Each year we ask our interns to write a post reflecting on their time working in the DH Lab. Here is the first of this year’s from Natasha:

I’m Natasha, a third year Archaeological Science student. My internship here at the Digital Humanities Lab is coming to an end but working alongside the DH team has been the most incredible experience for gaining new skills and has provided me with the opportunity to collaborate in a range of projects with my fellow interns.  

With weekly training by members of the team, I have worked on different projects including photography, photogrammetry, and Reflectance Transforming Imaging (RTI) of Archaeology Teaching Packs, digitalisation of Exeter Theatre Playbills, and recording audio cassette tapes. I was also encouraged to try individual work and put these skills into practice with objects that I own, allowing the ability to explore personal interests. This includes using the 3D resin printer to reconstruct biface tools and completing RTI on a coin I own that had unrecognisable features before processing with RTI software, RelightLab.

Additionally, working once a week on the advisory desk has given me more confidence in the background administrative work that occurs for research projects and day-to-day support provided by the lab, including equipment hiring, assisting in queries, and setting up seminar rooms for conferences. 

This internship has allowed me to engage in innovative digital preservation, meet new people and learn skills that previously, I had no experience in. I hope to pursue my masters programme at Exeter using the tools I have acquired, focusing on digitalisation and preservation of archaeological artefacts. I am so grateful for all the support the DH Team has given me this year, and I could not recommend enough joining this internship to see what projects you could get involved in! 

Each year we ask our interns to write a blog post at the end of their time working with us looking back on their time in the DH Lab. Here is the fourth of this year’s blogs from Phoebe:

Hi, I’m Phoebe and I’ve just completed my internship at the Digital Humanities Lab here in Exeter alongside my course as a second-year History and Archaeology student. It seems to have flown past but looking back I’ve had such an amazing experience as an intern at the DH Labs and have worked on a huge number of projects- I’m not sure how we fit it all in! 

During my time at the Labs, I’ve worked on digitising the Theatre Royal, Exeter Playbill Collection, Institute of Cornish Studies Elections Project and the Family Farming in West Penwith Tapes for Penryn Archive as well as recently working on creating photogrammetry models for the Archaeology teaching packs. I’ve also has great fun playing with the 3D printers at the labs, making cute Christmas decorations and experimenting with different designs.  

 My first successful 3D print! 

In-between all that, I’ve worked closely with Adrián Oyaneder, creating 3D models using photogrammetry from photos he took of petroglyphs in the Atacama Desert. It was this project which inspired me to pursue my dissertation topic where I’ll be using the skills and techniques I’ve learned from working at the Labs. My colleagues at the DH Labs have been incredibly supportive and encouraging of my dissertation project so I’ve really benefitted from all their innovative help and enthusiasm to experiment.  

 Photogrammetry model of rocks near Reed Hall as practice for my dissertation work 

Experimenting with RTI in the field 

It’s amazing to think of how much has been done in only a year, especially when I came to this opportunity with no prior skills or experience in this field. My colleagues here have been brilliant in their support and patience as they taught me all they know and helped develop my confidence when working with technology while overcoming its challenges. I’ve learned so much, from 3D capture techniques like photogrammetry and RTI, to how research is effectively conducted and what is involved when storing and caring for delicate archived materials. I’ve also gained a new appreciation for just how valuable digital heritage is in today’s world. Working with digital heritage in such a direct and active way has given me a taste of what this environment is like and encouraged me to pursue it after I graduate.  

I’ll be sad to leave this internship, but I’ve loved working with my fellow interns and the DH team! 

