Towards a Digital Sensorial Archaeology as an Experiment in Distant Viewing of the Trade in Human Remains on Instagram

Abstract

It is possible to purchase human remains via Instagram. We present an experiment using computer vision and automated annotation of over ten thousand photographs from Instagram, connected with the buying and selling of human remains, in order to develop a distant view of the sensory affect of these photos: What macroscopic patterns exist, and how do these relate to the self-presentation of these individual vendors? Using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing and machine learning services, we annotate and then visualize the co-occurrence of tags as a series of networks, giving us that macroscopic view. Vendors are clearly trying to mimic ‘museum’-like experiences, with differing degrees of effectiveness. This approach may therefore be useful for even larger-scale investigations of this trade beyond this single social media platform.