Model T Ford at the Palace of Fine Arts

I was at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco this morning to welcome the arrival of the Historic Vehicle Association of America in their 1915 Model T Ford – culmination of a 3600 mile drive from Detroit following the tracks of Edsel Ford who made the same road trip a century ago. He…

design and antiquarians – 5

This is a comment on the seminar series currently running between Stanford and Bard Graduate Center. [Link] [Link] Our exploration of the world of things continues. This week the theme is Community We visited Pincoff’s Hotel in Rotterdam to talk with Sjarel Ex, Director of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam – Winy Maas’s design for…

Get Carter – then and now

“Get Carter” (Mike Hodges 1971) – Michael Caine’s finest movie role. Set in the North East of England. Visiting one of the locations – Blyth – once the biggest coal port in Europe, shipping 7 million tons in 1961, from these great wooden staithes, now gone, but for the jetties. Another archaeology of the contemporary…

Autosuggestion – rough cuts

Mike and I have edited the script of last week’s presentation of Autosuggestion – our new work of Theatre/Archaeology. Autosuggestion – the script There’s still some fact checking to do – mainly on the details of car history (and any suggestions will be very welcome – use the comment form at the end of the…

Pearson|Shanks – Autosuggestion

Mike Pearson and I have a new work of theatre/archaeology, to be premiered next week – Friday 28 June. Here’s how we describe it: Just what is an automobile? In this new work of theatre/archaeology — the rearticulation of fragments of the past as real-time event — Mike Pearson and Michael Shanks reflect on an…