Costis Dallas 2013 - Digital Curatorship - Onto-Epistemological Considerations and Implications For Cultural Information Systems

Digital curatorship
Onto-epistemological considerations and implications for cultural information systems

Costis Dallas
Director of Museum Studies & Associate Professor Faculty of Information University of Toronto Costis.Dallas@utoronto.ca
Costis Dallas (2013) Scholarly activity, information requirements and research infrastructures: European initiatives and intellectual foundations
What constitutes an epistemically adequate digital representation of (material or intangible) cultural heritage?
Representing objects
The standard model in material culture disciplines and cultural heritage documentation
Based on an object ontology Attested in historical context Foundation of current documentation standards
Costis Dallas (2013) Digital curatorship: Onto-epistemological considerations and implications for cultural information systems
Object information in museums
Object catalogue cards
Computerisation: IRGMA catalogue cards (1976)
Object documentation standards for museums Conceptual Descriptions for Works of Art (CDWA) Cataloguing Cultural Objects CIDOC object documentation standard SPECTRUM categories .
Information structure: CCO groups

Object Naming Creator Information Physical Characteristics Stylistic, Cultural and Chronological Information Location and Geography Subject Class Description View Information
(Baca et al. 2006)

Object-centred knowledge practices in museums
Conceptualising musealia
Museological objects (van Mensch) Four levels of data
Structural properties Functional properties Context Significance
Idealist waterfall object model

Conceptual identity: the idea of the maker Factual identity: the object in life history Actual identity: the object now
Elliots analysis grid for object description
Formal representations of cultural heritage objects

LoCloud and ARIADNE projects
Representing cultural objects: background

CIDOC CRM (Conceptual Reference Model) CARARE Connecting Archaeology and Architecture with Europeana project
Definition of an XML schema for archaeological and architectural monuments and their representations (CARARE Schema v. 1.0) Mapping of CARARE Schema to the Europeana Data Model (EDM)
3D-ICONS - 3D Digitisation of Icons of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage

Extension of the CARARE Schema to cover the representation of 3D architectural models (v. 2.0)
CARARE to EDM mapping: monuments and their representations
CARARE to EDM mapping: ORE aggregations
Representing cultural objects: current and future work

LoCloud Local Content in an Europeana Cloud (20132015)
Formal representation and metadata mapping of cultural resources from Wikimedia and social media contexts Conceptual modeling of domain knowledge on historic and vernacular names, places and locations using SKOS
ARIADNE - Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Datasets Networking in Europe (2013-2016)
Individuation, mereology and emergent classification of archaeological monuments Conceptualizing and representing artefact and monument descriptions, and archaeological reports, as knowledge objects
Rethinking object representation
Why are representations important?

Current documentation practice is highly relevant to future epistemic adequacy of object-related information Although they appear to be mere technicalities to some, metadata take on a central importance in the production of scientific theories in the degree to which they condition access to data, guarantee their integrity and delimit their interpretative uses (Millerand & G. C Bowker, 2007)
On fixity
The Ise Shinto shrine
The Zimbabwe bush pump

A fluid object (de Leet & Mol) Made for continuous modification and repair A mutable mobile (Mol, Law)
Cf. immutable mobiles (Latour) Cultural objects as mutable mobiles
On individuation
On reflexivity
Objects from the field to the lab

Primacy of engagement with material objects, their traces and spatial-topological configurations Field notes, log books, inventories Illustration, visualisation, surrogation Archaeology at the trowels edge
Objects and kinds
How fast and hard is the separation between objects and kinds?
David Clarkes artefact-type-assemblage model A cultural object as instantiation of a type Problem cases
A silkscreen print by Picasso A digital surrogate of a photograph of a site
Pablo Picasso, Silkscreen for Yuri Gagarin
Fred Boissonas, Acropolis (1903)
Thick description as emergent classification
Identifications as relations between objects and kinds Constitution of kinds through description Constitution of objects in classifications
Cultural categories as interactive kinds

I want to focus not on the children but on the classification, those kinds of children, fidgety, hyperactive, attention-deficient. They are interactive kinds. [...] Interactive is a new concept that applies not to people but to classifications, to kinds, to the kinds that can influence what is classified. And because kinds can interact with what is classified, the classification itself may be modified or replaced (Hacking 2000)
Kindful objects
This sculpture from the Parthenon shows a Centaur rearing triumphantly over a dying human Lapith. This focus on human suffering epitomises the intense humanism of Greek art. The sculpture also represents Greece's struggle to resist being absorbed into the Persian Empire. The Greeks had a strong notion of their own identity and regarded the Persians as barbarians like the Centaurs. The Parthenon was completed in 432 BC on the site of an earlier unfinished temple destroyed by the Persians (British Museum 2010)
Object-actor networks
From objects to things

