The very first HuC LIVE! was a success. The KNAW Humanities Cluster presented its research, products and plans for the coming years to an international audience at the Compagnietheater. And surprised everyone with a special ‘mystery guest’.

The Digital Infrastructure department and the DHLab research team presented their research and products to researchers, managers, policy makers and partners from the Netherlands and abroad. The central theme of the afternoon was ‘Bridging the Gap’, the gap between humanities and science. The theme was based on a quote from the anthropologist Clifford Geertz: “I think the perception of there being a deep gulf between science and the humanities is false.”

Each of the different speakers on HuC LIVE! showed that we can indeed build a bridge between the two disciplines. For example, Antal van den Bosch argued that we are ready for a ‘cultural AI’. Artificial intelligence needs ethics and an awareness of gender issues, diversity and inclusiveness, and it must be multilingual. And the humanities can deliver that. You will find his keynote is below.

Furthermore, Adina Nerghes and Marijn Koolen presented their research and Jauco Noordzij explored the relationship between researcher and software developers. All these presentations can be found in short form as a blog post and in the videos below.

And then there was the presentation of our mystery guest, Dee. She presented the products of Digital Infrastructure and explained how the infrastructure works. To conclude, Elli Bleeker put forward some interesting theses to the audience using Kahoot and then to Gertjan Filarski and Marieke van Erp.

Afterwards, the visitors of the Humanities Cluster chatted for a long time enjoying their drinks. Many people also spoke with Ronald Haentjens Dekker, Hennie Brugman, Gijs Brouwer, Rutger van Koert, Marieke van Erp and Adina Nerghes about their research and products. There was even a small Twitterstorm through the hashtag # huclive18, about the applicable song Strange Machines by the Dutch progmetal band The Gathering that was played immediately afterwards.

We received a lot of positive feedback: the presentations were inspiring, sparkling and energetic. It was a good mix of substantive stories and an overview of what is and will come. And Dee stays!