Upcoming: ARKDIS at the Information Access Seminar, UC Berkeley School of Information

"...RELEVANT, USABLE, AND ACCESSIBLE TO ALL...". ON DOCUMENTATION IDEALS FOR EXTRA-ACADEMIC RESEARCH, THE CASE OF DEVELOPMENT-LED ARCHAEOLOGY

Information Access Seminar

Friday, April 10, 2015, 3:10 pm - 5:00 pm

107 South Hall, UC Berkeley

In several disciplines, such as medicine and engineering, significant parts of the knowledge production take place outside academic research. Another such discipline is archaeology. Most archaeological surveys are conducted as development-led archaeology prior to land development. The documentation of such surveys is surrounded by legislation and guidelines. In this seminar we will take a closer look at the documentation ideals in those regulations. Additionally we will discuss how those ideals are interpreted by authorities in archaeology, notably academic archaeologists, museum professionals, and government professionals. From a distance, and with some humor, these ideals and interpretations may be likened to an administrative meltdown and they present an enigmatic challenge for the professionals who try to do the actual documentation. The seminar will focus on the case of archaeology, but the discussion will also be extended to the general circumstances for documentation and communication of extra-academic research today.

Bio: 

Lisa Börjesson, M.A., is a second-year doctoral student from Uppsala University in Sweden. During Fall 2014 and Spring 2015 she is a visiting student researcher at School of Information. Her research is a part of the research project Archaeological Information in the Digital Society (ARKDIS).

ARKDIS in the Netherlands

Visiting the Keys to Rome exhibition
at the Allard Pearson Museum.

For about a month ago, ARKDIS project was visiting colleagues in the Netherlands during a five day study trip to Amsterdam, Leiden and the Hague. The trip gave us a good idea of some of the current state-of-the-art in Dutch archaeology, archaeological presentation and information management.

At Allard Pearson Museum of the University of Amsterdam we were hosted by Dr. Wim Hupperetz who took us around at the museum and introduced us to their work on ArchaeoHotspots, a room where archaeologists and volunteers actually do archaeological research and work with finds in the museum, and where the public can come, watch and discuss.

At DANS, the Data archive and networking services, the Dutch data archive that preserves digital archaeological research data in the Hague, Hella Hollander and her colleagues presented their work and current state of the affairs in the archaeological information management in the Netherlands. In comparison to many other countries, including Sweden, the clear mandate of an organisation with a similarly clear focus on archaeological research for both preserving and making available digital archaeological data is an apparent advantage in the Netherlands.

At Europeana in the Hague, Joris Pekel hosted us and gave us a good overview of their work and highlighted the new strategy to focus on quality and partnership-based content production instead of attempting to incorporate as large quantities of content as possible.

We visited also the Faculty of Archaeology (yes, a faculty not a department) in Leiden and discussed with Dr. Hans Kamermans on education and research and the Vrije universiteit Amsterdam where Dr. Philip Verhagen and his colleagues presented their research and we had an opportunity to give a glimpse of the on-going work in ARKDIS. As a final stop, we visited the e-humanities unit of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences where Prof. Sally Wyatt hosted us and told about the e-humanities work in the country. We had also an opportunity to participate their weekly seminar, this time with a guest preseentation of Joseph Tennis from the University of Washington iSchool.

In addition to the common programme, all of us had an opportunity for additional visits to museums and

CfP: Digital Future of Archaeology at NTAG 2015

Submissions are invited for presentations at the Nordic TAG (NTAG) 2015 session on the The Digital Future of Archaeology. Paper abstracts should be of maximum 200 words with additionally author contact details. Please send your paper to bodil.petersson@lnu.se. Send your abstract (or inform the organisers on an incoming proposal) by January 30, 2015. NTAG conference is organised this year in Copenhagen on April 16-18, 2015.

Description of the session
In recent years, the sway of digital technologies and the influence ‘the digital’ has had upon almost every aspect of archaeology has become a fact. This is true for documentation as well as for analysis, research and presentation. As in the rest of society, digitization has become the fact of the matter very often celebrated as both part of and important for any "future" perspectives. But what is "future" from the perspective of digitization? Is it access, overview, analysis, new perspectives, new modes of presenting archaeology, or what? When thinking of interpreting archaeology, what impact does digitization have on the understanding of archaeology as a knowledge domain? How is digitization in itself affecting the knowledge base of archaeology? More - of what? More - of the same? More - of new stuff? The aim of this session is to critically elucidate how digitization affects archaeology as a knowledge domain within which the subject is filtered through digital systems often not built by, but rather adapted or appropriated by archaeologists for their purposes. We welcome papers on the present-day practice, future perspectives and historic views on the subject of archaeology and its adaptation to new digital contexts.

