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Innovative Digital Humanists Interpret the Resourceful Past in Göttingen
Athor: Zane Šime, Affiliated Researcher, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
CC BY Martin Liebetruth, Göttingen State and University Library
The DARIAH Annual Event 2025 proved that the past is a complex and multifaceted contemporary intellectual endeavour. DARIAH transforms various facets of the past into a living and fluid present. DARIAH members and occasional contributors position the past as an indispensable source for designing a sustainable, human-centric and evocative future. Various methods, practices, workflows and tools discussed throughout numerous presentations illustrated that the data concerning the distant, recent past and even present is a source of inspiration and creative data curation overtures. Numerous presenters explained eloquent data processing techniques. Oftentimes, these novaturient meaning-making ventures captured fascinating visual depictions. These are intellectually and technologically gripping performances concerning where the European society in its full diversity can find the next groundbreaking and internationally pioneering pathways to meet the contemporary societal challenges. Digital humanists and experts inspired by various strands of digital humanities demonstrated that meticulous work with data fine-tuning, thorough metadata reviews and careful choice of visual projection patterns delivers beguilingly new meanings, pathfinder contexts and captivating angles concerning well-known literary classics, art masterpieces and seemingly dull information repositories.
The concluding discussions revolved around the European importance of DARIAH’s intellectual accomplishments. DARIAH is a highly resourceful, intellectually nimble, multi-nationally unique and internationally renowned European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). DARIAH was positioned by Edward J. Gray as an embodiment of contemporary accomplishments guided by the Schuman’s 1950 vision of a Europe built through concrete achievements and a shared commitment to a concerted effort. Thereby, many of the highly technical and niche expertise elaborations presented over three days gained an additional context and meaning. The progression of DARIAH is an embodiment of the rapidly solidifying new supranationally guided elements of the European project. Dariahans are some of the most intriguing builders of contemporary Europe. They engage in this societally salient cause without pathos. Dariahans construct new pan-European dimensions of the ‘ever closer union’ in a joint rhythm and via effortless complementarities. They structurally dissect and visually overhaul narratives to attune the incremental construction of Europe to the contemporary exigencies emanating from various parts of the globe.
CC BY Martin Liebetruth, Göttingen State and University Library
In essence, DARIAH’s get-together in Göttingen captured a thought-provoking intellectual ‘home’, namely a compelling intellectual site to return to or look forward to coming back to. DARIAH’s creative magnitude and friendly atmosphere reverberate the attractiveness and polyvalence of the European Research Area. DARIAH is characterised by cordiality across several generations of researchers. This community ensures that conversations across scientific disciplines develop incrementally and easily. DARIAH’s jokes on recommended summer holiday reading of recently published academic books and enquiries concerning one’s mood with a phrasing of ‘How’s your metadata doing?’ capture the dedication to the digital trials and errors, as well as diverse pursuits of innovativeness in many areas of humanities. The annual meeting is an amicable setting for various talents to thrive and diverse ideas to gain a more amplified resonance.
Obviously, each centimetre of Göttingen’s territory and architectural contours is characterised by a dense layer of acclaimed history and the inception of various strands of scientific excellence. However, Göttingen is not a mausoleum of former academic inventiveness that was explained during several guided tours. The DARIAH meeting exemplifies that Göttingen displays certain characteristics of a vibrant and trailblazing European craftspace. As a host of the DARIAH Annual Event 2025, Göttingen becomes even more internationally known for outstanding consultations concerning new ways of making heritage visible in new electronic shapes and forms. Furthermore, the DARIAH meeting made archival documentation more visually expressive to its audiences. The gathering positioned repositories of relics in a more graphically revealing way. DARIAH succeeded in showcasing digitally born material in a more structurally multifunctional way. Consequently, preoccupation with the past distils the intellectual dedication to a trailblazing future. After all, it is the shared vision of the future for internationally outstanding humanities scholarship that this meeting is contributing to. This academic devotion has direct implications for future-proofing the contemporary European way of life. DARIAH’s multi-dimensional engagement has a significant leverage effect on the present-day notions of the ‘European Dream’, namely our daily lived experiences of unparalleled quality public goods and intellectually stimulating environments. In its roughly 20-year history, DARIAH, with its preoccupation with honing methodological tools, mitigating shortfalls in the existing data processing techniques and offering a nuanced account of the incompleteness and grey spots of each of its discussed repositories has proved its capacity to elevate and bring new dimensions to the ‘European Dream’. DARIAH positions this wealth of cultural inheritance and perpetual intellectual rejuvenation as a constant and compelling work in the finest progress.
CC BY Martin Liebetruth, Göttingen State and University Library
