digital archeology: design research and education. connecting historical narratives and digital...

Leonardo

Digital Archeology: Design Research and Education. Connecting Historical Narratives andDigital EnvironmentsAuthor(s): Lily DíazSource: Leonardo, Vol. 31, No. 4 (1998), pp. 283-287Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576663 .

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Digital Archeology: Design Research

and Education-Connecting

Historical Narratives and Digital

Environments

Lily Diaz

Diigital Archeology is a design/research disci-

pline currently under development at the Media Laboratory of the University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland [1]. Digital Archeology involves the definition of strategies for the use of visualization methods to present historical data, along with testing and evaluating of the methods through proto- types. Both individual research work and education-oriented

projects such as the Digital Archeology and Museum Design (DAMD) program utilize Digital Archeology strategies. DAMD is a study area that has grown from my collaboration as student, researcher and tutor with educator Minna Tarkka at the Media Lab.

Begun in the academic year of 1997-1998, DAMD is intended for a small number of students with backgrounds in art, design or the humanities who have an interest in new media technologies and who want to participate in content

development of interactive media, with a special interest in historical narratives and visualization.

Tarkka and I interview prospective students prior to admis- sion to DAMD. Students can earn up to 10 credits for their

participation. Twelve students from diverse educational and

Fig. 1. A Digital Facsimile of the 1554 Map of Mexico: details of life in sixteenth- century Mexico. Among the

objectives of this project are transference into digital media and electronic reconstruction of this sixteenth- century artifact.

ABSTRACT

The author describes Digital Archeology, a design/research discipline being developed at the Media Laboratory of the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Fin- land. Digital Archeology stresses the critical contribution of the artist to the development of informa-

cultural backgrounds are cur- ton environments intended to re-

rently enrolled and actively par- construct and make previously inaccessible cultural artifacts

ticipating in the program. available to as wide an audience Among the courses offered in as possible. Issues of access and

the curriculum are the following: preservation, research and intel-

Systems of Representation, a lectual inquiry, and the metaphoric nature of technology are pre- course that I teach, focuses on ente a cornerstones of this sented as the cornerstones of this

cross-cultural strategies of repre- endeavor. sentation; Experimental Imaging Workshop, which was taught dur-

ing the 1997-1998 academic year by Antti Huittinen and which focused on stereographic production; Interaction in the Public Sphere, which has been

taught by Tarkka and Larry Friedlander (of Stanford Univer-

sity) and which focuses on the design of interactive strategies

Lily Diaz (researcher), Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki, 135C Halmeentie, 00560 Helsinki, Finland. E-mail: <[email protected]>.

This article is part of the Leonardo special project entitled "Planetary Collegium: To- wards the Radical Reconstruction of Art Education," guest-edited by Roy Ascott. This

project features writings that address the present and future needs and nature of art education in light of contemporary developments in technology, science and the arts.

LEONARDO, Vol. 31, No. 4, pp. 283-287, 1998 283 ? 1998 ISAST



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Fig. 2. A Simultaneous View of History. (top row, left to right) (a) Plan of the church of San Jose, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Built in 1523, the church is the second oldest in the Americas. Selecting the floor plan of the church results in the display of photographs of the interior of the structure, (b) Detail of the inside of the San Jose church. Photograph of the statue of Fray Anton de Montesinos, an early advocate of the rights of native people in America. (c) Photograph of the nave of the church of San Jose. (bottom row, left to right) (d) 360' panorama view of the castle of San Felipe del Morro, Puerto Rico, rendered using QTVR video technology. (e) The city of Caracas, Venezu- ela, circa 1903. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress) (f) The Cathedral of Caracas. Three-dimensional plan rendered from a 1596 document.

for museums; Museum Design Seminar, taught by Tarkka, features design devel-

opment through collaboration with ma-

jor museum institutions in Finland. The discipline of Digital Archeology

shares two areas of inquiry with media culture: the use of descriptive representations and the study of discursive practices. By descriptive representations I mean the aesthetic and technical aspects involved in the transference of

perceptual and sensory-related charac- teristics of material and non-material

aspects of culture from the analog to the digital realm. The study of discursive practices includes the study of textual, oral, visual and other strategies deployed by a given culture in the transmission and preservation of

knowledge. It also involves an assess-

ment of the sources of a culture's information in order to identify and include the diverse viewpoints and genres that

may constitute a historical narrative.

