Thesis Chapters by Richard Breen
This thesis discusses how folk music changes as it is passed down over time and transmitted throu... more This thesis discusses how folk music changes as it is passed down over time and transmitted through different cultures. These changes, wherein older cultural material is re-worked into a new artefact is sometimes referred to as the ‘Folk Process’. This project explores how existing digital tools can be used to both identify and map these changes in such a way that is demonstrative of how folk songs that might sound musically different can be linked through their narrative or origin. This research seeks to identify cultural motifs and tropes within an existing cycle of folk songs that are essentially versions or descendants of an older cycle of songs. In charting the genesis and evolution of this case study, it is hoped that this research will be indicative of how the folk process is instrumental in the shaping of cultural identity. Through encoding, analysing, and mapping this information, this thesis seeks to create a pedagogical tool that, it is hoped, may lead to new discussions on how musicological and folkloristic research can be enhanced through Digital Humanities methodologies.
Papers by Richard Breen
Schriften des Instituts für Dokumentologie und Editorik — Band 13, 2019
This paper presents and discusses experiences studying different versions of folk
songs as cultu... more This paper presents and discusses experiences studying different versions of folk
songs as cultural objects, and will investigate how using specific Digital Humanities
tools may assist the versioning of intangible oral tradition. This was primarily
achieved using The Versioning Machine, a framework and an interface for displaying
multiple versions of text and audio encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative
(TEI) Guidelines. Through encoding a set number of songs in The Versioning Machine
and displaying the results online, new questions and conclusions could be made
to version cultural material with an emphasis on trying to trace the evolution of
cultural ideas through subsequent iterations of ideas. Using examples from the project
Documenting Transmission: The Rake Cycle1, this paper will examine the effectiveness
of using a specific existing versioning tool to model and map the differences between
versions of folk songs and examine the intangible nature of performance and oral
tradition. How do these digital versions change or reinforce our perception of a song
cycle and transmission processes in general? This paper will give a broad overview of
the Documenting Transmission project and some of the musicological and technical
considerations that were made over the course of the project.
Geo: Geography and Environment, Mar 31, 2020
As a feature of the Fish Revolution (1400–1700), the early modern “invention” of the Grand Banks ... more As a feature of the Fish Revolution (1400–1700), the early modern “invention” of the Grand Banks in literary and cartographical documents facilitated a massive and unprecedented extraction of cod from the waters of the north Atlantic and created the Cod/Sack trade Triangle. This overlapped with the southern Atlantic Slave, Sugar, and Tobacco Triangle to capitalise modern European and North American societies. In 1719, Pierre de Charlevoix claimed that the Grand Banks was “properly a mountain, hid under water,” and noted its cod population “seem to equal that of the grains of sand which cover this bank.” However, two centuries later in 1992, in the face of the collapse of the fishery, and fearing its extinction, a moratorium was placed on five centuries of harvesting Grand Banks cod. The invention and mining of its waters serves as a bellwether for the massive resource extractions of modernity that drive the current leviathan and “wicked problem” of global warming. The digital environmental humanities narrative of this study is parsed together from 83 pieces of Grand Banks charting from 1504 to 1833, which are juxtaposed through Humanities GIS applications with English and French cod‐catch records kept between 1675 and 1831, letters regarding Cabot's 1497 voyage, Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' (1611) and scientific essays by De Brahms (1772) and Franklin (1786).
Digital Literary Atlas of Ireland, 1922-1949, 2nd Edition
This Digital Atlas <http://cehresearch.org/DLAI/> literary, historical and cartographic perspecti... more This Digital Atlas <http://cehresearch.org/DLAI/> literary, historical and cartographic perspectives on Ireland from 1922 to 1949 drawn from the works of fourteen Irish writers. This project is based in the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities at the University of Dublin and provides interactive mapping and timeline features for academics and the public at large interested in the intersection of Irish literary culture, history and geography. Using the pan feature of the Timemap below, one can scroll to significant dates and places featured in this digital atlas. For a more detailed glimpse of period and place click on the link below, or one of the writer's faces above.
