Ghost signs: BBC Viewfinder
The BBC is covering Tom Bland’s photography in the archaeological imagination – Ghost signs. “I was seeing layers of typography, paint, colour – and combined with the texture of the crumbling and flaking materials, many of them were appealing to me as contemporary pieces of design in the vein of work by Ray Gun magazine.” [...]
Steampunk at Oxford
What if the Victorians (with their steam engine industrial aesthetic) had had access to digital technologies? What if a Victorian design sensibility had not been eclipsed by modernism and its minimalist aesthetic? What if technologies such as dirigibles, analog computers, or digital mechanical computers (such as Charles Babbage’s Analytical engine) were still with us? Steam-powered [...]
design and collection
This post is in a series of commentaries on a class running at Stanford, Winter Quarter 2010 – “Transformative Design” ENGR 231 – [Link] I mentioned in a recent post about design and the everyday the little photobook “thoughtless acts” by Jane Fulton Suri and IDEO – [Link] It is a collection of observations, documented [...]
Behind the Locked Door
An archaeology of the store rooms of the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford Don’t you often wonder about what museums keep in their store rooms, but rarely manage to display? The hidden, perhaps forgotten, treasures of “The Archive” Last year, between March 2007 and April 2008, in a small gallery off the main stair well in [...]
Joseph Beuys and the archaeological
Tate Modern London. I am still reading today’s Arts section of the Guardian – this time Adrian Searle’s preview of the Tate Modern’s new exhibition of Joseph Beuys [Link] Beuys wasn’t being mischievous or disingenuous when he said there was nothing to understand (in his work). He may have been wrong to believe everyone could [...]
Iain Sinclair and the urban imaginary
A fine piece of writing from Iain Sinclair, a bit overblown maybe, in The Guardian today about the Thames in the urban imaginary that is London – Paint me a river. Liquid prompts guide our steps towards the scintillae of the supremely visible Thames. Here begins the work of poets and painters, their argument and [...]
Derrida’s archaeology
9 October I never got to finish my comment on Derrida who died last week. [BBC Link] The obituaries were largely stifled by misunderstanding, outrage, horror and incredulity – have a look at the Guradian’s lamentable list – [Link] Mark Taylor was better in the NYT – [Link] Jacques Derrida Flying back to the US [...]
media archaeology and cultural remix – a London experience
Lower Marsh, La Barca Restaurant with Alan Campbell Media stars all over the walls – agents’ photos. A curious genre. David Suchet – Hercule Poirot Black and white, mannerist, smiley faces. They say “we had dinner here and gave the restaurant our photo”. But also these photos make me think of claims like “Henry VIII [...]
everyday horror and repressive normality
An archaeological sensibility I regularly post about the horror that lies just beneath the surface of things, everyday normality rooted in the uncanny secret lives of things – have a look at Horror and disclosure – a scene of crime clings to its past Joe (Adler) has just sent me word of Die Familie Schneider [...]
more fantasy archaeology
– the never-ending search for the Holy Grail … The BBC is reporting what looks like another publicity scam Fascination with the Holy Grail has lasted for centuries, and now the Bletchley Park code-breakers have joined the hunt. But what is it that’s made the grail the definition of something humans are always searching for [...]
Mike Pearson and theatre/archaeology
Mike Pearson, performance artist, was in Stanford this week. We wrote the book Theatre/Archaeology together. He talked to our New Media Workshop about recent work of his, and then to the Archaeology Center about his research into what really went on in the expeditions to the Antarctic back in the early 1900s. Both were provocative. [...]
Fred Dibnah – industrial archaeologist
Fred Dibnah has died [Link] [Picture Link - BBC] Steeple Jack turned uncanny acolyte of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, he knocked down chimney remnants of Victorian industrial England with a style and passion matched only by his love of steam engines. Now industrial archaeology is dogged by rather geekinsh character types who love brass fittings and [...]
Michael Casson – studio potter – 1925-2003
In class this morning I ran a google search for a picture of Mycenaean marine style pottery, and it turned up an obituary for Michael Casson, the studio potter. He was a giant in the world of craft pottery, a pioneer of 20th century studio ceramics, and a lovely man. He died last December. We [...]
the power of the monument – more on Dennis Oppenheim and Stanford
A bunch of comments on the veto by John Hennessy, Stanford’s President, of Dennis Oppenheim’s “Device to root out evil” from sculpture.net. Dennis was also in the New York Times this week – [Link] My blog entries – [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
Remix Radio Show This Sunday in San Francisco! | Creative Commons
Earlier this week I was airing the matter of copyright and intellectual property in connection with academic citation, pulling it all into the issue of democratic cultural creativity. [Link] The The Creative Commons blog announces a radio show this Sunday on the art of remix in a broad perspective – from Roman intertextuality to DJ [...]
“I Found Some Of Your Life”
Philip has found this very interesting archaeological blog – [Link] – at least an “archaeological” blog in my sense of the term! Monday, July 26, 2004 Introduction In my possession is one (1) memory card from a digital camera. This memory card was found in a taxi in New York City. I have no idea [...]
the innocence of rural remains?
Thanks to Cornelius, Matthew and Troels for some very astute comment on the recent BBC item about the decline of the English countryside and its transformation into a cultural or heritage playgound – [Link] Key points for me – the remains of the past are wrapped up in relationships between city and “countryside” (a great [...]
on the archaeological imaginary
I forgot to mention in my recent post three key thinkers who are working through the archaeological imagination. Christine Finn, now at at Bradford UK, has been working on literary connections with the archaeological imagination for well over a decade. She has a new book out on Yeats and Heaney “Past Poetic” But she also [...]
Cuba – on the verge – the physiognomy of historical change
Meg’s comments on the photos of the apartment in San Jose, and her story of small town America were about the way everyday things can be almost too painful, too intimate – because of their personal associations yes, but, also because of their attachment to temporal loss. It makes us think of how we look [...]
archaeological intimacy – on looking at everyday things
Meg Butler left a wonderful story as comment on the photos of the apartment in San Jose. Both the pictures and your comments remind me of a small town in Texas that I visited. My first impression was of a dying town. It isn’t on a main highway or interstate, it isn’t touristy in any [...]
found photos
Thanks to Diana Valk who left a comment the other day about LOOK AT ME! – a fascinating site devoted to found photos. This was after I posted the photo of the girl I found in an old camera case (the lab’s new Graflex) – [Link] More of the uncanny.
deep mapping – yellowarrow.org
Sam (Schillace) has put me onto yellowarrow.org – a fascinating new project in mobile phone deep mapping. “yellowarrow” [noun] – a collective symbol for personal communication | [verb] – to leave and discover messages pointing out what counts choose – find a place that speaks to you, something you want to point out, a detail [...]
the apartment in San Jose
I visited the apartment today – the one abandoned over a year ago. He had lived there since 1964. It looks as if he was preparing to leave – there were some things in boxes, and the place is a little to messy with junk. But all his things seem to be still there. He [...]
