Biblissima+ (Observatoire des cultures écrites, de l’argile à l’imprimé), supported by the Campus Condorcet, is one of the EquipEx+ structuring facilities for research funded under the Investissements d'avenir program. It takes over from ÉquipEx Biblissima (Bibliotheca bibliothecarum novissima) and creates a multi-polar digital infrastructure for fundamental research and services dedicated to the history of the transmission of ancient texts, from the first Mesopotamian clay tablets to the first printed books, on all media and in all languages.

Biblissima+ is structured around 7 areas of expertise or « clusters » organized according to the data life cycle. Cluster 3 “Artificial Intelligence for pattern and handwriting recognition”, coordinated by Dominique Stutzmann (directeur de recherche, IRHT - CNRS) and Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra (directeur d'études, EPHE-PSL, AOROC UMR 8546), focuses on the use of artificial intelligence for the recognition of forms, characters, and handwriting, enabling the study of ancient handwritten and printed books, sigillography, numismatics, and heraldry. Biblissima+ will be dealing with massive and diverse data, in terms of materials, languages, and writing systems. The cluster's work will be carried out in close collaboration with other clusters to formalize text, exploit images, read and understand text. The cluster aims to open up access to infrastructures and data and to provide users with the most powerful and up-to-date tools possible while respecting the finesse and diversity of historical research.

For the cluster's first "annual days" in 2023, the coordinators opened a dialogue on the issues, challenges, and limits involved in implementing Social Sciences and Humanities projects based on or incorporating artificial intelligence. In line with this approach, for the second edition of this event, we are launching a call for papers, intending to explore new avenues and revisit old ones to re-evaluate them. Confronted with the growing diversity of approaches in an international and multidisciplinary context, we are inviting researchers and PhD students to a review of the current research, offering perspectives for the future.

Registration is free of charge. Registration is obligatory, as places are limited for the oral presentations. To register, click on the "Registration" link in the left-hand column.

Proposals exploring the intersection between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and pattern, character, and handwriting recognition, enabling the study of ancient handwritten and printed books, sigillography, numismatics, and heraldry without a constraint of material support, are welcome within the framework of this call. Although not exhaustive, the following themes are highlighted by the organization team.

The proposed themes read as follows:

1) Applications:

• Computer image analysis: segmentation, extraction, description of visual patterns (iconographic, textual)

• Classification: attribution, dating, provenance

• (Con)text recognition: new approaches in OCR/HTR/beyond HTR

• Recovery and restoration of illegible/lost writing (palimpsests, faded writing, or writing on damaged media)

• Optional, and to promote exchanges with Cluster 4: automatic development and paleographic applications of handwriting modeling for the analysis of (paleo)graphic production (eg. reconstruction of the writing process, analysis of writing systems and their components).

2) Methodology and tools: 

• New architectures (transformers, generative models), and platforms

• Relevance of metrics in model evaluation and analysis of results

• Interpretability

• Fine-tuning and optimization: model robustness and flexibility (transfer, zero-shot learning)

• Applicability and limitations

3) Designing DH projects:

• Accessibility and Interoperability: Human and computational cost of producing (or reusing) datasets and models

• Durability and flexibility of pipelines (end-to-end vs. multi-step frameworks)

Submissions are open for contributions on current or completed projects, demonstrations of tools or prototypes, as well as reflections on the use of sources in small and large-scale academic and pedagogical contexts. Contributions will take the following forms:

• Long papers of 20' + 10' discussion, to be organized in thematic sessions according to the proposed axes

• Posters, displayed throughout the conference and presented in a dedicated session. This format is to be preferred for presentations of projects and infrastructures that do not explicitly include a reflective or methodological dimension

Please submit your abstracts (max. 500 words + 1 image)  via the platform mentioning the institutional affiliations of the authors accompanied by a brief CV (max. 1 page) in a single pdf file.

Link to the submission form: https://biblissim-ia-2024.sciencesconf.org/submission/submit 

Deadline : 05/02/2024

The accepted languages of the papers and posters are French and English.

Presenters will have the opportunity to enjoy an on-Campus accommodation and their travel expenses will be covered in the limit of available funding.

The publication of a booklet of abstracts for the accepted presentations and posters is envisaged, without excluding an eventual publication of the proceedings featuring selected contributions.

Organizing committee: Daniel  Stökl (EPHE-AOROC), Peter Stokes (EPHE-AOROC), Dominique Stutzmann (IRHT-CNRS), Malamatenia Vlachou-Efstathiou (IRHT-CNRS)

If you have any questions about the submission process, please contact us via the platform by clicking @ Contact in the left-hand column.