Via Haidy Geismar, UCL The Science Museum Group Journal is a relatively new, and very exciting, open access journal that “provides an innovative voice in discussions worldwide about science and its history, material culture, communication, display and presentation in museums.” [Disclosure – I’m on the editorial board]. Recent issues include aContinue Reading
Every day this week, Radio Four will air “Objects of Desire” at 12.04, which explores some of the main concerns of Material Culture Studies: This is the story of how the things we accumulate around us say more than we might imagine about who we are. “The fate of the object,”Continue Reading
by Duane Jethro The beach is a place of waste and ruin. Rotting seaweed, stinking dead seals, cracked and crushed shells, deflated bluebottles, fat blobs of translucent jellyfish melting away in the sun. All the finished, broken things spewed out by the ocean. In early January, estate agent, Penny Sparrow’sContinue Reading
Haidy Geismar, UCL As I’m sure you are all aware, last week Vanuatu was devastated by Cyclone Pam, battering the country with winds of over 270 mph. The storm knocked out the country’s telecommunications and transport infrastructure and now, just a few days later, it is estimated that more then 70%Continue Reading
Earlier this year, artist George Butler spent several days in the refugees’ ‘tented settlements’ of northern Lebanon. His portraits of the people – and the often random possessions they brought with them when they fled their homes – tell their own poignant tales. Picture captions by Nick Rice. Read theContinue Reading
In March, Gabriella Coleman gave a talk at the UCL Centre for Digital Anthropology drawing on her research with the activist (non)collective Anonymous. Her talk, entitled Anonymous and the Craftiness of Craft and the Trickiness of Trickery, linked Anonymous activists to the anthropological archetype of the trickster, and developed theContinue Reading
The New York Times recently ran this photo essay by the Iranian documentary photographer Hossein Fatemi of diverse women in Tehran posing behind veils of one sort or another, accompanied by a short commentary critiquing the imposition of the hijab on secular women there. While the piece ran in the “Review”Continue Reading
Born on January 1st 1924 in Toulon, historian Jacques Le Goff has died on 1 April in Paris aged 90. He took up a teaching position and eventually headed up the Paris based School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). He was one of the main proponents ofContinue Reading
Intel’s resident cultural anthropologist, Dr. Genevieve Bell, was recently featured in an article, “Intel’s Sharp-Eyed Social Scientist” in the New York Times. The article traces some of the findings and insights from Bell’s 16 years at Intel, including a study of how people use technology in their car which willContinue Reading
The current exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York, asks “What is a photograph?” Organized by ICP Curator Carol Squiers, What Is a Photograph? explores the intense creative experimentation in photography that has occurred since the 1970s. Conceptual art introduced photography into contemporary art making, using the medium inContinue Reading
Agbogbloshie: the world’s largest e-waste dump – in pictures | Environment | theguardian.com. Discarders of electronic goods expect them to be recycled properly. But almost all such devices contain toxic chemicals which, even if they are recyclable, make it expensive to do so. As a result, illegal dumpingContinue Reading