Past Events
Archaeological Excavations in Armenia: at the Intersection of Arts and Technology
Description
This talk presents HKU's archaeological fieldwork in the country of Armenia in the South Caucasus and our use of innovative technologies to study the humanities. Our team, which includes many HKU undergraduates and postgraduates, excavates the 3500-year-old Vedi Fortress each summer to learn about human life in the past! We invite you to this introductory talk about the ancient architecture and artifacts uncovered in the 2024 summer season and before.
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We will then share how digital and other technologies are transforming the ways we conduct humanities research, including our use of drones, 3D scanning, virtual 3D reconstruction, augmented and virtual reality, cloud databases, geophysics, solar power plus batteries, and beyond. Our talk will also demonstrate some technical capabilities of the new Arts-Tech Lab in the Faculty of Arts. Students and everyone can join our project in various ways, so please come meet us to find out how. Humans are at the center of our research, but now technology provides exciting opportunities to improve how we understand these (past) humans!
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This talk is open to everyone!
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Speaker
Professor Peter J. Cobb and RPG students
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Hong Kong Cantopop in the 1970s
Speaker
Prof. Stephen Chu, School of Chinese
HKU Arts Information Sessions for
JUPAS and non-JUPAS Applicants
Description
In the 2020 Policy Address of the Hong Kong Chief Executive, the government implemented strategies to integrate arts and technology as a new trend in cultural development. With the coexistence of governmental initiatives under the rubric of ‘arts tech’ development and the rapid advancement of new technologies, there appears to be an increasing adoption of novel technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, across arts and cultural productions in Hong Kong. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in a cross-media creative studio in Hong Kong, this talk will analyse the impact of recent arts tech policy on creative practitioners’ work practices and the ecology of the creative industry. Additionally, we will discuss the new job opportunities that have emerged as a result of the significant financial investment and promotion by the government in the development of arts tech.
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Speaker
Ms. Holy Shum, Department of Sociology
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Moderator
Dr. Kal Ng
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Description
Don't miss the opportunity to meet the 2022 Perfect IB Scorer, Alice Huang, and uncover insider tips about HKU Arts programmes through a special online event called "SA Online Talk - Bite-sized Sharing". This event is specifically designed for secondary school students! Join us for an engaging online lunch gathering where Alice Huang will share her insights, personal anecdotes, and valuable information about pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Digital Technologies (BA(HDT)) at HKU. It's a golden opportunity to learn from the best and make informed decisions about your academic journey. Don't miss out on this chance to gain valuable knowledge and inspiration for your future.
Description
Turkey's domestic film industry “YeÅŸilçam,” produced nearly 6000 films from the late 1940s to the late 1980s. Most of these films had androcentric narratives depicting women characters as passive and silent subjects. In this seminar, we start by introducing “YeÅŸilçam” and the place of women in this industry both behind the camera and within the films’ narratives. We will then introduce DOYeÅŸilçam, an ongoing interdisciplinary research project about “YeÅŸilçam” history. Finally, we will focus on a case study of about 20 select woman’s films from the 1980s either directed by Mr Atıf Yılmaz (1925-2006) or Ms Bilge Olgaç (1940-1994). Our goal is to compare how Bilge Olgaç, as a female director, and Atıf Yılmaz, as a male director, include woman characters in their films. With this goal in mind, we apply a data-driven approach, measuring and analyzing how woman characters are shot and how much they talk.
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Speakers
Dr. Serkan Åžavk
Department of Cinema and Digital Media, Izmir University of Economics
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Moderator
Dr. Peter Cobb
Description
The event aims to explore the practical applications of AI and its impact on various industries. This topic will be of great interest to Arts students, as AI continues to shape the creative landscape.
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Host
Dr. Kal Ng
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Speakers
Mr. Webster Fung, Creative Director of Mitty Design
Mr. Benjamin Ho, Lead Developer of Kios Tech, Firstbot Project
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Description
As our digital cultures and economies transform themselves from the 2D Internet that make of screens and networks to the 4D Cyberscape of Web 3 and Spatial Computing, digital representation and digital modeling of physical objects are becoming invaluable and essential in the new phase of the digital human experience. To take hold of this transformation, understand its implications would be to a knowledge key of the future. All parties, whether interested in 3D modeling or NFT will benefit in the underlying insights in this workshop.
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Speaker
Dr. Kal Ng
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Description
What happens when modern technology meets classic works of literature? In this session, we look at the world of literature through a digital lens, and find out how digital tools and methods can reveal hidden patterns, trace emotional journeys, and even decode complex narratives. The study of literature is no longer only done through traditional reading. Scholars work with data visualizations and maps to make surprising new discoveries. Whether you’re an avid reader, a technology enthusiast, or just curious about how digital tools can offer a new perspective on your favourite books, join this session for a hands-on experience of digital humanities in literary studies.
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Speaker
Dr. Anya Adair
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Description
Artificial Intelligence has experienced a revolution in recent years with the development of deep learning – the design, training and use of artificial neural networks inspired from biological brains and the way they process information.
Like many other scientific areas, Natural Language Processing (NLP), a field of study which focuses on how machines can understand and generate language, has been transformed by deep learning. This has led to machines which can now much better ‘understand’ what we say and answer our requests. ChatGPT is likely the best-known illustration of the latest achievements but is only one among many ‘large language models’ available today. Machines are not our equals yet, however, and many differences and challenges remain.
During this workshop, we will introduce recent progress in NLP in simple terms, and also experiment with building powerful conversational chatbots simply by depicting what we want them to do.
