Some ARK theory

ARK is much more than just a database, but why? We don’t want to bore you with too much detail, but here are some thoughts about what ARK aims to do and where it comes from:

Hypertext and a new Docuverse

A lot of our work on ARK has been influenced by ideas which we might call “true hypertext”. We certainly don’t claim to have resolved any of these issues, but they go some way to explain what has driven the development of ARK.

The term hypertext was coined by Ted Nelson in 1965, when he set out to express a new way of thinking about text and publishing (see Nelson 1981). Nelson’s aim was to break with the “paper paradigm” and to create entirely new forms of textual documents.

Docuverse

Nelson proposed a docuverse where all data is stored once and no data is ever typed twice. There is only one copy which is the master copy of everything, every other copy that is viewed or distributed is a manifestation of this original. This view ‘repurposes’ the entire computer system into a box which maintains the connections between all of the transitory and cached pieces whose identity is maintained with its original.

Hyperlinks

Navigation through information in this docuverse would be non-linear, depending on each reader’s choice of links. But more than this, the reader, by actively creating the links, would become a participant in the process, thereby becoming an author in this creation of new narrative structure. Unlike in HTML, the links would be two-way, allowing the document to be read in any order at any time.

Eternal Revision

Much like in wiki technology today there would be no deletions of data, just eternal revisions. These revisions ought to be transparent so that earlier edits and versions are available to the reader for simultaneous side by side comparison.

Reflexive Method and Post Processual Archaeology

Those of us who work with data often bear the brunt of criticism from post processual archaeologists. We have a tendency to work in a way that ‘scientificises’ and formalises what is essentially interpreted data. Especially in the field of site recording systems, our tendency is towards abstraction and removal of the voice of the excavator. We cannot claim to have totally answered these criticisms, but in our work we are certainly aiming to target those areas in which we can have most success.

Multivocality

Multivocality, for example, is one of the key areas that ARK can approach. It should be possible to record different interpretations for the same data and groups of data. We realised that ARK ought to provide these tools for readers and users, which can in turn empower the reader to become the interpreter and to contribute to the project.

Reflexive Method

Reflexivity is also something that ARK can easily address. The instantaneous nature of ARK and its web-based front-end means that people working on the project can interact with each other’s production on an almost immediate basis. ARK also makes it possible for individuals to group and interpret data in their own way, to present conflicting and differing interpretations of the same data.

Making multiple narratives possible

A result set in ARK can also saved out as a fixed snapshot or ‘group’. Groups then become ARK ‘items’ themselves, and can have other fragments or interpretations attached to them. This is essential as the project begins to build narrative, as stratigraphic groups or other groups can be commented on as a unit.

Hybridism, Mash-ups and not re-inventing the wheel

From the start, ARK has been about providing systems that are flexible enough to accomodate real world systems rather than an attempt to invent new and ever more rigid systems. In the argument about paper vs digital recording systems, we sit firmly on the fence, insisting that the two worlds must co-exist.

Use in the best way the services available to us

Similarly, in terms of software development, we take a hybrid approach preferring to offer ARK output up to other content management systems such as blogging software or online collaboration suites. In this way we don’t waste our time re-inventing complex software and instead we profit from all those man hours of developemnt time that have made Mediawiki, Textpattern, Wordpress or Google Documents so successful.

Further information

More detail on the theory behind ARK can be found in a version of our paper entitled “ARK: A Developmental Framework for Archaeological Recording” which was presented at Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology in Berlin in April 2007.