The alternative mitigation program that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) established in 2008 to address impacts to the archaeological resources in the Permian Basin of southeastern New Mexico, now one of the most active of the nation's oil and gas energy fields, has supported more than $10 million in field research programs and is poised to be able to fund about $1 million in field research annually for the foreseeable future. The financial success of the program is mirrored by the program's outstanding contributions to our understanding of the Permian Basin's long and complex history of human occupation. Surprisingly, although other public lands under the auspices of the BLM are seeing similar rates of energy development, the critical elements of this program have not been picked up elsewhere in the BLM. The Permian Basin program appears doomed to be an example of a “one-off” alternative mitigation solution. The factors barring more widespread adoption include the ebb and flow of energy production activity, complications arising from mixed land status and the ability to work across jurisdictional boundaries, hesitation to change procedures that are working adequately for the time being, and a lack of capacity to institute systemic change.

Combining the strengths of “traditional” documentary filmmaking (as “creative treatments of actualité”) with the immersive power of interactive digital technologies (from 360° video to VR to data mining to algorithms), i-Docs can transform audiences into participants, co-creators, and collaborators in nonfiction storytelling, allowing them to not only explore and experience a story on their own terms but to remix, share, and contribute their own content to a collective story. i-Docs are cross- and multiplatform, screening across cinema, computers, smartphones, and gallery installations. Showcased at leading film festivals, increasingly adopted by broadcasters—including PBS, Al Jazeera, and BBC—and critically acclaimed from the Webbys and the Pulitzers to Cannes, the i-Doc sector is set to boom. After a close reading of two i-Docs, Hunt for the Inca Ruins (2017) and Saydnaya (2016), I consider the potential of i-Docs to resolve archaeologists’ concerns about misrepresentation, accuracy, information quality, (co)authorship, and crediting original research in documentary storytelling. I also examine the sector's shortcomings of unstable production pathways, funding sources, technologies, and difficulties assessing impact. I propose that archaeologists should engage proactively with the i-Doc sector if we wish to avoid the pitfalls previously encountered in film and factual TV and make the most of this new format.

The last 20 years mark a period of transformation from a traditional model of displaying archaeology to a more immersive model supported by digital and virtual media. The traditional model has generally used glass cases accompanied by extensive texts to inform visitors, whereas the immersive model employs digital media, tablets, virtual reality, and augmented reality to attract and engage a wide audience. In light of the recent enthusiasm for the latter, however, one must ask whether such immersive exhibitions are merely superficial means to make public institutions more attractive without having a meaningful impact on audience engagement. Polish archaeological museums provide interesting sites through which to explore this predicament. Here, digital upgrades are generously financed by national funds, so the traditional model of the archaeological museum in Poland is currently almost absent. In this short review, I aim to discuss one of the most interesting examples of temporary digital archaeological exhibitions organized between 2014 and 2019 in the Polish capital of Warsaw. I investigate its potential to engage audiences, ultimately concluding that it managed to create an interesting counterweight to traditional displays and respond to the drawbacks of new digital exhibitions through novel aesthetics and alternative archaeological storytelling.