Testing our Toolbox

Working Title - Working Title: “Testing our Toolbox”

150-Word Abstract

A whole host of digital tools exist to help represent data and tell a compelling story. Each of these tools, important in their own right, are limited in some capacity and while each tool has a purpose and style, the visualization of their dataset can vary drastically if represented on different tools due to their limiting focus. This is an area worthy of research; a comparative test that uses the same datasets that could then be applied to a variety of tools which when subjugated to analysis reveal their limitations and focus and its effect on their storytelling capabilities. While each tool generally makes an appealing case for their use and offer no shortage of showcases for the uses of their tool, the dataset is never the same, making the judgement to use a tool for their research an arduous task. Knowing the comparative qualities, capabilities, and limitations of a variety of tools can help students and scholars make a more informed decision when deciding which tools would fix their research interest best.

Principal Data Sources

I am using the PhD dissertation of David Klingle as a source for most of my data, this dissertation is entitled: “Burial in Florida: Culture, Ritual, Health, and Status: The Archaic to Seminole Periods.” I decided to use this source because his dissertation explains the different in cultural periods of Florida’s history before the Seminole tribe. He speaks to the burial and ritual practices which are great for contextualizing these sites and the people who lived there. Additionally he also lays out important sites relating to each of the different cultures allowing me to choose those most prominent, and varied temporally and geographically.

This data set will also allow me to site a scholarly source directly which adds credibility to the narrative.

Visualization Platform(s)

Visual eyes is the main platform, additionally I will branch out into different tools for visualization. Microsoft Sway and website building tools for blogs make great use of static visualization and storytelling and I feel are important to bring into the fold of my research as static visualization, especially those tools that are available for this, is incredibly popular and remain an effective way to express a story even though they lack an interactive element. Other interactive tools like timelineJS, and story maps provide more variety for testing their presentation of this information. As this project progresses, even outside the timeframe for the class I wish to expand the number of tools to really craft an analysis of how these tools handle and can represent the information given to them.

Environmental Scan for my Project

My own project is to construct a story of Florida’s paleo-Native American sites across different digital tools using the same information and data to test each tool with how it handles and presents information differently. The different digital tools will include those with a mapping component, time line component, pictorial components, interactive components, as well as static components to critically evaluate a variety of different tools on their story telling capabilities. An important component of this project is to analyze how each tool presents the same story in a different way based on its function, features, limitations, and ease of use. My scan of the environment on this particular topic has, so far, produced no other copies of research similar to the tools test I seek to employ. Most similarities I have seen have only been websites from the digital humanities department at different universities offering descriptive lists of each tool and occasional showcases for each tool. However, these showcases are not using the same dataset, crafted information, or creator such as seen on UCF’s center for digital research’s website found here: https://chdr.cah.ucf.edu/projects.html.  Other websites that list tools and there function can be found here: https://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=176357&p=1158575 and https://libguides.utk.edu/dh/tools.

                Other projects that can serve as a point of similarity for my project use a tool or method to present Native American history. While not using the same information or a variety of different tools, the closeness to the concept of Florida Paleo-Native American history and digital presentation should be noted. Such projects can be found here: https://lostworlds.org/exhibits/florida/public-indian-sites-florida/ this project serves to spatially layout a variety of different publicly accessible sites on interactive map on a website to host different information. Another would be found here: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=201 which seeks to present a whole host of information on Florida Native American history segmented by topic in as a static webpage but does not present any visual storytelling aspect and simply serves as printed text available on a digital space. A third project could be the Florida Department of State’s Native American Heritage Trail pdf  which serves as a digital presentation that is visually appealing and serves to tell a contextualized story yet does so in a static, but readably available way.

                My project will differ from those already in the field by presenting the same information through a variety of different tools and methods including both interactive and static to provide a way to contextualize each tool on a standard for comparative means.

ASSERT: steps to forming the project

Ask- How can we use interactive visualization to better educate K-12 and public audiences on the prehistory and history of native Americans in Florida?

Search- The data that I searched for that fits within the scope of the question I seek to answer is mainly secondary sources and online resources. Some of these resources include online information from Florida’s Division of Historical Resources, and Florida Anthropological societies. Other secondary source information would be some of the bureau of archaeological research journals on particular sites in order to compile a list of archaeological sites, dates, and cultures. Other data would be photos from these sites or of primary source materials to compliment the information.

