What does it mean to take tangible, material objects and put them into a digital environment? Are they still objects? Is there such a thing as an intangible object? You bet there is!
I'm especially interested in how digital media like online platforms, such as this blog, can themselves become material objects worthy of cultural study. I want to push against the established understanding of material culture as being solely objects one can touch and hold in their hand. I want to broaden the idea that objects that are born digital, can also be called material culture.
On April 10th I'll be speaking at a virtual symposium called “Material Culture in an Increasingly Digital World” sponsored by the Coalition of Master’s Scholars of Material Culture. My fellow panelists and I will be presenting our take on all of this business around the digital, the material, where those paths cross, and what magic is born from it all.
My presentation is entitled, "Digital Media as Intangible Material Culture of Women" and I'll be focusing on how I plan to use one digital method of research and analysis - this blog - as a portion of what will be in my future doctoral work. I'll be discussing how I see the blog as a “proof of concept” for utilizing a digital platform as an anthropological research method, and as an auto-ethnographic record that will follow along with me on my journey to understanding how studying the material culture of women and female-identifying persons can amplify their stories, too often missing from the global historical record.
A full analysis will follow after the symposium wraps but until then, #LetsGetDigital!