Dr. Rampelt noted that digitization is never neutral. Digitizing objects, whether in the name of preservation or accessibility, comes with significant consequences. Creating high-resolution scans is expensive, labor-intensive, and requires ongoing digital storage, which carries environmental costs due to the energy demands of large-scale data centers. For that reason, the Archives takes a strategic approach to digitizing items and will choose only the most essential materials rather than entire collections.

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Dr. Rampelt explained that by digitizing an object, the scan creates an entirely new artifact with its own metadata, shaped by the tools that created it. He noted the gap between interacting with a digital item versus a physical object– the lack of tacit knowledge that comes with physically interacting with something. Elements central to understanding an object, like weight, scale, and texture, cannot be fully translated into a digital form. 

 

This raises questions for any digital intervention, including ours. While 3D models can invite interaction and offer simulated tactility, they cannot replicate the embodied knowledge that comes from physically handling the objects themselves. Our initial assumption that a 3D recreation could enhance tactility is challenged by these insights. A digital model is not the original object made accessible. 

 

Instead, it is an entirely different digital experience that can enhance a viewer’s interaction with it through modes of interactivity like rotation and hover, along with detailed alt text, that a digital exhibition can uniquely create.

 

Our digital exhibition aims to incorporate these new modes of interactivity. While viewers might not have the devices we highlighted in their hands, they are still able to interact with the objects in an educational and fulfilling way.