Structure-The main takeaway from the chapter on structure was the LATCH acronym. Structuring the data in terms of location such as a map through visualeyes can express the geographic information of each of these sites and cultures, time can also apply through visualeyes and the map in order to display potential causality. Structuring data geographically, temporally, and culturally is how I envision answering this question.

Envision- This chapter for my particular interest is somewhat limited in application but qualitative analysis would be useful in analyze the data structures. But most analysis of data has to happen after representing it in order to see trends and adapt the project to become more publicly oriented.

Represent- As far as representing the information goes, using visualeyes is probably the best way to represent my data. Dealing with a time frame from 13,000 BCE -1600 CE is easiest to comprehend on a timeline, yet the temporal locations and their geographic relations would be lost if just a timeline were to be used. Which is why I believe visualeyes would be the best tool as of right now. Being able to represent the data on a map, its temporal location, and the written word and photographs all integrated on the same webpage makes it an easy choice. The additional use of having pop-ups which can display smaller segments of information lends itself to public use by making the project easier to navigate for the interested party. The timeline grouping feature of visualeyes is also phenomenal for this project because it allows the anthropologic temporal-cultural groups, such as Weeden island culture, eastern woodland, or mortuary pond, to be presented chronologically which assist in the general understanding of these sites to the lay public.

Tell- The story I hope to tell through this project is one that seeks to convey the known archaeological and anthropological past of Florida prehistory in a way that is understandable to the general public. The map and timeline can serve as useful tools for contextualizing the past but the overall narrative is where I hope to tell a story that can educate the public but while activity being broken up by location and temporal cultural classifications.

Ask a question, Search for data

Bill’s introduction seeks to set interactive visualization into context by first exploring why visualization is important. He does this by providing many examples that serve his argument with one such example being Anscombe’s Quartet which on paper have similar trends in data but once visualized showed how different the data set appears on a graph. Bill then dives into a history of data visualization and its progression until the internet and how the internet impacted visualization and including its introduction into the scholarly field. Bill also debates theories and methods behind visualization including a list of useful models to creative a valuable interactive visualization project before putting forth his own model which we will be using in this class.

The ASSERT model stands for ask a question, search for information, structure the data, envision the answer, represent the visualization, and tell a story. It’s the first two categories that the class this week is to focus on. My general topic of interest relates to Florida during the paleolithic era moving into pre-Seminole time and my initial reaction is to want to map it in some visually interactive way but I found a static map was already done, and based off of Bill’s recommendations in forming a question I am running into difficulty when looking at a new way to frame this. I intend to frame this as a public history project with the audience being the lay public and this project serving as a point of public education and engagement about the change over time in Florida’s pre-contact period because I often find the dominate narrative claims that the Seminole tribe has lived in Florida for thousands of years https://www.archaeologicalconservancy.org/event/floridas-mangrove-tour-2019/.  With this focus in mind, representing change over time in Florida prehistory, I moved the second stage of Bill’s model.

Searching for information on this topic is something I already have done. Many archaeological journals and press releases exists and were not too difficult to find and each describes the culture surrounding each site. What will be interesting is if any questions come second, as Bill describes it, from the data and finding the best tool to represent this data in a helpful and interactive way to transcend the purpose of the map provided by Florida’s Division of Historical Resources.

Bill’s introduction and first two chapters raise interesting concepts about tailoring a project to an audience.  A scholar that realizes the constraints of k-12 teaching due to standardized testing and their needs being different than that of the lay public, or key interest groups, or graduate students, is refreshing. This awareness of different groups within the public sphere and the attention span, background knowledge, and computer limitations that may be different in each group provide a thoughtful backdrop when it comes to designing the visual aspect of the project or structing the data. I feel that for my project, this will all come together in structing the data and testing different visualization models to determine which audience I’ll tailor the project towards, and which model will help me best tell my story. I feel like this is why Bill’s model is so versatile, because perhaps your target audience is the most important aspect that drives your project, or your data,  or your initial question, and this process for data visualization can lend itself towards all of these aspects and can widen the berth of projects that find this process a helpful.

