Project 1: Interactive Contexts

For the Final Project: Integrate photos and print media (e.g. context sheets) into the digital presentation. In the video or write-up, please address how media fits within or is integrated within the archaeological project - what does it add to the project in addition to video documentation? (think about things like sound, relationships of objects, paperwork, & verbal descriptions, etc.). The final product(s) should be converted to a version that can be posted on the wiki or our streaming media server.

In an interactive site report, visual media are of paramount importance for linking other contextual information and excavation data together and presenting them to a wide audience. Video is perhaps the most familiar media available for mediating these interactions.

Create a digital video archive about our fieldwork at the John Brown House in the form of a DVD and Digital Context Form. You will work with Ellie Mylonas and Andrew Ashton at the Scholarly Technology Group (STG). The project is hands-on, involving firsthand video recording, and the transferring of the video into user-friendly formats for future use.

You will use videos and images from the field, which are stored on the Joukowsky Institute computers. You will also have to spend time processing your videos at the Joukowsky Institute.

You are going to record the processes and episodes involved in our archaeological excavations. You will also document the landscape using two video techniques.

Some of the flip videos act as a video diary that captures data and processes, and also records the chronology of the excavations as they unfold. Using the hi-def. camcorder (the one we’ve been using), you will record:

• Each new context in the units, when they emerge

• The sequence of excavations in each unit

• 4 landscape transects, one in each direction, designed to capture some of the archaeological units, surface deposits, and above-ground features that we’ve located

Videos will also capture the eventful contexts of our excavations – moving back and forth between materials and people to build a more fluid and dynamic context of our work on the site. Using the flip video recorder, you will record:

• Candid interviews with field crew members – as they work. You may ask them to describe their activities, interesting finds, or comment on the day’s excavations. You may also record them working (or not) without having them speak.

• The environment of the archaeological site – scanning shots of people working, the units in relation to one another, visitors to the site, discussions between crew members, etc.

Also, walk four transects (one in each direction) across the site using the flip video. You will film each transect twice, once at a horizontal angle (with the camera looking straight ahead at the horizon) and once at an oblique angle (looking down at the ground). As you film each transect, from each angle, narrate the archaeological, historical, natural, and other features that you observe. You will use the hi-def. video camera for this.

After completing the video recordings, you will create a DVD and a digital context form (with the help of the STG) from the hi-def recordings, and folders of video clips from the flip camera. The DVD will be a rough cut of your footage. The folders of video clips will, however, need some organization. It is up to you to decide how you will organize these clips into different folders (i.e. crew interviews, major discoveries, landscape shots). Carefully think about how and why you are compartmentalizing and organizing this information first. (Brad will be available to help you with technical details of transferring video tapes to DVD)

The long-term point of your project will involve the combination of the video recordings that you collect with other contextual sources, in a result similar to that of a “New Media Transect” (see http://metamedia.stanford.edu/argolid/), though one adapted to the features and scale of the John Brown House landscape.

For your write-up, please address the following questions (2 pages, max)

• How did you divide up recording responsibilities?

• How and why did you select your four video survey transects?

• What considerations influenced the organization of your flip video files?

• Suggest a model for how you might integrate this video data with other contextual sources, in a format loosely similar to the New Media Transect.

Syllabus / 2008 Class Members and Field Blogs / Readings / Critical Responses / 2008 Excavation & Unit Summaries / Sample Field Forms / 2008 Images / References & Resources / 2008 Midterm Projects / 2008 Final Projects