ACCESS AND PRESERVATION Formally speaking, Digital Archeology is a multidisciplinary practice situated at the intersection of the arts and the humanities. However, I personally see it as an opportunity to develop a novel type of art curriculum and, consequently, a new form of creative practice. This is because it seeks to use cross-fertilization and

multidisciplinary collaborations that characterize emerging information environments [2].

Information environments such as the Internet possess virtual qualities and

digital communication infrastructures that afford a global presence. Digital Ar-

cheology aims to develop methodolo-

gies that utilize such environments to reconstruct and make previously inaccessible cultural artifacts available to as wide an audience as possible. Froin this

point of view, Digital Archeology ad- dresses issues of material preservation of historical materials and recuperation of worldviews that have been obscured from the historical narrative.

RESEARCH AND INTELLECTUAL INQUIRY Information and content are the raw materials utilized by artists working with new media [3]. The education of these artists involves the development of the

284 Diaz, Digital Archeology

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Fig. 3. QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) panorama of Raisio Archeology Site, Raisio, Finland. Panorama shows hot spots that indicate location of QuickTime movies. These movies contain additional information about the research and activities at the site. From left to

right: ArcheologistJuha-Matti Vuorinen talks about significance of findings for research about the conditions of life in Finland during the Iron Age. Archeologist Mervi Suttonen measures area where remnants of a wood wall from a dwelling, circa the eleventh century, have been found. Excavation leader Taina Pietikainen reviews clay disks believed to have been used as loom weights. (Digital video: Raimo

Lang; QTVR preparation: Raimo Lang and Antti Huittinen, 1996)

cognitive skills necessary to produce coherent and effective information and communication products. Carving new

meanings and engendering new dia-

logues from content are, after all, the tasks of the artist. Among the objectives of Digital Archeology is to position the artist at the center of intellectual inquiry, fully aware of and responsible for the

meaning that his or her work generates. Ultimately, this means that creative

practice involves research, not neces-

sarily as an empirical exercise, but as

part of the production of the work it- self. This implies that the creative practitioner defines either an epistemologi- cal posture [4] or a locus of enunciation [5] that subsequently allows him or her to develop a corre-

sponding methodology and param- eters for design and production. No intrinsic distinction is recognized between theory and practice, but rather, "our inquiries are imbued with the

practical all the way through" [6]. The artist's contribution can translate

into development and use of new tech-

niques and tools such as multimedia, digital video and QuickTime Virtual Re-

ality (QTVR) to assist, further and perhaps even redirect the analysis and pre- sentation of content within the arts and humanities.

THE METAPHORIC NATURE OF TECHNOLOGY

From this pragmatic orientation, from which we understand theory to be another kind of practice, it follows that

Digital Archeology also involves the ex-

ploration of the metaphoric nature of

technology. In this context, technology acts as a catalyst, a source of metaphors. Metaphor, in turn, can provide us not

only with a better understanding of

technologies, but also with the means to evaluate whether the use of a technol-

ogy is appropriate in a given situation. A

metaphor can aid our understanding of

design. To put it more succinctly, a pragmatic view of metaphor encourages us to ask: Is this metaphor an enabling one in this situation? [7]

Finally, Digital Archeology seeks to

promote the role of the imagination "as the place of nascent meanings and cat-

egories rather than as the place of fad-

ing impressions" [8]. This means that rational and imaginative thinking do not differ in substance, for imagination is the "pervasive structuring activity by means of which we achieve coherent, patterned, unified representations" [9]. That is, in order for us to make sense of our experiences, we must find them meaningful.

By accessing truth through metaphor, the work of the artist allows the option of

removing the process of inquiry from a

path that only points toward direct cor-

respondences. Instead, the journey is en- riched with a dynamic of revelation, dis- closure and concealment. (This dynamic underscores an appreciation that "truth is clearly a matter of interpretation in a context of understanding" [10].)