Question for Bill: Interactive visualization seems to lend itself well to the Public historian’s tool kit. How would you address concerns over ‘Is the format of interactive visualization useful for or as scholarship?’ 

A Review of Florida History in 3D

Florida History in 3D, http://floridahistoryin3d.com/. Created and maintained by Florida Division of Historical Resources. Reviewed Oct. 3-8, 2019.

Viewing artifacts in a museum has always been limited by space. Space in terms of distance traveled to the museum and space as it relates to the confines of the museum’s show floor and archives. This problem of space can often be eliminated, for the most part, by digital collections. Many museums and archives have taken to photographs to digitize their materials in an effort to reach a wider audience with greater ease. However, Florida History in 3D takes it a step farther by digitizing archaeological materials into 3D rendered models by using photogrammetry to preserve the integrity of the object as viewed in person.

                Florida History in 3D is a project that launched on March 16^th, 2018 by Florida’s Division of Historical Resources as a website that is available for computers and mobile devices. The website’s design is appealing and straightforward. Either by clicking the four simple tabs or scrolling down you can view the project’s purpose, a history of Spanish plate fleets (the inaugural collection), the gallery, and a map of some, but not all, Florida museums. This project is relevant to my own research because it uses the digital tools I also intend to use in my research and relates to bringing Florida artifacts from the archives into an easy to access public space. 

                The gallery is where most of the website’s substance can be found featuring 18 of the most visually appealing artifacts from the Spanish Plate Fleet collection. The artifacts are divided amongst three categories and once viewed, produce an interactive high-resolution 3D model with interactive touchpoints revealing more information about the object in addition to the description and the function of the object complete with a scholarly reference.

                The project is useful as a teaching tool for students interested in learning about Spanish Plate Fleets and the concept of Florida History in 3D as a whole is likely to be a great tool for teaching on a variety of subjects in Florida’s history. However, therein lies the projects greatest fault. Its inaugural collection of 18 artifacts relating to Spanish Plate Fleets is the only collection. While the presentation and goal of the project is remarkable and shows great promise, a year and seven months after its debut with no additional collections or updates begins to beg the question if the project is serious in its goal, lacking funding, or just a showcase of photogrammetry for Florida’s artifacts.

                The projects educational focus on only the most stunning artifacts betrays its orientation to the public. Operating as a showcase instead of a comprehensive gallery assist scholars little, however it is clear this was never the intent. The project is first and foremost a digital exhibit and educational resource which allows for a wide array of uses. A showcase for learning the use of primary archaeological sources, or a delve into learning about material culture this project can not only teach the history of a particular topic, showcase primary sources using high resolution 3D models, and point out Florida museums on map for those interested in more, but the project can do all of this from any device with internet connection that can navigate to websites.

                The reach of the project is perhaps its greatest strength, being able to display artifacts with incredible accuracy anywhere without being limited by distance and time as well as its easy to navigate interface makes this project widely accessible. While there are no publicly available metrics to determine its total reach, the 3D models are hosted on sketchfab.com and their models have as little as 41 views to a few hundred with the total view count around 1.4 thousand. This project by Florida’s Division of Historical Resources proves itself a phenomenal tool for educational purposes and for the public, however its lack of support in branching out from its inaugural roots to realize its goal is a troubling sign of a shelved project which is a critique it cannot shake.

Trevor D. Colaneri

University of Central Florida – Orlando

Orlando, Florida

Geographies of the Holocaust

Knowles, Anne Kelly et al. Geographies of the Holocaust. Indiana University Press, 2014.

Geographies of the Holocaust is a multidisciplinary collaborative project surrounding the use of GIS in context of studying the Holocaust. The book opens with an outline and summary of how the book is structured and came to be before setting off on a variety of case studies. Creating a unified scholarly approach, such as defining scale, is part of the introduction and explored how each project would use it from the national down to the individual streets and persons. Additionally the defining of space and place in context of the case studies helped provide a universal understanding of each project; traditionally being an abstract concept that would serve to hurt a project, the first chapter explains how GIS can be used to understand space and place in context of their respective project, such as the confining nature of the Jewish ghetto in Budapest or the view one might have of Auschwitz or the paths that many were forced to travel. The opening chapter closes with a statement about a quantitative approach when it comes to data that, for each project, will be then qualitatively analyzed for its context and meaning with a similar approach to the process of mapping itself; straying away from simple and visually striking maps and instead embracing a variety of styles and natures per map per case study. The result is to ensure the scholarly use of GIS and maps grounded in empirical evidence with clear conceptions of their limitations to provide a platform for quality analysis.

