Close and distant reading in explorative editions: distributed cognition and interactive visualisations

The distant reading paradigm has taught us that transformations of textual material, be they in statistical or visual form, can be very informative about trends and patterns in text collections.  However, current digital editions often fall short of exploiting this computational potential for text representation, analysis, and interaction. This paper argues that digital scholarly editions can transcend the limitations of print and print-inspired digital formats and become what I call "explorative editions." I draw on the work of Eugene Lyman about the role of distributed cognition in the design of scholarly tools and that of Shane McGarry about interactive tools creating the possibility for immersion in the edition through properly contextualised goal-directed activity. The paper advocates the integration of interactive visualizations in digital editions. This can transform digital editions into cognitive artifacts that enhance the user's exploration and understanding of the edited material. 

The paper proposes five criteria for these explorative editions, emphasizing the inclusion of visual representations, manipulable features, top-down and bottom-up navigational structures, co-extensiveness with the edited items, and minimization of user effort. Finally, I challenge the scholarly community to develop a scholarly edition that meets these criteria, offering a reward for the first project to accomplish this.