William J. Turkel

Intervention: Hacking history, from analogue to digital and back again

The process of digitization creates a representation that shares some of the attributes of an original, but not all of them. Which attributes are preserved is not an essential trait of digitization per se, only of a particular process. Technologies that are not frequently used by historians, for example, could allow us to capture and recreate the smells of documents, foods, artefacts and environments. Rather than concentrating on the properties of digital representations as such, historians are encouraged to think in terms of transduction, the conversion of energy from one form to another. From this perspective, new possibilities can be found for creative research and expression which integrate affective history with more traditional modes of understanding.

Grounding Digital History in the History of Computing

In this brief article, we use the relatively recent publication of a number of books on the subject as a launching point to argue that digital history should be grounded in the history of computing.

The Old Bailey Proceedings, 1674–1913: text mining for evidence of court behavior

The shortest trial report in the Old Bailey Proceedings is precisely eight words in length. In February, 1685: Elizabeth Draper, Indicted for Felony, was found Guilty.