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Speaker
Dr. Christophe Coupé
Description
Join us for an engaging and informative workshop on the fascinating intersection of traditional close reading and computationally assisted distant reading practice in the field of digital humanities. In this one-hour session, we will compare and contrast the traditional practice in literary studies (close reading) and distant reading. We will embark on an exciting journey to discover the immense possibilities of distant reading, where computational tools like Voyant will unveil hidden patterns and insights within vast collections of texts. You will also explore the various functions available on Voyant, and we will discuss the potential and limitations of distant reading.
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Speaker
Dr. Jenny Kwok
Description
The Faculty of Arts organised a series of Humanities and Digital Technologies workshops. Prospective students were able to take this opportunity to experience mock lectures and receive the latest updates on the BA(HDT) programme and admissions information. Teachers and parents were also welcomed to attend. Additionally, participants had the opportunity to chat with current BA(HDT) students and gain insight into their authentic first-year experiences and feelings.
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Description
The Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Digital Technologies programme at the University of Hong Kong is delighted to host nine of the leading experts in digital humanities and cultural data science. This interactive event is designed for students and university teaching staff who are eager to integrate digital approaches and advanced data science into their humanities education and research. Join us for expert-led discussions, hands-on sessions, and networking opportunities that will elevate your academic pursuits. Topics include semantic annotation, GIS using aerial reconnaissance data, computer vision, graph decomposition, and multilingual text analysis using transformers.
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Hosts
Dr. Anya Adair
Dr. Javier Cha
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Description
The Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles has long been a famous symbol of opulence and the grandeur of the French monarchy. But though its expensive and carefully-crafted mirrors promise a perfect reflection, they necessarily reflect a distorted version of reality. In our own digital age, the ‘mirror of the world’ that is offered to us by virtual representations faces these same problems. Virtual versions of historical objects promise reality, but necessarily distort what they display to us. This talk will present some magnificent examples of digitised historical objects from medieval to modern France, and will demonstrate how the digital space lets us explore and understand these objects. At the same time, it will consider how the virtual world influences and limits our perceptions of physical objects from history.
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Speaker
Dr. Anya Adair
Description
Are you interested in exploring an ancient archaeological site? What about an ancient site that is thousands of kilometers from here? We invite you to join any of our upcoming workshops that use Virtual Reality (VR) to enable you to visit an ancient site in the country of Armenia! Armenia is part of the ancient Near East and north of Mesopotamia, a broader region where the first agriculture, states, and writing occurred thousands of years ago.
In our VR tour, you will visit the site of the Vedi Fortress in Armenia, with a virtual reconstruction of this castle’s walls and other features. Your tour will be guided by students who have helped to excavate the site. These workshops are open to anyone in the public, but we particularly invite families with children of any age to attend.
We hope to share our site with many children! In VR, you will see other participants as avatars on the virtual site. All workshops are exactly the same, so you can attend any. The experience can take between 10 and 30 minutes.
This event is for all ages and open to everyone, and participation is free of charge. Children are especially invited. Walk-ins are always welcome!
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Host
Dr. Peter Cobb
Value Creation in Multiverse
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Description
As people spending large amount of time online, there are needs to be fulfilled on and offline, if creators and developers fulfill those needs, it represents a paradigm input life and potentials, this brief session discussed that with simple exercises.
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Speaker
Dr. Kal Ng
Art Jam by Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Digital Technologies Students (2022 Cohort)
Description
The very first output by the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Digital Technologies student cohort from the Trajectory workshops hosted by Dr. Kal Ng: an Art Jam with AI bot for text to art imagery is on exhibition at the Ground Floor Gallery.​
Mapping Voltaire's Correspondence Network in Palladio
(At Info Day 2022)
Description
Professor Javier Cha will demonstrate the use of Palladio for data-assisted digital humanities scholarship. Palladio is a web-based data visualization platform developed at Stanford University to help humanities researchers with limited technical expertise discover patterns in their data. Professor Cha will visualize Voltaire's correspondence network and explain how Palladio and other digital tools will be integrated into the BA(HDT) curriculum.
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​Speaker
Dr. Javier Cha
Gear Up for Your Journey in Humanities and
Digital Technologies - Trajectory Workshops
(At Info Day 2022)
Description
HDT Trajectories are a series of workshops of trends in humanities and technologies, student cohort gather informally to discuss interesting topics and issues, try out new technologies, exchange ideas and happenings, mapping new career directions and navigating with each other towards creating their capstone thesis project.
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Speaker
Dr. Kal Ng
Mini-workshop - Analyzing and creating text with computers
(At Info Day 2022)
Description
How can computers participate in our attempts to write creatively? Is recent progress in artificial intelligence and in the field of ‘natural language processing’ making a difference? During this workshop, we will experiment with writing and how computers can analyze and generate text. You will first write short pieces of text given a prompt, which we’ll then analyze in terms of style and content. Using the same prompt, we will then see how well computers can write, and if you’re able to distinguish a text written by a human from one written by a machine. Be ready to be involved, intrigued by, and amazed at what the latest algorithms and computer models are capable of when it comes to language!
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Speaker
Dr. Christophe Coupé
Workshop: Personal Knowledge Management for Academic Success for BA(HDT) Students (Every August)
Description
This workshop is one in a series of three developed to help students develop strategies and program an online spaces to develop your own personal knowledge management (PKM) system. These skills will aid students as they consolidation information and work collaboratively through their studies.
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