The establishment of the Digital Humanities as a research field has shown that the use of computers as tools, but also the use of methods and techniques from computer science, can contribute enormously to research done in the Humanities. As quantum computers are becoming real and several providers are offering access to them via the cloud the question occurs: Why not use the potential of this new technology to address existing or entirely new questions in the Digital Humanities? Currently a first use case in this so-called 'Quantum Humanities' in the area of quantum machine learning is exploring how quantum computing helps to better understand how costumes are used for communication in films. Here we have developed the tool QHAna, which allows to evaluate classical and quantum machine learning algorithms in this area.
Johanna Barzen leads the Quantum Computing and Digital Humanities research area at the Institute of Architecture of Application Systems (IAAS). Her research lies in the intersection of computer science, media science, digital humanities, and quantum computing. Thereby, she applies pattern languages, data analytics, and machine learning. From 2012 on she is working on digital humanities projects and developed the MUSE method along with a supporting tool chain to identify costume pattern languages in films. Her interdisciplinary approach of combining research on digital humanities with the potentials of quantum computing coined the term Quantum Humanities. Ongoing research on (quantum) machine learning is currently determining the potentials of quantum approaches in contrast to classical approaches. Currently she is also a visiting scientist at the Business Informatics Group of the TU-Wien bridging the research areas model-driven development and digital humanities.