PROJECTS

A Digital Facsimile of the 1554 Map of Mexico A Digital Facsimile of the 1554 Map of Mexico, which makes use of the con-

cepts of Digital Archeology, is an ex-

ample of a project currently being devel-

oped at the Media Lab. The project is a collaborative effort between the Media Lab, the Uppsala University Library, Uppsala, Sweden, and the Institute for

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing of the University of Technology, Otaniemi, Finland. Among the objectives of this

project are transference into digital media and electronic reconstruction of this

sixteenth-century artifact. Originally as-

signed to the noted Spanish cosmogra- pher, Alonso de Santa Cruz, the map's authorship has been a source of inquiry

Diaz, Digital Archeology 285



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Fig. 4. Illuminating History: (top row, left to right) (a) Introductory screen provides access to different sections of the Web site. (b) Three-dimensional rendition of the 1725 Map of Ihala-Raisio. A model created with Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) allows the user to transverse through the landscape of the site. (c) A section of the 1725 Map of Ihala Raisio shows the area now being excavated

by archeologists. (Photo: Antti Huittinen. Copyright the National Board of Survey archives.) (bottom row, left to right) (d) Satellite image of Ihala-Raisio. (Courtesy of the Satellite Center, National Land Survey of Finland) (e) Clay disk found on the Ihala-Mulli site. Tests indicate this site was inhabited in the eleventh century. (Photo: Taina Pietikainen) (f) QTVR video of the church of Raisio. The earliest re- corded reference to the church is dated 1305. (Photos: Antti Huittinen)

for diverse researchers. Many have attrib- uted its execution to members of the Az- tec nobility in Mexico who were students in the Colegio de San Francisco de Tlatelolco, one of the first educational institutions established by the Spaniards in the colonies. The map is one of the oldest known of the no-longer-extant city of Mexico/Tenochtitlan. As can be seen in Fig. 1 and in Color Plate A No. 2, it is a vivid depiction of the physical and cultural landscape of the urban area and its

surroundings. In its present material state, the map

is available only to specialists and others

willing to make the journey to the Caro- lina Redivivia library at the University of

Uppsala, Sweden [11]. Once in digital format, however, the map is expected to attract an audience that is very diverse-

ranging, perhaps, from a high-school

teacher desiring to produce curricula for a class on Latin American history to a researcher working with pictographic representations.

There is no unified methodology to answer the questions of who can have access to what data sets and when. How- ever, a digital media environment that includes a master plan for storing, classi-

fying and searching the materials, and for aggregating them into meaningful wholes from parts, can provide strategies and adequate solutions to the issue of

accessibility. Originally inscribed in two layers of

parchment that have shrunk and stretched at different points, the map now has an almost three-dimensional (3D) quality. Its colors have faded in various areas of the map. These problems provide us with the opportunity to

research and test diverse procedures for the digitization and preservation of archival materials. We are actively re-

searching the use of 3D recording tech-

niques for the creation of a digital facsimile of the map.

True to current information theory, the use of interactive strategies that facilitate non-linear discursive encoun- ters between the user and the material

provides us with an inclusiveness that both decentralizes the role of the author and liberates the discourse from

"psychological, sociological and historical determinism" [12]. Through the use of alternative ways of presenting the map, from different points of view and in diverse formats, one can allow the user to focus on the actual contents and help highlight the diversity of the cultural heritage of North America.

286 Diaz, Digital Archeology

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The photography for creating a stereo-

graphic 3D model has been completed. Huittinen designed and produced a demonstration of the project during his state-sponsored internship at the Media Lab.

A Simultaneous View of History Another project that makes use of digital communication networks to address issues of access and reconstruction is A Simultaneous View of History (Fig. 2). The compilation of primary sources about sixteenth-century scientific in-

quiry was the point of origin of many of the ideas of Digital Archeology. After 6

years of work, A Simultaneous View of

History is nearly complete and available

through the World Wide Web. The Web site [13] contains textual transcriptions (in Spanish and English), illustrations and video pieces related to the 1582 Relaciones Geograficas de Indias, the first

systematic scientific inquiry of the colonies by the Spanish crown. This project is discussed in detail in a previous Leonardo article [14].