Each year we ask our interns to write a blog post at the end of their time working with us looking back on their time in the DH Lab. Here is the third of this year’s blogs from Sophie:

I have found my time working in the Digital Humanities Lab to be an incredible learning opportunity and it has taught me invaluable skills using technologies I had not had the opportunity to work with before. The DH team provided a variety of weekly training sessions such as in using RTI (Reflectance Transformation Imaging), 3D printing, photogrammetry and coding, amongst other things, allowing me to complete projects in fields which I had never encountered before!
The first project I took on was digitising reel to reel tapes for Penryn campus, the tapes contained interviews with Cornish farmers and so were a really interesting piece of oral history, especially as they referenced the surrounding areas in Devon and Cornwall! The project allowed me to learn how to use the tape-recording equipment as well as how to edit and enhance audio on Audacity, this helped me with my Art History assignments as we were tasked with creating an app trail for our field trip to Florence; the skills I learnt at my internship were really helpful in the recording and editing of this material. We also, as an intern team, transcribed these recordings of the Cornish farmers using AI software, which made the recordings more accessible as the AI was able to pick out sections of audio which were hard to hear normally which really brought the interviews to life!

Another fun project I was apart of was helping one of the researchers in the lab with remote archaeological sensing in Chile, this involved using Google Earth Pro to spot new archaeological sites in the Chilean mountains. Another intern and I, with guidance from researcher Adrián, were able to spot historic farming sites, small settlements and animal traps. This was an immensely rewarding project which I never would have had access to without the Lab!
As well as these I also took on smaller personal projects, after the 3D print training I used Sketchfab to create my own chess piece which I then went on to 3D print using the Ultimaker. It was amazing to be able to hold the final product knowing I had designed and printed it myself!

The highlight of the internship for me was the trip to Special Collections in the Old Library as it introduced me to resources on campus I had previously been unaware of. Their collection of South West authors was fascinating and it was a special moment to see the original manuscripts of two of my favourite books (Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Lord of the Flies by William Golding) in person as well as a first edition of Dracula!

My internship at the Lab has taught me so much and has given me skills I have been able to develop not only through my projects in DH but also in my degree. Thank you to the entire DH team for an amazing year and I hope the new interns have as much fun as I have!

Each year we ask our interns to write a blog post at the end of their time working with us looking back on their time in the DH Lab. Here is the second of this year’s blogs from Daisy:

Working as part of the Digital Humanities Team alongside my third-year studies has been an incredible opportunity. From processing reel-to-reel tapes of Cornish farmers to building 3D prints in the Makerspace, this placement has taught me an astounding range of technical skills that I look forward to applying in my further study and future career. A particular highlight was getting to explore the audio-visual suite, namely, practise recording and editing my own pseudo-scripts. As an aspiring journalist, this was invaluable and immediately applicable to my goals beyond university study as well as proving to be the perfect titbit to bring up in my master’s interview!

Beyond media experience, the DH Lab provided the support to pursue my interest in textile history. I was able to look through a large collection of scraps collected by a 19^th century socialite which detailed her dresses and their adornments. From this, coupled with my use of the lab’s access to Adobe Photoshop while working on the front desk, I was able to reconstruct an approximation of what a whole piece of fabric may have looked like from a two-by-six-inch scrap of embossed satin. ‘The Art of Fiction’ project (@artfictionproject) who had previously posted the page of the book containing these small snippets of fabric then uploaded this image onto their Instagram page. It was wonderful to get the chance to breathe new life into a beautiful piece of textile history and to then have this shared where it would most be of interest. Working as part of the DH Lab often means working with the wider University team, across both the Streatham site and Penryn archives, and this small project provided a micro-scale model of the creative community Digital Humanities forms a key part of.

As well as the chance to work on my own projects, shifts spent in the lab offered a variety of ways to process and digitise media. This involved spending time taking high quality 150mp photographs of 19^th century playbills, school photographs from the 1970s and small letters that sometimes included absent minded sketches made by the author. As well as professional archival photography and audio-visual editing, the intern team were regularly trained on new equipment. These techniques included photogrammetry, namely constructing 3D models from repeated and slightly differing photographs, and RTI, photographs taken at different heights and angles of light in a specially constructed dome. These training sessions fed into our individual lab sessions in which I began my RTI work by processing handmade lace from a team member’s collection. From further discussions with Gary Stringer on his collection of textiles, he brought in a set of lace bobbins and explained the history of lacemaking itself, specifically regarding Bedfordshire lace. I was then lucky enough to try out a few basic stitches and am now searching for a set of bobbins for myself!

