The Time Machine is a pioneering digital humanities initiative which is currently bidding for funding from the EU’s FET Flagship scheme. Congratulations are in order – the initiative has passed the first stage of the selection process and has been invited to prepare a detailed proposal for a huge 1 billion euros of EU funding.
The Time Machine initiative stems from the Venice Time Machine project at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, which is one of the READ project partners. The Venice Time Machine is using Handwritten Text Recognition and other associated technologies to construct a multi-dimensional model of Venice over 1000 years of history. Read more in an article in Nature.
The Time Machine initiative promises to significantly expand this endeavour, involving new machine learning and 4D imaging techniques and extending its geographical scope far beyond the city of Venice. It has more than 170 supporting institutions across 32 countries who are interested in using big data to analyse European cultural heritage.
Fingers crossed for the Time Machine team as they move onto this next stage!