Reimagining Through Digital Fiction

Our digital reconstructions of women such as “Mary” (an imaginary resident of Quarry Hill) are based on this approach. They represent a political attempt to reintegrate the unseen into the narrative (Pink, 2015). Digital historical sources are not direct replicas but rather ‘layered materialities’—each’ layer containing decisions about what to show and what to omit (Fisk, 2021).

And it is those who are not taken care of by the system by default - women, ethnic minorities, gender minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities - who are more likely to be aware of structural absence.

The materiality of data - its interfaces, forms, and media - is not accidental. As Menke et al. (2019) argue, the dichotomy between old and new media is misleading; both are socially constructed technologies used to mediate access to knowledge. Media such as maps, census forms, or infographics carry the weight of semiotics - they construct meaning through what is shown and, more importantly, what is not shown. Indicators and measurements - such as views, likes, or counts - are often mistaken for “truth,” even if they erase qualitative or invisible experiences (Baym, 2013).

In contrast, Powell (2010) proposes a multi-sensory approach to data and place analysis, emphasising the importance of sound, image and bodily movement in recovering lost narratives. These approaches are particularly important for projects that reconstruct women's lives that have been excluded from traditional archives.