As digital technology has become ubiquitous and more an more data is becoming available in electronic form, we are witnessing what Berry calls a “computational turn in the humanities”. Computational humanities use digital tools and computational techniques to explore new modes of doing research in the humanities.
Computational humanities deal with the following questions:
- How can humanities data - which is traditionally interpreted in an idiographic, hermeneutic way - be modeled in a way it becomes available for computational, empiric analyses?
- How can existing scholarly practices in the humanities be enhanced by digital tools and algorithmic approaches that enable new, quantitative perspectives on research topics in the humanities?
- How can we analyze and document our born digital cultural heritage - e.g video games, YouTube videos, Tweets, etc.? What are the requirements for digital tools and infrastructures?