From Digital Humanities to Quantum Humanities

By Johanna Barzen, University of Stuttgart

The establishment of the Digital Humanities as a research field has shown that the use of computers as tools, but also the use of methods and techniques from computer science, can contribute enormously to research done in the Humanities. As quantum computers are becoming real and the first providers are offering access to them via the cloud, the question occurs: Why not use the potential of this new technology to address existing or entirely new questions in the Digital Humanities? Therefore, questions like: Which applications are fruitful? Which algorithms can already be used today? or: Which quantum computing knowledge is required? need to be investigated. Currently, a first use case in this so-called Quantum Humanities in quantum machine learning is exploring how quantum computing helps to better understand how costumes are used for communication in films.

Links

• Watch on YouTube

Related

• The Power of Quantum Computing by Frank Leymann
• The Bitter Truth About Quantum Algorithms in the NISQ Era by Frank Leymann
• “Verschränkung durchbricht Schranken” by Frank Leymann
• Meet Frank Leymann, Our First Kurt Gödel Visiting Professor (interview)

Online Event

14:00 (13:00 UTC) — Welcome

• Introduction by Gerti Kappel, Dean of TU Wien Informatics

14:10 — Talk

• “From Digital Humanities to Quantum Humanities” by Johanna Barzen
• Q & A session

The event will be streamed for remote attendance via Zoom.

About Johanna Barzen

Johanna Barzen is a postdoc at the University of Stuttgart and leads the Quantum Computing and Digital Humanities research area at the Institute of Architecture of Application Systems (IAAS). Currently she is also a visiting scientist at the Business Informatics Group of the TU Wien Informatics, bridging the research areas model-driven development and digital humanities. Her research lies in the intersection of computer science, media science, digital humanities, and quantum computing. Thereby, she applies pattern languages, data analytics, and machine learning.

From 2012 on she is working on digital humanities projects and developed the MUSE method along with a supporting tool chain to identify costume pattern languages in films. Her interdisciplinary approach of combining research on digital humanities with the potentials of quantum computing coined the term Quantum Humanities. Ongoing research on (quantum) machine learning is currently determining the potentials of quantum approaches in contrast to classical approach.

Contact

Clara Monitzer, clara.monitzer@tuwien.ac.at

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