DFitHH · Digital Forensics in the Historical Humanities: Hanif Kureishi, The Mass Observation Archive, Glyn Moody

Digital Forensics in the Historical Humanities: Hanif Kureishi, The Mass Observation Archive, Glyn Moody

The use of personal computers has fundamentally changed the historical record. “Born digital” documents, i.e. primary records that have originally been created in digital form (and that are not digitized versions of originally analogue records) – private digital archives, legal and public digital repositories, websites and social media content, digital art – have entered the historical record and become part of our shared cultural heritage. This 12 month research project conducted at the University of Sussex, Sussex Humanities Lab, was aimed at a) investigating and methodologically unlocking digital forensic in-depth levels of analysing born-digital archives and records by means of exemplary studies on three born-digital archives, b) help enable institutional archives to preserve born-digital primary records in a way that enables forensic inquiry for future historical research, c) empower fellow researchers to in-depth analyse born-digital primary records with forensic means, and d) improve cross-sector collaboration and exchange between archives, humanities researchers, and digital forensic professionals. In focus of the project were three distinct UK-based archives that have not been subjected to digital forensic analysis: 1) the archive of the author Hanif Kureishi at the British Library (BL), 2) the internationally renowned Mass Observation Project Archive (MOPA) based at the University of Sussex (UoS), and 3) the private digital archive of the technology writer and journalist Glyn Moody. The project parts about the born-digital Hanif Kureishi and Glyn Moody archive were interested in reconstruction of the writing processes, the digital working environments and writing strategies of the authors, as well as aspects of the historical digital forensic materiality of the digital manuscripts that would reveal the records’ provenance history and ensure their authenticity. The project part about the MOPA aimed at a grassroots history of digital writing in the UK on a broader historical scale throughout the digital transformation period. Another part of the project was aimed at investigating emerging technologies, such as Solid State Drive hard drives, for their impact on digital forensics, on the materiality and structure of the born-digital record, and preservation of these storage media.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз