key details
20 February 2025
Online on Zoom
3pm — 5pm (CET)
reference
about
This is a project founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and led by the EPFL, designed to facilitate the exploration of historical sources related to Venice.
The platform’s search engine allows users to find names, places, urban functions, and other data drawn from various primary and secondary sources, including census data, historical cartography, and trade annuaries across a broad chronological span. Each information is verifiable and traceable within the extraction process. The published datasets are accessible to both the scholarly community and the public for reuse in specific studies. The platform is designed to be incremental, allowing for the addition of new datasets and citations.
The course will cover the technical background, methodologies, and development choices, presenting datasets and analyses conducted by scholars on urban morphology and city functions. A follow-up workshop aimed at young researchers will focus on data analysis and interpretation.
The lesson will be held in English.
Lecturers
Frédéric Kaplan
He is the director of the College of Humanities at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He also holds the Chair of Digital Humanities and is President of the Time Machine Organisation, a non-profit association of over 600 institutions. He is the author of a dozen books, translated into several languages, and over a hundred scientific publications.
Isabella di Lenardo
She is a researcher at EPFL’s Digital Humanities Institute, specializing in Art History, Digital Humanities, and Digital Urban History. She focuses on the circulation of artworks and historical cartography. Leading the Time Machine Unit at EPFL, she uses AI and digitization to explore Europe’s cultural heritage. She is the PI on European projects and co-PI on the SNFS-funded “Parcels of Venice” project.
Paul Guhennec
He is a post-doctoral researcher in the Digital Humanities Laboratory at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). His research focuses on the usage of new computational methods for architectural history, and their epistemological implications. He recently finished his doctoral dissertation on Venice’s urban history, with a focus on vernacular domestic architecture.
Manuel Ehrenfeld
He is a software engineer at EPFL. He is the founder of Non-linear, a design studio specializing in visual communication and digital development. He lectures in Communication Design at IULM University and teaches Computer Graphics at Brera Academy. With extensive experience in front-end development, he has led projects for prestigious events and brands, pioneering in digital innovations and interactive design. Fluent in multiple languages, he is based in Geneva, Switzerland.
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