Space as an artefact Understanding past perceptions and uses of space with and without computers Stuart Dunn King’s College London Digital Classicist Work in Progress Seminar Senate House, London 10th August 2007

An artefact is not a tool … necessarily What is an an artefact? ‘ In archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavour’ - Wikipedia The space around us is something we have created

An artefact is not a tool … necessarily

‘ In archaeology, an artifact or artefact is any object made or modified by a human culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavour’ - Wikipedia

The space around us is something we have created

Divide and rule Image from bbc.co.uk/news

Divide and rule Myth and religion Architecture

Myth and religion

Architecture

A Time and a Place for Everything ‘ In a number of ways the methods of the geographer both at the hard (I.e. physcial) and softer (i.e. social or political) ends have already proved of great value to the archaeologist … [B]ut when the geographer seeks to look more closely at the role of human action in the past, he or she must set that action in a context that is more than simply spatial’ Colin Renfrew The Geographical Journal, Vol 149 , No. 3, November 1983

Space and Time: Methods in Geospatial Computing for Mapping the Past (Edinburgh, 23rd-24th July 2007) Scale Heterogeneity Standards and Metadata

Scale

Heterogeneity

Standards and Metadata

Scale Metrics are not always enough Scale is not seamless Issues of scaling time and space are epistemically similar Agent based modelling - predictive abstraction at different scales Scale of data - North Sea Paleolandscape Project

Metrics are not always enough

Scale is not seamless

Issues of scaling time and space are epistemically similar

Agent based modelling - predictive abstraction at different scales

Scale of data - North Sea Paleolandscape Project

Scale - representation 686 727

Heterogeneity Representation - ‘A seamless interface to a huge range of data, information, digital publication and so on’. But this is distinct from ‘reconstruction’

Representation - ‘A seamless interface to a huge range of data, information, digital publication and so on’.

But this is distinct from ‘reconstruction’

Mashups - exploitation of the power of Web 2.0 Heterogeneity [I]nnovation can come from without as well as within … In fact, its real skill lies in stitching together [original] ideas with technologies from outside and then wrapping the reults in elegant software and stylish design … [producing] new products around the needs of the user, not the demands of technology’ - ‘Lessons from Apple’, The Economist, June 9th 2007 © 2001, Sara Madry

Mashups - exploitation of the power of Web 2.0

‘ Traditional’ 2D maps versus richer, 3D representations of space Mashups - exploitation of the power of Web 2.0 Heterogeneity Service Oriented Architecture Process of construction and representing data Past, present and future © 2001, Sara Madry

‘ Traditional’ 2D maps versus richer, 3D representations of space

Mashups - exploitation of the power of Web 2.0

Service Oriented Architecture

Process of construction and representing data

Past, present and future

Heterogeneity - ‘Neogeography’ Folksonomies and ontologies Rigid metadata approach - description of ‘objects’ as opposed to the relationships between different objects. Semantics ‘ We cannot take control of a disciplinary vocabulary and impose it on other researchers. We are are not all logicists. I am certainly not a logicist, and I never will be.’

Folksonomies and ontologies

Rigid metadata approach - description of ‘objects’ as opposed to the relationships between different objects.

Semantics

Standards and Metadata What are standards for? - Access - Interoperability Documentation “ Scheduled Ancient Dataset”

What are standards for?

Documentation

“ Scheduled Ancient Dataset”

Documentation Documentation of *process* as well as metadata for *objects* - ‘paradata’ But different communities need different modes of documentation Documentation does not have to be textual. What *is* documentation? Use of existing technologies and resources - e.g. timelines Ontologies and mapping of methods Standards and Metadata

Documentation

Documentation of *process* as well as metadata for *objects* - ‘paradata’

But different communities need different modes of documentation

Documentation does not have to be textual. What *is* documentation?

Use of existing technologies and resources - e.g. timelines

Ontologies and mapping of methods

Standards and Metadata

Standards and Metadata ‘ To establish … whether GIS technology might facilitate the location, retrieval and interrogation of e-resources made available through the Data Grid’

Conclusions - priorities Integration of time Development of standards and processes for documentation for their creation Maps, but not as we know them Development of Web 2.0 methods and technologies http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/772/ http://www.ahessc.ac.uk/theme

Integration of time

Development of standards and processes for documentation for their creation

Maps, but not as we know them

Development of Web 2.0 methods and technologies