What meaning cannot convey Two seven hundred year old mummies found in Peru – reported in the Sydney Morning Herald on 25 February [Link] A man of about 35 and a boy of 5. The man had one eye open and “you can see his eyeball. It’s perfectly preserved.” When the workers moved the body,…
ruins and remains
horror and disclosure – a scene of crime clings to its past
A couple in the UK are suing their home’s former owners for not disclosing that the house had been the scene of a murder twenty years ago. [Link] Dr Samson Perera, a dental biologist at Leeds University UK, murdered his adopted daughter, Nilanthie, in 1985 and buried the dismembered body around the house and garden….
the past clings
A reburial issue in San Francisco: SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco has finally found a resting place for the remains of nearly 100 Gold Rush-era residents unearthed three years ago during construction of the Asian Art Museum. Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, a small city with 17 cemeteries just south of San Francisco, has…
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…
Trafalgar Day
Trafalgar Day at Trafalgar Squarestanding on the steps of the National Galleryand walking to the Tate Modern Urban experience is one of layering narrative allegory spectacle intensity assemblage