Last year I successfully completed the first year of my Master’s degree in the Cultural History of Science and Technology, Digital Humanities and Mediation, which is offered by the Centre François Viète research laboratory at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale in Brest. A large part of the year was taken up by my research project, “An historic analysis of tide prediction machines using an adapted prosopographic approach and digital humanities tools,” which can be found here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3265011. In this post I’m going to give a quick summary of what I achieved during the year in relation to this research project.

March 2019

The British Society for the History of Science published an article I wrote about the Tide & Time exhibition at the National Oceanography Centre in Liverpool, UK, on their blog: bshs.org.uk/travel-guide-tide-time-exhibition-national-oceanography-centre-liverpool.

April 2019

I gave a 5-minute speed lecture entitled “A New Wave of Prosopography: an Application to Tide Prediction Machines” at the International Postgraduate Port and Maritime Studies Network Conference 2019 at the University of Dundee, UK, on 25 April 2019. My presentation can be found here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3003566.

Now Helen Mair Rawsthorne giving a speed lecture on her ideas on prosopographical methodology and how it can be applied to the study of objects. pic.twitter.com/N0xMlpXSVh

— IPPMSN (@ippmsn) April 25, 2019

May 2019

I won DARIAH-EU’s Digital Humanities methods and tools blog competition 2019 with my article “Tide Prediction Machines, Prosopography and Digital Humanities: what are they and how do they fit together?”, which can be found here: dhmethods.hypotheses.org/229. I was awarded a scholarship to attend the DARIAH’s Annual Event 2019 in Warsaw, Poland, and showcase my research at a poster presentation there. My poster can be found here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2908250.

June 2019

I gave a 20-minute presentation entitled “The Development of Tide Prediction Machines” at the Shaped by the Sea workshop at the University of Manchester, UK, on 27 June 2019. My presentation can be found here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3261817.

Helen Mair Rawsthorne @hmrawsthorne demonstrates tide prediction machines in action. Too cool! #OceanHSTM pic.twitter.com/17jdr57G7y

— Steph Piper (@MesoPip) June 27, 2019

July 2019

I gave a 20-minute presentation entitled “A New Wave of Prosopography: an Application to Tide Prediction Machines” at the Oceanext 2019 conference (within La Mer XXL exhibition) at Nantes Exhibition Centre, France, on 4 July 2019. My presentation can be found here: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3269511.

Amazing session about sea’s imagineries @oceanext2019 . From Homer to tide prediction machine, within a jump on prehistoric period. With @Pierre_Gernez @hmrawsthorne #fredericleblay and #carherinedupont pic.twitter.com/mz94x6Y4cg

— oceanext2019 (@oceanext2019) July 4, 2019

What’s next?

This post concludes the work for the first year of my Master’s degree. My life last year was completely and unexpectedly taken over by tide prediction machines, but I enjoyed the work immensely. I put a lot of time and effort into it and I am very pleased with the results. I am currently in the process of developing the subject for this year’s research project, which will be my Master’s thesis. I will shortly be starting a new blog to document this next part of my adventure – tide and time wait for no man (or woman)!

---

---