Archaeology's Digital Interfaces

Summary

Computing devices have been increasingly used by archaeologists since the 1950s, their adoption accelerating significantly since the 1980s with the availability of personal computers. What is the nature of this changing relationship and what are the implications for archaeology (and computing)? These questions will be addressed through the metaphor of the interface. We are accustomed to the textual and graphical user interfaces as a means of negotiation between archaeologist and computer, but how else does an interface operate beyond the visual and the obvious? An interface separates and brings together. It limits and reveals. It restricts and enables. It excludes and includes (Hookway 2014, 4). An interface operates simultaneously in the technical, social, and political realms. What does a consideration of digital interfaces expose about the consequences of archaeology’s relationship with the computer, an association which has developed across barely a generation?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Archaeological Epistemology in the Digital Age

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15835