Assembly drawing is how engineers call the invention of the blueprint. But the word assembly sounds odd once the shuttle has exploded []. They are now provided with an exploded view of a highly complex technical object. But what has exploded is our capacity to understand what objects are when they have become Ding. [] Its only after the explosion that everyone realized the shuttles complex technology should have been drawn with the NASA bureaucracy inside of it []. The object, the Gegenstand, may remain outside of all assemblies but not the Ding. [] What are the various shapes of the assemblies that can make sense of all those assemblages? (Latour, 2005)
On object agency
Efficacious objects (Gell)
Missed opportunity
The extra checks were made in an atmosphere haunted by a tragic missed opportunity []. Investigators say a piece of Columbia's broken heat shield panel shook loose during some thruster firings on the day after launch and drifted off into space. For many minutes, the debris was well within range of the shuttles cameras and the crew members eyeballs but nobody noticed [] The piece was tracked by sensors around the world, at such precision that its shape and mass could be estimated. It matched a broken-off, curved panel with supporting ribs [] Had the object been seen, many flight controllers now feel, enough suspicion would have been raised to look more closely for heat shield damage. (NASA website)
Where does Columbia belong?

In the domain of material objects
Subsumed in its mereological, and topologicalcompositional, material structure? I.e., as a complex spatial (possibly also temporal) configuratio? Subsumed in its functional structure? I.e., as a complex cause-and-effect configuration An analogical model, diagram, blueprint, or description Other conceptual representations, e.g. a process model A sequence of transitions and/or states A narrative, or biography
In the domain of ideas
In the domain of events
In the domain of categories
Adopting the intentional stance vis--vis cultural objects
We adopt the intentional stance toward someone (or something) when we predict its behavior on the basis of what it would do if it had beliefs, desires, and intentions, while leaving open the possibility that it does not, in fact, have them (Appiah 2003) Cultural biography of objects
Things beyond objects

Objects become things, that is, when matters of fact give way to their complicated entanglements and become matters of concern(Latour, 2005)
Eventful objects
How to create an epistemically adequate representation of the Yalta photograph?

What is it?
A photograph, with specific material, technical and other properties Published in a specific historical and interpretive context
Where does it come from?

Who shot it, how it came to be in our disposal..
What does it show?

Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, others, chairs, a table, a room.. Properties of the scene represented: state conference, at Livadia palace, Yalta, between 11-14 February 1944 A event, i.e., a meeting between people, objects and information in time and space
Some conceptual problems with representing this photograph of the Yalta conference
What are the boundaries of the photograph?
The blind man stick problem
Is what takes place in Yalta a structure of events, of objects, or (also) something else?
Mental events: motives, plans, intentions Causes, effects, purposes? In general, how can we usefully think of events?
Is the Yalta conference the same event for Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill, you and me?
Intentionality Context
What boundaries for a cultural object?

The Yalta agreement Where should we cut the network?
Physical document Also text Also entities and relations about agreement terms Also background, preparatory documents Also entities and relations about outcomes where do we stop?
Speaking of events
Objects, which can be collected or represented, may exist as evidence associated with events: bloodstains on the carpet, perhaps, or a footprint in the sand; There may well be representations of the event itself: photos, newspaper reports, memoirs. Such documents can be stored and retrieved; and, also, Events can, to some extent, be created or recreated. [] Since an event [in experimental science] cannot be stored and since accounts of the results are no more than hearsay evidence, the feasibility of reenacting the experiment so that the validity of the evidence, of the information, can be verified is highly desirable. (Buckland, 1991)
Metaschema of the CIDOC CRM

Types refer to / refine Conceptual Objects Physical Entities participate in affect or / refer to
Actors
location
Temporal Entities Time-Spans at Places
The Yalta Conference acc. CIDOC CRM (Doerr and others, various publications)
Eventful objects, objectful events

A possible formalization
Representing objects as star graphs, through their participation in events (biographical, other)
An alternative approach
Representing objects as meetings between events
Both objects and events bestowed with primary ontological status

