archaeology

design thinking – House MD and the eureka moment

by Michael Shanks

This post is in a series of commentaries on a class running at Stanford, Winter Quarter 2010 – “Transformative Design” ENGR 231 – [Link] The diagnostician – a contemporary archetype – Gregory House MD [Link] Design thinking is problem oriented and human centered. The aim is to identify needs, often not even recognized and requiring…

design thinking – pragmatics

by Michael Shanks

This post is in a series of commentaries on a class running at Stanford, Winter Quarter 2010 – “Transformative Design” ENGR 231 – [Link] Design thinking is a systematic process for generating innovation. Last week we offered a crash course – learning by doing – designing a briefcase – [Link] Design thinking is a pragmatics,…

designers – the archetype – Odysseus

by Michael Shanks

This post is in a series of commentaries on a class running at Stanford, Winter Quarter 2010 – “Transformative Design” ENGR 231 – [Link] Today I got to thinking about the character type of the “designer”. Not so much a craftsperson or artisan, nor an inventor, nor a fine artist. Someone attuned to particular circumstances,…

military occupation – the Roman experience

by Michael Shanks

Our excavations of Binchester Roman town are underway. VINOVIVM.ORG A key question for me – just what was the character of military occupation? The day-to-day experience, the ambience. Milecastle, Hadrian’s Wall We are too used to modern colonialism to appreciate the differences of ancient “military” experience, when so embedded in institutions of property, land, citizenship.

Performing Presence

by Michael Shanks

Our project to investigate “presence” in live performance and media draws to a close with a final conference – March 25-30 Exeter University UK – summing up a tremendous five years of work … [Link] Link – Presence – the conference Next comes a book from Routledge – “Archaeologies of Presence” – due out in…