media archaeology More than twenty years ago I discovered the daguerreotype — one of the earliest of photographic media. Images are formed in a camera on polished light sensitive silver-plated copper—on mirrors. These are not just simply early photographs. They are unique one-off images, and positive-negative—you have to catch the mirrored surface at the right…
Author: Michael Shanks
A day for Chris Tilley: reflections on the performance of academic life
University College London November 15 2024. This morning I was online at a gathering of colleagues, friends, former students, to reflect upon the life and work of Chris Tilley who died earlier this year [Link]. Appreciative memories; what remains; hindsight and legacy; influences. There were the regular, standardized, and orthodox accounts of Tilley’s part in…
Archaeological shores: reflections on a metaphysics of cartography
Field notes. The pragmatics of an archaeological sensibility — what might one do in an archaeological visit to the beach? For as long as I can remember maps have made me anxious. Where does one draw the line of a coast, a road, a river? In archaeological excavation one is regularly required to document, record,…
A journey round my father: methodological notes on an archaeological sensibility
This is a commentary on a recent post on this site – A journey round my father [Link]. It’s about the features, concepts, tools and techniques of a reclaimed archaeological sensibility that help us connect with a complex world in flux. Bjørnar (Olsen) was visiting in the Spring when my father took another fall at…
A journey round my father
Life dispersed in small things forgotten Funeral We buried him in the cemetery at Blyth (in the north-east of England) overlooking the beach in the plot where my mother has lain since 1999. It was a bleak place back then. Twenty five years have seen the trees and hedges mature. The watery sunshine of that…
In the wake – John Constable
Atmospheres, weather, ambience. Stagings, scenographies. John Constable, England, mostly 1821-1822 Cloud studies with monument. Bamburgh Northumberland, England June 2016. Cloud studies with monument. Nyborg, Fyn, Denmark, September 2024.