Janus – hindsight and foresight, creative pragmatics

We are moving on with our JANUS research initiative (core team Victor Taratukhin, Natalia Pulyavina, myself) – [Link]. Our case is that being mindful of the past, hindsight, is essential to being able to act for the future. Looking back, researching and exploring, that we might be better prepared for uncertain futures. JANUS – archaeological…

Ossian – archaeological memory

Project: Borderlands – [Link] Toscar: I shall sit in my cave in the field of the sun. The blast will rustle in my trees, and I shall think it is the voice of Culhona. Culhona: What cloud is that? It carries the ghosts of my fathers. Locale, genius loci, weather, voices on the wind, the…

Is ‘Design Thinking’ the New Liberal Arts?

Peter Miller’s piece about design thinking and history, more accurately archaeology (because archaeology deals with the past-in-the-present), is in the latest edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Is ‘Design Thinking’ the New Liberal Arts?. Here are some highlights that convey a key message – that human centered design and design thinking, about which I…

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…

design and antiquarians – 8

This is a comment on the seminar series currently running between Stanford and Bard Graduate Center. [Link] [Link] This week – two more aspects of the antiquarian project – description and care. Pragmatography – writing and representing things and things done And what to do because things matter Designer Hideshi Hamaguchi explores possibilities Ceramics in…