Within the lecture series “Perspektiven der Digitalen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften” at Uni Erlangen-Nürnberg, Kahtryn Piquette from the Cologne Center for eHumanities (CCeH) will give a lecture on the new technology Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI). Please find details below.
Title: “Unlocking Ancient Texts with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)”
Date: 22 January 2015
Location: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
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.
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