Authenticity: New Personas for Digital Media

摘要

This panel approaches the problem of authenticity as the concept is evolvingrnthrough technological practices. Most debates surrounding this evolutionrnhave proceeded from a naturalized definition of authenticity. This definition isrnlargely founded on the printed word tradition and the principle thatrnfaithfulness to the written word is paramount, while stylistic modifications tornthe form of documents are acceptable.This naturalized definition can be problematized using two different axes: (1)rnfrom textual to non-textual (e.g., audio-visual) documents; (2) from paper tornelectronic media. In the first case, there are no general and stable conventionsrnfor distinguishing content from its formal manifestation. In the second case,rnthe only stable measure of authenticity, that of bitwise integrity, (a) is toornrestrictive to deal with the inevitable logical format migrations that must occurrnfor digital media to remain accessible; and (b) does not measure how thernrendering process of the bitstream (e.g., on screen, on paper) conforms to therncontent of the document.rnThe papers in this panel will explore how new electronic documentaryrnpractices challenge the naturalized definition of authenticity, and chart howrnconcepts of authenticity evolve in conjunction with such practices. The papersrnwill suggest how new rules and conventions for defining authenticity mayrnemerge in given areas of documentary practices - digitized medievalrnmanuscripts, electronic contracts, XML-encoded documents - or fromrnmultidisciplinary research efforts.