Mike Pearson died last week. It is quite a shock to his many friends and colleagues. I’m composing a tribute to his extraordinary qualities, talents, works. I hadn’t quite appreciated how much there is to say and it is taking longer than I anticipated. In the meantime here is a short statement that appears alongside…
Mike Pearson
Studio update – Spring 2022
This academic year I am on sabbatical leave finishing three long-running projects and planning to focus more on applications of the archaeological imagination to matters of common and pressing contemporary concern, especially through design foresight and futures literacy. This is why I have put to one side my critical commentary on all things archaeological and…
fictive realism – Ray Harryhausen’s model making
There’s an exhibition of the stop-motion animation of Ray Harryhausen running at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art – [Link]. I vividly remember first seeing his magical movies in the 60s and 70s. The infamous fighting skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1963); Pegasus the winged horse in Clash of the Titans (1981). Paul Noble…
In a world of things
A new video from Zoe Laughlin (Institute of Making), Mike Pearson (National Theatre of Wales), and John Rowley (artist, theatre maker, performer). Active matter, merging and fusions, processes and manipulations, experiences and immaterialities. An extraordinary exploration of lifeworld in times of viral pandemic. Watch out for our forthcoming “Thinking through Things” – [Link]
three synchronicities – different voices
Synchronicity – meaningful coincidence, where things align or connect without there being any proximate or apparent cause. A critical technique to open space for different voices – [Link]. One In a recent online lecture for Stanford Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a Classics professor at Princeton, told of a conference he was attending in Florida on the…
reenactment – dealing with pandemic
Responses to pandemic then and now! From the Ever After project at National Theatre Wales – Mike Pearson and Zoe Laughlin. Zoe [Link] is also Director of the marvelous Institute of Making at University College London [Link]. Mike: I thought you might appreciate the attached images. Following the death of her aunt, Zoe Laughlin spent…