My research examines the relationship between Science, Technology and Culture (=STC) from a long-term and global perspective. I have a special interest in the history of natural history and chemistry in insular Southeast Asia and Europe. This includes research into how computational technologies can be used to contextualize and provide access to valuable digitized scientific archives and collections. My research in the latter field also allows me to reflect upon how the growing use of digital technologies impacts research in the humanities and, more general, our understanding of culture and technology in society.
ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
PROJECT 1: Materials at work (monograph project) (2016- ….)
Since already a while I am working a monograph with the working title Materials at work: Governing nature and society in the early nineteenth century Dutch Empire. The book consists of four biographies of materials and instruments (among which hydrometers) which allow to shed fresh light on how chemical and natural historical expertise tacitly shaped the relationship between insular Southeast Asia and the Netherlands in 
the early nineteenth century world. In the context of this project, I have co-curated an exhibition on the history of recycling and chemistry at Museum Boerhaave, the Dutch National Museum for the History of Science and Medicine. The exhibition has received an “honorable mention” in the competition for the Dibner Award of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). The Dibner Award is an annual award for excellence in museum exhibits.
PROJECT 2: Edition of the diaries and drawings of Pieter van Oort (1804-1834) (2017-2021)
A neigboring project works on an integral edition of the diaries and drawings of Pieter van Oort. Born in Utrecht in 1804, Van Oort was one of the most talented Dutch draftsmen of natural 
historical objects in the early nineteenth century. Until his death in 1834, Van Oort visited not only Java, but also the islands of Timor and Sumatra. During his stay in the area, Van Oort not only produced a voluminous diary but also stunning watercolor drawings which are now stored in the archives of Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden. In particular the drawings offer a fascinating insight in the historical flora and fauna of the Indonesian Archipelago. For instance, many of the bats which Van Oort drew are now endangered. In order to prepare a searchable digital edition of Van Oort’s diaries and drawings, I use MONK, a state-of-the-art software designed for the recognition of handwritten illustrated corpora. MONK has been developed by prof. Lambert Schomaker (ALICE Groningen) and his team. Eventually the diary and the drawings will also appear in book form in 2020.
PAST RESEARCH PROJECTS
PROJECT 1: Infrastructure for digitized (biodiversity) heritage collections (2016-2020)
I am researcher in the project Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives (2016-2020) which aims at developing an advanced and user-friendly online environment to search, contextualize, and interlink handwritten and illustrated archive collections. Core use case of the project is the archive of the Committee for Natural History of the Netherlands Indies (1820-1850), one of the most important collections of the flora and 
fauna of Southeast Asia in the Netherlands. The project is financed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the publisher BRILL in Leiden. It also involves natural history experts from Naturalis Biodiversity Center Leiden and computer scientists from the universities in Leiden (LIACS, LCDS) and Groningen (ALICE). In the past, I have undertaken various collaborative efforts to disclose this archive for historians, biodiversity researchers and a broader public.
For more information on this project see:
Gassó, E., Stork, L., Weber, A., Ameryan, M., Wolstencroft K, Natuurkundige Commissie Archives Online. Leiden: Brill, 2020. doi:10.1163/isbn.9789004336865 (visual edition of one of the world´s largest archives of the flora and fauna of insular Southeast Asia in the first half of the nineteenth century).
Stork, L., Weber, A., Gassó Miracle, E., Verbeek, F., Plaat, A., Van den Herik, J, Wolstencroft, K., “Semantic Annotation of Natural History Collections,” Journal of Web Semantics (in press), [DOI]
Weber, A.; Ameryan, M.; Wolstencroft, K.; Stork, L.; Heerlien, M.; Schomaker, L. “Towards a Digital Infrastructure for Illustrated Handwritten Archives,” in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), vol. 10605: Digital Cultural Heritage, ed. Marinos Ioannides (Springer 2018), 155-166 (peer-reviewed, Mahya Ameryan and Andreas Weber share first authorship, acceptance rate: 29 out of 198 submissions [DOI] [PDF].
Weber, A.; Ameryan, M.; Stork, L.; Wolstencroft, K.; Gassó Miracle, E.; Nijssen, S.; Wiering, M.; Heerlien, M.; Thijssen, M.; Huetink, M.; Verbeek, F.; Plaat A.; Kok, J.; Roberts, L.; Herik, J. van den; Schomaker, L., Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives, Poster at eScience Symposium, Amsterdam, 13 October 2016.
Schomaker, L.; Weber, A.; Thijssen, M.; Heerlien, M.; Plaat A.; Nijssen, S.; Verbeek, F.; Lew, M.; Gassó Miracle, E.; Wolstencroft, K.; Suvyer, E.; Verheij, B.; Wiering, M.; Dekker, R.; Kok, J.; Roberts, L.; Van den Herik, J. Making Sense of Illustrated Handwritten Archives, Digital Humanities 2016 Krakow, Conference Abstracts, 764-766. (peer-reviewed)
PROJECT 2: Eventscapes. Providing spatio-temporal access to the Prize papers.
For more information about this collaborative research project see here.
Andreas Weber 