The Digital Biography of Things

A Canadian Case Study in Digital Repatriation

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Abstract

I propose taking a closer look at the anthropological, classificatory and exhibitionary principles on which a Canadian digital repatriation project (GRASAC) was built. The process of dematerialisation and subsequent reinsertion into a new ‘concretion’ (the digital database) has lent the objects a new status within a certain organisational structure. This kind of products, once created, take on a life and history of their own, separate from that of the objects themselves. Digital files of physical objects are more than just simple reproductions or copies, and can be read as a further phase of the ‘objects’ biography’.


open access | peer reviewed

Submitted: Dec. 21, 2016 | Accepted: March 21, 2017 | Published Dec. 31, 2017 | Language: en

Keywords Communities • Ownership • Digital repatriation

Copyright © 2017 Emanuela Rossi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/6969-052-5/SE-4-41


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