materiality of the invisible

Yesterday I had the great honor to open a remarkable exhibition of artworks at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht – multiform institute for fine art, design and reflection Curators: Lex ter Braak, Director of Van Eyck and Huib Haye van der Werf, Head of Artistic Program. The exhibition runs through The Van Eyck Academie, Marres,…

war music

Poetry turned performance — National Theatre Wales are currently presenting a performed version of Christopher’s Logue’s extraordinary account of Homer’s Iliad, designed and directed by Mike Pearson and Mike Brookes. [Link] Pasts and presents mingled in place event, past poetic shards rearticulated as real-time event – theatre/archaeology. It’s another theatrical triumph – after Aeschylus Persians…

Edsel Ford and a 1915 Model T – automotive archaeology

Mark Gessler and the team from the Historic Vehicle Association of America called in to Stanford’s Revs Program today on their epic trip from Detroit to San Francisco in a 1915 Model T Ford [Link] (Click on the photos for full evocative resolution) They’re following the tracks of Edsel Ford who took a Model T…

theatre/archaeology – the brass era

This is one of a series of comments on the 8th biennial symposium “Connoisseurship and the Collectible Car” held at the Revs Institute for Automotive Research in Naples, Florida in March 2015. [Link] Theatre/Archaeology – the re-articulation of fragments of the past as real-time event A little theatre/archaeology from Michael Shanks on Vimeo. At the…

car collection – connoisseurship and archaeology

This is one of a series of comments on the 8th biennial symposium “Connoisseurship and the Collectible Car” held at the Revs Institute for Automotive Research in Naples, Florida in March 2015. [Link] The symposia at the Revs Institute bring together people passionate about collecting cars, passionate about thinking deeply around questions of conservation and…

a visit to a studio – cultural entanglements

This evening Molly and I visited the studio of Ghiora Aharoni. I had been here in November, as part of the class on antiquarians and design – [Link] Then it was a visit through Peter’s iPad camera – on Skype. This evening the occasion was a reception to celebrate Ruby Namdar’s novel, ten years in…