Although my degree and much of my work has focused on the humanities, I’ve enjoyed the more mathematical, technical side of work at the lab just as much. Taking on this placement with the lab has shown me how my degree significantly overlaps in the real world, using skills from both Art History and Mathematics together to produce digital resources. Both Julia Hopkin and Gary Stringer have provided invaluable teaching on the applications of coding, guiding the internship team through the basics of coding and Badger 2040 badges.

One of my last commitments as an intern was helping at the Open Day for the university, answering visitors’ questions and providing tours around the lab. It was the perfect day to bookend both my student experience and my time at the lab, showing potential Exeter University students around the facilities and speaking about how much the DH Lab has to offer.

Reflecting on my time with Digital Humanities, I would highly recommend anyone interested to apply to the internship placements. As a truly entry-level job, you work as part of a supportive and welcoming team to learn countless professional skills that are useful in any industry and provide you with a foundational knowledge of the work environment while you study. It has made what would already have been a memorable year even more so and I can’t thank the team enough for their enthusiasm and generosity!

Each year we ask our interns to write a blog post at the end of their time working with us looking back on their time in the DH Lab. Here is the first of this year’s blogs from Emily:

Hi – I’m Emily, a second year English and Communications student and 2023/24 intern here in the DH Lab. Working in the Digital Humanities Lab this year has been an amazing experience and one which has provided new ways to engage with my own academic and creative endeavors – my favourite aspects of the job have been developing new technical skills and getting the opportunity to support current research. 

At the start of the year, we received training in photography, photogrammetry, RTI, and eventually 3D printing. I really enjoyed seeing these skills build on each other with the progression from taking high quality images, to how 3D models can be made from those photos using Agisoft Metashape, and then learning how to use the 3D printer in the Makerspace to make physical objects from the models. Here are some of the models I made during training in the autumn term: 3D models by echircop – Sketchfab 

My favourite things I 3D printed were these articulated lizards, using multicoloured filament – these were always popular on open day tours too! 

Besides taking photos in Lab 1 and 2 to digitise a variety of paper archival collections, the projects I spent the most time on were audio and video editing. Firstly, I worked on the Cast in Stone project, editing interviews about the legacies and impacts of colonial statues on their local areas. I mainly cut out erroneous or irrelevant material from the interview audio and added title cards. This was a great opportunity to learn new software, as I had not previously used Adobe Premiere Pro, and I enjoyed getting to use my technical skills to make these interviews publicly accessible. They are available here: Cast in Stone Interviews 

Alongside the other interns, I also worked on a set of interviews with Cornish farmers from the Penryn Campus archive. These were recorded on reel-to-reel tapes, which were digitised in Lab 3, and many had poor audio quality. I used Audacity to amplify the volume of the recordings and remove as much background noise as possible, which was a fun and experimental process of figuring out what worked best on each individual recording. Following this, I used software called TurboScribe to create transcripts of each recording. This came with some challenges, as the software couldn’t always accurately transcribe due to accents and remaining issues with audio quality, so a lot of manual edits were necessary. This project was a valuable experience of the many moving parts and various stages that go into audio digitisation, and how to stay organised during this process. We kept a detailed spreadsheet and notes so that the whole team working on it was continually updated. I particularly enjoyed the experimental nature of many parts of this project, as it allowed me to deepen my knowledge of audio editing and try out new things like transcription.

I have loved working in the DH Lab this year! It has been exciting to explore the wide range of activities that fall under digital humanities (alongside what I’ve already mentioned, I was able to learn about coding, handling different kinds of archival objects, and making digital editions of texts) and working with such a supportive and enthusiastic team has been wonderful. I would highly recommend any students reading to consider getting involved with the DH Lab by applying to next year’s internship or looking into HASS modules that engage with digital humanities – you might be surprised by what you can learn!