         The case study of particular interest to me was about the spatial nature of Jewish ghettos in Budapest. The use of GIS in this chapter was to approach the Jewish ghettos from multiple angles to create a better understanding of the space that they lived in. The stated reasoning and methodology of assigning Jews to a ghetto did not remain the same after an initial attempt and the city, with its readjustment of ghetto classification, brought the ghetto to the Jew as opposed to mass relocation. Additionally, this chapter viewed a form of a soft wall around the ghetto in terms of average distance one could walk in 30-min and 60-min intervals to determine where Jews were allocated in the city based off of their temporal time constraints. This method, explored through GIS, does not provide hard evidence, but suggests where which hospitals, markets, and streets saw the most Jewish traffic and in conjunction with normal lay transports and streets, how visible the Jewish population was in terms of their routes taken on the street and their apartments. This case study primarily served as context to better understanding the individual stories in Budapest as well as to better understand the life of individuals during the Holocaust as victims and bystanders.

Questions regarding GIS in history with Placing History

Hillier, Amy, and Anne Kelly Knowles. Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship. EsriPress, Inc., 2008.

What is Historical GIS?

Historical GIS is an interdisciplinary and challenging approach to represent history in its geographic context and use geographic information to illuminate the past. It requires the use of many interdisciplinary skills such as cartography, graphic design, analysis and interpretation of maps, textual analysis and bias interpretation (3).

What is the Value of Teaching with GIS?

Other than teaching GIS itself, there are four main values that students can gain by learning how to use and interpret GIS. GIS can teach analytical and problem-solving strategies; such can be seen from maps about the socioeconomic impact of redrawing district boundaries. It takes thoughtful analytical skills to evaluate the presented information for potential impacts on communities. GIS also brings value to education by teaching students the importance of visualization. Visuals can be scientific, draw people in, and break down language barriers which can be helpful to any argument put forth by a student. Teaching political and social issues is another value of educating students on GIS, such as mapping out indigenous territory in Brazil which could help defend native’s lands from logging. Lastly, GIS can be a form of pedagogy by letting students map out congressional districts according to population to their vision of what is fair and analyze current congressional boundaries such as ones in their own town. This can be a great teaching method for understanding the concept of Gerrymandering and is just one example of GIS as pedagogy (63-71).

What are the Implications of GIS for the Discipline of History?

GIS has many different uses in the discipline. One such use is show cased by the Peutinger Map project detailed in chapter eight. The traditionally accepted reason to use this map, as was the reason for its creation, was to show the map of the Roman world in terms of settlements and roads. However, this project used GIS to answer if the map’s primary purpose was indeed to show the network of Roman roads. The project found that it did not, and it was done in terms of geography by creating a layer in GIS of just roads and just geography which shows where most of the detail was. Additionally, the map was ported over into GIS on a traditional map with settlements and roads being laid in conjunction with geography in an effort to represent the map in more usable terms. This project showed one of the primary uses for GIS in the discipline, which is to ask new questions or reevaluate old questions in new ways by using new methodologies and tools (199-218). GIS was also used to map the husbandry in Concord which besides revisiting old questions with new tools, this project showcased the use of GIS in local history and as a method to connect the people with their past and help with local preservation as this project did by looking at farming locations and land ownership change (151-178).

How are Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Changing Historical Scholarship?

Maps and spatial data in general are changing historical scholarship by brining in a more interdisciplinary approach to not only better evaluate historical sources, but to answer questions with better scholarly accuracy. The Peutinger Map, for example, was a map that was being used to trace the locations of archaeological materials and understanding how the Romans understood their world. However, GIS and spatial data have showed that the traditional scholarship were wrong about their interpretation on the map’s road-oriented purpose and elucidated it as geographically centric. This displays that GIS can be used as a useful tool for historians to use to assist in their scholarship. History has always had elements that were spatially oriented, and GIS and spatial data can now assist in understanding those elements of history with more clarity (199-218).

