Digital bread and circuses

=Digital Bread and Circuses (2013-2017)=

Part of the project Screens as Material at HUMlab Umeå University, Sweden.

Anna Foka (Associate Senior Lecturer at HUMlab, Umeå University) is studying and constructing multisensory conceptual digital prototypes of ancient entertainment spaces (Greek Theatre, Roman Amphitheatre, Hippodrome).

The proposed prototypes aim to challenge our understanding of the Roman amphitheatre (and consequentially other ancient entertainment sites such as the Greek theatre, Circuses and Hippodromes) and as (presently) epistemologically embedded in textual and oculocentric traditions in research and popular culture representations. It is an in-depth investigation of the manners in which historical and cultural reproductions, are shaped by and correspond to the audiences’ digital aesthetic expectations and own historical culture(s). For the period: 2014-5, the suggested project will focus on the deeper context of the Roman amphitheatre (and it will later incorporate the Greek theatre) as an ancient entertainment locus; Prototypes will target the sites’ comprehensive materiality, multisensory sensibility, and aim to go beyond already shaped assumptions about gender, hierarchies, and entertainment in antiquity.

Understanding the Greek theatre and the Roman amphitheatre beyond their materiality and narratives, both as a situated socio-cultural topoi and historical artifacts requires an expansion of expressive and interpretative media used, as well as the integration of different kinds of knowledge. Aside contemporary microhistory and thematic analysis, one needs to adopt a critical making methodology: a combination of existing material and literary sources and different sensory arrangements that can enable a more holistic approach of the experience of an amphitheatre. A model shaped by layers of “data” combined with different perspectives: a site that will be used simultaneously for engagement, as well as critical comparison and work, and can produce knowledge that cannot be achieved otherwise.

=Open access Database= (in collaboration with technical staff at HUMlab- in progress) •	Deep Mapping Digital Antiquity (under construction to be launched in September 2017)

A deep map, composed by layers, searchable by keywords and hosted by Humlab, Umeå University. The map is layered by a variety of data corresponding to sites on map and existing technological reconstructions (3D models etc post 1990s) inclusive of country of technological origin. The database is envisaged to appear in open access form providing unrestricted access to scholars and students online.

Links

 * http://www.humlab.umu.se/en/about/staff/anna-foka/
 * http://lha.uow.edu.au/content/groups/public/@web/@arts/documents/doc/uow159525.pdf
 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W8Rc7Vto6s
 * http://dha2014.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DHA-2014-conference-full-proceedings.pdf

Selected Bibliography
Foka, A., Arvidsson, V. (2016) ’Experiential Analogies: Sonic Digital Ekphrasis as a Digital Humanities Project’ Digital Humanities Quarterly 10:2

Westin, J. Foka, A. Chapman, A. (2015) Challenge the Past, Diversify the Future: Proceedings of the International Conference, University of Gothenburg: Götenborg.

Nygren, T, Buckland, P. & Foka, A. (2014). “The Status Quo of Digital Humanities in Sweden: Past, Present and Future of Digital History”. H-Soz-Kult.

Foka, A. (2014). (Digital) Bread and Circuses: Reframing Ancient Spectacle for Different Screens. In: Paul Arthur et al. (Ed.), Digital Humanities Australasia 2014: Expanding Horizons. Paper presented at Digital Humanities Australasia, 17-21 March 2014, UWA Campus, in Perth, WA.. Perth, Western Australia.