Fractured Media

It has been a long time since my last update, and I’m finally looking forward to getting things back on track.  I spent part of the summer at the incredible site of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, working with a team of researchers and artists from Southampton and elsewhere specialising in visualisation.  The experience, the people, the location, the archaeology and everything else were phenomenal — I can’t say that enough.

The 40/40 shelter at Çatalhöyük. Photo by me.

Immediately upon returning I had to submit about 1/2 of the written text of my PhD thesis and orally defend it in front of two examiners.  This went smoothly, but minutes later the new academic semester started and, along with it, came teaching, preparation for the upcoming VIA workshop, and various other tasks that have kept me overwhelmed.

Among these tasks was the editing of an article that I presented last year at WAC 6 in Dublin.  It has just materialised in ‘Online First’ form in the journal Archaeologies: “Fractured Media: Challenging the Dimensions of Archaeology’s Typical Visual Modes of Engagement.” (It will appear in final published fashion in the December issue of the journal.)  Unfortunately, the article is not open access, however there is a *very* early draft stuck on the WAC 6 website.  I debated whether to ask that this rough version be removed from the web — but then I realised that it simply represents the genealogy of my own thinking and thus it would be antithetical to my argument if I demanded that it be taken down.  The final document is a bit more refined than the draft — and benefits from the input of multiple reviewers — however the basic premise of reflexive visual engagement and conscious attempts to intervene on, and disrupt, pictorial display has not changed.  Owing to copyright, only one of the images can be seen here.  I obviously feel uncomfortable about this since the imagery is actually inseparable from my point.  But, to compensate, I’ll be experimenting with some of the same ideas on this blog in the future; and I can send out pdf copies of the full, image-replete article to anyone who is interested!

The VIA workshop takes place next week, so I hope to give an update on it soon afterwards…

Visualisation in Archaeology Workshop 2009

The call-for-papers for the upcoming, October 2009 Visualisation in Archaeology (VIA) workshop has just been released, and I’ve included a copy of it at the end of this post.

While I’ve admittedly played some role in organising these forums, I think it’s fair to say that last year’s workshop was a very rich, exciting and intellectually-productive experience.  Virtually every contributor to the 2008 event submitted follow-up evaluative feedback which was uniformly enthusiastic and constructive.  Multiple presenters have commented online about the success of the workshop, including Colleen Morgan via her Middle Savagery blog, and Tim Webmoor through the VIA post on Archaeolog.  All of this input has directly informed our final report to English Heritage; but, more importantly, it has been used to shape and critically target this year’s event.

With that in mind, the CFP follows.  Building on the 2008 workshop, of especial significance are specific case studies of visualisation in practice — in the field, in the classroom, in museums, heritage contexts, technical reports and other publications, on the web and within the commercial unit.  The tensions, the taken-for-granteds, the possibilities but also the pitfalls of this practical work are key themes for the 2009 two-day workshop in Southampton in October…

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2009 VIA Workshop

Visualisation In Context: An Interplay of Practice and Theory

22-23 October 2009

University of Southampton

Call for Papers

The 2009 VIA Workshop is designed to probe intersections between theory (which might traditionally be represented in terms of critique — linear and written) and practice (which might increasingly be expressed in terms of production — non-linear and visual) within the field of archaeology as well as other disciplines from the humanities and the sciences. Whilst tensions can exist between practice and theory arising from the perceived role of practice as providing a reservoir of images for exploitation, critical engagement with images can provide for the contextualisation of visualisations and the processes linked to their construction. The 2009 VIA Workshop will concern itself with this productive and positive interplay between production and critique.

Against the 2009 VIA Workshop’s overall theme – Visualisation in Context: An Interplay of Practice and Theory — attention will be called to arenas of practice encompassing the commercial, the academic, and the institutional in light of an historic examination of the triangulation between technology, training, and the process of visualisation. Where applicable, sessions will be open to papers featuring a strong project base or by referencing practical case-studies.

