Laurent Olivier’s wonderful book Le sombre abîme du temps has just appeared in translation (as The dark abyss of time: memory and archaeology) – [Link] Laurent offers profound elaboration of the fundamental insight that the past is all around us, before us, in material traces, that presence is filled with the past, that the future…
materialities
site and artifact – media materialities
Sam (Schillace) has put me onto a very interesting photo project – where site becomes the surface of artifact. PhotoGraphy from ShiKai Tseng on Vimeo. (An artifact is placed inside a pinhole camera that records a 360 degree panorama onto its surface.) Further focus on medium as mode of engagement, as much as signal and…
Jedburgh – after Beny
Exploring the Borders with Gary (Devore). Jedburgh Abbey – an extraordinary building. In the footsteps of Roloph Beny – remarkable photographer, remarkable and misguided snob. Here is his photo from the lavish Thames and Hudson edition of Rose Macualay’s “Pleasure of Ruins” (1962).
Gorillaz – the archaeological imagination
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…
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…
archaeologies of taste #2
The (im)materialities of cuisine Brussels.
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