The session is organised by ARKDIS researchers Bodil Petersson (Linnaeus University) & Isto Huvila (Åbo Akademi University and Uppsala University). 

The full call for proposals and more information about the Nordic TAG (NTAG) conference on the NTAG conference web site.

New book: Perspectives to Archaeological Information in the Digital Society

Our new edited volume "Perspectives to Archaeological Information in the Digital Society" that explores the challenges of archaeological information work and research in the contemporary digital society is out both in print and as an open access edition online. The blurb in the back cover explains that "[t]he aim of this small book is to briefly discuss some of the premises for studying the implications and opportunities of the digitalisation of information and information work in the domain of archaeology and material cultural heritage."

The book is available as an open access PDF in DiVA-portal in http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-240334. Printed copies can be ordered by sending email to publikationer@abm.uu.se. Write "Perspectives to Archaeological Information in the Digital Society" in subject line. Printed copies cost 100 SEK (incl. 6% VAT) plus postage.



The volume contains following texts:

• Introduction / Isto Huvila
• Recuperating GIS data from excavations: On the use, or lack of use, of digital archaeological information/ Daniel Löwenborg
• Archaeologists and their information sources / Isto Huvila
• 3D Models and Archaeological Investigation / Nicoló Dell’Unto
• Dances with Petroglyphs : On Digital Agendas, Digital Tools and Heritage Communication / Bodil Petersson
• The Digital Time-Travels project in retrospect / Per Stenborg
• Epilogue / Isto Huvila

ARKDIS at GL16, Washington D.C. 8-9th December 2014

ARKDIS represented at Sixteenth International Conference on Grey Literature: Grey Literature Lobby - Engines and Requesters for Change at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

The GL16 conference covered the topics 'Public Awareness of Grey Literature', 'Publishing and Licensing Grey Literature', Open Access to Research Data' and 'Managing Change in Grey Literature'. The ARKDIS doctoral student Lisa Börjesson contributed by presenting her dissertation research concerning the understanding of professional reports in archaeology. Perhaps the most relevant conference contribution supporting the ARKDIS research in this area came from the research program Environmental Information: Use and Influence at Dalhousie University (CAN). In a conference paper researchers Bertrum H. MacDonald, James D. Ross, Suzette S. Soomi, and Peter G. Wells state "Advocates of grey literature may believe this genre is undervalued or misunderstood, but lobbying for grey literature in the absence of understanding the contexts in which it is or can be used will likely fail unless information activity in those setting is understood."  (GL16 program book, ISSN 1385-2308, p. 32). The ARKDIS research regarding the settings where archaeology grey literature take shape will arguably contribute to a better understanding of the possibilities and limitations of grey literature in Swedish archaeology. 

Report from the Workshop: Digital Communication, Cultural Heritage and Postcolonialism, held 20-21/11-2014

This workshop was held on 20-21 November at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg and at the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Gothenburg; including an open, public session on November 21 (see the previous entry, below).

Thanks to all participants who made this a very interesting workshop; which addressed a number of overlapping and interconnected themes and questions. The international examples and the presentations that took up communication and mediation of culturla heritage aimed at different target groups (including in school environment) gave wider perspectives on issues surrounding the goals and means of digital mediation & communication of cultural heritage. Unexpected fields of commun interest seemed to emerge during the discussions of the workshop.


Hopefully the workshop will generate "spin-off" in the form of new collaborations & partnerships - which also can reach outside the academic world.

Thank You! (Per - the workshop organizer)

Digital humanities in Sweden

An article by Thomas Nygren, Anna Foka and Philip Buckland on the current state of digital humanities in Sweden was recently published in German H-Soz-Kult journal. The text is interesting (not only because ARKDIS project is mentioned) and informative on how digitisation of information  and research infrastructures has influenced humanities research in the country. It is easy to agree with the conclusions of the authors  that digitisation is not an end by itself and that

"[f]or the future, it is vital to make use of the manifold possibilities offered by digital material and tools. To utilize their potential positively we must develop more cross-disciplinary collaborations; avoid dichotomies when quantitative and qualitative methods and analyses are separated; become better at illustrating and communicating uncertainties; and last, but not least, formulate solid and important research questions."

 This is quite precisely to which ARKDIS project aims to contribute in the context of archaeology. So far, it has become apparent that the dichotomies are not only related to qualitative versus quantitative methods, but to many different aspects from the aims of the technology use to institutional and everyday work related priorities and marginalising tendencies.