“We are literally atop untold histories: things, ideas, lives, and activities that we have never seen before, that we may know nothing of, and that can thus endlessly surprise and transform us.”1 This final “work” week in Digital Archaeology was collaborative in ways I never anticipated. Specifically, I discovered that my “gamer” skill set only goes about as far as Stardew Valley (which also has some element of archaeology, however questionable it may be– but that’s a different story), and I had to ask my partner to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for me because I kept getting killed before actually reaching any cemeteries.

“Learning the past through doing means engaging one’s body and heart, as well as mind in the process.” 1 I’m not an archaeologist; in fact, during the entirety of my history degree, this class is the first I’ve taken that has even had “archaeology” in the title. So, maybe the fact that I’m not an archaeologist and that I haven’t been trained in the processual traditions that still hold their place in the field are the reasons why I find the concept of NOT doing archaeology “from the heart” so unfathomable.

“Scholarship will be strengthened if we are more open with research materials, yet we lack conventions and technical infrastructure for such openness.”1 This week, my failures really seemed to build on the contemplations of our readings. Not that our activities don’t typically relate to the activities we do, the relations just tend to be created upon the success I experience with the activities rather than the failures. Although, as I’ve written before, sometimes I feel that my greatest successes are the failures that help shape my understanding.

I closed the first module of this course discussing concepts of power, both about how those creating data had the ability to skew how it is perceived and how reliance on the digital can dictate existence in the modern world, thus the shift into this second module which had us think more macroscopically about the patterns found in data and the methodology used to collect it felt like a natural transition in thought.

“I worry that in our preoccupation with a paperless life we might overlook the legacy of paper and a closer connection.” 1 As someone who has been interested in figuring out how modern technologies and related methodologies could be applied to the study of humanities even before knowing about the existence of digital humanities, it’s safe to say that I certainly have an overall positive imagining on how the “future archaeologies” we explored this week can impact the field.

“This approach enables a workflow where interpretive decisions can be delayed to a later phase of the project because the material uncovered by the excavation and the record produced by the individual excavator is seen as impartial and atheoretical.” 1 I don’t think I’ve ever analyzed a topic model made from a larger dataset than this before and I have to say, while it’s incredibly informative and great for putting such a significant corpus into perspective, it’s also pretty fun to click around and explore to understand the mechanism behind it.

“Historically, counting and classification have been used to dominate, discipline, and exclude.”1 This week (or should I say last week?), I think I was left with more questions than answers. Maybe because I didn’t have enough time to stew on everything I did thanks to pre-reading week assignments, but I’d like to think that it’s because my brain is working on trying to grasp a concept beyond my knowledge, and is waiting to learn more.

When it comes to digital humanities, I feel like I tend to struggle with what constitutes a “fail” or a “win”. I tend to complete the technical elements of the course with ease– my background in computer science leaves me with few issues understanding new programming concepts or, at least, few errors I can’t debug. This could be considered a win, but is it really a win if I don’t understand the meaning behind what I’m doing?

“Connectedness to our own humanity, reexivity toward our own emo-tional states, and an extension of human compassion that transcends time much as it transcends cultural divides in the present all make possible a different kind of archaeology where emotion is integral to the human experience past and present.”1 Update: Who knew sun poisoning could take 3 whole days to recover from? Dehydration doesn’t mess around– my brain was mush and only reformed on Wednesday, which meant that this whole week was a game of catch-up and frankly, ended up being a bit of a fail.

“As scholars, we cannot ignore the reality that, just because this data is in the public arena, it is also open and free to use, and that permission has been granted for its harvesting, analysis and dissemination.”1 At the beginning of the week, my qualms were in the realm of ethics, but now as I’m writing this having completed the majority of my field work, they are entirely physical…

“Digital archaeology of the 21st century is necessarily a public archaeology.” 1 Note: I submitted this first weekly journal for HIST3000: Digital Archaeology with a note attached addressed to my professor and TA, stating that I would only post our larger consolidation documents on this blog. I lied. Turns out I enjoy writing much more when given the freedom of informality. I didn’t know what to expect coming into this class if I’m being fully honest.

When I started this class back in May, my impression of digital history was very vague. What came to mind when I thought about the subject was things like websites made for digital exhibitions, digitized archives, or maybe even open-source historical publications. I heard there was programming which piqued the computer science student within me, but I assumed it was all front-end and web design. I now know that digital history is SO much more.

I have NEVER been good at producing original work. It’s not that I dislike what I do, I just think of too much I want to do, all at once, and with all these ideas bouncing around in my head I stagnate, unsure of where to start. The proposed work of exploratory digital history for this week caused my internal monologue to voice some concerns, but fortunately, the “reading” associated with this week hushed it.

You are presently reading a post on a website that almost didn’t exist. This week of telling compelling stories through design started off strong for me– a focus on aesthetics for someone whose primary interest in terms of programming is web design is guaranteed to be a hit! I learned about a handful of new, interesting tools that can be used to represent data through mapping, create simple colour palettes for visualizing data, and go MUCH more familiar with Adobe Illustrator.

I’m convinced that before this week, I’ve never used my laptop at full power before. Never have I heard my fans sound closer to what I would describe as a plane approaching take off than I did when I was trying to use the “sort” feature in AntConc. While this week’s central focus was on seeking dialogue with the information we’re analyzing, I found it to also be somewhat of a study in different ways the same task can be completed, and how the processes to achieve the same final result can lead to different or even greater understandings of the material they’re working with.

This week has been the most technical yet, but surprisingly the least difficult AND most enjoyable for me. Unsurprisngly— as someone who plans to pursue librarianship as a career— cleaning, organizing, interpreting, and presenting data in a user-friendly way is something I love doing. While the intention of the lessons were to teach the process of data cleaning and creating networks from said data, through exploring the different ways that historical data can be presented and how it can be used provided me with greater insight and thought into what exactly makes a “good” or necessary visualisation.

This course was prefaced with the promise of failure. Not in the professor-wants-you-to-fail-the-class sort of way, rather, a promise that we as students will experience numerous small failures, yet we must embrace them as a learning tool to grow as digital historians. With that in mind, I’m happy to report that I’ve definitely experienced failure this week! Only two of the five activities related to course work went on without a hitch, and the last of them still remains incomplete (for now…).

Let summer classes begin! What better things do I have to do when the whole world is in lockdown? As a university student studying both history and computer science, I chose to take this course as digital history— a field I’ve only recently discovered in the past year— seems to encompass all of my interests. I’ve always been interested in digitization and how what I’ve learned studying computer science could be applied to my primary passion of history.