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Session Information

Session 1:

The Role of Pedagogy and Enskilling in Visual Practice

Chair: Stephanie Moser

This session will explore both the scholarly and the practical provision of visuality-related studies and their relative impact on past, present and future ways of visual-thinking and visual-doing. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, questions such as who undertakes training, what are their competencies, what education/training provision is being offered, why it is being offered, etc; the effects on visualising practice of professional development by way of accredited in-service training programmes; imperatives of identifying skills provision and defining skills levels in the visual domain; and, unravelling tensions between the academy and the workplace.

Session 2:

Toward A Virtual Archaeology?

Chair: Steve Woolgar (tbc)

As the shift in information and communication technologies continues apace, the unimagined possibilities for producing and distributing the results of scholarly research, compared to only a few years ago, demands that the profession examine the rationale and consequences of unanimously adopting technology as an organising principle. Technology is now challenging traditional structures of knowledge production, information exchange, work processes, and educational goals. The likelihood is that we are, all of us, chasing technology — but to what end? Contributors to this session are invited to assess, amongst other things, the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the work place, the academy, and in a wider social setting with particular emphasis on who benefits from the adoption of visual-related digital technologies and why; how visualising technology is actually used and by whom; and, which communities are intended to benefit from the promises of ICT and how is the benefit realised?

Session 3:

Mapping the Effects of Digital Technology on Visualising Process

Chair: Simon James

The digital work environment has profoundly shifted all aspects of working practice, no less so than in the graphics office. This session invites contributions from practitioners and researchers and seeks to examine interactions between image-makers and digital technologies, as well as their resulting effects on the process of image generation; how digital technologies (re)shape our visual engagement with the material world; the impact of theory on the utilisation of digital technology; and, historic perspectives on traditional and digital methods in image-making. Contributors are encouraged to centre their papers on visual material from recent or current projects.

Session 4:

(Inter)Play of Practice and Theory: Case Studies

Chair: Sam Smiles

This session seeks to present papers in the form of case studies which highlight those instances where imaging technologies (whether material or virtual) have been actively involved in shaping comprehension, thus contributing to investigation and analysis in ways that cannot be replicated by other discursive forms (principally textual). Joint papers are invited from contributors who together demonstrate either a practice or a research background, thereby fostering collaborative approaches to the challenges of analysing visual practice and method. An historical dimension to this session will be encouraged by case studies featuring print-based publication and/or digital-based dissemination. Although not a requirement of the session, participants are encouraged to share reflections on their own work and place it in context of their expectations for future developments in the multimedia production of professional and scholarly forms of dissemination.

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Programme

Thursday 22 October 2009

08.00 — 09.00  Registration and coffee

09.00 — 12.00  Session 1:

The Role of Pedagogy and Enskilling in Visual Practice

chair: Professor Stephanie Moser

12.00 – 14.00  Lunch

14.00 – 17.00  Session 2:

Toward A Virtual Archaeology?

chair: Professor Steve Woolgar

19.00               Evening meal

Friday 23 October 2009

08.00 – 09.00  Registration and coffee

09.00 – 12.00  Session 3:

Mapping the Effects of Digital Technology on Visualising Process

chair: Dr. Simon James

12.00 – 14.00  Lunch

14.00 – 17.00  Session 4:

(Inter)Play of Practice and Theory: Case Studies

chair: Professor Sam Smiles

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Abstract Submission

The 2009 VIA Workshop welcomes responses related to the themes identified in our current Call for Papers by providing:

- paper title;

- name and contact details (organisation, postal address, phone number and email);

- 250-300 word abstract;

- session

- brief identifying statement about yourself;

- possible technical requirements for your presentation.

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Dates and Deadlines

14 August 2008 – Final deadline for abstracts submission.

25 August 2008 – Notification of acceptance.

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Submission Guidelines

Submission of abstracts will be entirely electronic and mailed to:

garry.gibbons@viarch.org.uk

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Accommodation

Workshop participants will be provided with local hotel accommodation. Breakfast, lunch, evening meal and workshop refreshments will also be provided. Transport will be arranged between the hotel and university. Car parking will be available at the hotel.