Illnminating History Through the Eyes of Media: Illuminat-

ing History is another project related to

Digital Archeology at the Media Lab. The project proposes the use of multimedia technology to develop and com-

pile research about the history of every- day life in Finland during the Iron Age. Initially, the content development has focused on the archeological remnants of the Raisio Archeology Site (Fig. 3). These remains are significant because

they can help us visualize Nordic history through 2,000 years of continuous habi- tation. In the later stages of the project, items from other archival and museum

repositories are being utilized. The project seeks to investigate new

forms of representation in the humanities, as well as to achieve an understand-

ing of the changing role of the museum as an educational institution within the

community. Initially, the combined ef- forts of the Media Lab of the Research Institute at the University of Art and De-

sign, the University of Turku Depart- ment of Archeology, Raisio City Hall, the Academy of Finland and the Na- tional Museum of Finland will involve a transfer of knowledge between different

disciplines. A video-conferencing system has been utilized to link the researchers, who will be in different geographical lo- cations throughout different stages of the project. Telematic technology will be utilized to link the researchers throughout a series of workshops about topics such as the creation of multimedia data- bases in historical research, and theory and methods in archeology. For ex-

ample, I gave a workshop on authoring documents for the Web to Turku arche-

ology students in November and Decem- ber 1997; Henrik Apslund, a Turku doc- toral student, gave lectures on the topic of archeology of the Baltic region dur-

ing the late Iron Age to students at the Media Lab.

While the archeological point of view

provides theoretical and material knowl-

edge about artifacts, anthropological and

ethnographic discourses supply building blocks that allow for the creation of educational narratives. New media interfaces, such as those shown in Fig. 4, are being used to reveal excavation and research

processes and to create a visual index of the site. The objective is to create a dynamic audiovisual database that provides multiple, parallel views of the same materials. The delivery strategy for these materials to a diverse audience of researchers and educational personnel includes, but is not limited to, digital communication networks such as the Web.

CONCLUSION

Surveying historical narratives can make us aware of the differences between cul- tures and ways of living throughout his-

tory. New technologies facilitate the artist's contribution to the corpus of

knowledge by suggesting and enabling new ways of understanding research data and other materials. Digital Arche-

ology is a step in this direction.

References and Notes

1. For more information about the Media Lab, please visit our Web pages at <http://www.mlab.uiah.fi>.

2. A definition of multidisciplinary practice posits that it is the convergence of practitioners of several disciplines to study a situation or solve a problem. In multidisciplinary practice, "a practitioner of a discipline borrows from and relates his or her findings to other disciplines. In both cases, a rethinking of problems, questions and methods . . . takes place." Walter D. Mignolo, The Darker Side of the Re- naissance: Literacy, Territoriality and Colonization (Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1995) p. 22.

3. The term "artist" is meant to be inclusive of creative practitioners of both design and the fine arts.

4. A thorough account of how this approach can be utilized in design research was included in Alain Findeli's keynote speech: "Can Design ever Become a Science? No Guru, No Method?," International Conference on Art and Design Research, University of Art and Design/Helsinki, September 1996. I have interpreted Findeli's use of the term "episte- mological posture" to mean the space in which one stands and from where one speaks.

5. In his discussion on the relevance of the locus of enunciation to cross-cultural studies, Walter D. Mignolo states how scholarly discourses "acquire their meaning on the grounds of their relation to the subject matter as well as their relation to an audience .... The locus of enunciation from which one speaks and . . . [the act of speaking] . . . con- tributes to changing or maintaining systems of val- ues and beliefs." See Mignolo [2] p. 5.

6. Richard Coyne, Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age, A Leonardo Book (Cam- bridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995) p. 48.

7. Coyne [6] p. 296.

8. MarkJohnson quoted in Coyne [6] p. 297.

9. MarkJohnson quoted in Coyne [6] p. 297.

10. Coyne [6] p. 299. Coyne refers to Heidegger's concept of truth as one that is used in many contexts: "Any work of art both reveals and conceals.... If this is so of art, then it is equally the case in other contexts-including observations in science, the evalua- tion of mathematical models, and the interpretations of assertions in language ... Language has a revela- tory property for Heidegger, and this is where truth resides-not in what words correspond to but in what they reveal."

11. As far as I am aware, traditional photographic techniques have not been able to accurately render the rich details of the map.

12. George Landow, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Balti- more, MD:Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993) p. 10.

13. The Simultaneous View of History Web site can be accessed at <http://www.mlab.uiah.fi/simultaneous/>.

14. For more information about this project, see Lily Diaz, "A Simultaneous View of History," Leonardo 28, No. 4, 257-263 (1995).

Manuscript received 15January 1997.

Diaz, Digital Archeology 287



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