Generative AI and Archaeological Visualisation

I wrote a brief article for The Conversation on the challenge that AI presents to archaeological visualisation. Check it out here:

https://theconversation.com/how-ai-imagery-could-be-used-to-develop-fake-archaeology-247838

Though I have done a lot of scicomm, it was the first time I’d written for The Conversation. At the outset, my goals for the article were:

  1. Point out that generative AI was being used increasingly to illustrate the past
  2. Note that many examples of generative AI seem to be based on faulty and misleading images that have been heavily critiqued by (primarily feminist) archaeologists
  3. Argue that illustration is actually an amazing tool to understand the past, and it’s a shame to delegate it
  4. Propose that there are creative ways to engage with generative AI in archaeology, and these may become more feasible and ethical through lower impact AI. As Haraway notes, I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess.

I’m not sure that it properly covered all of these goals in the end, but it was an honest try. The article took a bit of a left turn in tackling the growing problems of representation in archaeology, race science and pseudoarchaeology. Additionally some of the original references fell away in the edit, and some sentences were added in that I didn’t properly check before it went to publication.

Working with popular media is always going to be a bit of a gamble and most of us could use more practice. Working with The Conversation was a considered move though, as it seemed like a subject that would be of broader interest than my little blog. So far, so good. Perhaps I’ll do better in the future.

Indeed I firmly believe I’ll be able to write a potentially completely different follow-up to the article in a year’s time, after we teach the first iteration of our new course, AI and Archaeology as part of our Digital Heritage and Digital Archaeology MScs. I’m also excited for the MAIA project to get going, so there will be a lot of energy in this particular subject.

Thank you to Kathryn Killackey for reading a draft of the article and suggesting changes, all mistakes are my own.

Hire Katy for cool illustrations based on science:

https://www.killackeyillustration.com/contact

The (boring) alternate realities of ChatGPT

Inspired by a shocking story of a list of fake references provided from a senior to a junior scholar, (details redacted obviously) I thought I’d ask ChatGPT to generate 10 references for me. Interestingly, one out of the ten is real (2), the others are not but potentially plausible. I guess, except for me co-authoring with Colin Renfrew:

  1. Morgan, C. (2012). Digging digital: Reflections on twenty-first century archaeology. In Clare Mills, Michael Pidd, and Esther Ward (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2012 Digital Humanities Congress (pp. 1-11). Sheffield, UK: HRI Online Publications.
  2. Morgan, C., & Eve, S. (2012). DIY and digital archaeology: What are you doing to participate? World Archaeology, 44(4), 521-537.
  3. Morgan, C., & Wright, H. (Eds.). (2018). Archaeology and digital communication: Towards strategies of public engagement. London, UK: Taylor & Francis.
  4. Morgan, C., & Eve, S. (Eds.). (2017). Digital archaeology and the archaeological network. London, UK: Taylor & Francis.
  5. Morgan, C., & Hacıgüzeller, P. (Eds.). (2020). Archaeological futures: Methods, data & practices. London, UK: UCL Press.
  6. Morgan, C., & Kamash, Z. (Eds.). (2020). Material cultures of remembrance: Exploring the archaeology of memory. London, UK: Routledge.
  7. Morgan, C., & Renfrew, C. (Eds.). (2019). Digital dawn: The dawn of digital archaeological practice in the Middle East and Mediterranean. London, UK: Oxbow Books.
  8. Morgan, C., & Ross, C. (2018). Digital media and archaeological objects: A challenge for interpretation. In Erin Walcek Averett, Jody Michael Gordon, and Derek B. Counts (Eds.), Mobilizing the Past for a Digital Future: The Potential of Digital Archaeology (pp. 97-118). Grand Forks, ND: The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota.
  9. Morgan, C., & Smith, C. (2016). Emancipatory digital archaeology. Antiquity, 90(354), 713-718.
  10. Morgan, C., & Winters, J. (Eds.). (2019). Teaching Digital Archaeology: Methods and Practices. London, UK: UCL Press.

Most of the papers sound pretty banal, except for maybe the one authored with the incomparable Zena Kamash on memory and futures. Some of them represent things I probably should have done, like publish part of my thesis in Antiquity (9), though it looks like I’d have to co-author with Claire Smith to do so.

Perhaps I could have engineered a better prompt…but maybe I’ll just go and write instead.

