Gastvortrag am 29.1.2016: Kathryn E. Piquette (London)
Kathryn E. Piquette (London): Unlocking Ancient Texts with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)
Abstract:
RTI is increasingly being exploited as a powerful visualisation tool for ancient written culture. In addition to improving readability, this advanced photographic technique offers great potential for the systematic study of graphical marks from the perspective of their material structure. This latter affordance serves as a springboard for my talk on RTI as a research aid for textual evidence from the Eastern Mediterranean / Ancient Near East. I discuss ways in which RTI supports exploration of the entangled relationships between text and its material properties. I also present newly acquired results on the renowned Herculaneum Papyri to illustrate ways in which RTI augments previous imaging work and is resulting in new interpretive insight and greater methodological reflexivity. However, certain challenges arise depending on text-object type, capture method and research aims. I present a selection of these issues for discussion and consideration of possible solutions.
Kurzbiographie:
Dr. Kathryn E. Piquette is a Research Associate at the Cologne Centre for eHumanities (CCeH), Universität zu Köln. She is currently engaged in Reflectance Transformation Imaging documentation of Greek texts for the Magica Levantina and Herculaneum Papyri projects. Although Kathryn’s training is in Egyptology (MA [2001] and PhD [2007] from University College London), digital imaging — RTI especially — have featured extensively in her post-doctoral work at Trinity College Dublin, University of Oxford and Freie Universität Berlin. RTI serves as an essential visualisation tool for Kathryn’s personal research on early Near Eastern writing and art, especially for accessing artefact surface data that can reveal ancient image production processes and associated material practices. Her recent publications include the co-edited volume Writing as Material Practice: Substance, surface and medium (DOI) and various articles on RTI and scribal practice.
Weitere Informationen: Homepage von Kathryn E. Piquette