February 24, 2008
Moviemaking at Çatalhöyük
Ruth and I are giving the Berkeley brown bag this Wednesday; it should be fun. I wish I had more time to make movies.
Entries from February 2008
February 23, 2008
Building Archaeological Narratives With New Media
Advances in social media allow archaeologists to interpret, transmit, and remix archaeological data in new and exciting ways. In engaging with these new technologies, archaeologists reflexively interact with the archaeological record and with the greater public. Along with this expanded potential there are considerable problems when these new technologies are applied without an [...]
February 22, 2008
GET REAL: A Manifesto for Virtual Reality in Archaeology
Submitted to the “Experience, modes of engagement, archaeology” session organized by Krysta Ryzewski, Matt Ratto and Michelle Charest.
Virtual reality has been a “killer app” within the realm of archaeological computing, as evident from the number of books, journals, and conferences dedicated to the subject. Though often presented as a single entity, virtual reality is [...]
February 20, 2008
Taters of the Lost Ark
I love that his idol is another potato head.
More Indiana Jones toys here.
February 20, 2008
3 Year Snakebite Anniversary
My friend John (nickname: “Lucky”) is celebrating his third year since he was bitten by a rattlesnake on a survey. We were in Brownsville, investigating a possible Mexican-American War battleground/retreat path:
It was lunchtime, and Tina and Colleen went with Rigden down the road to a gas station to use the bathroom. I decided to [...]
February 18, 2008
Postproduction
“In The Practice of Everyday Life, the astonishing structuralist Michel de Certeau examines the hidden movements beneath the surface of the Production-Consumption pair, showing that far from being purely passive, the consumer engages in a set of processes comparable to an almost clandestine, “silent” production. To use an object is necessarily to interpret it. To [...]
February 17, 2008
Lightwriting
This photo of a “Indiana Harbor Belt R.R. switchman demonstrating signal with a fusee, used at twilight and dawn when visibility is poor” was taken in 1943, and found on Shorpy.com. Click on it to view the incredible beauty of the full size.
These traces of light are so evocative and so ephemeral–as anyone who ran [...]
February 16, 2008
Future Nostalgia
Last week after class I went to hunt down the ruins of the observatory here on campus. One of the assignments in Introduction to Archaeology was for the students to use a 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance map of campus and use pedestrian survey to assess which buildings were still visible on campus. [...]
February 14, 2008
Cheer Up, Blue Valentine
Here’s a bit of light-hearted entertainment for those suffering from the blues on Valentine’s Day…or the rest of us who are just motoring through the semester:
The new Indiana Jones trailer:
The 10,000 BC(E) trailer:
A good reason to keep your contexts clear, reported by the Moore Group:
And a bit of humor in the lolcats genre:
February 13, 2008
WAC Facebook Announcement
I just posted this to the WAC group on Facebook and thought I’d share it more generally:
Hello,
We have had several CFPs for the upcoming World Archaeological Congress posted on our discussion board–I encourage you to check them out as the February 22 paper abstract deadline is fast approaching. Submit your paper topics to:
http://www.sharpsands.com/wac_6_papers_new/wac6_submit_papers.php
We are having [...]