Institutionalisation and the History of Archaeology

I have been amazed by the power of blogging in terms of its ability to connect and initiate conversations between people who may never have previously interacted.  I hesitated for a long time over the potential hazards of blogs, but (so far) my fears have proven unfounded, and — more than this — had I yielded to them, I think my scholarship would have suffered.

My last post about archaeological illustration introduced me to several fantastic people who share my interests and who will likely make great contributions to the VIA project and to archaeology overall.  It also generally confirmed my sense of the lack of meaningful literature on illustrative traditions in the discipline.  I’m still in search of more references, so please do send any along!

I’ve been busy for the past month with end-of-term activities and thesis-writing.  My research of late has concentrated on the establishment of the Institute of Archaeology at London University (now at UCL).  As seems always to be the case for me, the Institute’s history has barely been analysed, and the pertinent archives, as well as the few relevant reports (which include a series of short comments from former pupils and faculty in Archaeology International), are scattered around (if not entirely inaccessible).  While often frustrated about the state of knowledge on the Institute (not to mention on academic institutionalisation generally), I’ve had wonderful experiences travelling across the country to speak with students who studied for the Institute’s postgrad diploma in its early days (between the late 1930s and the 1950s).

What’s especially fascinating about this research is the response with which it is typically greeted (particularly from current practitioners). Because my interests lie in processes and practices of visualisation (a topic that often, but ironically, tends to go unseen), the standard reaction is usually ‘you won’t find much.’  However, as my PhD is slowly piecing together, this response is deeply flawed and testifies to why archaeologists need to invest in more rigorous and astute disciplinary histories. For practitioners to suggest that visual media have little presence in archaeology’s past is to perpetuate seriously distorted views of the discipline and to fundamentally misunderstand archaeological practice.  The history of the Institute of Archaeology provides one very clear example of the embroilment of the visual in institutional development.  I’ll update this post with findings from my research — and from my related studies — as they continue to unfold.  So too am I looking forward to publishing these results over the upcoming year in a couple of academic journal articles!!

Archaeological Illustration Literature

Archaeological Illustration by Ian Kirkpatrick www.iankirkpatrick.ca

Three or four times over the past month (!) I’ve been confronted with the need to track down literature on the historical development of archaeological illustration. This is a research topic that I can find only a handful of papers on, and I’m wondering now if it is just a seriously understudied subject matter (which, to some extent, I suspect it is) or if I’m simply not looking in the right places for relevant texts.  Those that repeatedly pop up in my literature review include Piggott’s (1978) Antiquity Depicted, Bradley’s (1997) article in The Cultural Life of Images, Lewuillon’s (2002) article in Antiquity, and several others (by Piggott, Lucas, Smiles, Dixon, etc.) scattered around in various journals and edited volumes.

I’d love to hear of other published or unpublished literature on the subject.  References to in-progress work would also be much appreciated.

Presentations and more presentations

The past month has been incredibly busy. I delivered four research presentations in five weeks, and have been involved in the final stages of editing a couple of upcoming publications which I’m very excited about (in Archaeologies and the Archaeological Review from Cambridge).

Experimenting with the archaeological eye... Slide from HARN conference presentation

The abstracts from our HARN conference are available here — the event was a great success and we anticipate that it will lead to publication of some of the presenters’ papers in early 2010.  Our next conference will likely take place in September in Oxford.

The students from the MA in Archaeological Illustration course at Swindon College were fantastic — it was great to interact with, and learn from, full-time, skilled image makers whose ideas and energy around visual presentation, illusion and manipulation are so intellectually productive and yet so often neglected by archaeological professionals.

This next month brings a lot of work related to my PhD and VIA.  In reference to the latter, I’m always on the lookout for new additions to the VIA research showcase, so do let me know of projects that might complement VIA’s aims.