#manuscript digitization

[leoba]

Manuscripts, Humanity, and AI

Image of a manuscript, generated in MidJourney by Suzette van Haaren

(a few words originally posted on Twitter on March 27, 2023 and then on my blog. It’s resonating there so I thought I would post it here too.)

I’ve been trying all morning to figure out what bothers me about these Mid journey-generated manuscripts without simply sounding like a Luddite, and I think I finally have it.

It’s because my interest in manuscripts is almost entirely about the humanity behind them. Who made them? Who used them and why? What happened to them after they were made? Where are they now? What did they mean in the past and what do they mean now?

A computer generated book doesn’t have any of that context. I’ve talked about the uncanny valley with regard to digitized manuscripts, and this is that, one step further. It’s one thing to digitize a manuscript in a way that elides its materiality, and a whole other thing to create manuscripts that don’t exist materially at all.

I think there are potentially interesting ways to use AI in my work. I’m interested in structure, and have been part of a project, VisColl, to develop models and software to build models of manuscripts. Could AI be used to combine structural models and digital images to create photorealistic imagery of existing manuscripts? Imagine an AI reconstruction of manuscripts cut apart and distributed by Otto Ege. Could it even generate pages that are lost as semi-realistic placeholders?

Just a few thoughts. I’m less interested in generating realistic looking manuscripts than in the potential to leverage the technology to help us understand the use and history of manuscripts that exist in the real world.

Added: If you’d like to hear me talk more about manuscripts and humanity, check out Coffee With A Codex, a weekly 30-minute program both live and posted to YouTube where I present a show-and-tell with books from the University of Pennsylvania’s premodern manuscript collections, and Inside My Favorite Manuscript, a weekly podcast I do in my own time where I talk to people who love manuscripts about manuscripts they love the most.

[fairuzfan]

The destruction of culture is an evident part of genocide. Al-Omari housed centuries old Palestinian manuscripts that convey aspects of the intellectual history of Palestinians. I am not sure of their status. Both literal and metaphorical life is being extinguished by Israel.

[daxwormzz]

LA DANSE MACABRE!

(Verses from “The Last Steampunk Waltz”, by Ghostfire.)

[vyrosk]

🌒 |Vide Et Tace| 🌘

[medivalt]

worry wyrm 💗

[fickes]

bringing back Illness Illuminated to commemorate the three monthiversary of withdrawal from my stupid antidepressants that didn't even work

[cuties-in-codices]

queer sex and more!

in an illustrated medieval travelogue (a german translation of "mandeville's travels"), bavaria/swabia, ca. 1476

source: Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 2838, fol. 102v

[artwins]

manuscript page commission for @yazmati

[lunegrimm]

Part one of the 13 creature portraits I created for a indie-card game "Hold'em Havoc" This was a very fun project to work on!

[laelapop]

Here’s some homework I had for my medieval history class! We had to make a drawing in the style of old illuminated manuscripts, so I made a page for the Dadah Range from volume 1 of Witch Hat Atelier! 💚

[rainboopz]

very silly cat ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧ he got danm wooed me!! he and his bird!!!!

The Wanderer and Archibald belong to @arrgh-whatever 🐈🎶 Love your stuff!

[anonbeadraws]

A still of the Novel animation!! So shiny! 📚commission info in source!📚

[scudden]

Jon Snow :) Wanted to make a portrait with him with a medieval manuscript style border!!

[vyrosk]

| Unitatem |

[ch0c0tat]

The Hunt or Anxiety Dog ft. Sword

Felt like doing an illustration of a long dog with illuminated manuscript and medieval border vibes.