Adding value to the archaeological record: on archaeological curatorship
Information objects in archaeological curatorship

Sites, artefacts and texts
Excavation logs, personal notes, museum catalogues, photographs, sketches, plans, historicalphilological sources
Their event histories, actors, and relations

Cf. artefact analysis research (McClung Fleming, Pearce, Prown..)
Scholarly identifications, retroductive descriptions, narratives, interpretations, theories

Artefact description: orientation, segmentation, differentiation (Gardin 1967)
Interpretation at the trowels edge

As the trowel moves over the ground it responds to changes in texture and colour, but always in a way informed by a particular perspective. The knowledge of the archaeologist influences the way in which the site is dug. (Hodder 1999) If archaeological interpretation starts at the trowels edge [] it is because, in the context of archaeological excavation, the trowel, more than a tool for digging, becomes a boundary artefact that inhabits simultaneously the realms of pragmatic and epistemic action [] participating in the processes by which archaeological brains make up their minds (Malafouris, 2004)
Archaeological fieldwork as activity framework: pointing, tracing, highlighting

Instead of offering a neutral description of phenomena being treated as clearly visible on the surface being examined, this characterization of the color stain proposes a theory about no longer visible agents or processes that might have caused such a pattern, i.e., the stripe was made by a plow moving through the dirt. (Goodwin 2003)
Dirt, colour classification and recording (Goodwin 2010)
Archaeological vision
Despite the rigorous way in which a tool such as this one structures perception of the dirt being scrutinized, finding the correct category is not an automatic or even an easy task. [] The color patches on the chart are glossy, while the dirt never is [] Moreover, the colors being evaluated frequently fall between the discrete categories provided by the Munsell chart. Two students at the field school looking at exactly the same dirt and reference colors can and do disagree as to how it should be classified (Goodwin 1993).
Archaeological reports
The typical layout of a report is rather similar from one country to another. A report consists of a description of investigation process, a survey of related literature and an interpretation of the results of the investigation. The description is followed by a catalogue of finds unearthed during the project, a list of photographs, plans, drawings and samples. The most important findings are often summarised in a separate short introductory chapter in the beginning of the report. (Huvila, 2008)
Fluidity in cataloguing
We need to incorporate fluidity in the cataloguing model itself [] The record should model the document as a series of transition events, and should describe the nature of the events, the agents responsible for the events, and the times and places of those change events (Carl Lagoze on the Harmony project / ABC ontology).
Thick description
Geertz, after Ryle
Whats the difference between twitching, winking, parodying?
the point is that between what Ryle calls the "thin description" of what the rehearser (parodist, winker, twitcher . . .) is doing ("rapidly contracting his right eyelids") and the "thick description" of what he is doing ("practicing a burlesque of a friend faking a wink to deceive an innocent into thinking a conspiracy is in motion") lies the object of ethnography: a stratified hierarchy of meaningful structures in terms of which twitches, winks, fake-winks, parodies, rehearsals of parodies are produced, perceived, and interpreted, and without which they would not [..] in fact exist, no matter what anyone did or didn't do with his eyelids
Inscription as archaeological thick description

A hypothetical site section (5a), and (5b) its hermeneutic matrix, [..] illustrating the temporality of each individual cut, fill or deposit, processes and/or practices, and the active reworking of certain contexts. [] the horizontal zones are a relative evaluation of longevity, derived from the total number of steps on the matrix. They are not based on information from 14C or material culture dates. However, such information could be incorporated at a postexcavation stage. (Chadwick 2003)
Making archaeological facts

Facts as informed reports on thing cultures
Archaeological objects: descriptions, identifications, classifications, attributions Object types: functional, morphological, cultural-historical Events: periods, actions, states, causes, motives... Assemblages, sites, archaeological cultures Concepts, ideas, propositions Properties, relations
Studying scholarly practices and digital research methods

EHRI, DARIAH-EU, ARIADNE & Europeana Cloud projects
Studying scholarly practice and needs in EU research projects: background

