Authentic Artifacts Research Articles

Hacking Public Memory

This article uses a case study of the multiple arcade machine emulator (MAME) to insist that emulation is an important aspect of digital game culture that should not be dismissed due to copyright concerns. The author argues that emulators should be understood as ludic technologies produced by hacking practices that helped spawn and continue to permeate video game culture. Furthermore, while it may be tempting to describe the MAME as a “counter archive” that challenges institutional models of preservation, by drawing on the work of Coleman the author insists the project is better understood as a hacking practice committed to reordering “technologies and infrastructures” (p. 515). From this perspective, instead of rejecting institutional archival perspectives that view documents as truth-telling entities, the project hacks the traditional notion of the archive by treating platforms as contingent entities and game code as authentic artifacts.

The Angus Mammoth: A Decades-Old Scientific Controversy Resolved

The Angus Mammoth site in south-central Nebraska has been controversial since its discovery in 1931 when a fluted artifact was reported to be associated with the mammoth. For nearly 80 years it has not been known if Angus was a paleontological site predating the human occupation of North America as has been asserted by some geologists and paleontologists, or an archaeological site dating to the late Pleistocene as has been advocated by some archaeologists. Geomorphic study and luminescence dating have finally solved the problem after nearly eight decades. Although microwear and technological analyses have determined that the Angus biface is an authentic artifact, TL and IRSL dates have shown that the matrix above the mammoth is much too old for a mammoth/fluted point association to be valid.

A journey to the authentic: Museum visitors and their negotiation of the inauthentic

This qualitative research was set within a literary heritage museum replete with replica artefacts. We explored how the inauthentic is negotiated in this context and examined the outcomes of these negotiations. Our research revealed that scene setting, freedom, and imagination contribute to visitors' potential to overcome the absence of indexically authentic artefacts, and we identified a role for existential authenticity in this process. We make three key contributions to marketing theory on authenticity: (1) when visitors are confronted with the inauthentic, they often experience feelings of dissonance; (2) there is a need to consider the role of authenticity of the ‘self’ in consumption situations; and (3) there is a symbiotic relationship between indexical authenticity and iconic authenticity, and both are related to existential authenticity. We recommend that the arts and heritage sectors delve further into the processes that suppliers and consumers use to negotiate the inauthentic so that they may leverage the support they have from stakeholders and enhance their viability.

The Validation of Artificial Ageing Methods for Silk Textiles Using Markers for Chemical and Physical Properties of Seventeenth-Century Silk

The Royal Armoury in Stockholm has conducted a project to experimentally evaluate conservation methods used for historic costumes. As the historic value of authentic artefacts precludes their use in experimental work, artificially aged standard silk needs to be used as a substitute. This study aimed to find a suitable artificial ageing method for standard silk resulting in a degradation state that simulated that of silk from seventeenth-century costumes. Four artificial ageing methods were studied: (1) thermal oxidation in dry air, (2) exposure to different relative humidity (RH), (3) immersion in solutions of varied pH, (4) accelerated ultraviolet (UV) exposure at 50 ± 2°C, 95% RH. Different chemical and physical properties for silk were evaluated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, size exclusion chromatography and tensile tests, which were employed as analytical indicators for comparison between the artificially aged silk and samples from seventeenth-century costumes. Of the ageing methods tested in this study, thermo-oxidation at 125°C in dry air for 28–56 days produced silk with properties most like those of historic silk samples.

Mobile learning for teacher professional learning: benefits, obstacles and issues

This paper reflects on the role of mobile learning in teachers’ professional learning. It argues that effective professional learning requires reflection and collaboration and that mobile learning is ideally suited to allow reflection-inaction and to capture the spontaneity of learning moments. The paper also argues for the value of collaborations between teachers and students in professional learning. It suggests that authentic artefacts and anecdotes, captured through mobile technologies, can enable the sharing, analysis and synthesis of classroom experiences by teachers and students. Such analysis and synthesis helps to encourage collaborative reflective practice and is likely to improve teacher and student learning as a result. Ethical issues that might arise through using mobile technologies in this way are also discussed. Teacher voice is presented to indicate the range of views about mobile learning and to indicate current practices. Practical, school systemic, attitudinal and ethical factors may inhibit mobile technology adoption; these factors need to be researched and addressed to realise the potential of teacher mobile professional learning. Keywords: mobile learning; professional learning; teaching; education DOI: 10.1080/09687760903247641

