Module III

Archive Fever: Documents, Objects & Images

How do documents, objects, and images become digital data — and what changes when they do? This module examines digital witness, forensic architecture, computer vision, image analysis, and the politics of digitization and algorithmic bias.

3 class sessions 2 Digital Forays

Key Questions

  • What changes when a document becomes a dataset?
  • Who witnesses, and what counts as proof in a digital age?
  • How do algorithms of oppression shape what images mean?

Class 6 — March 4

Digital Data Gathering: Documents, Objects, & Images #1

Explore one project on both Syrian Archive & Forensic Oceanography — examining methods, approach, audience, and claims. What counts as evidence in a digital age? How do human rights organizations use digital tools to document, verify, and present proof of atrocities? This session opens Module II by confronting the politics of digital witnessing.

Readings & Resources

Suggested / FYI

Breakdown in Class

Syrian Archive & Forensic Oceanography

In-Class Tools

Forensic Architecture: Saydnaya Prison Bellingcat AI DUNGEON (GPT-3 to TEXT)

From the Session

  • NFTs — Nyan Cat Meme Selling
  • DeepTomCruise + Deep Nostalgia
  • YouTube Is Erasing History (Hadi Al Khatib & Dia Kayyali)

Class 7 — March 11

Digital Data Gathering: Documents, Objects, & Images #2

Student Presentations. How do we see with machines? This session turns to computer vision, image analysis, and the contested terrain of visual evidence. From deepfakes to algorithmic image classification, we explore what happens when seeing is no longer believing — and how scholars can critically engage visual methodologies in a post-truth landscape.

Readings & Resources

Suggested / FYI

Breakdown in Class

ARAB IMAGE FOUNDATION or AKKASAH

From the Session

  • Google Arts and Culture
  • Juxtapose — Knight Lab
  • Deepfakes (NYTIMES)

Class 8 — March 18

Digital Data Gathering: Documents, Objects, & Images #3

Continuing with documents, objects, and images — this session deepens the exploration of algorithms of oppression, distant viewing, and the politics of digitization. How do power structures get encoded into the tools we use to analyze images? Who decides what gets digitized, preserved, and made searchable?

Readings & Resources

Suggested / FYI

Breakdown in Class

Qatar Women's World or SOGDIANS

In-Class Tools

Middle East Visual Culture (Duke) Visual Sources in MENA and Islamic Studies (HAZINE) Islamic Manuscript Studies (U Michigan) Al-Musawwar (AUB) Sources for Historical Photographs (Library of Congress) Image Analytics and the Nineteenth-Century Illustrated Newspaper