Lab Sassion : Digital Humanities

This blog is a reflection on my learning journey as part of the Digital Humanities study under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad. The central theme of the task was to explore the thought-provoking question, “Can a computer write poetry?” through Oscar Schwartz’s perspective. Along with this, I engaged with various digital tools that highlight the intersection of literature and technology.

In this blog, I describe my experiences with different activities taking a test to distinguish whether a poem was written by a human or a computer, exploring the CLiC Dickens Project and its Activity Book, and experimenting with Voyant tools such as Cirrus, Links, Dreamscape, and Phrases. These exercises not only helped me understand digital methods of literary study but also reshaped my perspective on creativity, authorship, and interpretation.

The aim of this blog is to capture both my personal and academic growth. It reflects how digital tools open new dimensions in reading and analyzing literature, ultimately enriching the traditional ways of studying texts.

Poem Written by a human or a computer?

n this activity, gives  one written by a human poet and one generated by AI (computer). Our task was to carefully read both poems and decide which one belonged to a human and which to AI.

 Learning Outcomes:

1. Close Reading Skills – I learned to pay attention to tone, imagery, emotions, and style to identify the difference between human and AI writing.

2. Signs of Human Writing – Human poems often had:

   • Deeper emotions and originality

   • Personal voice or lived experience

   • Use of complex metaphors and cultural references

3. Signs of AI Writing – AI poems often showed:

   • Smooth rhythm and structure but less emotional depth

   • Repetition of common words or generic ideas

   • Sometimes lacked surprise, ambiguity, or subtle meaning

4. Critical Thinking – The activity trained me to think critically, not just read passively. I had to analyze hidden meanings, creativity, and context to judge authorship.

5. Awareness of AI in Literature – I realized that AI can create poems that look like human writing, but human creativity still carries something unique and personal.

voyant activity 

1. Cirrus

2. Dreamscape 

3. Knot

4. Termsberry

5. Mandala 

6. Streamgraph 

Learning Outcomes from Voyant Activity on Frankenstein

1. Cirrus (Word Cloud):

   • I learned how to identify the most frequent words (like life, death, creature, Victor, nature) which helped me to understand the central themes of the novel.

2. DreamScape:

   • I learned to see how words are connected with places, characters, and ideas, which deepened my understanding of relationships and themes in the story.

3. Knots (Network Graph):

   • I learned to analyze connections between words (e.g., Victor–Creature, Life–Death), which showed me the conflicts and emotional tensions in the novel.

4. TermsBerry:

   • I learned how to study word pairings and collocations (e.g., Monster + horror, Victor + ambition), which revealed the tone and recurring ideas of the text.

5. Mandala:

   • I learned to visualize central words with surrounding contexts, which showed the positive and negative associations (e.g., Monster linked with fear/misery, Life linked with creation/science).

6. StreamGraph:

   • I learned how to track changes of word frequency over time, which helped me to see the development of themes (e.g., Creature in the middle, death and misery at the end).

 Overall Learning Outcome:

By using these Voyant tools, I learned how digital humanities methods can uncover patterns, relationships, and thematic shifts in Frankenstein. This activity improved my analytical skills, helped me combine close and distant reading, and gave me a deeper understanding of the novel’s focus on creation, destruction, ambition, and human suffering.

Click Activity :

once upon time :

Fire

Knocker :

While reading the first pages of A Christmas Carol, I noticed Dickens using “once upon a time.” Usually a fairy-tale opening, here it contrasts with the harsh reality of Scrooge’s counting-house. The sound of the knocker on his door adds tension, while the warm fire in his office highlights fleeting comfort against the cold, gloomy surroundings. Searching CLiC showed that the phrase typically begins narratives, but Dickens uses it ironically, blending moral lessons with social reality. This activity made me realize how Dickens plays with expectations, mixing fairy-tale elements with real-world harshness to create a story open to multiple interpretations.

Thank you for reading .....