First attempt at Text-Mining. What is Big Data?

Text-mining is a method that uses tools to see trends in data sets that are too large to search through conventional means, otherwise known as Big Data. These tools use computer technology to read the vast amounts of data for whatever input given, usually a word or phrase, and processes the findings in some presentable way. A lot of different tools present their findings in different ways from word clouds to graphs and each have their uses. The tools can be divided into two groups, with one focusing on searching a particular document, while others focus on searching a database full of documents.

The tool I choose to use was Google’s Ngram program. I wanted to track the nomenclature of the area I have started studying, underwater archaeology. The field is split amongst different terms each with its own implicit meaning, nautical archaeology and maritime archaeology relating to ship archaeology, marine archaeology referring to ocean related archaeology, and underwater archaeology which is an all-encompassing term of all archaeology done under water, however a ship focused archaeological term does not necessarily have to always be underwater. There has always been a debate surrounding which term to use when referring to the field, which there is no shortage of participants in the field taking up their own preferred term over others. I wanted to apply this nomenclature to Google’s Ngram program and see which term comes up the most often on Google Scholar.

The parameters for the search are set from the years 1800 to 2000 and the terms used for the search are as follows: maritime archaeology, nautical archaeology, underwater archaeology, marine archaeology. The chart that follows was particularly interesting as it showed underwater archaeology as the most dominate term to get hits within the database followed by maritime, marine, and nautical. Nautical archaeology was the earliest term appearing with a particular uptick in the 1930s before dropping off. The next significant uptick of all terms comes with the advent of the SCUBA unit in the 1950s as one might naturally think as the SCUBA unit is what allowed this exploration of submerged cultural remains. The latest term to appear with significant usage is maritime archaeology which doesn’t start to gain significant usage until 1974 and gradually out paces all other terms save for underwater archaeology. Interestingly enough, I changed the search parameters to up to the latest year Ngram allows which is 2008. This increase of eight years of content actually caused a dramatic shift in the findings as underwater archaeology drastically drops off and falls behind maritime archaeology. In fact, all terms are on a decline of usage from 2000 to 2008 almost as much of a decline seen in the early 1990s, which serve as a universal low point in the usage of these terms since the invention of the SCUBA unit.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=maritime+archaeology%2C+nautical+archaeology%2C+underwater+archaeology%2C+marine+archaeology&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmaritime%20archaeology%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cnautical%20archaeology%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cunderwater%20archaeology%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmarine%20archaeology%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cmaritime%20archaeology%3B%2Cc1%3B.t1%3B%2Cnautical%20archaeology%3B%2Cc1%3B.t1%3B%2Cunderwater%20archaeology%3B%2Cc1%3B.t1%3B%2Cmarine%20archaeology%3B%2Cc1

Furthermore, this tool allows you to click and search on the terms and see the hits that were provided. A few of the searches for the terms based on time parameters (such as 1800-1950) provide a list of documents and when one is selected a webpage with a scan of every page with the searched term on it within the document is displayed which allows for the not only where the term appears within the selected text, but its context as well. Additionally, a word cloud is even provided based on the text with other similar words and their frequency and if you click on one of the words in the word cloud the page changes its searched term in the text to show scans of the chosen term with its every appearance and context. This is incredibly helpful as it helps defeat one of the criticisms of Big Data which is its lack of transparency and lack of transition from far reading to close reading. However, these extra features such as the word frequency and word clouds do not appear for most texts and this does seem to be in the minority of searches I have done.

Overall, I think using Ngram served my purposes well. I can easily see which terms were the most popular in relation to each other and the tool was simple to use. The ability that Ngram can display word clouds and show text searchable pdfs with every hit of that term within the text all on the same page makes this program have the potential to satisfy a lot the workflow needs when it comes to Big Data. The trend in relation to SCUBA diving is clear to see and if I were to dedicate more time to exploring this concept, I am sure there is more to be gleaned such as the sparse mentions of nautical archaeology before the creation of the SCUBA unit and the downward trend in the early 1990s and post 2000s.

