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 [...]
the individual in (contemporary pre)history
More on what we leave behind in Wired magazine’s August issue – and how tracks through cyberspace can be crucial clues to who we are and were – Raising the dead A water-well digger found the body. It was 1968, and Wilbur Riddle was tromping around Eagle Creek, off Route 25 in backwoods Kentucky, scavenging [...]
the mystery of the locked room
In a piece called Three Rooms – published in the Journal of Social Archaeology June 2004 issue and as a traumwerk/wiki, I tracked the case of David Rodinsky. He walked out of his one room apartment in Whitechapel, London one morning in 1969, and never returned; the door was unlocked over a decade later to [...]
the archaeological imagination
Some years ago back in Lampeter Julian Thomas and I used to talk about something we called the archaeological imagination. We were close to a host of superb human geographers in the next corridor who were reshaping their field (Chris Philo, Ulf Stroymeyer, Catherine Nash, Ian Cook, Tim Cresswell, Hester Parr, Miles Ogborn, Joe Painter, [...]
Barry Eisler’s archaeology
Barry’s latest in the John Rain series of novels – Rain Storm – is out. He was super smooth at the signing tonight at Kepler’s, Menlo Park. Didn’t you work for the government, Barry? What were you doing? Yes I did, … and no comment … [Link - Barry Eisler] John Rain, Barry’s anti-hero, Asian-American [...]
the look of the past
A moving event this afternoon. A celebration of the life of a family friend, Barbara Levin, who died last week. It was at her home in Portola Valley, where her son Dan Levin, Naomi Andrews and their daughter Maya now live. She loved food, travel, living life to the full. What has stuck with me [...]
extreme archaeology
Cornelius has put me on to a new archaeology TV series in the UK -Extreme Archaeology – from Channel 4. It runs 20 June to 8 August – eight programs. These are the people that brought you Time Team – the archaeologists who tackle a site in a weekend. Here they are to tackle sites [...]
the uncanny preservation of curse-laden mummies
archaeological archetypes Daily Telegraph | News | Ice Maiden triggers mother of all disputes in Siberia This story has it all. High in the Altai mountains of southern Siberia, where Shamans still practise their ancient rites and most people are descended from Asiatic nomads, there is a whiff of revolt in the air. Local officials, [...]
archaeological character and subculture
The BBC call him a cross between James Bond, Graham Greene and Indiana Jones. Patrick Leigh Fermor, at 89, is now Sir Patrick. Truly a wonderful writer. A personal anecdote. Setting – the British School at Athens, 1990. Homebase of the British archaeological community in Greece. I was there to continue my research into the [...]
craft is cool … and archaeological
Guardian UK – Observer article on craft as art Grayson Perry – A Tradition of Bitterness, 2002 “What folk culture goes on in these Barratt homes: deceit, divorce and suicide in Merrie England …” These days craft is cool. After all it was a potter, Grayson Perry, who won the Turner Prize in December. It [...]
memory, heritage, things and a sense of who we are
BBC magazine article today on the nostalgia business – it is big and growing. BMW’s new Mini – after the 60s icon – is very popular here in northern California. Raleigh’s 1970s “chopper” bicycle was relaunched last month. Now some people have a problem with all this – because they see nostalgia as some kind [...]
Archaeologists with attitude
Colin Renfrew in Stanford. Here to join me and Bill Rathje in a conversation about archaeology, for our book Archaeologists with Attitude. Gave a fascinating talk this evening – “The Sapient Paradox: cognitive archaeology from institutional facts to material realities”. He sketched out his interest in what he called material engagements – how people get [...]