Digital archaeology in museums: are we getting closer to matter?
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-10-17

The digital turn has totally changed the common image of archaeological exhibitions. Artifacts are now being supplemented, restored and reconstructed thanks to tools from shimmering mediascape. These digital supplements, however, are often seen as mere „toys” that only attract visitors and do not offer to the public deeper insight into artifacts. In my presentation I would like to focus on the symbiotical relation between destructed matter from the past and technology, that is now being embodied in museums. I suggest to reconsider the artifactual (from artifact) cyborgs, that nowadays are becoming popular on exhibitions. As artifactual cyborgs I understand the assemblages of fragmented artifacts and technological supplements. Archaeological cyborgs that are omnipresent in contemporary archaeological museums will be grasped as mixed matter — decayed historic things fitted with newly-born technological protheses — augmented reality, simulations, virtual reconstructions etc. Artifactual cyborgs help us to understand the form of past things — they are educational tools and correspond with the idea of democratic museum accessible and comprehensible for everyone. But the deeper meaning seeks from merely epistemological interpretation. Artifactual cyborgs mark out important switch in ontology of past things. Technological additions supplement the object and re-form it, without material interventions; compiled with authentic artifacts are signs of our time, that is about searching for completeness and wholeness. The paper will examine above-mentioned problems on case study — chosen exhibits from New Acropolis Museum in Athens.

(Monika Stobiecka)