Semi-structured interviews in the Preparing DARIAH project (Digital Curation Unit-IMIS, Athena Research Centre, Greece) Mixed methods research in EHRI, based on:
Researcher questionnaire survey (N: 277; DCU, Greece) 15 semi-structured interviews with researchers (DCU, Greece) 20 semi-structured interviews with archivists (KCL, UK; NIOD, Netherlands)
Scholarly Research Activity Model
Scholarly information activity as curation at the source
Activity theory
Activity: purposeful interaction of a subject with the world Directed toward an object, a physical or conceptual entity embodying the fulfilment of some objective or motive, intended to meet a specific need of the subject Activity systems are composed as a hierarchy of activities, constituted by conscious actions, which in turn are constituted by sub-conscious operations Subjects can be individuals, but also communities of practice, sharing needs and motives Activities take place by means of tool mediation, which include both physical and cognitive mediational artefacts
Activities-actions-operations
Source: Wilson (2006)

A scholarly curation continuum
Issues
What is the scope of information objects curated in the scholarly research process?
What is the relation between data and scholarly objects?
What is the structure of scholarly research activity, and what does it entail?
How do workflows look like, and how fixed are they? How serialised, and how granular, are scholarly primitives?
What is the relationship between information seeking and curation, as part of scholarly activity?
When is curation enacted in the scholarly activity lifecycle, and by whom?
Co-evolution of facts and domain knowledge

As far as possible I use established terms as clearly as I can. I would rather try to describe what Im looking at and see how it sits within the framework of discussion in the literature. I think if you have to call a new term you could have to be really sure what you are doing. [] Where one does have to create a new term it needs to be glossed with the kind of definition that you hope will then get into the secondary literature in its own right (UK archaeologist, quoted in Benardou et al. 2010)
A messy view of the research process

Developing a hunch, or liking some stuff Describing this stuff, or the hunch, quite naively Re-expressing it in terms of a (middle-range) theory
Aha! So, we do have a theory to start with?
Seeking confirmation Writing up Looking up at more stuff, and going around in circles More writing up Publishing
Information process factors (Bearman and Trant, 2005)
82
Scholarly primitives as curatorial activity-centred relations
The scope of thing-centred knowledge

[I]deas and not just things alone also lie at the heart of the museum enterprise. Reality is neither objects alone nor simply ideas about objects but, rather, the two taken together [] Unless we can understand the intellectual framework through which we perceive an object, and unless we more fully understand the various intellectual frameworks through which the members of our public might themselves in turn perceive that same object, how can we ever truly hope to be in communication? (Weil 1990)
Schematisations of epistemic constructs (Gardin 2002)
How an archaeological site remembers its facts (after Goodwin)
From objects to theories

categorical knowledge, domain knowledge, theories, classifications, ontologies
identifications, descriptions, facts
<tag1> <tag2> <tag3> </tag1>
things in the world
87
Digital curation vs. digital curatorship
Descriptive : prescriptive activity : procedure
Digital curatorship
The network of knowledges, norms, motives and goals shaping curatorial activity It privileges the role of the actor: the scholar, the visitor, the community It identifies a third pillar in the structure of activity systems, beside the domain of objects and the domain of processes:
the domain of agency
Scholarly activity meta-domains

Epistemic agency
Scholarly activity
Epistemic process
Epistemology
Epistemic objects
Digital infrastructures as tools for digital curatorship
Curation-aware metadata repositories

LoCloud, ARIADNE and DARIAH-EU
Curation-aware cultural information systems: background

Evidence-based specifications for a curation-aware research repository
Preparing DARIAH and EHRI projects
MoRe: Monument Repository

Developed for the CARARE project OAIS-compliant architecture OAI-PMH aggregator and server Metadata mapping and enrichment
Monument Repository data flow

Negotiation for acceptance
Checks
Content Providers
Structural
Native XML
Mapping tool
SIP
Well-formedness Integrity
Define Mapping
AIP
Versioning
Native, CARARE, Mapping, Provider & item admin info (package independence)
Repository
RDF
EDM (selected data)
DIP
Enrich
AIP
CARARE
EDM
AIP
Europeana
Mapping
<carare id=001> <heritageAssetInformation> <appellation> <id>001</id> <name lang=gre></name> <name lang=gre preferred=true></name> </appellation> </heritageAssetInformation> <digitalResource> <link>http://acropolis.gr/001.tiff</link> <format>tiff</format> <spatial> <address> <locality>Acropolis</locality> <townOrCity>Athens</townOrCity> <country>Greece</country> </address> </spatial> </digitalResource> </carare>
Element & attribute clean/filling

