Drawing and Knowledge Construction in Archaeology: The Aide Mémoire Project

Morgan, Colleen; Petrie, Helen; Wright, Holly; Taylor, James S.

doi:10.1080/00934690.2021.1985304

Cited by 8 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We would hope to see more engagement with creative plan-making in archaeological surveys of videogames. A recent study [28] highlighted the importance of drawing for archaeologists in terms of forming mental maps, and our experience creating plans of the Church of Elleh and Stormgate Catacombs confirmed this. For example, the in-game experience of carefully delineating each survey area aided us in understanding how the spaces were constructed from repeated assets.…”

Section: Surveying Elden Ringsupporting

confidence: 61%

The Dark Souls of Archaeology: Recording Elden Ring

Nicholls¹,

Cook²

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Archaeology can be broadly defined as the study and interpretation of the past through material remains. Videogame worlds, though immaterial in nature, can also afford opportunities to study the people who existed within them based on what they leave behind. In this paper we present the first formal archaeological survey of a predominantly single-player game, by examining the player-generated content that is asynchronously distributed to players in the videogame Elden Ring. We report on our preparation for the study, our findings at the two sites we surveyed, and the lessons learned both specifically about Elden Ring's community and, more broadly, about the nature of archaeological surveying within videogames.

show abstract

Section: Surveying Elden Ringsupporting

confidence: 61%

The Dark Souls of Archaeology: Recording Elden Ring

Nicholls¹,

Cook²

2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, there is a growing trend for the use of digital photogrammetry as a replacement for traditional section drawing and planning, in which imagery and 3D models produced through digital photogrammetry are used in the field to draw the contexts and to record the textual and graphical information describing the context in the database (e.g., [96][97][98]). The Aide Mémoire Project [99] has begun to look at the implications of digital versus hand-drawing for archaeological understanding, and their initial survey results speak to a sense of distance introduced by the digital application. For example, respondents commented that "I find it's much easier in my experience to simply switch off and fall into the mechanical click-click of photogrammetry" and "Drawing a context is like reading a page in a book, photographing (and subsequent tracing) is like photocopying that page."…”

Section: The Distant Data Imaginarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, respondents commented that "I find it's much easier in my experience to simply switch off and fall into the mechanical click-click of photogrammetry" and "Drawing a context is like reading a page in a book, photographing (and subsequent tracing) is like photocopying that page." [99] (p. 12). Another respondent said, "If drawing starts to be seen as more akin to transcription than to translation as a result of digital tools, I think we will lose perspective on our own processes of knowledge generation"; and finally, "We're never capturing reality; at least hand drawings are unfailingly honest about that."…”

Section: The Distant Data Imaginarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another respondent said, "If drawing starts to be seen as more akin to transcription than to translation as a result of digital tools, I think we will lose perspective on our own processes of knowledge generation"; and finally, "We're never capturing reality; at least hand drawings are unfailingly honest about that." [99] (p. 14). Such perspectives capture a clear sense of an arms-length relationship through technology which fosters distance or remoteness from the data.…”

Section: The Distant Data Imaginarymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Data Legacies, Epistemic Anxieties, and Digital Imaginaries in Archaeology

Huggett

2022

Digital

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Archaeology operates in an increasingly data-mediated world in which data drive knowledge and actions about people and things. Famously, data has been characterized as “the new oil”, underpinning modern economies and at the root of many technological transformations in society at large, even assuming a near-religious power over thought and action. As the call for this Special Issue recognizes, archaeological research is socially and historically situated and consequently influenced by these same broader developments. In archaeology, as in the wider world, data is the foundation for knowledge, but its capacity is rarely reflected upon. This paper offers just such a reflection: a meditation on the nature of archaeological digital data and the challenges for its (re)use. It asks what we understand by data: its etymology and comprehension, its exceptionality and mutability, its constructs and infrastructures, and its origins and consequences. The concept of the archaeological data imaginary is introduced to better understand approaches to the collection and use of archaeological data, and a case study examines how knowledge is mediated and remediated through the data embedded in grey literature. Appreciating the volatility and unpredictability of digital data is key in understanding its potential for use and reuse in the creation of archaeological knowledge.

show abstract

“…In general, drawing has forced me to critically think about what I was seeing and provided me with the tools to master concepts, rather than looking at and subsequently forgetting the diagrams in my textbooks. (Ingold 2019;James 2015;Morgan et al 2018;Morgan et al 2021;Wickstead 2013). It is a skill used to create, from scientific illustrations to drawings done by researchers to record information, the very "practice of archaeology…is drawing" (Wickstead 2013, Hailey Kennedy and Hugh McKenzie | Art & Archaeology: Employing Drawing as an Observational Technique 561).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Art and Archaeology

Kennedy,

McKenzie

2023

pathways

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Observational skills provide the foundation for both drawing and archaeological techniques. Drawing was frequently employed within archaeology as a recording technique or to produce technical illustrations for published academic papers. However, in recent years the widespread use and adoption of digital photography and 3D imagery has resulted in a decline of its use and such skills are now only briefly considered in archaeological teaching as practical and worthwhile endeavors. This paper considers the role drawing can have within archaeology and suggests that drawing is a useful tool to aid in critical observation. With the integration of specialist interviews, an art workshop experiment was created. This workshop experiment was created to explore drawing as a learning technique in which to aid in developing the observational skills of undergraduate archaeology students. The results of this study suggest that drawing is a useful mode of observation, one that enables researchers to gain a deeper understanding of what they observe, that it can be used to see.

show abstract

Drawing and Knowledge Construction in Archaeology: The Aide Mémoire Project

Cited by 8 publications

References 20 publications

The Dark Souls of Archaeology: Recording Elden Ring

The Dark Souls of Archaeology: Recording Elden Ring

Data Legacies, Epistemic Anxieties, and Digital Imaginaries in Archaeology

Art and Archaeology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About