Arthouse BAJR?

[BAJR Host]

http://www.bajr.org/temp.asp

well... I do try to push boundaries in archaeology.. I enjoyed creating this piece with images and music that reflect the strange life of the buildings archaeologist - often walking alone (or in piars of course... with H&S) through empty factories and Mills, derelict farms and disused hospitals (one comes to my mind!! - Nothing like spending Christmas Eve recording a mortuary!))

Is there a place to present archaeology in a more contemporary manner? is it already there? do people want to try it themselves... sign on to http://www.vuvox.com and create your own free account.. I have Mario Klingemann to thanks for taking me down this new path... I have always been interested in music (sound samples) and photographic images.. this seemed a brilliant way of releasing the creativity...

OR

should I lay off the juice?



"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Sith]

Very interesting and keep up the good work. I particularly liked the slightly disturbing music. It reminded me of some of the industrial sites I've visited over the years including in ascending order of weirdness, the obligatory former hospital, a shipyard and a motballed prison.

I'm also sure that someone has exhibited 'archaeological art' although I'll be blowed if I can remember who it was or where.


D. Vader
Senior Consultant

Vader Maull & Palpatine
Archaeological Consultants

Your powers are weak, Curator

[monitor lizard]

In 2000 there was this on the Thames and the Tate. too big to post here in full, but here's a selection:

Mark Dion is an American artist whose work incorporates aspects of archaeology, ecology and detection. He is fascinated by the principles of taxonomy, the systems of classification by which people have sought to bring order to the world. Dion has been particularly influenced by the work undertaken by nineteenth-century naturalists, such as Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace, co-founders of the theory of natural selection. His own investigations 'have led him to construct laboratories and experiments and to embark on expeditions to the tropics.

During the summer Dion, and a team of volunteers drawn from local community groups, combed the foreshore of the Thames at low tide along two stretches of beach, at Millbank and Bankside. The finds from these two very different sites were meticulously cleaned and classified in archaeologists' tents on the lawn of Tate Gallery, Millbank. In the course of this process a profile of the city was built up through its one constant, and reason for being, the river.

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitio...fault.shtm

If you click on the flash drive section on the left, there's a lot of detail on the exhibition and the thinking behind it.

I remember going to see it - and it did work really well.

Cheers
ML

[BAJR Host]

Ah.... I remember.... and I even saw it at the Tate (you see I do cross the border sometimes!)

I found it fascinating... and the 'fake' archaeology tent cleaning and classification... though thats actually what we do? crosses boundaries...

very interesting...

thanks for that... and Sith (as one who has walked in the dark places) you know ... I watch this now.. and get disturbed every time... is that right!



"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[John Walford]

Further to this thread, I just thought I'd flag up the Segsbury Art project, for anyone who might be interested. This was a collaboration, about 10 years ago, between an artist, Simon Callery, and the Institute of Archaeology at Oxford. There are a few details of the work online at

http://www.contemporary-magazine.com/reviews52_1.htm

and one or two pictures at

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitio...mages.shtm (scroll down past the pictures of blank canvasses)

I can't say that the work does anything for me. I tend to agree with Andrew Selkirk who, having seen it exhibited in the Coxwell tithe barn, wrote '...there were those who felt that the exhibition was a candidate for the Pseud of the Year award; however the barn was nice'.

John

"Hidden wisdom and buried treasure, what use is there in either?" (Ecclesiasticus ch20 v30)

[tmsarch]

During the Whitefriars "Big Dig" excavations in Canterbury the developer Land Securities employed an artist in residence who created a number of permanent and temporary installations linked to archaeology. The artist - Janet Hodgeson - was interested in the 'artistry of archaeology and the archaeological record'. One of the permanent installations consists of sandblasted drawings in the york stone paving of the new Whitefriars Square. Janet was interested in how the archaeologist 'drew time' and as such decided to copy the site plans at 1:1 of all rubbish pits in their original location. The plans were copied exactly - including any annotation or jottings made by the archaeologist on the originals.

There was also a book produced about the installation known as 'The Pits'. It is very interesting to see people stop and look down trying to make sense of the lines inscribed beneath their feet, and even more interesting to hear people 'knowingly' telling others what the lines represent and getting it completely wrong. Of course there is also the satisfaction of walking through the square thinking 'I drew that'!