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| 3. Can imagery be addressed
in new ways with on-line methods? Can a collective discussion of
imagery produce more scholarly knowledge than just an individual
analysis? Is it possible to analyze electronic images in a scholarly
manner without examining the material object? texture of the paper?
printing technique? style? color? |
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Advantage
of examining the material object Jack Censer, 6-1-03,
3:33 PM |
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the material object Lynn
Hunt, 6-23-03, 10:52 PM |
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RE: Advantage of examining
the material object Vivian Cameron,
7-6-03, 6:28 PM |
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On-line Collaboration Wayne
Hanley, 6-6-03,
9:53 AM |
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On-line Collaboration Barbara
Day-Hickman, 7-1-03,
4:22 PM |
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RE: On-line Collaboration Joan
B. Landes,
7-14-03, 3:28 PM |
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zooming on images Warren
Roberts, 7-2-03, 2:08 PM |
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on-line collaboration Vivian
Cameron, 7-6-03,
6:35 PM |
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on material objects and
digital technology Joan B. Landes,
7-12-03, 5:33 PM |
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Final thoughts Warren
Roberts, 7-19-03, 8:03 AM |
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on-line collaboration Barbara
Day-Hickman,
7-24-03, 4:28 PM |
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| Subject: |
on material
objects and digital technology |
| Posted
By: |
Joan Landes |
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| Date
Posted: |
7-12-03, 5:33
PM |
|
I would second Jack’s remarks on the limitations
of the camera and scanner and Vivian’s concern
about reproductions. Regrettably, as Barbara also notes
(see Question 5), researchers like students are likely
to have to rely increasingly on facsimiles as originals
are withdrawn from both public and scholarly access.
As has been acknowledged, the videodisk of the BNF collection
has been a marvelous research tool, facilitating comparison
according to style, genre, medium, and, where available,
place, date, and artistic authorship. Further research – derived
from notarial and police records, censorship directives,
business archives, newspaper advertisements, as well
as guild, academic or sales records – promises
to enhance our understanding of publication and distribution
of specific prints (inside and outside France), as well
as the career paths and contributions of individual artists
and engravers. Databases now have the ability to incorporate
both visual and printed information. With enhanced forums
for scholarly exchange and WEB publication, we can look
forward to the “next” generation version
of what the BNF and Pergamon Press created in the 1980s
and intended by the larger distribution of the BNF holdings.
I agree with Lynn’s hopes for further advantages
to be gained by exploiting digitized images. As her comments
on a “virtual light box” and “zooming” indicate,
what is most needed is a technology that can better approximate
the sensuous experience of physical handling and directly
examining a material object. For example, among the many
frustrations of the 1980s’s videodisk and analogue
technology, I would include the deficient quality of
the text and image, the restriction of zooming to pre-selected
examples, and the decision to excise accidental hand
or printed markings from the photograph, including perhaps
page numbers, penciled (not engraved) signatures or publishing
house markings. However, improved conditions of reproduction
and a well-designed database could conceivably permit
more efficient ways to answer Vivian’s or other
questions: Was this particular work one of many in a
book or pamphlet? Was it intended to stand-alone or to
be part of a series? Can we discern anything about the
print run? Was the plate reused to make the same or a
different engraving, and did this change the work’s
political orientation? Yet, as more is gained from digital
reproduction and on-line viewing, we will need to find
to reproduce the impact on the researcher of viewing
two works of different size on the same subject, or the
palpable result of examining hand-colored additions to
a black and white engraving. |
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