The CulturePlex Lab

@ Western University

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Dr. Juan Luis Suarez (Director of the CulturePlex Lab)

Research:

•Complexity (complexity theory) in cultural systems

•Hispanic Baroque

•Digital Humanities

•Technologies of Humanism

•Globalization and new literatures

•History of ideas

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The Hispanic Baroque through Complexity Theory

The Hispanic Baroque:

•the lab to trace the interactions that created the

cultural complexity of the Hispanic Baroque and that

allow for their reproduction in and transfer to other

cultural settings.

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The Hispanic Baroque through Complexity Theory

Complexity Theory:

•apply selected ideas such as "emergence," "dynamic

stability," or "efficiency” to analyze three spheres of

baroque culture:

• the baroque constitution,

• the baroque religious expressions,

• urban aspects of the baroque.

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Why study the Hispanic Baroque?

• fundamental contribution to our understanding of

complexity in contemporary societies,

characterized by the increase of information flows

and crossings over cultural and national

boundaries.

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How do we study the Baroque and complex cultures in general?

Applying new computing tools

• store and analyze large amounts of cultural data and

texts from which new models of cultural complexities

at different scales are produced.

• explaining the flow of cultural ideas across time and

space.

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Why is it important to develop knowledge about culture?

• Humans are cultural.

“… the well-being of nations is increasingly being defined

by the ability to develop and advance knowledge. In

other words, knowledge – as opposed to military might

or GDP – is gaining momentum as the new currency

and passport to success.”

-- David Johnston

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The CulturePlex Laboratory

Physical space

• appropriate computer infrastructure

• interactive space for collaboration among

researchers

Objective

• Create tools that can become services and

products for the community.

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What we do at the CulturePlex Lab?

Among many other things …

•track the origin and spread of baroque culture

•use computers to facilitate second-language learning

•develop new ways to catalogue digital objects

•create powerful software systems that make it

possible to manage creative and humanistic content

in the web 2.0.

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How we do it?

• build and adapt the computer tools needed to

enhance our analysis and offer the best

visualization of the most complex cultural

processes:

• agent-based modeling,

• topic maps,

• databases,

• natural language processing

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The CulturePlex Approach to doing research:

• Collaborative

• a strong international team (Spain, Mexico, India,

Australia)

• Multidisciplinary

• specialists in Cultural Transfers, Literary History,

Mathematics, Art History, Architecture, Sociology,

History, Anthropology, Music, and Complexity Theory

• Knowledge Mobilization

• Conferences, community involvement, social media,

publications, student training.

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The VL3: A Virtual Language Learning Lab

• Multidisciplinary project that brings together the fields of Digital Humanities, Theoretical Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Pedagogy and Spoken Dialogue Systems. 

• Objective: to develop a prototype of a virtual laboratory for foreign language learning where learners will have the opportunity to improve their communicative skills through a predefined set of real  communicative scenarios.

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Dr. Glearning

• Mobile learning games application with content customizable by professors of any discipline.

• Objective: making learning available outside of the classroom and the computer lab.

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Yutzu

Collaborative online space that allows the user to collect content, collaborate with teammates and communicate with people everywhere.

Objective: allow for compilation of different multimedia information on the Web into one organized portfolio (Yutzu).

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Global Observatory of Culture

A website that collects, measures and analyzes

cultural objects according to a previously defined set

of properties (of the object).

Objective: establish a theory of cultural borders

today by studying how cultural objects of one culture

are assimilated by another and how does it get

transferred to the next.

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The next step:

A Curriculum of Digital Humanities @ Western

•The institutionalization of an undergraduate

curriculum of digital humanities to effectively

implement digital literacy among Canadian students.

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The CulturePlex as a Canadian research institution

“Canadians can play an important role in the global

knowledge society. Our challenge is to renew our

commitment to the principles of scientific learning

that have served us well in the past, while drawing on

the best thinking in navigating the changes ahead.”

-- David Johnston, Governor General of Canada

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Thank you!