• Peter Merrington ,
• Matthew Hanchard

University of Glasgow

In this paper, we will discuss some of the challenges faced when developing a data ontology from mixed methods research. Beyond the Multiplex is a three year project that seeks to understand how to enable a wider range of audiences to participate in a more diverse film culture. A key part of the project is exploring regional patterns of film audience experience. In technical terms, this involves inductively generating an ontological data model to formally describe film audiences by drawing on primary mixed methods research. Ultimately, we are seeking to develop a relational understanding of film audiences which will culminate in a searchable triplestore database. This paper will cover the challenges of developing the data ontology. For example, how we maintained coherence across qualitative and quantitative datasets whilst incorporating taxonomies for controlling factors such as socio-cultural indicators, film type, and venue/platform.

Overall, our data ontology draws on: a socio-cultural index of audience engagement with film; 200 semi-structured interviews, including 30 elite interviews with film industry and policy professionals; a longitudinal survey of 2000 respondents across three sample points; 16 focus groups using film elicitation to understand how audiences interpret specialised film and experience stories; and a discourse analysis of industry and policy documents. In combination, our mixed-methods approach generates various data types. Drawing on thematic qualitative analysis alongside cluster and latent class analyses, we are integrating our findings by drawing on literature at the intersection of audience studies and theories of cultural consumption. In this paper, we explain how social theory and data analysis combined have enabled us to iteratively generate a taxonomy. We then explain how that taxonomy has become the basis of both a triplestore database and allows an analysis of film audience engagement.

• Erin Spinney

University of Oxford

Studying naval medicine means shifting our gaze beyond the ship or the hospital to consider the interconnectivity of naval medicine as shown in the cyclical nature of care provision.  This medical system was exemplified in the journey of the sick or wounded sailor from his ship to hospital and back. Conceiving of naval medicine as a system of care allows for equal weight to be given to each stage of medical care delivery, re-integrating hospitals ships, hospitals, and convalescent ships into the naval medicine narrative.  However, without employing digital humanities methodologies such as Historical Geographical Information Systems (HGIS), the importance of hospital ships to the functioning of the British naval medical system would likely be lost in a series of disparate records. Among these records are log books for hospital ships. These log books kept by Lieutenants (National Maritime Museum) and Captains (National Archives) contain detailed information about patients received on board, medical supplies transported, and the daily location of the hospital ship while at sea.  Using the longitude and latitude coordinates for hospital ships, I map their location using HGIS. This allows me to visually demonstrate a naval system of care, and highlight the connectivity of such a system. When hospital ships had previously been mentioned by medical historians they were often viewed in the same way as prison hulks, providing a space to contain patients and prevent desertion of impressed men. However, the role of hospital ships in transferring medical supplies to the fleet and taking sick and wounded back to shore for care in hospital, as demonstrated though HGIS mapping, showcases the role of such floating hospitals in medical care.

• Elizabeth Stewart

University of East Anglia

English designed landscapes were artificially organised around a series of desirable experiences.  These included ‘promenades’, or places for walking, and vantage points where ‘prospects’, or views of the surrounding landscape, could be enjoyed from.  In 1624, architectural theorist Henry Wotton emphasised the need to design these experiences into country-house estates. As Wotton described, it was important to satisfy the “usurping” sense of sight through the “Lordship of the Feete [and] likewise of the Eye”.  ‘Promenades’ and ‘prospects’ not only influenced the composition of individual country-house estates, but also reflected the landowners’ unique attitudes towards the landscape. However, little analysis into determining the characteristics of both ‘promenades’ and ‘prospects’ at specific sites has been attempted.  Investigations have been hindered by the destruction and modernisation of designed landscapes from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Whilst impeding our ability to understand how country-house estates were once experienced, the conditions of these sites today have also impacted upon our understanding of their appearance and development.  Therefore, from my ongoing PhD research, this paper will demonstrate how 3D-GIS can change this.

By combining the capabilities of CAD and GIS, 3D-GIS enables 3D digital representations of country-house estates to be situated within their geographical and historical context. Using this advanced computational tool, different experiences can be spatially analysed within these virtually-recreated landscapes.  Whilst animation technology can capture what was once observed along particular ‘promenades’, viewshed analysis can calculate the visibility of certain ‘prospects’. By interpreting these results using reception theory, the conclusions from this research can provide insight into contemporary perceptions of individual designed landscapes and the perspectives of the landowners who created them. This research will therefore demonstrate how 3D-GIS can contribute towards the study of designed landscapes but also how this multidisciplinary approach can benefit research into historic landscapes generally.