What might the archaeology of the future tell us about our civilization today?
With our world in such a state of delicate balance, and the way that history repeats itself and civilizations rise and fall, I imagine that our population could become significantly smaller and much more primitive due to some sort of apocalyptic event. What would this population of the future make of and from the objects that are contemporary to us today? Would everyday objects take on a magical significance?
I have been lucky enough, over the last couple of weeks to have had the opportunity to go to a seminar held by the amazing artist Simon Callery who works with commercial archaeologists at the time a landscape changes in order to see how it has changed. Currently working on the Thames Gateway Project there is an engagement with the changing landscape of the Thames Gateway, an area of development. There is a tangible materiality and physical quality at the time of excavation.
I then got to go to a lecture by archaeologist Dr Helen Wickstead who taught us more about how archaologists work and how they produce their field drawings and what many of the techniques and symbols used were. She showed us some examples of archaeological drawings which, although they have a wonderful aesthetic to them, actually only aim to be descriptive and accurate. It was fascinating to be let into this world.
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October 30th, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
Hi Fiona,
This does sound really great. You always have something to contemplate. I have seen those drawings and have always wondered why they didn’t use photographs rather than drawings? I suppose it is mainly about tradition as it is usually only repetitive blasts of light which cause issues.
Are we going to be seeing this influence in your art?
Great Post, Fiona!
October 31st, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
I thought exactly the same thing about photography for archaeology instead of drawing. Well it’s quite interesting really. The two main reasons for archaeological drawing over photography are 1 that it is more accurate (I know that sounds weird) because they measure everything in the drawings precisely and they are done from a plan view. If you take a photograph from an angle, it skews the perspective and makes the mearurements appear different due to forshortening etc and 2 that they only need to include the details that are important to them. In the field, a trained archaeologist can easily see the different layers of soil representing different time periods which they then draw. You just can’t see these in a photograph.
Yes Kim, you’re definitely going to see this stuff influencing my work. I’ll post some of my new stuff soon. Thanks for your visit and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!