Session: #370

Content:

This session calls on digital imaging specialists to reflect on their own practice, workflows, and methodologies. Colleen Morgan (2022) has argued that digital archaeology is situated in practice-based research, defined by Candy et al. as a “principled approach to research by means of practice in which the research and the practice operate as interdependent and complementary processes leading to new and original forms of knowledge” (2021, p. 2). It is argued here that digital imaging processes exemplify practice-based research. While 3D models, RTI files, and other end-products of digital approaches are acknowledged as important tools to gain new insights into artefacts, monuments, and sites, this is only one dimension of the knowledge gained through these acts of heritage digitization. In an age of increasing automation across all stages of digitization and presentation, it is easy to overlook the decisions made by digital practitioners behind-the-scenes at different stages. While standardised work routines and descriptive documentation (I.e. paradata) can preserve some practical steps, it is hard to argue that they sufficiently communicate the situational, personal, and communal knowledge generated in these key moments.

This session welcomes papers that reflect on the act of digitization, whether capturing, processing, modelling, disseminating, archiving, or collaborating with a range of communities in the production of scientific or artistic outputs.

Candy, L., Edmonds, E., Vear, C., 2021. Introduction. In The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research (1st ed.). eds C Vear, L Candy, E Edmonds. Routledge.

Morgan, C. 2022. Current Digital Archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 51(1): p.213–231. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-041320-114101

Session: #370

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