Mobile learning for teacher professional learning: benefits, obstacles and issues

This paper reflects on the role of mobile learning in teachers’ professional learning. It argues that effective professional learning requires reflection and collaboration and that mobile learning is ideally suited to allow reflection-inaction and to capture the spontaneity of learning moments. The paper also argues for the value of collaborations between teachers and students in professional learning. It suggests that authentic artefacts and anecdotes, captured through mobile technologies, can enable the sharing, analysis and synthesis of classroom experiences by teachers and students. Such analysis and synthesis helps to encourage collaborative reflective practice and is likely to improve teacher and student learning as a result. Ethical issues that might arise through using mobile technologies in this way are also discussed. Teacher voice is presented to indicate the range of views about mobile learning and to indicate current practices. Practical, school systemic, attitudinal and ethical factors may inhibit mobile technology adoption; these factors need to be researched and addressed to realise the potential of teacher mobile professional learning.Keywords: mobile learning; professional learning; teaching; educationDOI: 10.1080/09687760903247641

Documentation Panel: The “Making Learning Visible” Project

Observation and documentation are integral to the early childhood classroom. Observation provides the information necessary for adults to build meaningful relationships with individual children. Documentation panels including photographs, teacher's notes, transcriptions, and artifacts, artfully and prominently displayed, serve as a visual archive of children's learning (Helm, Beneke, & Steinheimer, 1998). Carefully designed panels provide an array of authentic assessment artifacts of children's exploration, while also providing a vehicle for preservice teachers to showcase their understanding of the teaching-learning process. As candidates capture and collect significant moments of learning and reflect on data collected, they develop the practice-teaching inquiry. Inquiry prepares teacher candidates to recognize the value of revisiting previous thinking to help them see relationships between teaching and learning. It is a reflective, intellectually challenging process that is the essence of teacher self-reflection (Hong & Forman, 2000). The Making Learning Visible project described in this article provides opportunities for teacher candidates to observe children at work and play; formulate questions about what they have seen; advance opinions about meaning; analyze issues; confront biases; and develop ideas for future practice. The project may be used as one of the eight assessment tools required in the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education/National Association for the Education of Young Children (NCATE/NAEYC) program accreditation process.

'The smell o' these dead horses': The Toronto Cyclorama and the Illusion of Reality

