Written in the Stars: Digital History Project

Unlike other Public History programs in the province, the program at the University of Western Ontario includes a mandatory Digital History course. This course is designed to familiarize students with different ways of integrating history and technology. From learning how to blog, to practicing code, this course has introduced many of us, including myself, to new technology that improves exhibit success.

As part of our class we were asked to make an interactive exhibit focusing on how the history was presented using technology. This was a useful exercise because it helped me to think about the visitor’s experience and the benefits of dynamic displays that encouraged visitor involvement. The overall theme of the exhibit was “The Sky” and our section was “Constellations”. Our group sought to portray some of the many different cultural interpretations of constellations throughout the ages. In our section, we used both SMART Board technology and a interactive display containing a microcontroller, to display information and promote interactivity with the material.



A SMART Board, shown above, acts similar to PowerPoint programs, but are manipulated through their touch screen. Visitors were able to select one of the twelve constellation images through a simple touch of the screen. This took them to a page describing the constellation and showing the stars that constitute the constellation.



The visitors loved this page which encouraged them to draw their version of the constellation on the SMART Board, before dragging down the correct image. There was also an interactive game similar to Jeopardy for visitors to play which tested their knowledge. As most visitors were briefly passing through,it seemed the game would be better suited to a camp for children or times where visitors would have more time to use it. Programming the SMART Board was a good opportunity to learn a new technology and how it can be used to present history to the public.



The second part of our project involved a BASIC stamp microcontroller that allowed us to program four constellations with information that would appear on a laptop screen at the push of a button. We built a model of a Greek observatory that had a pointer in the form of a cross-staff carried by Ptolemy. Visitors enjoyed selecting one of the four formations in order to learn more about them.

Both the SMART Board presentation and the representation of an ancient Greek observatory with digital pointer adds another dimension to the user-directed learning experience that our group sought to create. Through creating digital concepts that present the material in a dynamic fashion, we created an interactive exhibit that was modern and educational.

Can you spot a fake?

Many of us have received emails that have been digitally manipulated to create humour. This doctored photo of Tom Cruise is a personal favourite of mine.



Many altered photos, however, can be more serious than Cruise's fictitious turn towards sanity..

Some people may remember the scandal of Lcpl Boudreaux who was under investigation by the Marines because of the picture of two Iraqi children holding a sign saying “Lcpl Boudreaux killed my dad, then knocked up my sister”. Another version surfaced on the internet saying "Lcpl saved my dad, then rescued my sister".

However, despite software able to detect fake photographs, they were unable to tell which, if any, of the photographs on the internet were real. The investigation was inconclusive and dropped, but not without Boudreaux's reputation being questioned and attacked in his local paper.

Altering pictures is not something new, or unique to digital photographs. Throughout history traditional photographs have been changed for many reasons. Many people alter photos for political and historical reasons. For example, many Russian photographs after the revolution have 'erased' traitors and those gone astray from the party.

More recently, John Kerry was the victim of photo alteration that placed him at an anti-war rally in order to discredit him.



Other people alter photos in order to sell more newspapers and magazines. For instance, Time magazine made O J Simpson's face darker in order for him to appear sinister.


Also, New York Newsday used a digital composite of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding on one of their covers.

As people have painted over, cropped and edited pictures in various fashions it has and always will be important to assess the validity of photos. It comes as no surprise that digital photographs would suffer the same manipulations as traditional photographs.

As forgers become more skilled, the software available to detect tampered photographs increases. The naked eye alone can no longer spot inconsistencies in the perspective, proportions and lighting of a photo as doctoring photos become more advanced. Cameras are being developed to make it very difficult to manipulate a photo without it leaving evidence.

People like Hany Farid, a Dartmouth College computer scientist, have created sophisticated programs which can detect changes in digital photographs. The problem with Farid's, and other software used to validate photographs, is that they require a high quality image file such as a RAW file that is often compressed and not available. However, the technology is thought to be good enough to catch all but the most advanced forgers.

People are often fooled by photographs believing them to be real. However, everyone, especially historians, should be critical of images as well as any other source. The danger is not new or increased, but must be treated with the same vigilance and skepticism historians have used in the past.



Can you spot the fake? ; )