Reading through “Humanities Approaches to Graphical Display” I was slightly taken aback by the thought that humanities should develop their own methods of display and analyzing graphics. While it would be great to have designs built with digital humanities in mind, the role of a researcher is not to design technology but to research. The presence of the technology is a bonus that allows us to further explore information we already have and present it in a fashion the public is already familiar with. An example I thought of would be methods of survey in archaeology. Almost every method was developed for another purpose be it geology, military, or geography. GIS, metal detectors, GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) and others were never meant to be used for archaeology and yet they are adaptable to our field (https://www.utexas.edu/courses/denbow/labs/survey2.htm.) Archaeologists use these technologies but do not spend time inventing materials of their own; that is the job of computer scientists and statisticians.
Another possible problem with creating digital visualizations of our own is that the public user may not be as familiar with the format as they are with others. The current designs in existence take marketing and public interest into account more often than do researchers designing tools for themselves. The point is, any visualization tool designed for digital humanities scholars will never be truly meant for everyday users.
Academia is essentially nothing but borrowed ideas manipulated to fit our study and improved upon. I would argue that current methods of visualization are still valuable as they present a basis from which to work off of and possibly improve.
“Humanistic methods are counter to the idea of reliably repeatable experiments or standard metrics that assume observer independent phenomena.” This definition of the humanities struck me as rather odd. While the author is arguing that the humanities are not the sciences and should be kept as human as possible, I would like to point out the irony of putting these human concepts in computers. What is digital humanities but the combination of the humanities and science? Experimental science also lends validity to concepts brought up through theories. Visualization and data analysis are scientific approaches to understanding humanistic data. It would seem rather possessive for the humanities to remain only with the social scientists. We have to admit that there is a possibility of realizing new ideas through the application of scientific methods. Research should not be limited to one area or department but can be combined with other disciplines entirely different from our own.