A talk about the design of regional archaeological projects. February 2010
exploring futures in heritage projects
Considering the Binchester Project in the light of the Faro Convention - see also my blog entry at http://www.mshanks.com/2010/02/faro-heritage-futures/
Gallo-Romeins Museum, Tongeren, Limburg
FARO-Tongeren-02-1010.pdf
Archaeology is an active reworking of the remains of the past. This is not a methodology but a pragmatics - a set of options to be employed opportunistically. (Compare the pragmatics of design thinking.)
We seek and focus on complementary synergetic components across fieldwork, interpretation, analysis, publication and manifestation, reenactment and replication. In the spirit and terms of the Faro Convention.
- regional study - how to document a region (while avoiding the parochial)
- cultural, as well as economic, enrichment and development
- academic outreach - the academy in the community
- coordinating professional, amateur, and community stakeholder interests
- inter-institutional collaboration
create a diverse, dynamic, process-based ecology of
- integrated research, pedagogy, publication/manifestation and site development
- active alliances of institutions, agencies, associations, communities, individuals
- connecting local focus with international scope
- articulating matters of common human concern
- enabled through professional expertise and a high-end knowledge base
bring together local and global
eg build an architecture of synthetic themes that cut across and unite different interest groups and disciplines
focus on matters of common and pressing human concern
here are some themes for Binchester -
- cities and towns in Graeco-Roman antiquity
- locals and newcomers in regional diversity across the Roman empire
- the character of military occupation
- what became of Rome?
- medieval mythography - Arthurian romance
- borderlands
eg use the local case study as a vehicle for general theory building
shift from history to historiography
emphasize cultural production - making the past in the present
use project and performance-based pedagogy for all
learning through doing
student and community initiated
“do it - don’t just tell it!”
cf Cocreating Cultural Heritage - a Stanford/Göteborg project, Wallenberg Foundation 2005
sociality and inclusivity are the basis for collaborative projects - give them primacy
use a model of apprenticeship to facilitate an inclusive ethos
encourage and enable active amateur involvement
particularly those typically marginalized by professions (eg metal detector enthusiasts)
use Web 2.0 and Archive 3.0
active IT enabled co-creation and collaboration
use social software in community building
complementing the emphasis on sociality/inclusivity
use storytelling - the active and localized mobilization of narrative
consider the potential of digitally-enabled (collaborative) storytelling
deep mapping - temporal topography
cross-disciplinary and dynamic integration of multiple source materials and engagements
theater/archaeology - the re-articulation of fragments of the past as real-time event
collaborate with the fine arts as a powerful integrating and expansive scope
learn from chorography - writing on the land in the pre-disciplinary antiquarian tradition
eg - the itinerary of Dere Street
use located media
eg GPS enabled tagging
first-person peripatetic video
itinerant learning
employ reception studies - how people have worked on the past
eg “Tales of the Frontier” - a project looking at views of Hadrian’s Wall from the 15th century
employ flat management structures - networks rather than hierarchies
building on different forms of interest and expertise
avoiding gatekeepers and alienation
research and present artifact life stories as direct and accessible narrative routes into the region
rooted in quotidian detail
the “thing” as a gathering
encourage replication and reenactment
including cyberspace eg Roma - a community in Second Life
Binchester 2009
