Expert Interview: Dr. Marilena Daquino, Polifonia researcher
‘Share your knowledge, teach if you can, and learn as much as possible, because we will need it’, Dr. Daquino
What is your expertise and role in Polifonia?
After a master’s in history, I learnt coding and, since then, I have been active in the digital humanities research community. My role in the Polifonia project is to develop the final Web portal in collaboration with other partners. Before that, I was involved in creating musoW, a preliminary catalogue of musical resources on the web that we will leverage into the Polifonia Web portal.
What drives you to conduct research in this field?
I had a particular interest in archival science but I didn’t want to study one single topic. Within this area, I found working on the metalevel far more interesting because focusing on research methods through programming has a much bigger impact on the field. It has a real added value to archival and library information sciences.
How is the gender balance in this discipline, and has it changed in the past years?
Of course in the humanities there are more women, while in computer science there are fewer, or better, they are less visible. This is not new. However, I am lucky to be part of the Research Centre for Digital Humanities at the University of Bologna, where many women are now enrolled in our MA programme there. I think, in contrast to computer science, digital humanities can be seen as an applied science which makes it more appealing to people starting a course with fewer coding skills.
Would you like to share a message for International Women’s Day?
I found this article on Groove magazine quite inspiring. It is about some Mexican women coders who create electronic music through live coding. Not only they hack the system by using free software and self-written code, free from the capitalistic industry, but they also break new ground in this world dominated by men.
An important section of this article is about how women have started passing on their coding knowledge to other women so that they can learn, freely express themselves and challenge themselves. This used to be rare in programming. So, my message is: share your knowledge (in coding), teach if you can, and learn as much as possible. We will need it to make the world a better place!
Recent News
Polifonia recently released results of 40 months of research and development at the intersection of musicology, semantic web technologies, AI and Music Information Retrieval. And the Polifonia Web Portal, which enhances the discoverability of European musical heritage with Linked Open Data and Knowledge Graphs, can now be explored.
Polifonia recently released results of 40 months of research and development at the intersection of…
With a strong base in academia, the Polifonia team looks forward to the conference season every year. One of the highlights is the Extended Semantic Web Conference. In this article, a brief review of our participation in this conference and update on our paper output.
With a strong base in academia, the Polifonia team looks forward to the conference season every year.…
From the beginning of the project, Podiumkunst.net and Polifonia have been in close contact and looked to each other as role models. Our stakeholder Podiumkunst.net reflects on this synergy with a positive outlook. Remco de Boer and Monique in het Veld on the importance of the collaboration and the impact.
From the beginning of the project, Podiumkunst.net and Polifonia have been in close contact and looked…
TONALITIES, IReMus’ pilot for musical heritage data project Polifonia, develops tools for the modal-tonal identification, exploration and classification of monophonic and polyphonic notated music from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Now, the tools are available for use within the TONALITIES Interface for music analysis. Additionally, a patent was recently acquired for this collaborative interface by the IReMus lab.
TONALITIES, IReMus' pilot for musical heritage data project Polifonia, develops tools for the modal-tonal…
From April 8 to May 6 Polifonia organised their own version of the Eurovision Song Contest, the Polifonia Song Contest: musicians of all levels were challenged to create the ‘soundtrack of our history’ by using samples from the rich collections in the Polifonia project. Today we can announce the winning song.
From April 8 to May 6 Polifonia organised their own version of the Eurovision Song Contest, the Polifonia…
After four years of development work, the Polifonia project team is excited to present the results. The consortium, consisting of 10 partners from Italy, the Netherlands, France, England and Ireland launches the music discoverability platform ‘Polifonia Web Portal’. In addition, the researchers and developers have also unlocked and linked other music data, developed tools and software that will help musicologists take steps forward in their research on European musical heritage.
After four years of development work, the Polifonia project team is excited to present the results.…
The Polifonia project formally ended on April 30, which means that the tools and software developed within this 4-year-project are released and ready for use. Today we look at ‘Patterns UI’.
The Polifonia project formally ended on April 30, which means that the tools and software developed…
Polifonia Song Contest is two weeks in, and will continue for another two weeks. Have you downloaded the sample pack yet?
With two weeks to go until the deadline, the "Polifonia Song Contest" beckons all musicians who find…
Are you the type of musician that is inspired by old sounds, such as cheerful Irish folk melodies, the majestic resonance of pipe organ concerts, and the timeless chimes echoing from century-old Italian bell towers? Then ‘Polifonia Song Contest’ is your challenge!
Are you the type of musician that is inspired by old sounds, such as cheerful Irish folk melodies, the…
The consortium is preparing for the last face-to-face consortium meeting of the Polifonia project in April 2024.
The consortium is preparing for the last face-to-face consortium meeting of the Polifonia project in…
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N. 101004746