About

How does technology mediate what it means to be human? The Experimental Humanities (EH) concentration is Bard’s liberal arts–driven answer to the Digital Humanities. Digital Humanities is an evolving field that typically employs digital tools and research methods to investigate humanities subjects. In addition, EH engages with media and technology forms from across historical periods, combining experimental research methods with critical thinking about how such forms function as a part of cultural, social, and political inquiry. We encourage the reconsideration of older media in light of today’s technologies and look ahead to the developments on the horizon.

EH emphasizes:

Critical thinking about media and technology and their productive intersections
The relationship between digital methodologies and humanities scholarship
Collaboration between traditionally disparate disciplines such as Computer Science, Literature, and the Arts
The role of experimentation, often associated with the sciences and the arts, in humanities research

Concentration

Experimental Humanities students take two core courses, Introduction to Media and History of Experiment, which provide them with a critical and historical framework with which to approach electives from across the college. The concentration embraces the ethos of practice and making that characterizes the digital arts and humanities even as it insists on the importance of writing and theory as humanistic practices in their own right. Students moderating into Experimental Humanities do so simultaneously with their primary program, with the option of adding a practice-rich component to their Senior Project, in conjunction with that program.

Center

The Center for Experimental Humanities at New Annandale House hosts regular EH events, workshops, and meetings for EH projects and courses. Outside of these centrally scheduled times, members of the Bard community can apply to reserve the downstairs space for other activities, especially those that share Experimental Humanities’ interests in how technology and media intersect with the arts, humanities, and culture.