<edm:ProvidedCHO> <dc:title xml:lang=el></dc:title> <dcterms:alternative xml:lang=el></dcterms:alternative> </edm:ProvidedCHO>
<edm:Type>IMAGE</edm:Type>
<edm:Place> <skos:prefLabel>Acropolis, Athens, Greece</skos:prefLabel> </edm:Place>
98 98
Spatial transform
<carare id=001> <digitalResource> <spatial> <spatialReferenceSystem> EPSG:28992 </spatialReferenceSystem> <cartographicReference> <spatialFeatureType> point </spatialFeatureType> <car:coordinates> <x>121821; 487476</x> <y /> </car:coordinates> </car:cartographicReference> </spatial> </digitalResource> </carare> <car:coordinates> <x>121821</x> <y>487476</y> </car:coordinates>
Check coordinate system:

spatialReferenceSystem : EPSG:28992 Transform WGS84 : <wgs84_pos:lat>52.37415441823642</wgs84_pos:lat> <wgs84_pos:long>4.899978444680552</wgs84_pos:long>
Check if X/Y Lat/Lon or Lon/Lat Check if the monument is located in the country that is described in the record (country code = NL)
99 99
De-duplication
CARARE Record 1
heritageAsset ID: H-1
CARARE Record 2
CARARE Record 3
digitalResource
ID: D-1
digitalResource
ID: D-4
digitalResource
ID: D-1
digitalResource
ID: D-2
digitalResource
ID: D-1
digitalResource
ID: D-5
digitalResource
ID: D-3
digitalResource
ID: D-5
digitalResource
ID: D-6
CARARE Record 1
heritageAsset
ID: H-1
CARARE Record 2
CARARE Record 3
digitalResource
ID: D-1
Relation : H1D-1
Relation : H1D-1 Relation : H2D-5
digitalResource
ID: D-2
digitalResource
ID: D-4
digitalResource
ID: D-3
digitalResource
ID: D-5
digitalResource
ID: D-6
100
Digital curatorship: requirements for cultural information systems
Ontological considerations
Objects as mutable mobiles
4-dimensional semantics, including time Reflexive, interpretive objects
Support for eventful objects

Objects and events as symmetric graph structures Emergent individuation dependent on context
Support for kindful objects

Co-evolution of categorical and factual level Thesauri, domain knowledge with item descriptions Emergent classification of categories
Epistemological considerations
Contingent nature of cultural knowledge
Support for multiple points of view Support for inconsistent facts Support for curation lifecycle
Support for intuition vs. analysis

Affective,multisensorial affordances E.g., 3D reconstructions and VR environments Interface and user experience is important
DCC&U extended digital curation lifecycle model
Source: Constantopoulos, Dallas et al. (2009)

Cultural information systems: recommendations

Adopt a curation at the source approach Support an extended curation lifecycle Integrate semantic services with curation Support flexible ontologies Incorporate curation methods knowledge Develop functionalities based on principles of good domain-specific curatorship Accommodate community-based and social participation and co-curation functionalities Attend to user experience
Current and future work
Representing cultural objects

LoCloud Local Content in an Europeana Cloud (20132015)
Formal representation and metadata mapping of cultural resources from Wikimedia and social media contexts Conceptual modeling of domain knowledge on historic and vernacular names, places and locations using SKOS
ARIADNE - Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Datasets Networking in Europe (2013-2016)
Individuation, mereology and emergent classification of archaeological monuments Conceptualizing and representing artefact and monument descriptions, and archaeological reports, as knowledge objects
Studying scholarly practice and needs in EU research projects: ongoing

Europeana Cloud - Unlocking Europes Research via the Cloud
Expert forums, case studies, questionnaire surveys (2013-2014)
DARIAH-EU Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities

Mixed methods research on Understanding scholarly practice, based on transnational questionnaire survey and digital humanities project profiling (2013-2015) Digital methods ontology work, in collaboration with NeDiMAH (2013-2015)
ARIADNE - Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Datasets Networking in Europe

Archaeological research methods SIG (2013-2016)
Europeana Cloud needs analysis

Desk research: digital research practices and digital tools state of the art Research Communities web survey Identification and creation of Humanities and Social Sciences case studies
User requirements analysis

DARIAH-EU VCC2 Task 2 work: approach and objectives

Specification of digital infrastructures for the arts and humanities should address the historical practices, needs and perceptions of scholars Evidence-based substantiation of infrastructure requirements and specification
How scholars interact with the whole spectrum of information and conceptual entities, digital as well as nondigital Understand differences between disciplines and approaches
Develop an ontology for the formal representation of digital scholarly methods and tools, and their use in digital humanities research projects
Protocol for primary research on scholarly practice and needs

