Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MUYA (The Multimedia Yasna)
Período documentado: 2021-04-01 hasta 2023-03-31
Combining models and methodologies from digital humanities, philology, and linguistics, the project has produced a subtitled, interactive film of the Yasna ritual, an online platform of transcribed manuscripts and editing tools together with print editions, translations and commentaries of the Avestan Yasna. The Information which was formerly restricted to students of Iranian philology and practising Zoroastrians has now become accessible to a worldwide audience through digital humanities.
The project, based at SOAS, University of London, and funded by the European Research Council, ran from October 2016 to March 2023. It was headed by Professor Almut Hintze and includes an international team of researchers in the UK, Germany, India and Iran.
2. In addition, MUYA has published a 360-degree film here: https://muya.soas.ac.uk/360video/ and a 4-minute taster of it is available here: https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/film-360/
3. Editing tools. The adaptation of the Online Transcription Editor (OTE) to transcribe liturgical manuscripts of the Avesta has been completed and has been used by the MUYA team to transcribe manuscripts. The code is available on GitHub https://github.com/Multimedia-Avesta
4. Online editions. MUYA's online editions, manuscript transcriptions and critical apparatus are now available on MUYA's website here: https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/transcriptions-editions/
5. Print publication. The print publications are published by the publisher Brill. Supported by MUYA team member Dr Martin Sievers (Trier), MUYA's SOAS team has produced camera-ready copies using the software LaTeX, which is the software used by Brill. Martin Sievers developed the tools in LaTeX, including macros and a Zotero database. The details of typesetting are provided here: https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/typesetting-with-latex/
2. The Yasna ritual in 360-degree Virtual Reality (VR). The film of the Yasna ritual in Virtual Reality is an additional output produced by MUYA. Like the two-dimensional interactive film, the 360-degree film was made in November 2017. It has a length of just under three hours. The difference in length in comparison to the two-dimensional film is due to the fact that the priests recited faster when performing the ritual for the 360-degree film. The film was published in July 2022 on the MUYA website https://muya.soas.ac.uk/360video/. It can be watched on a screen and the user is able to move around within the video by using the computer curser. In addition, the video can be watched by using special VR glasses to create a Virtual Reality experience by full immersion into the world of the ritual. A taster of the VR film has also been published (https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/film-360/). The VR film provides a wealth of data not previously available and, like the two-dimensional film (above no.1) it will be useful for both scholars, the general public, and for the Zoroastrian community.
3. MUYA's film team Chouette Films has also produced a documentary on Zoroastrianism and priestly education in National Geographic style for greater outreach and impact, using footage produced during the team's stay in Mumbai in November 2017.
4. Electronic editing tools. The MUYA team has developed and used a suite of electronic editing tools suitable for the edition of Avestan texts. MUYA's editing tools are available here: https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/ote-collation/ together with instructions on how to use them. The Online (and Offline) Transcription Editor (OTE) produces XML-TEI transcriptions, which are collated in MUYA's Collation Editor developed by MUYA's project partner Dr Catherine Smith (University of Birmingham). The collation editor has a function that allows the collation to be exported into the software LaTeX. This enables the editor to combine the collation and critical apparatus with the commentary, which is also written in LaTeX. The resulting editions are suitable for publication online and in print. All editing tools are open source and their codes are available on GitHub https://github.com/Multimedia-Avesta.
5. Online editions. MUYA's transcriptions of ca. 30 manuscripts and online editions of the Yasna have been published on MUYA's website https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/transcriptions-editions/.
6. Print editions. In collaboration with MUYA partner Martin Sievers (Trier), the SOAS team has published print editions of parts of the Avestan Yasna using the software LaTeX. The print publications are published by the publisher Brill. Martin Sievers developed the tools in LaTeX, including macros and a Zotero database. The details of the work in LaTeX and of the typesetting are provided here: https://muya.soas.ac.uk/tool/typesetting-with-latex/