What is Digital History? Selected Readings, 1999-2019

1999: Edward L. Ayers, "The Pasts and Futures of Digital History" (Links to an external site.)

2004: William G. Thomas III, "Computing and the Historical Imagination," (Links to an external site.) in A Companion to Digital Humanities

2006:  Dan Cohen and Roy Rosenzweig, Ch. 1,  ”Promises and Perils of Digital History,” (Links to an external site.) in Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web

2008: JAH Interchange: The Promise of Digital History (Links to an external site.)

2009: Douglas Seefeldt and William G.  Thomas III, "What is Digital History?" (Links to an external site.) in AHA Perspectives

2016: Stephen Robertson, "The Differences Between Digital Humanities and Digital History" (Links to an external site.) in Debates in the Digital Humanities

2017: Sharon Leon, "Returning Women to the History of Digital History" (Links to an external site.)

2019: Sheila A. Brennan, "Digital History" (Links to an external site.) in NCPH's The Inclusive Historian's Handbook

What is Digital History? (JAH Interchange, Thomas, et al.)

“Digital history might be understood broadly as an approach to examining and representing the past that works with the new communication technologies of the computer, the internet network, and software systems.” (Thomas)

I believe that this is a great definition of digital history and is broad enough to include all software and projects that would be included. From quantitative datasheets, to GIS, videos, photogrammetry, and even search tools and self-publishing, digital history can be applied to old research or be entirely digital from the start and ask a new question through the lens of digital tools.

How does 21st century Digital History theory/practice differ from earlier applications of computer technology to historical research, such as the data-driven quantitative history (“cliometrics”) of the 1970s? (Thomas)

Digital history started in the 1970s as cliometrics, or quantitative history, and consisted of statistical methods. Quantitative history was controversial during the 1970s and through the 1980s because it focused too much on quantitative data and computers without much human analysis of the datasets. Digital history today starkly contrasts that of the 1970s because it has expanded rapidly with the creation of the internet and the advancements of hardware and software. Digital history is not just about quantitative data, which can be useful in its own right, but encapsulates anything adapted to the computer systems.

How does Digital History differ from Digital Humanities? (Robertson)

Digital history is a subset of the digital humanities. Digital history is centered around a few digital tools that benefits historical research. Text mining and topic modeling are two tools in the digital historian’s toolbox as well as search tools, web-based mapping programs, and quantitative tools. Digital Humanities has often been described as being too broad focusing on too many tools whereas each discipline within digital humanities already know and use a small set of digital tools to aid in their specific workflow. Often thought of casting too wide a net in terms of digital tools for only one area of study. Thereby digital history is a more specified subset of digital humanities with fewer tools and with research and skills highly focused in regard to those tools. There has been a call, however, to shift the view of the digital humanities into being a more interdisciplinary approach of learning the tools in your specific field and then engaging with other disciplines within the digital humanities.

What are the promises/perils of doing Digital History? (Ayers, Cohen & Robertson, JAH Interchange)

Some of the promises of digital humanities are capacity, accessibility, flexibility, diversity, manipulability and interactivity. Capacity and accessibility being the two most obvious with more information than ever before being stored onto a computer or the internet with a greater ease of access than before the computer era. More people can visit digital archives from across the world for little to no cost, can access academic journals, and are not restricted by a physical or cumbersome limit that computers can alleviate. The information we access on the web is also incredibly flexible in its presentation, instead of a limited presentation of text and pictures in person, the humanities can present itself as text, photos, videos, sounds, 3D models, data sheets, and any combination of these forms. Diversity focuses mainly on the low barrier of entry for everyone to enter information on a topic of their interest. It is just not professors who are able to maintain blogs on their research but anyone from an amateur in the humanities to the most esteemed professor. Manipulability of the large amounts of information stored online are also a possibility that is not shared in the physical form. Using digital tools to quickly shift through entire journals for keywords or phrases. Interactivity makes it easier than ever to communicate between individuals, quick messaging and interactions between professor and public made the dissemination of information easier. Hypertexuality is the last of the seven beneficial promises of the digital history, and is simply the free flow of information in an undirected way

              Some of the perils of digital history can be seen related to its benefits. Information does not last forever on the internet and with the low entry bar for entering information on a topic, quality likewise suffers. Additionally, the way people approach information online with manipulability change the way people read thus lowering the requirement to read through the text the author crafted in the way it was intended. Lastly, the problem of inaccessibility comes into play, everyone does not have a computer and skills required to use it. Monopoly, too, runs along with inaccessibility with corporations taking interest in and profiting off of the flow of information with questionable care of authenticity.

