UM History Students Publish Group Projects on ThingsThatTalk.net
澳大歷史系學生在ThingsThatTalk.net上發表了團隊設計
Ref. No : ICHN-BZFDJ9Posted by :IsaChan/UMAC
Department :FAHPosted Date : 29/03/2021
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Students from the Department of History of UM have contributed to ThingsThatTalk.net, an interdisciplinary digital humanities platform that explores the lives of objects. The platform facilitates storytelling by giving authors the basic visual tools they need to effectively narrate an object in all its dimensions. Three group projects from the course Western Civilizations II (taught by prof. Mario Cams) were selected for publication by the platform’s editors: an expensive box with a portrait of Napoleon, a Zippo lighter from the Vietnam War, and an Enlightenment-era French wig holder with surprising connections to China.

With this, students contribute to a global archive of everyday things or objects, all material expressions of diverse human experiences, which include historical experiences. Things and physical objects outlast us, and we rely on them to tell our stories when we are gone. By questioning material objects, students gain a hands-on and bottom-up understanding of objects from the past. This approach complements the more traditional top-down history: instead of big stories about nations, rulers, war, and peace, objects tell us concrete stories of connections between individuals and places, enabling us to better understand everyday experiences from the past.

澳大歷史系學生在ThingsThatTalk.net上發表了團隊設計

來自澳大歷史系的學生們為ThingsThatTalk.net（一個探索物件的一生的跨學科數字人文平台）做出了貢獻。該平台通過給予作者從各個維度有效地描述物件所需的基本視覺工具來促進敘事。平台的編輯挑選了西方文明史II（由Mario Cams教授講授）課程中的三個團隊設計進行出版：一個鑲裝有拿破崙肖像的昂貴盒子、一個越戰時期的Zippo打火機和一個與中國有著奇妙聯繫的啟蒙時代的法國假髮支架。

由此，學生促成了一個日常事物或物件的全球性檔案，其中包括人類歷史經歷在內的各種人類經驗的所有物質表現形式 。事物與物質實體比我們持久，當我們不在之後，我們依靠他們來講述我們的故事。通過考察實物，學生對過去的物件獲得了實際動手和自下而上的理解。這種方式補足了更為傳統的自上而下的歷史寫作: 物件告訴我們的不是關於國家、統治者、戰爭與和平的大事件，而是個人與地方之間的聯繫的具體故事，這使我們能夠更好地理解過去的日常經歷。