It was while searching for an appropriate symbol or image for the cover of a new book on ethnographies of archaeological practice that I encountered Janus – the Roman god of doors and gates. I was specifically looking for something in ancient material symbolism that encapsulated the idea of looking both inwards and outwards at…
symmetry
Tim Ingold on categories of material against materiality
Thanks to Ruth Tringham, Tim Webmoor and I had the opportunity to have lunch and coffee yesterday with Tim Ingold, a Professor of Anthropology and Head of the Department at the University of Aberdeen. Ingold is well known as a creative thinker across both anthropology and archaeology. Much of his work is on human perception…
Unpacking a thing: a map from “Ten things – science, technology and design” February 23, 2006
I gave a lecture for Michael Shank’s Ten things class yesterday. I laid out a road map for taking a thing and unpacking it. I offered examples from my own work with maps. But in the lecture I worked closely with Bruno Latour’s excellent thesis (which pulls together work by S. Alpers, E. Eisenstein and…
A comment on “A Symmetrical Archaeology at TAG”
Some thoughts and feedback on the Symmetrical Archaeology Session at TAG This was a great session. The room was packed, with all seats taken and people sitting on the stairs – testifying to the topicality and importance of the topics discussed. The papers were stimulating and thought provoking, and it was only a pity that…
A Symmetrical Archaeology at Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG), Sheffield, UK
The first installment of A Symmetrical Archaeology was organized as a full session at the TAG gathering in Sheffield, UK (December 19-21). Organized by Bjornar Olsen, Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor and Christopher Witmore – spearheaded by Chris – the session brought together an international and trans-disciplinary group of thinkers to present a Manifesto for Symmetry…
Archaeology meets science studies head on at 4S
Matt Ratto, Michael Shanks and Christopher Witmore organized a session at the Society for Social Studies of Science conference in Pasadena, CA this past weekend (October 20-22). The conference focus was on “The Representation of Controversial Objects: New Methods of Displaying the Unruly and the Anomalous in Science and Technology Studies.” Here is the abstract…