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November 2, 2009Michael Shanks' intervention into Tara 2009
Michael Shanks has intervened in the proceedings of the Tara 2009 Symposium at UCD via iChat from Stanford University. You can read his paper here: http://documents.stanford.edu/MichaelShanks/400 ------------------------- Ian Russell - www.iarchitectures.com June 16, 2009The release of Michael Shanks' The Archaeological Imagination
"Archaeology is a way of acting and thinking—about what is left of the past, about the temporality of what remains, about material and temporal processes to which people and their goods are subject, about the processes of order and entropy, of making, consuming and discarding at the heart of human experience. These elements, and the practices that archaeologists follow to uncover them, is the essence of the archaeological imagination. In this extended essay, renowned archaeological theorist Michael Shanks offers his colleagues and students a window on this imaginative world of past and present and the creative role archaeology can play in uncovering it, analyzing it, and interpreting it." The book will be available 30 June, 2009 from Left Coast Press. May 7, 2009Archaeology: the discipline of things at Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) USMetamedia collaborators convened a session on 'Archaeology: the discipline of things' to discuss pressing matters of human concern. The theme of TAG US this year was 'The Future of Things'. With this in mind, the session explored the need to take things seriously. Under this broad theme, contributions focused in on the enmeshment of people and things in the archaeological record. Moving away from anthropocentric accounts of human engagement with the world around us, the acknowledgment that we have always been cyborgs capped the session with a discussion of the dire need to (as Michael Shanks put it) 'live humanely in a sustainable world'. More than ever, long term vision of humans' intimate involvement with the world is needed to ameliorate contemporary crises and anticipate the future of things. Archaeology is pivotal in this role. Find more details of the session, along with session abstract and contributed papers at Metamedia: here. April 3, 2009New Excavation Project with Metamedia: Hadrian’s Wall and the northern borders of empire
The excavation of Binchester Roman Fort 2009 An International Field School and Master Class Next summer begins a major archaeological project focused on the northern edges of the Roman empire in Britain. An international team drawn principally from Durham University UK and Stanford California will be excavating the Roman fort and town at Binchester and surveying its place in one of the richest archaeological landscapes in the world. Durham University’s professional excavation unit is a key partner. Students on the field school will gain first hand experience of UK professional archaeological practice, widely acknowledged as a world leader. The project master class will be involve on-site seminars and workshops with expert visitors, exploring matters of cutting edge concern in archaeology and cultural heritage. March 2, 2009Call for Papers for the 2009 Society for Social Study of Science (4S)Technique-ology of Governmentality: Mapping a Modern Legacy With the advent of the InfoTech and digital technologies, the technologies of governance have transformed but the techniques of governmentality have remained unchanged. The new technologies of governmentality may have increased the efficacy of bureaucracy, however the technique of bureaucratic structure is still significantly Weberian. Modalities of technologies have allowed contemporary state apparatus in the form of e-governance (for instance) to strengthen the link between the state and the citizens. This active technological collaboration between the two has been framed in a democratic rhetoric of enhanced governance. Technological intervention has ensured neo-liberal values as accountability, transparency and responsiveness to be the new mantras for governments to succeed. Technology being a supposedly value “neutral” scientific register has purportedly circumvented parochial petty politics and has transformed governance into a seemingly more democratic political process. Yet, the notions of surveillance that underscore these “techniques” of governmentality are not new. Continue reading "Call for Papers for the 2009 Society for Social Study of Science (4S) " » February 11, 2009Robert Horn visualizes climate change and governance
Robert Horn, senior research fellow at Stanford University and author of several books on what the visual does for collaboration, communication and thinking, shared his work on climate change and governance at the Stanford Strategy Center at the Metamedia Lab on January 14. He works in an advisory capacity for international organizations tackling this pressing common matter of concern. His role is to visualize the issues involved in order to facilitate understanding and collaboration for effective action. Information design. His 'timeline-flowchart' of this global problem is irreducible to text and graphs. Why? Bob Horn has been at the forefront of thinking about visual media and its unique role in carrying knowledge. January 14, 2009Archaeology, sustainable design and 'carware'. Chrysler releases concept car drawing on Metamedia consultation.Archaeology's insight into the long-term has always appealed on an intellectual level. But what is archaeology's relevance to the future? Does archaeology play a role outside of satisfying sheer curiosity? We already know that archaeology's contributions to the 'the lessons of history' are ignored and we are doomed to repeat our mistakes - especially when it comes to fiscal lessons. Sustainable design for the future, incorporating archaeology's long-term expertise, is where the discipline may have a wider societal impact.
