The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Provenance illusions and elusive paradata: when archaeology and art/archaeological practice meets the phygital

Provenance illusions and elusive paradata: when archaeology and art/archaeological practice meets the phygital
Provenance illusions and elusive paradata: when archaeology and art/archaeological practice meets the phygital

In this art/archaeological study, we question the utility of the interrelated concepts of provenance, provenience, and paradata as applied to assemblages in art, archaeology, and cultural heritage contexts. We discuss how these overlapping concepts are used to establish values of authenticity and authoritative attributions. However, as cultural assemblages are increasingly being extended through virtualisation, they may exist digitally as well as physically, or as combinations of both, that is phygitally. We show how provenances and paradata can now become unstable and even detached from the assemblage. Through a sequence of collaborative projects, we expose two provenance illusions at the centre of archaeological recording and presentation practices. In these illusions, the archaeologists and much of the archaeology they record actually disappear from the authoritative reports that are published. Using a transdisciplinary, diffractive art/archaeology approach, these illusions are unpacked to reveal how superficially slight changes to traditional archaeological "drawings"and "photographs"have wrought fundamental ontological shifts in their modern phygital incarnations which undermines their provenances and associated paradata. We conclude that archaeology like fine art does not require conscious paradata in order to support statements of authority and interpretation. Instead, we argue that archaeologists should adopt an art/archaeology approach and subvert and dismantle established practices, methods, tools, techniques, and outputs. By highlighting and challenging inconsistencies in what we say we do with what we actually do, we expose gaps in our knowledge and data and shortcomings in our practices. These deficiencies can then be tackled by developing more robust (trans)disciplinary approaches.

Art/archaeology, Assemblages, Diffraction, Technical images, Transdisciplinarity
454-481
Reilly, Paul
b6f40815-aa39-4790-afc4-1f793c4bd151
Callery, Simon
9f6a886a-d7fd-4c3e-9f9b-3a301d78d0ac
Dawson, Ian
3b598f16-b350-4fbc-89aa-ef92eba6abfa
Gant, Stefan
a1f39bb5-da70-4119-a9a3-a6c53f72d348
Reilly, Paul
b6f40815-aa39-4790-afc4-1f793c4bd151
Callery, Simon
9f6a886a-d7fd-4c3e-9f9b-3a301d78d0ac
Dawson, Ian
3b598f16-b350-4fbc-89aa-ef92eba6abfa
Gant, Stefan
a1f39bb5-da70-4119-a9a3-a6c53f72d348

Reilly, Paul, Callery, Simon, Dawson, Ian and Gant, Stefan (2021) Provenance illusions and elusive paradata: when archaeology and art/archaeological practice meets the phygital. Open Archaeology, 7 (1), 454-481. (doi:10.1515/opar-2020-0143).

Record type: Article

Abstract

In this art/archaeological study, we question the utility of the interrelated concepts of provenance, provenience, and paradata as applied to assemblages in art, archaeology, and cultural heritage contexts. We discuss how these overlapping concepts are used to establish values of authenticity and authoritative attributions. However, as cultural assemblages are increasingly being extended through virtualisation, they may exist digitally as well as physically, or as combinations of both, that is phygitally. We show how provenances and paradata can now become unstable and even detached from the assemblage. Through a sequence of collaborative projects, we expose two provenance illusions at the centre of archaeological recording and presentation practices. In these illusions, the archaeologists and much of the archaeology they record actually disappear from the authoritative reports that are published. Using a transdisciplinary, diffractive art/archaeology approach, these illusions are unpacked to reveal how superficially slight changes to traditional archaeological "drawings"and "photographs"have wrought fundamental ontological shifts in their modern phygital incarnations which undermines their provenances and associated paradata. We conclude that archaeology like fine art does not require conscious paradata in order to support statements of authority and interpretation. Instead, we argue that archaeologists should adopt an art/archaeology approach and subvert and dismantle established practices, methods, tools, techniques, and outputs. By highlighting and challenging inconsistencies in what we say we do with what we actually do, we expose gaps in our knowledge and data and shortcomings in our practices. These deficiencies can then be tackled by developing more robust (trans)disciplinary approaches.

Text
10.1515_opar-2020-0143 - Version of Record
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (9MB)

More information

Accepted/In Press date: 25 April 2021
Published date: 17 June 2021
Additional Information: Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Paul Reilly et al.
Keywords: Art/archaeology, Assemblages, Diffraction, Technical images, Transdisciplinarity

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 468443
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/468443
PURE UUID: 7334c09d-c00d-4961-a7a1-196469032120
ORCID for Paul Reilly: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8067-8991
ORCID for Ian Dawson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3695-8582

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 15 Aug 2022 16:48
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:51

Export record

Altmetrics

Contributors

Author: Paul Reilly ORCID iD
Author: Simon Callery
Author: Ian Dawson ORCID iD
Author: Stefan Gant

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×