Margaret Conkey

In particular, I want to draw your attention to the fact that the ARF has now established a joint multimedia laboratory with the P.A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, thanks to funding from the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research, Joseph Cerny. With a modest but well-thought-out proposal drafted by the ARF Computer Committee (Steve Shackley and Ruth Tringham), we have set up a state-of-the-art lab that serves both Mac and DOS/Windows platforms. ARF associates can now carry out what are becoming standard ways of producing our lectures, pub-lications and presentations: scanning slides, writing our own CD-ROMS, making slides directly from the computer, and high caliber scanning. Already, associates are experimenting with such things as the direct scanning of ancient seals for documentation and study. Others have enjoyed the way in which Photoshop can completely remake our slides, how Freehand can be used to draw in our archaeological plans, and entire slide sets for lectures can be digitized and programmed. With the increasing number of "computer-smart" classrooms being established at Berkeley, many are finding that all we need to take to class for a lecture is the disk with our pre-programmed slides! No need to spend hours selecting slides from our slide collections, to load carousels, and hope that the slide projector doesn't blow a bulb!

There is little doubt that much of what we have taken for granted and with which we have become familiar is now changing. In many ways, the very visual component to archaeology - from recording and storage of data to its presentation in many media - encourages us to benefit from these new instructional and visual technologies. In fact, these technologies allow us to celebrate the centrality of the visual in archaeology. As some recent research has suggested, archaeology has long used visuals not only as a way to illustrate or prop up our ideas about the past, but often such visuals are crucial to making our arguments. The challenge of these new technologies is how to take advantage of them but retain our critical eye towards the ways in which they affect our representations of our sites, data, and interpretations.

While individual academic departments, especially those that are small or have only a few archaeologists in them, are not yet often able to fund and support such multi-media equipment and resources, it is indeed a wise "economy of scale" to establish such a facility in one place, with a qualified lab technician to maintain and "curate" hardware, software, and to oversee the proper use. Lisa Holm has already provided several workshops for potential users and novices, and these will continue in the 2251 College building, where the ARF main offices are located.

Given the active participation in new multi-media possibilities for archaeo-logical recording and display among some of the archaeologists in the Department of Anthropology, it is worth mentioning, as well, that a 12-workstation state-of-the-art MultiMedia Teaching Laboratory has been set up for the Spring 1998, thanks to the authorization of funds from Vice-Chancellor and Provost Carol Christ and the endowment from the Class of 1960 for their Class Professorship, which I am indeed honored to hold. At present, this lab is in a temporary space in the 2224 Piedmont building. When we re-locate into our larger and permanent quarters, we will have a grand Open House!

Not surprisingly, it is Professor Ruth Tringham (Anthropology) who is inaugurating this lab for the increasing integration of multimedia into teaching as well as into our archaeological research. She is teaching Multi-Media Authoring in Archaeology to a full capacity group of both graduate students and undergraduates, and we all look forward to their end-of-the semester presentations, as a new generation of future archaeo-logists learn these skills as part of their fundamental archaeological training. Although teaching is not part of the mission of the ARF, as an Organized Research Unit, many of us in ARF will find these students to be invaluable in helping us make the transition -if possible!- from slide carousels to Zip drives. If there is one thing to be said about multi-media and archaeology - besides the fact that it is here to stay - it is that it indeed offers multiple ways in which we can enrich our data acquisition and storage, and - at the same time - open up more exploration of the complexities, ambiguities, and challenges of interpretation that make archaeology so engaging, rewarding, and such a perfect domain for the development of critical thinking.