Bewick’s dog

One of Bewick’s woodcuts shows a dog reacting to faces and monstrous creatures seen in some trees at night. (Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) — wood-engraver and natural history author working in the north-east of England, long the focus of my archaeological research.) Pareidolia — seeing faces in things (and…

insignificants

A marvelous talk today at Stanford from Tim Flohr Sørensen (Copenhagen) about his project – Insignificants – [Link]. So much in a short report on such a beautifully simple experiment. Archaeologists often pride themselves on taking up what is overlooked, insignificant, discarded as irrelevant, detritus, mere traces, garbage. But what does this involve? What happens…

materiality of the invisible

Yesterday I had the great honor to open a remarkable exhibition of artworks at the Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht – multiform institute for fine art, design and reflection Curators: Lex ter Braak, Director of Van Eyck and Huib Haye van der Werf, Head of Artistic Program. The exhibition runs through The Van Eyck Academie, Marres,…