Update – the actuality of the archaeological past

I have contributed little to this site Since 2016. I have been writing (Greece and Rome: a new model of antiquity [Link]), running experiments in fieldwork (Project Borderlands [Link]), exploring applied archaeology (with a host of organizations and corporations), asking questions of the proper role of the academic, the researcher, the scholar. In this contemporary…

automobility past and future

Project: Future of Mobility. [Link] Cars – Accelerating the Modern World An exhibition at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London Running into February 2020. The exhibition is one of the very first in a major international museum to acknowledge the extraordinary significance of the automobile, as its design, engineering, and significance evolve. There’s a…

update – summer 2016

The book on Greece and Rome with Gary (Devore) [Link] is close to being done. We’ve chosen to offer a quite different kind of account of antiquity and we’re delighted with the scope of its underlying model and perspective (archaeological and focused on the topic of membership of body politic). It’s the success of our…

Edsel Ford and a 1915 Model T – automotive archaeology

Mark Gessler and the team from the Historic Vehicle Association of America called in to Stanford’s Revs Program today on their epic trip from Detroit to San Francisco in a 1915 Model T Ford [Link] (Click on the photos for full evocative resolution) They’re following the tracks of Edsel Ford who took a Model T…

Pebble Beach 2015 – history as advocacy

Yesterday I was again at Pebble Beach Concours d’Élegance – that rather exclusive and impressive gathering of car collectors and connoisseurs [Link] I was there to wind up our Stanford class concerned with the historical significance of the automobile (Jon Feiber, David Kelley, Reilly Brennan and myself running ME200). Since April we have been debating…

Tom Matano on timeless design

Our Revs Program class on judging the historical significance of artifacts – cars – is in flow [Link] This afternoon we were joined by Tom Matano – designer of the Mazda Miata and the RX 7 – two timeless classics. And this was his subject – what makes design “timeless”? For Tom it comes down…