Archaeology on TikTok

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGerqYusP/

I’ve loved experimenting with different digital media in archaeology over the years, long enough that I remember Hi8 tapes and waiting overnight for videos to render, just to notice a bad edit and having to do it all over again.

Honestly, for direct reportage from fieldwork and other archaeological science communication, TikTok seems like a miracle. I’m still very much a newb (do they say that anymore??) with the interface, but it’s certainly not as steep of a learning curve as, say, Final Cut Pro in the mid-2000s. I use Capcut for my editing as I found the TikTok interface not particularly intuitive and I was struggling to add subtitles to my videos. I was advised not to upload directly from Capcut though as it apparently tanks your views.

My videos are perhaps pretty boring, standard fieldwork updates, with some appearances from the lovely students who were on the excavation with me, and oblique shots of the extremely professional and excellent DCT workers. The TikTok algorithm pushed the videos locally in the UAE, much moreso than the US/UK standard audiences.

I made these updates as the field director of the York excavations at Hili Archaeological Park (oh god I just realised that gives me a YEAH-AP acronym) and I therefore had a lot of freedom to do so, within reason. I did not show some of the finds and the site is under close guardianship. Also one of the male students got a few “thirsty” comments, but I advised him of these, did not respond, and we spoke about his opt-in for a continued presence in the videos.

Also, as site director, I was mind-numbingly busy at all times. I was working 10-12 hour days on the regular, as I was keeping fieldwork going at the same time as attending to various tasks such as PhD meetings and the like. It’s not good practice, and I hope that others do not do so, but also I don’t really want to try to hide the reality of what it’s like to conduct archaeological fieldwork while continually squeezed by the university timetable. But I still managed the 1-3 minutes it took to record the videos, and the same amount of time that it took to edit and upload them to TikTok. Worlds different from previous media practice.

There were other media-makers, including professional videographers and a sound artist and engineer on site, and I hope to be able to feature their work in the coming days.

Anyway, I’ve got 21 videos up there, and you can follow my adaptations to the media, if you wish. Not sure how much I’ll update offsite as I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the affordances of the medium now, but we’ll see.

Draw Your Cellphone!

I have a new book chapter out in Teaching and Learning the Archaeology of the Contemporary Era, titled: Draw your Phone: The Cellphone as an Intimate, Everyday Artefact. Gabe Moshenska is the brilliant editor of the book, and there’s a lot of excellent content from some of the most creative thinkers and educators in archaeology today.

My chapter emerged from work on drawing and archaeology during the Aide Memoire project, in trying to understand what the impact of digital recording was on understanding archaeological remains. As a fun demonstration of how drawing helps you see, I’d have students draw their cellphones. I tried it out in a lot of venues, and it was delightful each time, with interesting observations about aspects of the phone that they’d somehow never noticed before. As one student said:

Yes. Well, now I know the dimensions of it; how big the little hole on the top is for the microphone. I know where the scratches are. So, yeah, I used it every day for a year and looked at it for six hours a day, according to screen time . . . I’ve seen it about 100,000 times, but this was the first time, I actually actually looked at it.

Students also gained a greater appreciation of the complexity of interpreting archaeological artefacts and the emotional ties one can have to material objects. Finally, I encourage a “household archaeology” of the cellphone, “one that investigates digital dwelling, microstratigraphy, social relations and embodiment” as a generative approach to understand this intimate, everyday artefact.

It’s a short chapter and an easy read, check it out if you wish:

morgan_cellphones_to_shareDownload

Patchwork Archaeology

Dan, my daughter T & Michael walking on a dirt road.

“I’m not even supposed to be here today”

I suppose that it is appropriate as a member of Gen-X that I think about this line from Clerks from time to time. Dante, an employee of Quick Stop Groceries, is called in to work on his day off and is plagued by disasters. His state of “being there (at work)” is clearly distinct from his outside life (though this is debatable throughout the film). The collapse of these states was endemic for many during the COVID-19 lockdown, but has plagued academics, in the form of a lack of work/life balance.

I wonder about this occasionally, as I wander through a museum on my day off, read archaeology books or listen to science podcasts, or, at the worst of times, fielding queries about research or teaching at all hours. To be honest, I think my place of work is…pretty good about that. We try not to send emails outside of working hours, we are heavily encouraged to take time off, and we have a “quiet month” during the summer where no meetings are scheduled.

