Archaeolog

The second installment of A Symmetrical Archaeology was organized as a full session at the Society for American Archaeology at San Juan, Puerto Rico (April 26-30th). Organized by Timothy Webmoor with Bjørnar Olsen, Michael Shanks, and Christopher Witmore, the session brought together an international and trans-disciplinary group of thinkers to present a Manifesto for Symmetry in archaeology and the human sciences.

With few exceptions archaeology under-theorized its relationship to the material past prior to Clarke's 'loss of innocence'. Subsequently, a burgeoning 'theory literature' has attempted to systematize the relations between human behaviour and material culture. We argue that the resultant 'turns'/diatribe characterizing recent archaeological thinking derives from the shared, humanist presupposition of a radical division between people and things. In accentuating links and crossovers with technoscience studies and empirical philosophy, this session seeks to re-characterize archaeology's unique role in studying mixtures of humans (behaviour) and material things. Such a 'symmetry' of people-things forefronts archaeology in an inclusive 'ecology' of 'naturecultures'.

Joining the organizers were:

Dan Hicks, Dept. of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, UK
Alfredo Ruibal, Archaeology Center and MetaMedia Labs, Stanford University
John Schofield, English Heritage, UK

More information on the Symmetrical platform of a discipline of things may be found at 'Events and Articles' @ http://traumwerk.stanford.edu:3455/Symmetry/814.

Steve Mills is over from Cardiff to work with me on a collaborative project exploring ideas to do with senses of place at Catalhoyuk and how we can use different media to disseminate these ideas. At present we are experimenting with sound and video walks at the site.

Our aim is to develop other modes of engaging with place, memory, sensation, and bodily experience through the use of video cameras and iPods.

Having done a series of video/sound walks at Catalhoyuk we are now working on integrating these in an interface that enables us to explore senses of place through different scenarios. One scenario is based on archaeological information - an approach similar to information panels encountered on site. Another scenario considers the role of the senses when touring the site and how they are integral to the experience of engagement; how they may be complementary in certain instances and perhaps contradictory in others. A third sceanrio considers memory; how previous engagement (as a visitor or as an archaeologist) with the site may be influential in subsequent encounters. Another scenario may embrace performance.

We are now brain-storming an interface metaphor that enables us to integrate different media (e.g. video, sound recordings, photograhy, text) to stitch these scenarios together.