A session at NTAG 2015 conference, Copenhagen together with Dr Bodil Petersson (Linnaeus University) and ARKDIS research project.
Abstract
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.