‘The smell o’ these dead horses’:The Toronto Cyclorama and the Illusion of Reality Graham F. Watts For Torontonians in the late nineteenth century, the world was illustrated mainly with words. Visual images and photographs were rarely available to corroborate international news coming in from the United States, England, Germany, France, China, Africa, and India. This dearth of visual documentation inspired the Toronto Cyclorama Company to construct the 'strange looking building' on Front Street (Toronto World, 20 August 1887). Inside this giant sixteen-sided domed structure, massive paintings of famous battles or geographical wonders were hung on the surrounding walls. The four-hundred-foot-long canvas encircled the spectators, placing them in the midst of the scene. Hailed as an 'immense success ... the best of all cycloramas,' Toronto's Cyclorama first opened on 12 September 1887, with The Battle of Sedan (Toronto World, 13 September 1887). The Battle of Gettysburg followed in 1889, to be succeeded four years later by Jerusalem: The Crucifixion. But as the 1890s progressed, the Cyclorama's eminence as one of the city's greatest 'amusements' began to fade. In 1897, attractions such as Lumiere's Cinematograph had begun to eclipse the Cyclorama's popularity, and although the Cyclorama proprietors supplemented the paintings with musical acts, concerts, and a carnival-style museum, the crowds were going elsewhere for their entertainment (Toronto Mail and Empire, 7 January 1897). After only eleven years in existence, the Cyclorama building was seized by the City of Toronto as payment for $2095.86 in tax arrears (Toronto Life, July 1972). In spite of its sad demise, the Cyclorama's artistic, historical, and cultural impact on a relatively untravelled and 'textually informed' city was immense. Newspaper accounts reveal complex reactions to the medium, suggesting that the Cyclorama was more than just amusing entertainment. By analysing these responses we can elucidate the Cyclorama's importance as a narrative device—and the ways in which it employs, troubles, or transcends such narratological effects as author/narrator, time/duration, perspective, and verisimilitude. The medium's phenomenal popularity throughout the 1880s and early 1890s led to the construction of cyclorama buildings in cities across North America and Europe, including Chicago, Boston, Buffalo, London, and Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec. Cycloramas displayed history and art in a way that people had never before experienced. By incorporating props and authentic artifacts into the realistic depictions of historic scenes, the [End Page 964] cyclorama created for the spectator a grand illusion of reality. Newspapers described the Toronto Cyclorama's impact by contrasting art and text, suggesting that 'the most brilliant word painter cannot produce the same effect as the artist' (Toronto Mail, 2 December 1889). The medium also inspired an examination of the notion of perspective, and the relationship between reality and art. In an attempt to illustrate these complex theories, an article in the Toronto World described how 'an ordinary hat or cap placed upon the ground near the canvas would seem prodigious, though the same hat thrown on the ground near the platform occupied by the spectator would not attract notice' (Toronto World, 20 August 1887). The lines between reality and art were blurred by the painting's verisimilitude, making it 'so lifelike as to be almost deceptive' (Toronto World, 20 August 1887). Advertisements invited spectators to an 'actual battlefield' to view 'the most realistic war scenes ever exhibited.' These ads not only suggest that the scenes were 'realistic' in appearance, but also imply that the Cyclorama building at 123 Front Street actually housed a battlefield. Whether or not the advertising in fact convinced people, the painting's verisimilitude and the Cyclorama experience impressed itself upon the spectator in a very real way. The painting's realism also informed the artist's historical and scientific approach to the creative process. In true documentary fashion, the artist conducted fieldwork that involved collecting data, taking photographs, and conducting on-site interviews with participants or witnesses. Returning to the studio or cyclorama building, the artist and his assistants would then begin charting out the scenes and following diagrams and complex multi-planar maps to position the scaffolding around the canvas. Chalk lines on the floor provided reference points for the...

The Traditionalization of Women's Dancing, Hegemony, and Politics in Malawi

Gilman explores the idea of by teasing out some relationships between contemporary scholarly notions of tradition as process and more conservative ideas about tradition as reified, superorganic, authentic artifacts that are passed through time and space relatively unchanged. Through an exploration of how tradition has been perceived and used in Malawi's political sphere, Gilman argues that though tradition does exist as a selective process—people choose to endow certain cultural practices with special meaning because they link them to the past—they often do so unconsciously. It is because people think of traditions as directly linked to the past that they have a deep-felt commitment to continue them into the future. It is this distinction between the reality of tradition as process and the idea of tradition as authentic and static that makes it powerful hegemonically. In Malawi, political leaders have exploited women as political dancers and praise singers in the name of local notably during the dictatorial rule of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1964-94) and throughout the contemporary multiparty era. Because many people in Malawi have come to accept women's political dancing as their tradition, many endow it with special meaning and feel committed to continuing it into the future even when it contributes to the perpetuation of political and economic inequities.

Putting NAFTA to Work in the Foreign Language Classroom

: In our scramble to incorporate state-of-the-art technology in all classrooms, we overlook product labels, which are useful, authentic cultural artifacts. Package labeling has changed since the the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Post-NAFTA bilingual or trilingual labels meet the cognitive and affective needs of novice to intermediate learners as they explore new facets of North American culture. Such labels provide informal exposure to the second language, as well as comprehensible linguistic and cultural input. This article describes their use in content-enriched instruction (CEI) in Spanish classes.

Enacting Project-Based Science

Recommendations for reform in science education place a premium on students' understanding of scientific concepts and their ability to identify problems, conduct inquiry, and use information flexibly. They call for an appreciation for how ideas evolve and are validated. In this article we discuss changes in ideas about learning that underpin the reforms. We then describe our experiences with project-based science, a pedagogy that addresses the reform recommendations. Project-based science focuses on student-designed inquiry that is organized by investigations to answer driving questions, includes collaboration among learners and others, the use of new technology, and the creation of authentic artifacts that represent student understanding. Finally, we illustrate the challenges this type of innovation poses for teachers' classroom practice, for professional development, and for policy.

