The conceptual and empirical research of the Junior Professorship (Image /Object) is divided into three interconnected areas of focus: (1) 3D/4D imagery, (2) Digital Heritage & Humanities, and (3) Humanities & Social Science & Computing.
In addition, the junior professorship is interested in teaching research in order to build digital skills, especially in self-directed learning. Furthermore, the junior professorship is involved in the European Time Machine initiativeExternal link.
(1) 3D/4D images
Increasingly, digital 3D reconstructions are used to visualize art and architecture. They are a tool for research and communication in the Digital Humanities and a central research subject of our junior professorship. As part of this focus, we are developing, for example, a 3D digital viewer infrastructure for 3D reconstructions in historical studies.
4D visualizations enable the representation of temporal developments of monuments. In 4D modeling and image analysis, we are also looking at AI-based computer vision methods to recognize and process objects in digital imagery.
This opens up new ways to analyze historical photographs.
(2) Digital Heritage & Humanities
Digital Heritage Studies follow an object-oriented approach that deals with the preservation, research, and communication of digital heritage. Within the framework of this research area, we focus on photographs and illustrations of architecture that are relevant to many historical disciplines. For this, we use AI-based methods and also work on how these affect the humanities research process.
A core competency of our junior professorship is community research. As part of this, we deal with the data-based identification of trends and developments within the digital humanities. For this purpose, we use, for example, scientometrics, the quantitative investigation of scholarly activities. This is closely related to bibliometrics (measurement of scholarly publications). Since 2010, we have been conducting bibliometric analyses and identifying the most important actors in digital heritage studies. For this purpose, we have analyzed over 3,900 publications in the research field. In the area of trend analysis, for example, we have investigated whether new scientific topics in digital heritage studies can be identified at an early stage.
(3) Humanities & Social Science & Computing
The research focus focuses on the influence of digitization on the humanities and social sciences: Will digitization change the humanities and social sciences? This question is addressed by the subfield of Digital Epistemics. We also deal with interdisciplinary epistemic cultures and how scientific knowledge is produced.
In our user research, we work for instance on how researchers interact with digital information.