Telling Different Stories: innovative approaches to the publication, interpretation & archiving of linear infrastructural projects - AH/W002558/1
Lead Research Organisation:
Bournemouth University
Department Name: Faculty of Science and Technology
Abstract
This is a project that seeks to draw upon recent developments in archaeological theory and the digital humanities in order to engage in a more creative, ambitious (and therefore productive) fashion with the vast quantities of archaeological data that are generated by the most ambitious of current commercial fieldwork projects; those focused upon large-scale linear infrastructure, such as HS2 and the A14. The aim is to develop wholly news ways of approaching, interpreting, presenting and archiving the wealth of archaeological information generated by such projects, and through this, new interpretations of the past. Looking in detail, the specific aims are:
1. Challenge and unsettle existing commercial approaches to the post-excavation, publication and archiving of large-scale infrastructure projects by revealing, critically evaluating and challenging the core assumptions and frameworks that underpin them. In this case ideas of linearity and progression coupled with notions of tracing as an interpretative activity.
2. Explore the ways in which new, and potentially radical, developments in archaeological theory, critical cartography and digital story-telling can be used to reveal different pathways into and through the datasets generated and create a different kind of interpretative scaffolding.
3. To step back and examine the ways in which emerging trends in archaeological theory and critical thought can be brought into productive dialogue with the realities and exigencies of large-scale commercial fieldwork to the benefit of both.
4. To develop new ways of engaging with the datasets yielded by large-scale infrastructural work; approaches that can help shape future post-excavation and publication practice as well as allow wholly new archaeological narratives and interpretations to emerge.
1. Challenge and unsettle existing commercial approaches to the post-excavation, publication and archiving of large-scale infrastructure projects by revealing, critically evaluating and challenging the core assumptions and frameworks that underpin them. In this case ideas of linearity and progression coupled with notions of tracing as an interpretative activity.
2. Explore the ways in which new, and potentially radical, developments in archaeological theory, critical cartography and digital story-telling can be used to reveal different pathways into and through the datasets generated and create a different kind of interpretative scaffolding.
3. To step back and examine the ways in which emerging trends in archaeological theory and critical thought can be brought into productive dialogue with the realities and exigencies of large-scale commercial fieldwork to the benefit of both.
4. To develop new ways of engaging with the datasets yielded by large-scale infrastructural work; approaches that can help shape future post-excavation and publication practice as well as allow wholly new archaeological narratives and interpretations to emerge.