From Appropriation to Subversion: Aboriginal Cultural Production in the Age of Postmodernism

In the coming century, cultural products such as images, authentic artifacts, and perhaps even ceremonies and spiritual events, will likely be very widely circulated commodities. So-called authentic cultural products, which may only identify those that stem from a different cultural source than the dominant, established order, will likely be among the most valuable commodities. In this context, a strategic reassessment of Aboriginal cultural production has already begun in the intense arguments over cultural appropriation. In what follows I propose to reassess the issue of cultural appropriation through a discussion of the concept of itself. Since can be characterized as one of the most useful intellectual tools of the twentieth century slowly coming to replace the nineteenth century concept of race as a way of differentiating peoples it has come to be taken for granted and, to an extraordinary extent, vacated of focus or precision. Indeed, in its broadest sense culture can be and often is deployed as all that is not nature; the culture/nature divide has been the critical analytical tool of many anthropologists, notably Claude Levi-Strauss. In this sense culture is economy, is everything that people do, say, mean, or are. The (almost) here refers to the residual elements of nature we can't seem to shrug off: our fingernails and hair grow, we eat and shit, and, the sad truth is, sooner or later we die. All of these natural facts are, of course, culturally contained. Different cultures treat hair and fingernails, eating and shitting, and death itself quite differently; these events have very different meanings across cultural boundaries. This has led in part to the recent philosophically inspired distrust of the concept nature, which paradoxically has expired not at the expense of but to the revalorization of the other on which it might have thought to have codepended: culture.

Portfolios Across Educational Contexts: issues of Evaluation, Teacher Development, and System Validity

We report here a case study of literacy portfolios across 2 different settings. Specifically, we investigated (a) how well portfolios document literacy learning that is both authentic and aligned with curriculum, (b) teachers' ability to interpret and evaluate portfolio evidence from more than one site, and (c) what teachers learn about literacy instruction and assessment as a result of cross-site collaboration. Results suggest that portfolios contained authentic artifacts of students' literacy experiences, although a substantial amount of evidence was judged to be missing from the portfolios Nevertheless, with a shared understanding of literacy learning, teachers were able to reach a high degree of agreement when rating portfolios from different sites and enhance their understanding of both learning and assessment through the cross-site evaluation process. We suggest that the results should not be interpreted simply as findings on portfolio assessment. They must be interpreted in light of a complete portfolio system in which attention is given to generating and collecting artifacts, supporting collaborative evaluation, and providing ongoing professional development. Supportive internal and external conditions must be present if portfolios are to become effective tools for literacy assessment and professional development.

Logan's oration: A case study in ethnographic authentication

As scholars examine the oratory of the American Indian, they must face the twofold task of textual verification and ethnographic authentication. Such an ethnographic scrutiny of the well‐known “Logan's Oration” reaffirms this piece of rhetoric as a useful sample of native American oratory and a culturally authentic artifact.

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Most visitors to a museum exhibition expect the presence of authentic artefacts. With their materiality and history, these artefacts are considered to be specific to the exhibition medium. The author goes beyond this to assert that the use of authentic artefacts makes it more difficult to bring about the communication that the exhibition is trying to achieve. Despite the attempt to use it as a means of communication, the authentic artifacts in the exhibition are actually a hindrance in the communicative process. By relating artefact-focused museum exhibitions to contemporary neo-realistic art installations, the author illustrates the role of the artefacts in the museum exhibition. The article points out how problematic the authentic artefacts are from a practical design perspective, and how the demand for authentic artefacts in the exhibition is actually a convention that limits what the exhibition can achieve as a means of communication.

Rules of A Chinese secret society in British Columbia

The body of rules translated below was first discovered by a Park Ranger employed to restore the erstwhile gold-mining town of Barkerville, British Columbia, as an historical monument. Searching for authentic artefacts in an abandoned ‘Chinese Frėemason’ hall in the neighbouring town of Quesnel Forks, he came upon some tattered ceremonial robes, a Chinese book of codes and signs, and a board approximately 10 feet in length inscribed with Chinese characters. These (with some other items) were stored by the ranger at Barkerville, in a box marked ‘unidentified materials’, which was found by the authors in the summer of 1961, while carrying out field research on Chinese social organization in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. Mr. Ho identified the calligraphy on the board as a set of rules of the Chih-kung T'ang.