexity theory) in cultural systems
•Hispanic Baroque
•Digital Humanities
•Technologies of Humanism
•Globalization and new literatures
•History of ideas
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The Hispanic Baroque through Complexity Theory
The Hispanic Baroque:
•the lab to trace the interactions that created the
cultural complexity of the Hispanic Baroque and that
allow for their reproduction in and transfer to other
cultural settings.
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The Hispanic Baroque through Complexity Theory
Complexity Theory:
•apply selected ideas such as "emergence," "dynamic
stability," or "efficiency” to analyze three spheres of
baroque culture:
• the baroque constitution,
• the baroque religious expressions,
• urban aspects of the baroque.
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Why study the Hispanic Baroque?
• fundamental contribution to our understanding of
complexity in contemporary societies,
characterized by the increase of information flows
and crossings over cultural and national
boundaries.
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How do we study the Baroque and complex cultures in general?
Applying new computing tools
• store and analyze large amounts of cultural data and
texts from which new models of cultural complexities
at different scales are produced.
• explaining the flow of cultural ideas across time and
space.
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Why is it important to develop knowledge about culture?
• Humans are cultural.
“… the well-being of nations is increasingly being defined
by the ability to develop and advance knowledge. In
other words, knowledge – as opposed to military might
or GDP – is gaining momentum as the new currency
and passport to success.”
-- David Johnston
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The CulturePlex Laboratory
Physical space
• appropriate computer infrastructure
• interactive space for collaboration among
researchers
Objective
• Create tools that can become services and
products for the community.
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What we do at the CulturePlex Lab?
Among many other things …
•track the origin and spread of baroque culture
•use computers to facilitate second-language learning
•develop new ways to catalogue digital objects
•create powerful software systems that make it
possible to manage creative and humanistic content
in the web 2.0.
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How we do it?
• build and adapt the computer tools needed to
enhance our analysis and offer the best
visualization of the most complex cultural
processes:
• agent-based modeling,
• topic maps,
• databases,
• natural language processing
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The CulturePlex Approach to doing research:
• Collaborative
• a strong international team (Spain, Mexico, India,
Australia)
• Multidisciplinary
• specialists in Cultural Transfers, Literary History,
Mathematics, Art History, Architecture, Sociology,
History, Anthropology, Music, and Complexity Theory
• Knowledge Mobilization
• Conferences, community involvement, social media,
publications, student training.
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The VL3: A Virtual Language Learning Lab
• Multidisciplinary project that brings together the fields of Digital Humanities, Theoretical Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Pedagogy and Spoken Dialogue Systems.
• Objective: to develop a prototype of a virtual laboratory for foreign language learning where learners will have the opportunity to improve their communicative skills through a predefined set of real communicative scenarios.
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Dr. Glearning
• Mobile learning games application with content customizable by professors of any discipline.
• Objective: making learning available outside of the classroom and the computer lab.
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Yutzu
Collaborative online space that allows the user to collect content, collaborate with teammates and communicate with people everywhere.
Objective: allow for compilation of different multimedia information on the Web into one organized portfolio (Yutzu).
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Global Observatory of Culture
A website that collects, measures and analyzes
cultural objects according to a previously defined set
of properties (of the object).
Objective: establish a theory of cultural borders
today by studying how cultural objects of one culture
are assimilated by another and how does it get
transferred to the next.
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The next step:
A Curriculum of Digital Humanities @ Western
•The institutionalization of an undergraduate
curriculum of digital humanities to effectively
implement digital literacy among Canadian students.
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The CulturePlex as a Canadian research institution
“Canadians can play an important role in the global
knowledge society. Our challenge is to renew our
commitment to the principles of scientific learning
that have served us well in the past, while drawing on
the best thinking in navigating the changes ahead.”
-- David Johnston, Governor General of Canada
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Thank you!
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