Throughout this course, we've often had discussions about what the actual impact of the digital materials/resources that we create are. These discussion have asked whether or not the materials or resources actually engage with the audiences for which they are intended and whether or not they have some form of value for an educational/research experience. In this blog post, I wanted to promote what I see as a story in which digital technologies were successfully impactful on both public engagement and bioarchaeological research.
This story comes from Kristina Killgrove, a bioarchaeologist, writer, and science communicator who has done a lot of work attempting to engage wider audiences in anthropological discourse. Her blog, Powered by Osteons, has received a lot of attention for its series "Who Needs an Osteologist?" in which Killgrove highlights osteological mistakes in popular media and the need for more professional engagement in material distributed to the public. This story, which was shared on the blog, relates to an email that Killgrove received about a 15 year-old whose science project was inspired by one of her articles that was published by Forbes magazine.
The Forbes article, titled "How To Print Your Own 3D Replicas Of Homo Naledi And Other Hominin Fossils" was published in September of 2015, following the release of a 3D reconstruction of a Homo naledi skull by the Rising Star Expedition. This situation was unique within the field of archaeology due to its relatively quick release and low cost. As Killgrove notes in the article, "The Rising Star Expedition's opening up of information so soon after discovery is unprecedented and very, very welcome. In the past, fellow researchers and teachers would have to wait multiple years -- and pay hundreds of dollars -- to get a cast of the new fossil. And wait many more years for all the data to be opened up" (Killgrove 2015). Killgrove's article details where individuals may find the Homo naledi and other fossil reconstructions so that they may print some for their own collection. Although, as she notes, "There are unfortunately only a small number of 3D models available... [N]ot all fossil remains have been digitized, not all researchers want them digitized, and not all companies that make and sell casts want them digitized and made freely available" (Killgrove 2015).
Killgrove's blog post "How 3D Hominin Models are Paving the Way for Future Palaeoanthropologists" details the email that she received from the father of 15 year-old Storm, who utilized the links provided by Killgrove's article to 3D print hominin fossils to use in her science fair project. The project looked at the placement of the foramen magnum and the posture of humnas, extant primates, and fossil specicimens which are thought to be human ancestors, and was chosen for the top 100 regional finalists for the Google Science Fair. Storm's father's email credits Killgrove's Forbes article as invaluable to Storm in gathering the resources to perform this rigorous project. As Killgrove quotes, "Collecting a wide enough variety of specimens was one of Storm's biggest frustrations, and so we were hoping her work could be used as an example to encourage more open access" (Killgrove 2019).
As Killgrove's blog post shows, these materials do have an impact and they are reaching some of the audiences that we hope that they will. In this case, the availability of these resources through open-access sites and the sharing of these resources with the public gained the interest of a 15 year-old and facilitated her engagement in paleoanthropological research. I think that this aspect demonstrates the merit behind the attempts of many in the academic community to make archaeological research and resources more available and the benefit that it can have for introducing more people to the field of anthropology/archaeology. However, we must also remember that not everyone recognizes the once-living individual from which these remains come and so our efforts to make these reconstructed specimens more widely available must also address how we plan to contextualize these specimens as human ancestors that require respectful treatment and not just toys for our enjoyment.
References
Killgrove, K. (n.d.). Powered by Osteons. Retrieved March 31, 2021, from http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/
Killgrove, K. (2015, September 19). How to Print your Own 3D Replicas of Homo Naledi and Other Hominin Fossils. Retrieved March 31, 2021, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/09/19/how-to-print-your-own-3d-replicas-of-homo-naledi-and-other-hominin-fossils/?sh=140a310512c0
Killgrove, K. (2019, July 19). How 3D Hominin Models are Paving the Way for Future Palaeoanthropologists. Retrieved March 31, 2021, from http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/2019/07/how-3d-hominin-models-are-paving-way.html
Thompson, N. (2018, December 11). The Foramen Magnum and Posture in Human Ancestry. Retrieved March 31, 2021, from https://youtu.be/OcCCn_DXP2E
1 comment:
Hi Teegan, thank you for your interesting post! Some people might not favour digitalized materials because it lacks an actual sensual/embodied experience with the objects to build a more subtle and meaningful relationship between humans and things. However, I do agree that digitalization has been increasingly important in preserving our memory of things, especially those no longer exist or on the verge of disappearance, given the worsening global environment and the rate of species extinction in this context. Soon we might not only need to digitalize dead things but also living things in order to pass on the memory of a once-diverse world. I like that you mentioned in the post that digital materials have an impact, and they would touch on targeted audiences. We can always attach values to things. And it is a good intention if we want to direct an ethical view, which does not have to be in a classroom setting. Indeed, the open-access enables freer dissemination of messages inherent in those presentations, and it also invites broader thought interactions in this process.
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