Mike Pearson | The Persians
Classics and the contemporary past Mike Pearson and his new production of Aeschylus Persians (National Theatre of Wales) gets a superb review in the Guardian today [Link] This is site-specific theatre with a vengeance. High up in the Brecon Beacons, in a mock-up village used by the military as a training-base, National Theatre Wales is [...]
elements of a theory of ruin
A wonderful talk this evening from Alain Schnapp in our Archaeology Center. It was about “ruin” as an intellectual artifact. Through a kaleidoscope of quotes and vignettes about ruin from antiquity to modernity, Alain reflected upon broad human experiences at the heart of our sense of history, memory practices, collection, temporality. Goethe among the ruins [...]
haunted media
Some years ago Sam (Schillace) put me onto a Russian photographer, Sergey Larenkov, who combines old and new photographs of Leningrad/St Petersburg, then – WWII, and now. They have haunted me ever since. It’s not difficult to find the photos on the web; it only took me a few moments to find them again – [...]
design, exobiology and archaeology
Tim Brown has commented on the design of the exobiology in James Cameron’s much-touted movie “Avatar” – [Link] I took Molly and Ben to see it again this weekend. There is certainly something captivating about the creatures and environment of planet Pandora. Tim talks about the plausibility of the design work that makes it easier [...]
Globalization – Mike Moore
Mike Moore, once new-labor Prime Minister of New Zealand, then Director General of the World Trade Organization, champion of neoliberalism, has written a new book about globalization. And he has made me think again about our world today, about the big picture. I wouldn’t have looked at the book if I hadn’t met Mike in [...]
Anderson Valley
Up from Boonville. An old apple tree. Few are now left. The valley is turning from fruit trees and sheep farming to Pinot Noir. We heard that our friends at Lazy Creek Vineyards, an idyllic spot near Philo, have just been bought by a large Nevada-based corporation. See also a gallery of images at – [...]
Rob Roy
In the tracks of northern antiquaries, summer 2007 Abbotsford, Scottish borders, home of Walter Scott: armor from the field of Waterloo (1815); the skull of Robert the Bruce (cast, 1734).
Neanderthals ’sang and danced’
Steve Mithen of Reading University is in the news again about his forthcoming book – another on cognitive archaeology and evolution. The BBC have picked up on his argument about neanderthals, language and symbolic behavior [Link] Prof Mithen thinks the cave- dwellers would have enjoyed the rhythms and sounds made by rap artists. He said: [...]
Charles Redman on environmental politics
It has taken me too long to get round to reading Charles Redman’s great book Human Impact on Ancient Environments – Arizona, 1999. I came to the book because of the upcoming exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, of the photographs of Edward Burtynsky – they foreground massive environmental impacts. [Link] We need a [...]
the end of the Neanderthals – biology and culture
photo – BBC – amended There is an item today on the BBC web site connected with what sounds like a comprehensive TV treatment of the now classic puzzle of the end of the Neanderthals – BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | The icy truth behind Neanderthals. What happened to the Neanderthals? Did they die out? [...]
creationism, intelligent design and redefinitions of science
Suzanne Goldenberg writes an informative summary today in the Guardian of the latest stage of the creationist debate in the US – Religious right fights science for the heart of America. Classroom confrontations between God and science are under way in 17 states, according to the National Centre for Science Education. In Missouri, state legislators [...]
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 [...]
Foresight, design studies, the long term, and archaeology
Last Friday Bill Cockayne (Stanford Humanities Lab Assoc. Director) and I (also in my role as co-Director of Stanford Humanities Lab) were at the local office of DaimlerChrysler – RTNA (Research and Technology North America). In response to their request, we were proposing a project to research the future of car culture, with a focus [...]
archaeography.com
Archaeography – the new archaeology photoblog from Metamedia at Stanford – is up and running. [Link] This is how we describe the project Archaeography is a photoblog that explores the connections between photography and archaeology. This is not some quirky juxtaposition – we are convinced that photography is profoundly archaeological, and that archaeography is about [...]
From Ben Cullen to Stephen Shennan on memes
On the anniversary of the death of Ben Cullen. [Link] His parents visited us this summer. Richard (Cullen) has taken up archaeology himself. It was a very poignant afternoon – lunch in our garden here in Stanford, talking of Ben in Wales and Australia. Ben would have been forty. Molly (six) and our own Ben [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
archaeology and the origins of war
My colleague and friend Walter (Scheidel), ancient historian at Stanford, took me to task over a blog comment last week about democracy and warfare. [Link] I argue that war emerged in the bronze age – for the Near East from 3000 BC, later in the second millennium for most of Europe. Walter – Is it [...]
media archaeology meets theatre/archaeology
Media archaeology – working on the traces of a medium. Theatre/archaeology – the (re)articulation of traces of the past as real-time event. 10×10 / 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time / by Jonathan J. Harris 10×10 (’ten by ten’) is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The [...]
the database imaginary
– another reason for the importance of categories and databases One of my interests is the way we use databases to organise and administer the collections that are at the core of our archaeological lives. (And have played a crucial role in state society since ancient Mesopotamia.) Databases – sounds dull and tedious? Have a [...]