Mixed methods
Questionnaire survey Case studies
Participants (2013) Denmark France Germany Greece Ireland Lithuania Netherlands Slovenia
Multilingual Comparative, aggregated Leveraging cooperation with Europeana Cloud project Manual to be produced Published in knowledge portal
111
08 March 2014
Trans-European survey
To include questions on:
Scholarly data and collections Digital humanists and centres Information seeking Organising Studying and annotating Sharing and publishing Tools and services used Infrastructure and standards Devices and environment Requirements and foresight
Digital use and needs
Scholarly practices
Methods ontology
In collaboration with the NeDIMAH network Leveraging earlier work
AHDS computational methods taxonomy DARIAH-DE taxonomy DARIAH-GR Scholarly Research Activity Model
Modelling processes, tools/services and data

113
08 March 2014
Curation-aware cultural information systems: current and future work

LoCloud Local content in an Europeana Cloud (20132015)
Curation-aware cloud-based aggregator with semantic enrichment microservices, supporting heterogeneous metadata schemas and Wikimedia object ingestion
ARIADNE - Advanced Research Infrastructure for Archaeological Datasets Networking in Europe (20132016)
Metadata registry; semantic annotation and linking service
DARIAH-EU Digital Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (2012- )

Digital research methods, digital humanities projects and scholarly practice knowledge portal
LoCloud architecture
Lightweight Repository MINT Enrichment Services Export Third Party Services
Authentication Services
Object/Datastream Services
Collection Services
LoCloud Core Services Layer
Index Database
Storage Node
Storage Node
Storage Node
Storage Node
Thank you!
For more info: Costis.Dallas@utoronto.ca http://bit.ly/CostisDallas

Costis Dallas 2013 - Digital Curatorship - Onto-Epistemological Considerations and Implications For Cultural Information Systems

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Costis Dallas 2013 - Digital Curatorship - Onto-Epistemological Considerations and Implications For Cultural Information Systems

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Digital curatorship

Onto-epistemological considerations and implications for cultural information systems

Object information in museums

Object catalogue cards

Computerisation: IRGMA catalogue cards (1976)

Information structure: CCO groups

(Baca et al. 2006)

Object-centred knowledge practices in museums

Idealist waterfall object model

Elliots analysis grid for object description

Formal representations of cultural heritage objects

Representing cultural objects: background

3D-ICONS - 3D Digitisation of Icons of Architectural and Archaeological Heritage

CARARE to EDM mapping: monuments and their representations

CARARE to EDM mapping: ORE aggregations

Representing cultural objects: current and future work

Rethinking object representation

Why are representations important?

The Zimbabwe bush pump

Objects from the field to the lab

Objects and kinds

Pablo Picasso, Silkscreen for Yuri Gagarin

Fred Boissonas, Acropolis (1903)

Thick description as emergent classification

Cultural categories as interactive kinds

From objects to things

Where does Columbia belong?

In the domain of ideas

In the domain of events

In the domain of categories

Adopting the intentional stance vis--vis cultural objects

Things beyond objects

How to create an epistemically adequate representation of the Yalta photograph?

Where does it come from?

What does it show?

What boundaries for a cultural object?

Metaschema of the CIDOC CRM

Eventful objects, objectful events

Both objects and events bestowed with primary ontological status

Adding value to the archaeological record: on archaeological curatorship

Information objects in archaeological curatorship

Their event histories, actors, and relations

Scholarly identifications, retroductive descriptions, narratives, interpretations, theories

Artefact description: orientation, segmentation, differentiation (Gardin 1967)

Interpretation at the trowels edge

Archaeological fieldwork as activity framework: pointing, tracing, highlighting

Dirt, colour classification and recording (Goodwin 2010)

Inscription as archaeological thick description

Making archaeological facts

Studying scholarly practices and digital research methods

Studying scholarly practice and needs in EU research projects: background

Scholarly Research Activity Model

Scholarly information activity as curation at the source

Source: Wilson (2006)

A scholarly curation continuum

Co-evolution of facts and domain knowledge

A messy view of the research process

Information process factors (Bearman and Trant, 2005)

Scholarly primitives as curatorial activity-centred relations

The scope of thing-centred knowledge

Schematisations of epistemic constructs (Gardin 2002)

How an archaeological site remembers its facts (after Goodwin)

From objects to theories