Digitising between the lines: representation or reading? An essay

This contribution is based on my experience of the digitisation of watermarked papers at Zabīd (Yemen, see http://www.anne.regourd.org/programme-­zabid). Some believe that digitisation will in future provide a more than adequate surrogate for direct experience of the original object to remote enquirers. Our work in Zabīd suggests that digitisers are surrogate readers of the original object who cannot completely anticipate the questions to be asked of the object of by remote and future enquirers.