Out of Time : Alienated temporalities in archaeological knowledge production
Olofsson, Tobias LU
(2024)
Swedish STS Conference 2024
- Abstract
- The transformation of complex spatial and temporal patterns into mapped and recorded
archaeological data requires archaeologists to translate temporally non-distinct processes of
exploration into a series of visual recordings of distinct moment of discovery. These visual records,
produced by articulating key moments in the excavation process as cleaned and documentable
contexts and finds, form a collage of multitemporal evidence entangled, first, to other contexts
articulated previously and later in an excavation, and second, to a category of temporally distant
past of which it is said to be a record. These practices of temporal and contextual alienation,
which isolate parts of a processes to construct collages... (More) - The transformation of complex spatial and temporal patterns into mapped and recorded
archaeological data requires archaeologists to translate temporally non-distinct processes of
exploration into a series of visual recordings of distinct moment of discovery. These visual records,
produced by articulating key moments in the excavation process as cleaned and documentable
contexts and finds, form a collage of multitemporal evidence entangled, first, to other contexts
articulated previously and later in an excavation, and second, to a category of temporally distant
past of which it is said to be a record. These practices of temporal and contextual alienation,
which isolate parts of a processes to construct collages of moments frozen in time, echoes the
loss of authenticity, or aura, that Walter Benjamin recognized as a consequence of the
mechanical reproduction of art. However, while Benjamin understood mechanical reproduction
to lead to the removal of art’s historical anchorage in magic and religious rituals, which had
previously granted it its meaning, the alienation required to translate moments in and
archaeological excavation into stabilized data takes a different form: the reproduction of context
as data. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with archaeologists working at the
cutting edge of digital data recording, this paper explores the visual and epistemological practices
involved in translating context into archaeological data and what happens to context and
complexity when individual moments of archaeological exploration become decontextualized
and later recontextualized as recorded data out of time and out of place. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- The transformation of complex spatial and temporal patterns into mapped and recorded archaeological data requires archaeologists to translate temporally non-distinct processes of exploration into a series of visual recordings of distinct moment of discovery. These visual records, produced by articulating key moments in the excavation process as cleaned and documentable contexts and finds, form a collage of multitemporal evidence entangled, first, to other contexts articulated previously and later in an excavation, and second, to a category of temporally distant past of which it is said to be a record. These practices of temporal and contextual alienation, which isolate parts of a processes to construct collages of moments frozen in time,... (More)
- The transformation of complex spatial and temporal patterns into mapped and recorded archaeological data requires archaeologists to translate temporally non-distinct processes of exploration into a series of visual recordings of distinct moment of discovery. These visual records, produced by articulating key moments in the excavation process as cleaned and documentable contexts and finds, form a collage of multitemporal evidence entangled, first, to other contexts articulated previously and later in an excavation, and second, to a category of temporally distant past of which it is said to be a record. These practices of temporal and contextual alienation, which isolate parts of a processes to construct collages of moments frozen in time, echoes the loss of authenticity, or aura, that Walter Benjamin recognized as a consequence of the mechanical reproduction of art. However, while Benjamin understood mechanical reproduction to lead to the removal of art’s historical anchorage in magic and religious rituals, which had previously granted it its meaning, the alienation required to translate moments in and archaeological excavation into stabilized data takes a different form: the reproduction of context as data. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with archaeologists working at the cutting edge of digital data recording, this paper explores the visual and epistemological practices involved in translating context into archaeological data and what happens to context and complexity when individual moments of archaeological exploration become decontextualized and later recontextualized as recorded data out of time and out of place. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/cd558d29-ff50-4540-a04d-4041686afa75
- author
- Olofsson, Tobias
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-10
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- conference name
- Swedish STS Conference 2024
- conference location
- Norrköping, Sweden
- conference dates
- 2024-10-03 - 2024-10-04
- project
- Show & Tell: Scientific representation, algorithmically generated visualizations, and evidence across epistemic cultures
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- cd558d29-ff50-4540-a04d-4041686afa75
- date added to LUP
- 2024-10-04 21:45:31
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:07:44
@misc{cd558d29-ff50-4540-a04d-4041686afa75,
abstract = {{The transformation of complex spatial and temporal patterns into mapped and recorded<br/>archaeological data requires archaeologists to translate temporally non-distinct processes of<br/>exploration into a series of visual recordings of distinct moment of discovery. These visual records,<br/>produced by articulating key moments in the excavation process as cleaned and documentable<br/>contexts and finds, form a collage of multitemporal evidence entangled, first, to other contexts<br/>articulated previously and later in an excavation, and second, to a category of temporally distant<br/>past of which it is said to be a record. These practices of temporal and contextual alienation,<br/>which isolate parts of a processes to construct collages of moments frozen in time, echoes the<br/>loss of authenticity, or aura, that Walter Benjamin recognized as a consequence of the<br/>mechanical reproduction of art. However, while Benjamin understood mechanical reproduction<br/>to lead to the removal of art’s historical anchorage in magic and religious rituals, which had<br/>previously granted it its meaning, the alienation required to translate moments in and<br/>archaeological excavation into stabilized data takes a different form: the reproduction of context<br/>as data. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with archaeologists working at the<br/>cutting edge of digital data recording, this paper explores the visual and epistemological practices<br/>involved in translating context into archaeological data and what happens to context and<br/>complexity when individual moments of archaeological exploration become decontextualized<br/>and later recontextualized as recorded data out of time and out of place.}},
author = {{Olofsson, Tobias}},
language = {{eng}},
title = {{Out of Time : Alienated temporalities in archaeological knowledge production}},
year = {{2024}},
}