First time participating at a blog carnival here, very excited! I read already some of the entries. I don't really think I have something relevant to say about digital relationships between people online (I started this blog less than a year ago), and most of the thoughts I have about this are adjacent to what Michael Zelazny, Mattia Compagnucci, jsrn, and Yaidel wrote.

Introduction#

Being an archaeologist, today I will talk about the past, and more specifically, how archaeology can help experience the past, and build indirect (necessarily digital) relationships with people living in the past (being our ancestors or not).

In particular, I will take a look at a recent paper I read, and how I think it's a good way of approaching experiences of the past and bridging the gap between us and the past, while also providing public engagement in an innovative way.

Just a note: this is not a scientific review, nor an organized thought process, I wrote this on a train while very tired, also, I am not affiliated with the project, in case someone think that's the case. Second disclaimer, I do not consider myself a digital archaeologist, although I use digital methods and tools to do archaeological work. There are many other people that are more skilled than me to talk about this stuff, but I wanted to share my thoughts about this anyway. To make just two examples, please read through Colleen Morgan and Sebastian Hagenauer blogs to see digital archaeologists in action and the many and exciting ways in which the past can be explored.

Description#

The paper in question is: Presenting Archaeoacoustics Results Using Multimedia and VR Technologies, by Ruper Till. The paper is open-access, so it can be freely downloaded and read by everyone. There are also some news articles and guides about it linked at the end, which might be more accessible.

The paper presents the results of an acoustic reconstruction and analyses at three different archaeological sites: Prehistoric caves in Northern Spain, Stonehenge (UK), and Paphos Theatre (Cyprus). The study ended in 2017, so keep that in mind when reading through the paper (I don't think the app has been updated for more recent devices). Brutally and unfairly summing it up, high-quality acoustic sampling of reverberation of sound from archaeologically-accurate music instruments was carried out using also ray tracing technologies, and the results where integrated in a 3D reconstruction of each site (or photogrammetrically reconstructed), then inserted into a VR app developed specifically for this. The app, called Soundgate, was used for archaeological research but also showcased in exhibitions around the world in 2017/2018. The aim was also to assess if the app could be useful as a learning tool for past historic ritual sites.

While I appreciated the rigorous methodological approach to reconstructing sound and employing professional people and tools for this, I want to focus on the VR app, and how the author (imo) correctly explore the different outcomes that this endeavor can have.

Digital past#

I haven't had the chance to test Soundgate (I don't own a headset), but I like the choice of the tool. As underlined by the author, VR allows immersing oneself into the reconstructed landscape, to experience recorded (and occasionally simulated) sounds in three very different settings. The immersive nature of VR, the accurate reconstruction of lighting, settings (textures, foliage, materials, etc.), musical instruments sound and landscape sounds provides the opportunity to experience, move, and hear the past settings in ways that no video or spoken presentation can. The possible reach is also extremely larger than regular academic conferences or papers, and moreover, for the caves example, it provides to opportunity to virtually visits sites that are not always accessible to the public.

Digital present#

There is another aspect that I think it's worth pointing out, and that is what these reconstructions can tell about the present self. As the author correctly points out, archaeologists attempts to understand both the past and the people of the past, and in all cases, the gap between past and present is an issue. To different degrees of extension, we tend to project our experiences and beliefs in our interpretations of the past, and the feelings and experiences that we can have through the app are also affected by this. The unguided nature of the app allows people to reflect on these experiences, instead of providing them with a ready-made interpretation or a written text to read or skip. Left alone, immersed in these soundscapes, we are forced to reflect on our emotions triggered by sound and visual elements, thus building a unique relationship with the past and with the archaeological site. This relationship is mediated by our own modern self, by our experiences, and as the author points out, also by (possible) previous visits at those sites.

Conclusions#

We have to be careful in saying that we are "experiencing the past", as any reconstruction is prone to fallacies and likely incomplete (such is the nature of archaeological work - although rigorous methodology and awareness to missing data can mitigate it). However, what we can experience through this VR app is a window towards how it might have sounded/looked, and a way to have a sneak peek on those who came before us. In the end, archaeology is about past people, and the relationships with them can be filtered and investigated through digital methods in different ways. VR is one of these tools, and I think one with a lot of potential for informing archaeological work and connecting past and present relationships.

I will quote directly the author here as I think I cannot say it in a better way:

[...] the apps help us to contextualise numerical metrical results, to better understand these sites of significant ritual and cultural richness and complexity. Interpretations are offered with the express understanding that they may be more useful in telling us about human cultures today than informing those of the past. At the very least, self-understanding is a worthwhile activity.

And again:

This research concludes that the apps presented here provide a contemporary contribution to the long history of human attempts to understand our relationships to those who came before us. [...] Digitally created environments existing beyond nature, archaeological audio-visual apps can help us reach back towards our roots to help us understand who we are and where we came from.

Digital relationships with our past

My February indieweb carnival entry