In recent years, audiovisual content, with its growing accessibility, rich hidden meanings, and complexity in modality, became a new frontier for research in humanities and computational domains. The quest for properly and meaningfully opening up the variety of information (such as historical, social, affective, and aesthetic) available in the ever-increasing audiovisual materials requires a collective effort from both sides to co-create not only new methods but also new research questions. This 2-day workshop, covering both the theoretical and practical aspects of processing and utilising audiovisual data, provides an entry point and a test field for researchers working on digital humanities, audiovisual content understanding, and HCI to formulate and validate new ideas.

Presentation

In recent years, audiovisual content, with its growing accessibility, rich hidden meanings, and complexity in modality, became a new frontier for research in humanities and computational domains. The quest for properly and meaningfully opening up the variety of information (such as historical, social, affective, and aesthetic) available in the ever-increasing audiovisual materials requires a collective effort from both sides to co-create not only new methods but also new research questions. This 2-day workshop, covering both the theoretical and practical aspects of processing and utilising audiovisual data, provides an entry point and a test field for researchers working on digital humanities, audiovisual content understanding, and HCI to formulate and validate new ideas.

Who we are looking for:

We welcome students and researchers who are curious in:

1. introducing audiovisual data as materials for humanities and sociological studies.
2. developing and improving computational methods for processing and extracting features from audiovisual content with real-world applications.
3. scoping creative and artistic data-driven experiences and interaction. 

Lecturers

• Prof. Marina Hassapopoulou, New York University
• Ingrid Mason, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
• Prof. Matthias Grotkopp, Freie Universität Berlin
• Prof. Mark Williams & Dr John P. Bell, Dartmouth College
• Dr Luca Rossetto, University of Zurich

Download the full programme with bio and abstract

Learning outcome

By the end of the course, the student will be able to:

1.  Have an overview of the methods and paradigms for using audiovisual materials for various studies

2. Being able to formulate research questions more comfortably to critically engage with audiovisual content as a source of information.

3. Identify, apply, or develop appropriate computational methods to process and extract features from audiovisual content.

Course deliverables

1. A 10-15 mins (group) presentation on the initial outcome, developed from the workshop or your ongoing related research, at the end of the course. 
2. An initial (group) report recording the formulation and the iteration of the proposed work, documenting the lessons learned and efforts made, submitted after the course. 
3. An extended abstract with elaborated and specific research questions and proposed future work that surfaced during this course in their own research field and interest (cultural studies, computational methods, HCI, etc.), submitted after the course.

Participants who complete all workshop assignments will receive 2 ECTS credits. EPFL participants will be automatically registered with the ISA, while participants from other universities will receive a credit certificate.

Application

Interested applicants should apply using this Google form.

Workshop registration is free. For participants travelling from outside of Lausanne, a subsidy for travel and accommodation for a maximum of CHF 350 can be provided on a selective base.

The deadline for submitting the application form is 15^th August 2023. 

The result will be communicated via email to each applicant by Early September 2023.

Selecting committee

• Prof. Marina Hassapopoulou, New York University
• Ingrid Mason, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
• Prof. Matthias Grotkopp, Freie Universität Berlin
• Prof. Mark Williams & Dr John P. Bell, Dartmouth College
• Dr Luca Rossetto, University of Zurich