The project is a virtual map in and of The
Boyne Valley.
There are a couple of components to the map.
There is a collaborative component and a digital
component.
The collaborative component is focused on
media production, image, and video.
The digital component is focused on, what
I would call autoethnography.
Specifically with the question of how do,
how does the question of code and narrative
interact?
So students are manipulating, uh, sorta basic
javascript toward the production of a map
in order to tell their story and of their
experience in the Boyne Valley.
The students have taken an international trip
that coincides with a domestic trip where
they are to learn three or four facets of
immersive education.
One of the most important facets of the education
here is not only the coding aspect and the
artistic process but the theory and the depth
of what they are going to get from it.
What we are really working on is media archaeology
project.
We're starting to think about how media is
locative and site specific, but also something
that is personal and individual approaches
to knowledge and narrative.
So the Boyne Valley, what we are doing is
making sure the students know that they were
there to leave a message for the future.
In order to understand that, our work has
been focused on deep time.
Focused on what it means to be in a certain
place, but also know that someone has existed
there before you.
If we get that concept through our head, we
can understand that what we do now matters
to those in front of us and behind us.
How do we leave our mark on the world?
What can we know about ourselves by looking
at what we produce today?
I wanted the students to contemplate what
was sacred to them.
So is it the object that shows evidence of
our existence like a clay pot?
Or a temporary paper shrine?
Or is it something more ethereal like a digital
image?
Media Archaeology is extremely valuable.
I'm taking away so much from this trip.
Visiting these sites have really opened my
eyes and the whole preparation for this trip
shows how valuable it is to leave your footprint,
whether it be digitally, or physically in
the world you live and the space you inhabit
everyday.
I had so much fun here in Ireland.
I've always wanted to come and this experience
has opened my eyes to so much of the history
and how cool it is to be a space where so
much history has taken place.
It's been awesome.
Taking technologies such as code, and geojson
api and uploading that to a content management
system, such as cpanel, and through technologies
we utilize that and create a dynamically updating
and managed website.
Media Archaeology to me is taking staple of
tools, skills and thought processes of archaeology
and applying that into new and digital media
so that we can later rediscover the remnants
of our digital presence.