Oceans past by Richard Breen
Quaternary Research, 2019
We propose the concept of the “Fish Revolution” to demarcate the dramatic increase in North Atlan... more We propose the concept of the “Fish Revolution” to demarcate the dramatic increase in North Atlantic fisheries after AD 1500, which led to a 15-fold increase of cod (Gadus morhua) catch volumes and likely a tripling of fish protein to the European market. We consider three key questions: (1) What were the environmental parameters of the Fish Revolution? (2) What were the globalising effects of the Fish Revolution? (3) What were the consequences of the Fish Revolution for fishing communities? While these questions would have been considered unknowable a decade or two ago, methodological developments in marine environmental history and historical ecology have moved information about both supply and demand into the realm of the discernible. Although much research remains to be done, we conclude that this was a major event in the history of resource extraction from the sea, mediated by forces of climate change and globalisation, and is likely to provide a fruitful agenda for future multidisciplinary research.
Maritime history by Richard Breen
Quaternary Research, 2019
We propose the concept of the "Fish Revolution" to demarcate the dramatic increase in North Atlan... more We propose the concept of the "Fish Revolution" to demarcate the dramatic increase in North Atlantic fisheries after AD 1500, which led to a 15-fold increase of cod (Gadus morhua) catch volumes and likely a tripling of fish protein to the Euro-pean market. We consider three key questions: (1) What were the environmental parameters of the Fish Revolution? (2) What were the globalising effects of the Fish Revolution? (3) What were the consequences of the Fish Revolution for fishing com-munities? While these questions would have been considered unknowable a decade or two ago, methodological developments in marine environmental history and historical ecology have moved information about both supply and demand into the realm of the discernible. Although much research remains to be done, we conclude that this was a major event in the history of resource extraction from the sea, mediated by forces of climate change and globalisation, and is likely to provide a fruitful agenda for future multidisciplinary research.
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Thesis Chapters by Richard Breen
Papers by Richard Breen
songs as cultural objects, and will investigate how using specific Digital Humanities
tools may assist the versioning of intangible oral tradition. This was primarily
achieved using The Versioning Machine, a framework and an interface for displaying
multiple versions of text and audio encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative
(TEI) Guidelines. Through encoding a set number of songs in The Versioning Machine
and displaying the results online, new questions and conclusions could be made
to version cultural material with an emphasis on trying to trace the evolution of
cultural ideas through subsequent iterations of ideas. Using examples from the project
Documenting Transmission: The Rake Cycle1, this paper will examine the effectiveness
of using a specific existing versioning tool to model and map the differences between
versions of folk songs and examine the intangible nature of performance and oral
tradition. How do these digital versions change or reinforce our perception of a song
cycle and transmission processes in general? This paper will give a broad overview of
the Documenting Transmission project and some of the musicological and technical
considerations that were made over the course of the project.
Oceans past by Richard Breen
Maritime history by Richard Breen
songs as cultural objects, and will investigate how using specific Digital Humanities
tools may assist the versioning of intangible oral tradition. This was primarily
achieved using The Versioning Machine, a framework and an interface for displaying
multiple versions of text and audio encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative
(TEI) Guidelines. Through encoding a set number of songs in The Versioning Machine
and displaying the results online, new questions and conclusions could be made
to version cultural material with an emphasis on trying to trace the evolution of
cultural ideas through subsequent iterations of ideas. Using examples from the project
Documenting Transmission: The Rake Cycle1, this paper will examine the effectiveness
of using a specific existing versioning tool to model and map the differences between
versions of folk songs and examine the intangible nature of performance and oral
tradition. How do these digital versions change or reinforce our perception of a song
cycle and transmission processes in general? This paper will give a broad overview of
the Documenting Transmission project and some of the musicological and technical
considerations that were made over the course of the project.