Researcher, Southern Africa
Anton is a postdoctoral researcher with MAEASaM in Pretoria. His PhD in Art History focused on the 3D-digitisation of museum and archaeological artefacts and the processes of learning from and with them, while avoiding the pitfalls of colonial epistemologies. He has a background in programming and 3D data capture and modelling, and applies these skills to recording and archiving ‘things’, including rock art sites in Southern Africa. He is working with MAEASaM on creating a resource model for rock art sites, and modelling data using the CIDOC-CRM ontology. He also works with museums creating replicas (both virtual and physical) of artefacts.
I come from a technical background, but I’m deeply skeptical of the idea that technology is always the answer — especially as that thinking starts creeping into the humanities. It forces me to slow down and ask whether a particular digital approach is actually the right one, what might be lost in the process, and whether a more traditional method might be more appropriate. This is where the interesting stuff happens.