This has been a week of technology. We are, the media tells
us, on the brink of a robotics revolution (N.B. this does not preclude the
possibility of other revolutions happening as well. Just saying...). A robotics
revolution that will bring change to the human condition that is entirely
unprecedented in our past - or at least since the discovery of fire - or the discovery
that you can ferment grapes into a half decent Pinot Grigio. There is talk of
'robot rights', and the usual sound-bite backlash of the media hungry, or Daily
Mail readers who didn't read beyond paragraph one in the first place. Science
fiction is, almost, science fact. All a bit scary really. Technology moves on so
very rapidly that who knows what will be invented in the next few years? Cold
fusion perhaps? Electronic superconductors? Maybe we'll even get the long
awaited hover-boots? They've been promised for long enough after all...
However, technology is most certainly our friend. It allows
us to actually do what we are doing. In fact the growth in the whole area of
studying historic graffiti is all down to the advent of new technologies. Back
in the 1950s and 1960s, when Violet Pritchard was carrying out the research for
her book, English Medieval Graffiti, she was essentially crippled by the
technology available to her at the time. All of her recording was done by
taking actual rubbings of the graffiti that she came across, in much the same way
that people took rubbings of the monumental brasses. It was slow, it was inaccurate,
and the results weren't brilliant. The rubbings only worked well on the most
deeply cut inscriptions, leaving the more discrete inscriptions unrecorded. It
also led to confusion. With thousands of individual pieces of paper, the odd
mis-filed rubbing was fairly common place. Those who have gone to Marton in
Lincolnshire looking for the amazing late medieval example of ship graffiti
will actually find it at Bassingham, some considerable distance away. And to
this day I am still picking small fragments of wax crayon out of the lines of
numerous inscriptions across East Anglia - blue and green appear to have been favourites.
Today of course we use digital technology to record the
graffiti. The advent of reasonably cheap digital cameras has completely changed
the manner in which we carry out surveys. Had Pritchard tried to record the
graffiti in a church like Lidgate in Suffolk using photography then the processing
costs alone would have bankrupted her. Boots the Chemist would have made a
fortune. However, today we can happily wander into a church and take hundreds
of high resolution digital images, at almost no cost, even if half of them are
subsequently discarded. Put simply, if it wasn't for the advent of the digital
camera then the large scale surveys currently taking place across the country
simply wouldn't be possible.
And technology has also be the driving force behind the
spread of those surveys. The rise of social media platforms such as Facebook
and Twitter has allowed individuals to share their findings, to enthuse others,
and come together to form new area or county surveys. Some are more formally
organised, through groups such as the Wiltshire Field Group or MBA Archaeology.
Others are simply groups of like minded individuals gathering together to share
an interest. Indeed, these days barely a week goes by without a new group
appearing somewhere or other - the 'Dunny-in-the-Wold Medieval Graffiti Appreciation
Society', or the 'Society for the Recording of Really Old Graffiti in Churches,
but can't come up with a Good Acronym' (SFTROGICBCCUWAGA). There are graffiti
groups springing up in places I wasn't even aware still existed - Essex for
example. There are multiple graffiti groups on social media platforms such as
Facebook and Flickr. Some with thousands of members, freely sharing images.
Others hidden away in dark corners, lest prying eyes try and steal their
mason's marks. Recording early graffiti really has become 'a thing' for many
thousands of people. All brought together by the power of social media. All
made possible by recent advances in technology.
However, before we become too complacent, before we become
just too comfortable with these new advances, there is one BIG thing to bear in
mind. Technology is also our enemy. It is as much our enemy as an over
enthusiastic churchwarden with a REALLY big tub of lime-wash and a manic gleam
in their eyes.
Now I'm not talking here about some dystopian future in
which legions of robots suddenly take it into their shiny metal heads to start
visiting churches and recording the graffiti. The dystopian present seems quite
bad enough without even contemplating that sort of thing. No, I am talking
about the way in which the technology that we are currently using can, in the
long run, fail us. In the first place it is worth remembering that technology
advances at a frightening pace. So posting graffiti pictures to groups on
Facebook or Twitter really isn't a long term recording strategy. Pretty
interesting I'll grant you, but hardly long term archiving of the material.
Now, for those of you under thirty, this may come as something as a shock, and
you might want to sit down for a minute, but it IS fairly likely that platforms
like Facebook won't be around forever. I know. Scary isn't it. No more kitten
memes. No more cyber-stalking old classmates, just to see which one DID
actually end up in prison. However, in the big scheme of things it is pretty
likely. These things happen. Platforms come, and platforms go. Anyone remember
Friends Reunited? When these platforms go, they go quickly, leaving barely a
ripple. And with them will go all of your images - unless you have them
properly archived elsewhere. So suddenly the technology that set us apart from
Pritchard and her crayon rubbings, may actually leave us with far less to show
for it.
And then there are the moments when the technology simply
gets the better of us, despite our best intentions and best efforts. The moment
when the technology demon really does leap out of the box, grab you by the
dangly bits, and bring tears to the eyes. And I've seen quite a few instances
of this lately. Entire church surveys undertaken by dedicated and enthusiastic
volunteers, recording the graffiti on their tablets. Tablets that, because of
their image settings, downsized every picture. Downsized every image to the
extent that they were absolutely no use as a formal record of the inscriptions.
Great for posting to Facebook obviously, but no use as an archive. Hours and
hours of hard work, in often chilly conditions, all to no end.
So the technology that has allowed us to come so very far in
such a short time may also, in the longer term, work against us. No shiny
headed robots with built in LED spotlights. Just our own fallibility. So back
up those photographs, print out those recording sheets, and do your bit to
ensure that what has been recorded, stays recorded. If you don't I'm sending
the shiny headed robots round... and you won't get the hover-boots.
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