But it’s still not always as clear as Dante’s job at the Quick Stop, particularly with parenting or other care responsibilities. Gökçe Günel, Saiba Varma and Chika Watanabe discuss a “patchwork ethnography” wherein separations between “field” and “home” are not possible or even desirable for anthropologists, and emphasise ways to “acknowledge and accommodate how researchers’ lives in their full complexity shape knowledge production.” This resonated with me in many ways.

It’s no secret that I have been bringing my daughter on fieldwork since she was very small–I often joke that she has been published in Nature before me, and I draw a lot of inspiration from her, in her observations, her gait, her propensity towards caches of seemingly miscellaneous things. It’s also been helpful to learn more broadly about youth autonomy and ageism–after all, solidarity begins at home.

As she’s grown, she’s able to steer the ship a bit more (okay, a lot more) and she’d often prefer to be left at home or with her grandparents when we go on “adventures.” But there are times she will need to come along to walk across a sandy plain to look at small pieces of broken pottery on the ground, like today. She helped by carrying the photo scale, emptied out bags of pottery for us to examine and scratched mysterious symbols on potential sites. She got hot and a bit grumpy and we were all reminded to drink water, wear sunscreen and not forget our hats! We went to the Hili playpark afterwards, and all was well.

Still, there’s a marked difference between directing a site with her around, and by myself. Though she made an early appearance at Southampton TAG, going to a conference alone means that I can see all the things, meet with all the people, and drink all the beer. I also struggle to write while she’s at home–needing a room of my own is a real thing.

So, moving from “I’m not even supposed to be here today” through “trying for a work/life balance” to a “patchwork archaeology” where we accommodate, include, and respect each other as we move through life is a hopeful goal. It’s not for everyone, but I’ve been trying to live a more integrated life. It has its own pleasures, but it’s hard to get used to seeing others outpace my publication rate. I understand that it’s a privileged position to be in, and I’d hope there is more autonomy for everyone, to be as they’d like.

But…do I retain today as annual leave, even though I figured out where to lay out trenches for the 2024 excavations? As I type this blog post? As I text a friend/colleague about an upcoming meeting? Insert a Gen-X-appropriate shrug emoji here please.

Answers on a culturally-appropriate holiday greeting card are appreciated!

Archaeology and Public Outreach in Doha, Qatar

Somehow in the churn of the last couple of years I missed posting about a new (old) book chapter that came out in 2022:

Public Archaeology and Engagement in the Origins of Doha and Qatar Project (ODQ).

This was a project under the PI Robert Carter that ran from 2012 – 2015, wherein we excavated in Doha and Fuwairit, did a bunch of building recording, oral histories, in person and online outreach, and historical research. The project webpage/blog has a bunch of resources.

The chapter gives the background of the project and discusses how critical public outreach became over the duration. We:

worked with multiple stakeholders, trained members of the government, gave public lectures in schools and other venues, designed educational materials, opened access to research as it was carried out through digital media, appeared in documentaries, museum exhibitions, and magazines, and opened the research and publication remit to local stakeholders who have indelibly shaped them (pg 94-95).

While we had some open days, we also filmed short excavation explainers that were translated with Arabic subtitles to try to demonstrate archaeological excavation.

We also had a fantastic interactive historical GIS created by the very talented Michal Michalski. Unfortunately a lot of that work was lost when UCL shut down their Qatar campus with their IT services as a casualty.

We also found that the local schools were completely lacking in teaching local history and archaeology, so we made some resources and conducted school visit. I particularly enjoyed our implementation of building elevations as colouring exercises for children.

The bulk of the work was written in 2015, and perhaps shows some of the problems of publishing about digital work, particularly in books that can have long delays. As I said though, I’m still happy about the work we did in Doha, and the small community we were able to create around archaeology in the region.

Morgan, C., Carter, R., Aziz, F. A., & Al Thani, M. (2022). Public Archaeology and Engagement in the Origins of Doha and Qatar Project. In A. Badran, S. Abu-Khafajah, & S. Elliott (Eds.), Community Heritage in the Arab Region: Values and Practices (pp. 91–108). Springer International Publishing.

community_heritage_in_the_arab_regionDownload

Communicating Archaeology: Pandemic Lectures

I taught a class called “Communicating Archaeology” from 2017 – 2021, and recorded lectures for the 2020 pandemic edition, when we went remote. My good friend and colleague James Taylor actually headed it up, but I wrote and recorded all the lectures. These lectures were intended to accompany a 2 hour hands-on practical wherein students could try their hands at archaeological illustration, mapmaking, filmmaking, making 3D models, and photography.

