ABSTRACT Many museums and collections publish digital photographs or scans of objects held in their collections in online-accessible databases. What are the epistemological issues at stake when an analogue object is digitised with the aim to ‘illustrate’, ‘document’ or ‘represent’ its analogue original? This essay tackles the question based on practical, hands-on experiences that the author obtained through testing a method for digitising lantern slides. The digital copies achieved in digitisation projects, the author argues, are never a matter of mere documentation that produce ‘evidence’ about or ‘neutral/objective copies’ of the analogue objects but are results of interpretation, selection processes and modelling, informed by the aim of the digitisation project and the perspective of the person carrying out the work. As a case study, this article provides a material basis for theoretical, conceptual and epistemological reflections on the relation of analogue and digitised (media) objects, adding to current digital humanities discussions on tool criticism and source critique of digital objects.

中文翻译：

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在线模拟对象。灯笼幻灯片数字复制的认识论反思

摘要 许多博物馆和收藏馆在可在线访问的数据库中发布其收藏品的数码照片或扫描件。当模拟对象被数字化以“说明”、“记录”或“再现”其模拟原件时，存在哪些认识论问题？本文根据作者通过测试一种数字化灯笼幻灯片的方法获得的实践经验来解决这个问题。作者认为，在数字化项目中获得的数字副本从来都不是仅仅为模拟对象提供“证据”或“中立/客观副本”的文件问题，而是解释、选择过程和建模的结果，由数字化项目的目标和执行工作的人的观点。作为案例研究，