1) How do you understand the term “Baroque art”?
To me, Baroque art is rich and exuberant. It refers to a post-Renaissance period where works strayed from strict humanist tendencies. When I picture Baroque art, I see deep colors, soft lines, and images that look almost realistic, but slightly off. Some common themes include the use of religious imagery, intense dramatism, and ornate sculpture. I also strongly associate it with its relationship to European monarchies of the time in the form of sprawling palaces, halls, and museums meant to show wealth and excess. I think of an era of worldwide influence as well. While Baroque forms largely originated in Europe, they reached much further through trade and imperialism. Thus, Baroque art is a global phenomenon reflective of the greater trends of its time.
2) How do you understand the term “Digital Humanities”?
I see digital humanities as a mechanism to tie classical academic topics to the modern world using various technologies. It is a highly interdisciplinary field that blends traditional methods of scientific study with a creative and artistic lens. It encompasses a wide range of areas, making it hard to define explicitly. I see it as a way to make the humanities more accessible to the general public and combine them with hard sciences. It seeks to bridge the gap between currently available media and the way the humanities have been studied in the past. Traditionally, most research took place in closed academic settings where historians worked independently of one another. Digital humanities seeks to make the field much more collaborative by using technology to connect both scholars and the public.