It was created partially in response to the James article regarding the lack of “visual competence” in archaeology, a problem which continues to plague the profession.

Unfortunately, except for a select few, our archaeology students really hated it. I tried not to take it too personally, every archaeologist I’d talked to loved the idea of the class, wanted to take it themselves, etc etc. But yeah, the reviews weren’t great. We tried to change it in many ways, but students…wanted to write essays and not make stuff, and the reviews were starting to impact my career. Maybe it was because I told them to fight fascism? So it goes.

We aren’t teaching Communicating Archaeology any longer, but there are undergraduate classes on illustration, on archaeogaming, presenting archaeology and heritage, and digital futures in archaeology, so some of the content persists across other classes.

Anyway, if you’d like to watch them, I’ve uploaded the lectures I recorded in 2020 to YouTube, linked below. Sorry if they’re a bit rough, I was lockdown single parenting at the time and not having a great time.

Choose your own adventure – Al Ain

Like many academics, I have a two-body problem. Dan’s another archaeologist with a PhD and it’s pretty difficult to figure out a way to stick together as doubly-itinerant archaeologists. Thus I’ve been splitting my time between York and Al Ain, UAE. It’s hard to always be missing someone or something, but there are adventures to be had anywhere you go, and I’ve always loved a desert.

T in nearby dunes

Shamefully, I’d never heard of Al Ain before living here, but it’s the location of the UNESCO Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa). I have an active archaeological excavation at Hili that focusses on the Bronze Age, going into the second season in January, fingers crossed. When I describe the location of Al Ain, I usually say: Abu Dhabi and Dubai are on the Gulf coast (indicate by spreading my thumb and forefinger). Draw a line inland from the two to make a triangle, and that inland point is Al Ain (pinch fingers together while moving the whole hand). It’s on the border of Oman and an oasis town, with ancient irrigation systems called afalaj. It’s a date palm wonderland, and feels a little bit like living in…Dallas. Wicked hot, lots of big, expensive SUVs, malls and Applebee’s. It’s very quiet, and small-c conservative, and not a huge expat…thing…like Dubai.

Falaj amongst date palms

I’ve come to appreciate the architecture here. The “old town” has a nice blend of Arabian vernacular and 70s panache. The clean, bright lines cut through the blue skies in pleasing geometry. I realized that I don’t have very many photos as such, but I’ve been too busy to document much of my life here, or anything else, really.

The agriculture souq

It is generally a very quiet existence, which will hopefully give me more headspace for a particular project and for life in general. And maybe even blog now and again.

Creating RSS Feeds within Discord

One of the places that I’ve really loved over the last few years is Discord. Discord evokes old school message boards and is used extensively by gamers to message each other and use VoIP. Yes, another corporate platform that may go completely south, but so it goes. They’ll sell out, we’ll pick up sticks and move on. Anyway, I use Discord to check out new music, to chat with collectives, to manage my lab and Digital Archaeology and Digital Heritage students, keep up with the Open Source Intelligence community, and…assemblage theory. Obviously.

I was looking around for ways to revive RSS feeds to start subscribing to blogs and whatnots, and found out that there are Discord bots that you can use to collate content. So I started another Discord server as my own private RSS playground to keep track of blogs. I added Axobot to the server and through a pretty simple command, @axobot rss add (website) I can add different blogs to different channels. There’s more detailed instructions at this link.

I think I’ll add some academic journals and such as well.

Rest, repair, reconciliation & the end of Twitter

I put up my adios post on Twitter, which was snagged by Ryan Anderson c/o Anthrodendum, in his post, “Salvaging what is good.” He asks for some breadcrumbs to follow to see where we’re all going in this exodus, so here I am.

A few years ago I listed a few reasons why social media (and twitter in particular) was damaging–it’s all still very true. The anxiety. The performance of activism. The passivity. The outrage theatre. I was able to manage it a bit better after changing roles within the University, with breaks and posting in a very limited fashion.

This point from my old post remains very relevant:

It took up too much brain space. I found myself thinking in 280-character fragments. I was annoyed at what people said and annoyed at having to talk myself down from responding. I became increasingly mute on social media, though I thought a lot about it. I missed blogging, I missed reading, I missed creativity and quiet.

So, let’s band together, help each other, salvage, and discover new ways of life. Or, perhaps, old ways–including blogging.

I’m on Mastodon and Linked In too.