Jan 19 2023

ADL Student Reflections Seminar, Summer 2023

By UC Arts Digital Lab | Events, Seminars | No Comments

This summer has been a busy one in the Arts Digital Lab, with eight students working in the Lab as Research Assistants, as Summer Scholars or on their own research. In this rapid-fire series of five-minute talks, students will reflect on the projects they’ve been working on. Coming from a wide range of disciplines and qualifications, each has brought a unique perspective to the Lab. Their descriptions of interesting data they’ve come across, skills they’ve acquired, and lessons they’ve learnt will give you an insight into the varied work of the ADL.

Friday 27 January, 1 – 2.30 pm

Logie 401

Download the poster: Arts Digital Lab – Student Reflections Seminar 27 01 23

Nov 24 2022

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Paul Millar – Royal Society Pou Aronui Award 2022

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Professor Paul Millar is the winner of the Royal Society of New Zealand’s 2022 Pou Aronui Award, for distinguished service to humanities-aronui over a sustained period of time.

Paul Millar Royal Society

We’re thrilled to acknowledge Paul’s achievement and very pleased to see the work he has done at UC, particularly with the CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive, which is cited as a major part of his contribution. The CEISMIC project was a huge undertaking at a time of great upheaval at UC and in Ōtautahi, and it played an important role in shaping how digital humanities would develop here over the decade following the earthquakes. Many of us have had opportunities to get involved in digital humanities because of Paul’s leadership of the CEISMIC project, so it means a lot to see his work recognized publicly at the highest level. A common thread running through Paul’s work has been his commitment to the local, both in his work as a literary historian and also in the digital humanities projects where he has built local, digital collections of great significance to New Zealanders.

Is ‘Spot’ a good dog? Why we’re right to worry about unleashing robot quadrupeds

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When it comes to dancing, pulling a sled, climbing stairs or doing tricks, “Spot” is definitely a good dog. It can navigate the built environment and perform a range of tasks, clearly demonstrating its flexibility as a software and hardware platform for commercial use.

Viral videos of Boston Dynamics’ robotic quadruped showcasing those abilities have been a key pillar of its marketing strategy. But earlier this year, when a New York art collective harnessed Spot to make a different point, the company was quick to deny its potential for harm.

Mar 22 2021

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Arts Digital Lab Seminar: From robot quadrupeds to drone swarms: using digital methods to analyse debates on lethal autonomous weapons

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From robot quadrupeds to drone swarms: using digital methods to analyse debates on lethal autonomous weapons

Dr Geoff Ford, Digital Humanities / Political Science and International Relations
Associate Professor Jeremy Moses, Political Science and International Relations

In this seminar we will discuss our recent research on robot quadrupeds and drone swarms. This research has involved collecting and analysing large data-sets of texts using digital methods. We will talk about how we have gone about the research, some of the tools we have built, some of our findings, and implications for debates about regulating lethal autonomous weapons. We will also consider how digital methods complement traditional scholarship in the study of international relations.

About the ‘Mapping LAWS’ project:

Controversy around the development, regulation and use of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), or ‘killer robots’, has rapidly developed over the past decade. The ‘Mapping LAWS’ project uses methods and tools associated with ‘issue mapping’ to gather large digital datasets of published writing on LAWS, present the results in accessible visual formats inspired by the principles of ‘data humanism’, and analyse key international relations and policy-related issues that arise from that process.