Valentine

I’m writing a short article about a collection of Victorian valentine cards. Whilst it will only be brief it will touch on a number of themes: the subject matter of collections; the material qualities of collections; the individual objects amongst the collection. The card collection at the museum is a fraction of an individual’s collection of greetings cards – this part was acquired because the entirety of the collection was so vast as to be unmanageable (the complete collection was weighed in tonnes), so there is something to be said about the conflict between the individual and professional processes of collecting. If there’s space I might also write about the process of digitisation, photography and what the collection shows about the development the commercial tokens of love.

London’s Olympic Waterscape: Capturing Transition

photo by terri moreau

I’m very happy to say that today ‘London’s Olympic Waterscape: Capturing transition’ was published. I worked on the project with Michael Anton, Bradley L. Garrett, Alison Hess and terri moreau. We cooked up the idea for the project in the pub, so we’ll round it off there too. Along the way there have been some excellent moments; the people I worked with for this have consistently inspired me. Plus it’s the only part of my research I’ve ever had to fix a canoe for.

You can read the article here if you’re subscribed to the International Journal of Heritage Studies. If you’re not let me know and we’ll see what we can do, I’d love you to read about the project.

Abstract:

The waterways of London are an essential component of the city, with the River Thames playing a prominent role in the heritage, history and identity of place.The upcoming 2012 Olympics are highlighting the Lea Valley waterways in east London as another important part of London’s waterscape, expanding London’s global presence as a ‘water city’. As part of the Creative Campus Initiative, weundertook a project based on the broad themes of water, London and the Olympics that would give voice to the changes taking place. The result is London’s Olympic Waterscape, a 20-minute film comprising both ‘expert’ interview material discussing broad themes and developments and an embodied record of our engagement with the Olympic area during a brief period in the construction process. The present article is about the journey we took through and aroundthe east London‘s Olympic’ waterways as we attempted to capture thistransitional moment on video.

Keywords:

waterways; waterscape; east London; Olympics; 2012

photo by terri moreau

Publication

An article I worked on was published in Museological Review today.  It can be accessed here.  It was the first time I’ve written an article with so many authors, and the only time I’ve written with historians.

Time Machines: the technology of time travel at the city museum

Abstract:

This paper looks at the ways that museums of urban history, with particular reference to the Museum of London, have employed technology as ways on conveying narratives of cities. Using ‘Streetmuseum’, a Museum of London iPhone app, as a case study, this chapter reflects on the technology of museum time travel.

If the city is associated with technology as progress and the future, the museum can seem concerned with technology only as material evidence of the past. Though crude, this dichotomy is present in popular concerns about the relationship between digital reproductions and physical objects in museum exhibitions. Whilst writers like David Fleming have predicted a time when digital exhibits will ‘de-throne’ museum objects, the Galleries of Modern London will be used to illustrate the nuances of this evolving relationship.

As one early director of a museum of urban history put it; there is “a natural step from a Museum of Photography to a Museum of New York“ (in Page, 1999: 57). This paper uses display technologies of city museums as a basis to consider how the passage of time is treated in public urban space. It explores the convergences of three overlapping ideas: cities, museums and display technology.

the procrastination paper

I’ve found a new way of procrastinating.  Basically it’s inventing, and vaguely reasearching, papers that are completely irrelevant to my PhD.  I get all the performance of productivity (hanging out at the library, making notes, sketching out structures and drafts) without any actual output. 

Currently my eye’s being drawn away by the 1989 Moscow Music Peace Festival.  I’m wondering if there’s a way to talk about the place-work of stadium tours, the iteration of Americana in MTV and popular constructions of the Soviet Union during the late eighties, without sounding like I’m taking the piss, like this rather wonderful article, which includes lyrical analysis such as:

“For tonight I sleep on a bed of nails
I want to be just as close as the Holy Ghost is
The mixing of different religious traditions – known as syncretism – is a common way of expressing the loss of distinct spiritual meaning afflicting the modern world. Whereas T.S. Eliot took the entire Wasteland to bring together the devotional language of the High Christian Church and the epic language of the Vedas, John Bon Jovi merges Catholicism and Eastern mysticism in a single couplet, and nearly made it rhyme. Think on.”

So, what are your imaginary papers?  Is there anything you’d kind of love to write about but don’t really have the time/inclination/ideas to work on?  Hope I’m not alone on this…