In Sweden, Gothenburg, for Fiona Campbell and Jonna Ulin, defending their joint PhD Dissertation, Borderline Archaeology. Fiona on Labyrinths; Jonna on family archaeology. And performance to deal with both. A remarkable combination And manifested also in a great web site – where you can get the book. This is a site that aims to bridge…
posts – matters of design
media archaeologies – Iraq
Jack (Mitchell) in my Classics Department here at Stanford came out with a great point about all the imagery of abuse coming out of Iraq. [Link] The digital image has a material force – the image itself, maybe borrowing its authority from the materiality of analogue photography, affects. The image is pre-discursive – that is,…
iconoclasm and the objective art historian – the case of the Bamiyan Buddhas
Nice remark from Jack (Mitchell) about the Taliban’s art criticism: I quite agree with these remarks on the Taliban and their Stinger missiles (the instruments of their art criticism, if I recall correctly). The fact remains, however, that if the Taliban genuinely believed in iconoclasm, and it seems they did believe in it, the one…
Cantor Arts Center – half-century of support
The Cantor Arts Center celebration last Saturday [Link] made it to the San Jose Mercury today – [Link] There are details here of who was involved.
neolithic miniature figurines
Doug Bailey has finished his study of neolithic figurines from south east Europe – a fascinating treatment that ranges from early farmers to Barbi Dolls – a superb comparative work in visual culture. He presents a much needed correction to Maria Gimbutas’s fantasy treatment. It will be published by Routledge very soon. The way archaeology…
Bamiyan Buddhas in context
– iconoclasm and closed minds A thoughtful piece in the New York Times today by Roberta Smith Critic’s Notebook: Why Attack Art? Its Role Is to Be Helpful (Thanks to Tom Seligman for the link) In 2001 an international outcry met the Taliban’s destruction of two colossal Buddhas at Bamian in Afghanistan. The Buddhas were…