Digital Humanities at CWRU

The Inscriptions on the Antikythera Mechanism

Paul Iversen, Associate Professor, Classics

Friday, November 16th, Clark Hall Room 206, 12:30pm—2:00pm

The third event in our presentation series features Freedman Fellow Paul Iversen (Associate Professor, Classics). Iversen will discuss two new technologies he is using to read the inscriptions incised on the Antikythera Mechanism, a device considered to be the first analog computer.

Capable of computing and displaying information such as lunar phases, the rising and setting of stars and constellations, the lunisolar calendar of northwestern Greece and Panhellenic festivals including the Olympic games, the Antikythera Mechanism was found in a 1901 shipwreck and dates back to the second or first century BCE.

The technologies Iversen is using to read the inscriptions include Computed Tomography (CT) scans generated by a technology called Micro-Focus x-rays, and photographic images that employ a technology known as Polynomial Texture Mapping (PTMs).

Often overlooked, VR panoramas, VR objects and 3D/Stereoscopic photography are easy and exciting ways to enhance and add a virtual element to most New Media projects. Co-presenter Jared Bendis (Creative New Media Officer, Kelvin Smith Library) will give a step-by-step guide on the tools and techniques used to create these media elements and also outline how to best integrate them into a project.

About This Freedman Fellow and Co-Presenters

Paul Iversen

Iversen (B.A., Michigan State University, M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in Classical Studies) regularly teaches upper level Greek and Latin, lecture and SAGES courses dealing with Myth and Heroes, and a SAGES Departmental Seminar on Alexander the Great. His research interests and publications are in the areas of Greek and Latin Epigraphy, Hellenistic Culture & Society, and Greco-Roman New Comedy, especially Menander. He currently is the Director of Epigraphical finds for the Isparta Archaeological Survey and has two book projects: the first is a book in collaboration with John D. Morgan on the recently discovered calendar and games dial on the Antikythera Mechanism, the second is a corpus of all the Greek and Latin inscriptions found at Corinth.

Jared Bendis

Jared Bendis is an award-winning installation artist, photographer, teacher, playwright and filmmaker. He is a specialist in photography, virtual reality, and computer graphics and serves as the Creative New Media Officer for Case Western Reserve University's Kelvin Smith Library. As the Creative New Media Officer, Jared weaves together cutting-edge technologies with proven, innovative pedagogical strategies to create rich multimedia experiences. Jared serves as the senior media expert for the campus, developing digital media strategies for media creation (and use) by researching and developing new-media applications for education. Jared also holds adjunct appointments in the CWRU Art Studio, Music, and SAGES departments where he teaches courses on multimedia, instructional technology, and New Media Literacy.

These seminars are part of a series funded by the NEH and conducted by the Brown University Women Writers Project. They are aimed at people who are already involved in a text encoding project or are in the process of planning one, and are intended to provide a more in-depth look at specific challenges in using TEI data effectively. Each event will include a mix of presentations, discussion, case studies using participants' projects, hands-on practice, and individual consultation. The seminars will be strongly project-based: participants will present their projects to the group, discuss specific challenges and solutions, develop encoding specifications and documentation, and create sample materials (such as syllabi, docmentation, etc., as appropriate to the event). We encourage project teams and collaborative groups to apply, although individuals are also welcome. A basic knowledge of the TEI Guidelines and some prior experience with text encoding will be assumed.

For more detailed information and to apply, please visit the website. (click)

One of the more interesting and entertaining things about working with digital technologies across physical and cloud-based systems is that at some point, while poking around in some code that generates a long disused link in the far corner of a derelict page, one inevitably stumbles upon some dusty artifact(s). From the ancient days of the organization's technological past (you know, from one thousand to occasionally even several thousand years days ago) some forgotten footage rises again...

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