Convenors: David I. Tafler (USA) and Andrew Prentice (Australia)
The transmission of knowledge moved from orality to print; orality to film, video, and inevitably online through blogs, and social media. With each technological revolution, information changed narrative structure. When landscapes encoded the story, the walker secured information. Now, computer code transcribes the story virtually; Code changes the individual’s encounter. Programs, with all their perceived constraints and systems, and directed movement, can facilitate the acquisition of knowledge and contribute to the construction of thought.
This theme invites sessions whose papers may contribute to the discourse on interactive media as a reservoir of heritage, how knowledge could be framed or recovered. Questions raised might include:
· In the relative world, does media produce an absolutist interpretation of past events?
· In the contemporary world, does media’s commercial paradigms reframe ancient culture?
· What effect does an interactive medium have on the individual v/user (viewer-user)’s journey through a fixed body of knowledge?
· How does a multi-voice narrative alter a fixed body of knowledge?
· As more time separates the v/user’s experience from the culture under examination, how many additional layers of investigation open in the contextualization of meaning?
· What strictures does computer code place upon the framing of knowledge?
· How does media change archaeology?
· Does media form a material remains of the future?
In the 21st century, interactive media, such as gaming, community television, social media and blogging, offers a form of participatory storytelling which appeals to a shared subconscious. Using media, archaeology’s rich narrative of human and hominid cultures, as evidenced in material remains can acquire additional meaning through new forms of interpretation. This theme explores those possibilities as a form of expanded outreach.
Contacts:
David I. Tafler
Muhlenberg College, Allentown Pennsylvania USA
davidwaru@gmail.com
Andrew Prentice
Griffith University, Australia
andrew.prentice@griffithuni.edu.au
THEME 08 SESSIONS
T08/Session 01: Clickbait or a Space to Create: Archaeology and Digital Media
T08/Session 02: First Digital Media and Digital Technologies Preserving First Nation Heritage
T08/Session 03: Digging Archaeogames: Are Virtual Excavations your Next Quest?