Archaeology and the Moving Image
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- Acknowledgements
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Conclusions This discussion of archaeological filmmaking comes at a time when creating, editing and sharing video footage has become increasingly effortless in the digital age. While access to recording devices and high-speed broadband is not universal, in societies that do have access, “women and disempowered groups have been among those specially benefiting from the potential democratization represented by a decentralized medium” (Joyce and Tringham 2007:331). As a potentially democratizing medium, the moving image joins a number of other forms of recording and interpretation in archaeology. The availability of multiple kinds of digital publication formats and the move toward increased multivocality in archaeological interpretation combine as an invitation to use and experiment with digital video in archaeology (Morgan and Eve 2012). As the number of archaeological films and filmmakers increase, so should our awareness of the potential for alternative representations of the past and our ability to provide more engaging stories about our profession. In their collaboratively written book, archaeologist Joseph W. Zarzynski and documentarian Peter Pepe provide instructions regarding how to make an archaeological documentary, but ultimately implore the archaeologist to “find the funds to hire professional documentarians” and posit that high quality video production raises the status of both the particular project and social science in general (2012:180). To this end, several archaeological projects have turned to crowd-funding initiatives to pay professional documentarians to help produce their films. Collaborations of this kind are common.; Aas previously mentioned, the Digital Research Video Project employed a science communicator to produce the ultimate output for the project. Still, a directly participatory role for archaeologists in the creation of interpretations in these collaborations is required to avoid misrepresentation of the past on film. Additionally, the ability to create interpretations that are compelling and accessible, or that challenge perceptions of the past is a vital skill for archaeologists as public intellectuals and producers of culture (Hamilakis 1999; Morgan and Eve 2012). Archaeological film is an exciting and increasingly porous medium; new formats, remixes, virtual worlds, reconstructions, animations, augmentations and remediations constantly shift and change the way we can present our interpretations of the past. Cinemagraphs, animated GIFs that subtly move a single part of an otherwise still image, blend present and past in a repeating visual loop. Vine videos shot on cellphones are only seven seconds in length, cut between brief glimpses of activity; the square test pit is set up, excavation commences, the test pit is closed. Viewing interfaces allow a choose-your-own adventure style jump between salient plot points. Old photographs are blended into modern landscapes, dead relatives are photoshopped back into the living room using methods found on a short YouTube video. The future for the moving image in archaeology is incredibly bright, but currently amounts to so much digital ephemera without an increased attention to archival strategies. Without further examination of this rapidly increasing medium and consideration toward digital preservation strategies, this extraordinary archaeological record will be forgotten. There must be more work done in this field. With this article, I hope to raise awareness of archaeological film, call for more scholarship regarding our rapidly deteriorating archaeological film archives and that we become more self-aware of our current media creation, distribution, and curation. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the EUROTAST research network for support for this publication. This work owes a substantial debt to Ruth Tringham for her extensive instruction in archaeological film theory and techniques as well as her colleagues at Çatalhöyük for allowing her to stick a camera into their faces. This research was partially funded by a Stahl grant from the Archaeological Research Facility at the University of California, Berkeley. Bibliography: Allen, P. (1996). The Tyranny of ‘Broadcast Quality’ and Archaeology Films. Paper presented at the 98th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America. New York. Abstract published in American Journal of Archaeology, (101), 351-352. Allen, P., & Lazio, C. (1983). Archaeology on Film: A Comprehensive Guide to Audio-Visual Materials. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America. Anderson, S. (2006). The Past in Ruins: Postmodern Politics and the Fake History Film. In A. Juhasz and J. Lerner (Eds.) 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Mining the home movie: Excavations in histories and memories. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1Dorothy Garrod’s footage online: https://vimeo.com/26801350 2A more recent Time Team America has aired on the Public Broadcasting System in the United States since 2009. 3Beale and Healy use the term “experimental” in this case to indicate the films made about experimental archaeology, that is, people in the present replicating past practices. 4 Observational video, an ethnographic film genre that attempts to edit films in a way that is closer to classic fiction films (Barbash and Taylor 1997) are not quantified in this article, as it is a rare practice in archaeological filmmaking. 5 In Watching YouTube, Michael Strangelove casts the negativity of YouTube as a larger problem with internet communities and anonymity (2010:118-120). Download 106.65 Kb. Share with your friends:
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