historical significance

Does it matter – historically speaking? Just what does that mean? I am helping David Kelley, Jon Feiber, Reilly Brennan, Cliff Nass and our friends in the Revs Program with a class that is exploring the nature of historical significance. In d.school style we are asking the class to come up with the answers. Just…

Ghosts in the Mirror

I was quite pleased with the special Blurb edition of the review of theatre/archaeology that Mike Pearson and I just published (good quality imagery, reasonable typography and layout) [Link] [Link] So I ran up a new portfolio of my rephotographed daguerreotypes – “Ghosts in the Mirror”. Ghosts in the Mirror by Michael Shanks   Here…

Pearson|Shanks

Mike and I have published a special edition of the review of Theatre/Archaeology, our work over the last twenty years, that’s about to appear in the forthcoming survey of art and archaeology edited by Andy Cochrane and Ian Russell (Springer 2013). Theatre/Archaeology: return and prospect Pearson|Shanks 1993–2013 by Mike Pearson and Michael Shanks

speed

Cliff Nass and I have started our seminar – Cars: past, present, future. The project – automotive archaeology. This week – motor sports. Speed as zeitgeist. I am rereading Jeffrey Schnapp’s wonderful collection Speed Limits. Here is Marinetti – February 1909: We affirm that the magnificence of the world has been enriched by the advent…

connoisseurship of the car

I am back from an extraordinary symposium at Miles Collier’s Revs Institute in Florida, exploring the world of collectable cars at this end of an era. The engine note, the feedback through steering wheel from rubber tyre grip, the scent of warm motor oil, the conversation by the gas station on the road trip, will be history…

Thessaloniki – physiognomy

Mike Pearson and I have started a new collaboration around theatre/archaeology – the rearticulation of fragments of the past as real time event – [Link] to a prospectus. As part of this revival I am reviewing some of my photography projects from the last three decades, explaining and adding commentary. Many are at archaeographer.com. I…