heritage industry

Paul Brown, Guardian environment correspondent writes of the scale of the heritage industry in the UK. The National Trust (owner of historic properties – from antiquity to yesterday – and of exceptional landscapes) – 3.3 million members, with new members signing up faster than the birth rate. 12.7 million visitors last year to paying sites…

memory, heritage, things and a sense of who we are

BBC magazine article today on the nostalgia business – it is big and growing. BMW’s new Mini – after the 60s icon – is very popular here in northern California. Raleigh’s 1970s “chopper” bicycle was relaunched last month. Now some people have a problem with all this – because they see nostalgia as some kind…

The perfume of garbage

Beginning work with Bill Rathje and David Platt on a paper for a special issue on archaeology and modernism for the journal Modernism/Modernity This is how we begin with the World Trade Center There is something profoundly archaeological about the experience of 9/11 and its aftermath. Less than a month after the attack a meeting…

Photographing the archaeological

I notice a few recent books by photographers who are into abandonment and decay – me monitoring sensitivity to the archaeological, as usual. I particularly like ReadyMades: American Roadside Artifacts by Jeff Brouws. — here are some drive-in movie screens Pictures of old pickup trucks, abandoned gas stations (he has a lovely series in black…