Presentations from the OK computer? Digital Public Archaeologies in Practice.
Session organisers: Seren Griffiths (Manchester Metropolitan University), Lorna Richardson (University College London), Chiara Bonacchi (University College London, UK) and Gabriel Moshenka (University College London).
Community or public archaeology has often emphasised communities defined by an attachment to place, often defined by the archaeological site (cf. Simpson 2008); increasingly digital technologies allow a breakdown of this privileging of physical place and the concept of ‘community’ (cf. Waterton 2005; 2010), to connect geographically disparate populations. Digital public archaeology projects have emphasised crowd-sourcing, engagment, dissemination, and publicity using blogs, social media, webfeeds and so on (e.g. Richardson 2012; Bonacchi et al. 2012). As well as the challenges and opportunities relevant to other public archaeology projects, work which includes a significant digital public archaeology component has a series of more specific concerns. Increasingly the need for archaeologists to engage thoughtfully with digitally technologies has been recognised by a number of organisations (Archaeological Data Service 2010; Heritage Lottery Fund 2012; Institute of Archaeologists 2012), and greater numbers of projects are defined by their predominantly digital work. As a result there are implications both for local site-specific practice by people working as archaeologists where we are “…progressively transforming a ‘‘world of scarcity’’ into one of ‘‘saturation’’, where space is no more an issue…” (Bonacchi 2012); the wider political context in which people interested in heritage operate (Richardson 2012); and how different interest groups including intelligent and critical consumers work in the historic environment “…without any professional or academic input whatsoever…” (Moshenka 2008).
As with other aspects of public archaeology, projects can include both ‘bottom up’ and ‘top down’ approaches (cf. Tully 2007; Moshenka 2008; Belford 2011) to engagement with aspects of the archaeological record. There are also webfora and projects which include the co-production of resources by interest groups who might define themselves not as archaeologists, but who have a strong interest in the historic environment (neopagans, historical re-enactors, and metal detectorists for example). This session will discuss aspects of digital public archaeology, including the challenges and opportunities offered by social media and webfora, ways of encountering and engaging with digital communities; the role of explicitly ‘digital public archaeology’ projects, how these communities are constructed and maintained; how a range of authoritative voices use the internet (cf. Hodder 2008; Faulkner 2000; Grima 2002); wider issues in terms of sustainability and management (cf. Moshenka et al. 2011); and how they interface with more traditional aspects of archaeological practices.
What we did:
Live Event Videography – we recorded each presentation, edited the recordings and then published them so that we increased the reach, impact and accessibility of the event.