Can we make Digital History, as a field, more inclusive? (Leon, Brennan)

Digital history has taken steps to become more inclusive by way of free to use publishing, editing, and by including histories about marginalized groups. However, this is also how digital history can improve its inclusivity, the best stories are told by the people themselves and the jobs of professors and museum curators will best reflect minority stories if they are the minority themselves. Creating, publishing, and collaborating have become large advancements to reach and spread more stories but institutionalizing the more marginalized stories would be the best path for reaching inclusivity.

The Digital Humanities and 3D Artifacts

Gardiner, Eileen, and Ronald G. Musto. “The Elements of Digital Humanities: Object, Artifact, Image, Sound, Space.” Chapter. In The Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and Scholars, 43–66. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139003865.005.

In chapter four of Digital Humanities: A Primer for Students and Scholars artifacts are can be treated as a reoccurring motif as many of the tools discussed in this chapter refers to them and how they can transcend what was previously a limitation. Time and space are consistently brought up throughout this chapter, and artifacts were previously limited by being bound to a particular place which add to the sometimes-great difficulty in order to see or study them. However, simple photos can capture the essence of an artifact for all to see provided they have a connection to do so. This makes studying more 2D objects easier, such as pages of a manuscript, but this method is not all encompassing. 3D modelling and photogrammetry now eliminates the 2D representation’s limitations by adding depth, and creating a highly accurate model in both size, and detail which revolutionizes access to artifacts for study. This has the potential to not only engage the academic audience but create a new avenue to engage the public as well. As seen on Florida’s Division of Historical Resources website, they have already embraced photogrammetry within the scope of a project set on a Spanish galleon found here: http://floridahistoryin3d.com/. This project embraced this digital tool as a way of education with the 3D representation of a physical artifact as the center piece complete with a description of the artifact, points on interest on the model, and references that can all be seen here: http://floridahistoryin3d.com/viewer.html?id=a748863f3a2a4341aca6ff438f3c88cb.

                As mentioned in chapter four, 3D models have more purposes than just the model itself; 3D printing creates a plastic replica of the object that can painted to replicate the original product. This has multiple uses such as museum displays, or physical points of study, and as points for education by allowing these cheap replicas to be in more locations without needing to take special care for its stewardship.

                This concept got me to think about my thesis concept in a way to bring history through artifacts out of the collections and onto the internet in a free and educational way much like the Florida’s Division of Historical Resources 3D project. Additionally, I know of 3D modelling being used to recreate landscapes in the same way small objects are recreated in the digital space, which makes me excited at looking into using a 3D modern landscape with touch points that lead out to 3D artifacts and their description in order to immerse the viewer in what could be a remote underwater landscape, and connect the provenience and context of the site to the viewer.

                A Few questions discussed in chapter four centers around authenticity, and in the face of 3D models and replicas made from 3D prints it brings into question of not only what is authentic but its importance as well. In light of an increasingly digital age, this becomes an important question to discuss. As mentioned in the book, the authentic item is tied to time and space and holds special importance over replicas. A Macedonian jewelry set was shaped by human hands for Macedonian royalty and has survived to this day which makes such an object important as it is a direct link to classical Macedon. While this is true, I believe any fears over the original losing importance in light of recreations to be absurd. The original jewelry set, for example, will always have its priceless importance, however it will always be limited to its location. Therefore, with more widespread usage of 3D models and replicas, this jewelry set can now engage a world-wide audience even though they aren’t authentic. Additionally, as the Notre Dame Cathedral burned earlier this year, and Brazil’s National Museum’s destruction the year before, it is known all to well that our stewardship of the past can fail and the direct link to the past can be forever lost. However, with 3D representation the authentic artifacts will be lost but their history and physical representation through replication will not.

Trevor Colaneri

University of Central Florida

Orlando, Florida