Chrysler recently showcased a concept car at the Detroit Auto Show. The design of the vehicles uConnect 'carware' drew on a research project run by the Metamedia Lab. Along with hybrid technologies, the car offers a "seamless, harmonious link between the vehicle and the home or your office" - social software and beyond. "200C EV is a plug-in hybrid sedan that uses ENVI's Range-extended Electric Vehicle technology, and the car boasts some great numbers and the looks to match: a 40-mile all-electric range, a 400-mile range with a full charge of the lithium-ion battery and a full tank, and a top speed of over 120 miles-per-hour. Since you could be on the road for quite a while in a vehicle like this, Chrysler thought the interior should be appealing; at the very least, it's high-tech. Chrysler's new uConnect information/entertainment system brings the internet, your iPhone, your home digital media and pretty much every digital sink you can think of into a car. There's a touch screen tablet in the glove box that lets the passengers control all sorts of navigation or music/internet options." Read more of the review at the autoBloggreen. December 1, 2008The Art of Participation. SFMOMA features work of new media artist Lynn Hershman Leeson and Stanford's Metamedia and Humanities Labs' Life² Project in SecondLife
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has put on an exhibition entitled November 12, 2008Metamedia Collaborator Wins 'Best Director' Award for Feature Film/Battles Censorship
Ashish Chadha's feature film Nirakar Chayya, or Shadows Formless, won the Best Director & Best Actress Award at the 8th Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival held in New York between 5-9th November. See the Press Release. Nirakar Chayya won the two awards in a festival which had films like– Deepa Mehta's "Heaven and Earth", Shyam Benegal's "Bose", Ketan Mehta's "Rang Rasiya", Adoor Gopal Krishnan's "Four Women" and others. The jury of the film festival consisted of film scholars, curator from Museum of Modern Art, local film critics, film festival directors and filmmakers from New York. Nirakar Chhaya, which was made at a less than shoestring budget of less than Rs. 20 lakhs, was able to win the top prizes competing with films, which had a budget of 100 times more. The production of the film started in 2003 and it took 4 years to finish the film. The film was made from the money saved by Ashish Avikunthak from his scholarship money that he got as a Phd student at Stanford University. The film saw its world premiere at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. It has also been shown at the International Film Festival Innsbruck, Austria 2008 and at Singapore International Film Festival 2008.
August 19, 2008Visualization and Knowledge Formation in Archaeology. A conference hosted by the University of Southampton and English Heritage
Visualisation in Archaeology has been established in order to provide a ‘space’ in which high quality research can be undertaken around interrelated themes centred on visual communication in archaeology. To this end the project team comprises a robust cross-section of specialists drawn from different fields of study to critically explore the production, the form and the organisational power of images in archaeology and to re-think the boundaries of that exploration. After building from our practical experience in agile design running an archaeology media lab for over 6 years, and helping organize inter-disciplinarian seminars on Visualizing Knowledge and Critical Studies in New Media Mellon, it is great to see other archaeologists take a keen and critical interest in the media-archaeology conjunction. Timothy Webmoor of the Metamedia Lab will present the case for mediation. While visual media, informatics and computing are still imagined to be peripheral to the discipline, the transformative work on the past we accomplish with them is central to archaeology. This is because archaeology is traditionally thought of as a 'down and dirty' profession, done 'out there' in the field; archaeologists equally at home before a bookshelf or a mountain. Yet, for a set of closely related reasons (epistemological and ontological), it is especially beholden to technological desires. Why? By some accounts, bridging the gap of 'record' to generalization, technology, specifically the tried-and-true instruments of technoscience, assures the objectivity of 'second order observations'. The complex, polysemous and rich quality of archaeological materials could be transformed through instruments' reproducible procedures into 'data'. They are neutral devices. We can count with/on them. Consequently, the process of visualization, as an algorithmic alchemy, has come to play an important role in warranting archaeological knowledge. Secondly, at the end of the day (or fieldwork season) we need something to point to when we make our claims. Visual media serve as 'stand-fors' the vestiges of the past. This is particularly so with a discipline that irrevocably transforms through archaeological excavation and survey. Often all that remain at-hand are our visual media. These outputs of visualization become the guarantors of what was once 'out there'; the anchors to what we say. These two roles for visualization commit archaeology to a strong belief in a correspondence theory of truth; media-as-mimesis. Much recent scholarship from across the academy, though, highlights a more pragmatic view; media-as-prosthesis. What binds visual practices together from across disciplines, and indeed cultures, may have less to do with visually transcribing the world than working on the world. Visualization not as representation - an expressive fallacy - but as mediation. The implications are that selective fidelity, imaginative dissonance and low resolution may be more important principles for visualization than would be expected. Underscoring these principles is the example of new media and the ‘platform shift’ arising from Web 2.0. Rather than ‘high res’, mimetic renderings, new media technology aims to satisfy a different suite of functionalities: user-generated content, mixing and mashups, database proliferation, customization and collaborative architectures. Second Life, an open source, partially immersive 3-D environment already hosting several archaeological re-creational sites, is emblematic of just such a visual logic of mediation. Overall, the digital turn in both society and the discipline portends a user-centered role for visualization; a personal and pragmatic use that converges with the ‘paradigm shift’ toward greater public participation and outreach in heritage management. More information about the conference can be found at The University of Southampton website. |
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