We welcome submissions for the WAC session “Experience, modes of engagement, archaeology”. This session is co-organized by Matt Ratto (Sweden/Canada), Krysta Ryzewski (US), and Michelle Charest (US/Ireland), and will be part of the Theme: Archaeological Theory? Legacies, Burdens, Futures, organized by Andrew Cochrane, Ian Russell, Timothy Webmoor, and Christopher Witmore. We invite presentations that critically examine archaeological experience and modes of engagement; we aim to include a broad range of perspectives and approaches.
Session Abstract:
Are multimedia, information technologies, digital visualizations and web 2.0 forums indispensable (or quickly becoming so) to the 21st century archaeologist’s toolkit? Are they as instrumental as “older” analog or paper-based technologies, such as 35mm film, 16mm tape, and printed maps? This session embraces emergent, analog and paper-based media and moves beyond the observation that they can be important tools of practice by demonstrating how they affect practice and theory. Participants will employ multimedia approaches to ask, how are archaeology and heritage experienced by archaeologists and/or non-archaeologists? And, how do these archaeologies of experience impact our practices, interpretations, and theoretical agendas?

Clockwise from bottom left: WWII graffiti by RAF and USAF in Eagle Pub, Cambridge (UK); Megan Goetsch participates in a peripatetic video (click here); Excavating the African Meeting House, Boston; Historical Postcard from Mexico; the Archive.
The session places emphasis on experience documented through media. This emphasis raises questions about: archaeology and digital representation, the creation and destruction of archaeological information, authenticity in reconstructions/interpretations, how archaeologists create their own identities, how archaeology affects non-archaeologists, the non-linearity of archaeological practice, the documenting of individual histories, and how the three dimensionality of multimedia recording affects contextual relationships of materials. By approaching archaeology through the lens of experience it is possible to blend the traditionally divided realms of theory and practice. This session works with the interrelated agendas of the present, and the changing pace and character of archaeology in the future. Participants are strongly encouraged to offer creative, non-traditional, or multimedia conference presentations.

Deadline for abstracts submission: 22 February 2008.
Confirmation of accepted papers & posters: 14 March 2008.
For further information see the WAC-6 website. Website for WAC-6: http://www.ucd.ie/wac-6/
Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions!
Contact Info for Session Co-chairs:

Krysta Ryzewski – Krysta_Ryzewski@brown.edu
(Anthropology / Archaeology – Brown University, USA)
Matt Ratto – matt.ratto@gmail.com
(HUMlab & History of Ideas – University of Umea, Sweden, current / University of Toronto, 2008)
Michelle Charest – Michelle_Charest@brown.edu
(Anthropology / Archaeology – Brown University, USA)