Superb performance last night from Gorillaz at Oakland Arena. Their latest, Plastic Beach, has an environmentalist theme, but avoids trite treatment of such a common and pressing matter of concern. (The contrast with the likes of movie Avatar is stark.) Human concern – – Damon Albarn, graphic artist Jamie Hewlett, the 2D virtual members of…
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dot com material culture
Start-up company Box dot Net – preparing for its move to new offices. I usually prefer the term “design studies” over “material culture studies” – the term typically used in cultural anthropology for a focus upon humanity’s material accoutrement. I don’t think the distinction between material and immaterial or intangible is always that useful (isn’t…
Steampunk in Oakland
Jack London Square, Oakland. Waterfront/docklands development. Steam punk bar furniture in The Chop Bar [Link] Last week the BBC reported a new fund raising campaign to rebuild Babbage’s Analytical Engine – his steam powered programmable computer the size of a house – [BBC Link] – Wikipedia on Babbage – [Link] Model of the never-built Analytical…
past personality
Latest on the excavations of Binchester Roman town – [Link] David Petts has posted an x-ray made by Jenny Jones of one of the artifacts found this summer – [Link] It didn’t look like much when it was found. It turns out to be a stylus – for writing on wax tablets. Evidence for literacy…
Science is Culture
My conversation, back in 2007, with artist Lynn Hershman Leeson about artifacts, memory, art, forensics, archaeology appears today in a new collection – “Science is Culture: Conversations at the New Intersection of Science and Society” [Link] Seed magazine brings together a unique gathering of prominent scientists, artists, novelists, philosophers + other thinkers who are tearing…
VINOVIVM
Update – a revised version now appears at – https://mshanks.com/2011/01/archaeological-research-at-the-edge-of-empire/ We are starting to plan for our excavations next summer of Binchester Roman town in the north of England. Here is a short news item about this last summer, released yesterday. July 2010 was the second archaeological field season for the Binchester Project. We are…
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