June 26, 2009
The below video is a parkour (also known as urban flow or free running ( think of the beginning of casino royale)) video shot in Sao Paulo, and if this isn’t public space and architectural hacking I don’t what is( save for actually taking power tools to the infrastructure).
SAMPARKOUR from Wiland Pinsdorf on Vimeo.
Guys like this make me jealous of how i move around the world i live in.
June 23, 2009
One of my views on the ‘living landscpaes’ section in the ‘Handbook of Landscape Archaeology’
“The work on offer is not simply an engagement with or application of philosophy but instead, a creation and dissemination of the contributors own philosophy. In many ways a positive act for archaeology. A positive act because twelve years ago, as well as before and since, Thomas’ ‘Time, Culture and Identity’ was heralded by some authors in ‘Archaeological Dialogues’ as mis-appropriating Heidegger, or of creating an application for Heideggerian thought. The same has often been said of Tilley and Karlsson. The point I make here is that by offering chapters that reference only archaeologists, and present a mature thought structure for each approach, the move from applying philosophy to actively creating it has become more apparent.”
June 2, 2009
Just when I thought star wars really was exhausted of anything good (minus the clone wars cartoon naturally), this video (below) is released. I don’t much care for online games, but the video is brilliant if only for a short film, and prelude to things. Why didn’t the films (the prequels (still hate that word)) have this kinda action choreography?
(Right! the video won’t embed, so please go to this link. Thank you very much) Star Wars: Old Republic Trailer
May 19, 2009
I love PHD (Piled Higher and Deeper) comics, and being an anthropologist I had to share:
I am really enjoying the tongue in cheek nature of this plot line too.
May 6, 2009
This post is a little late, namely due to my forgetting it was in this notebook. I realise that this actually makes sense in relation to how i treat notebooks. Something I go into further below.
(Originally written 09/04/02009)
For the last nine months or so I have carried around and scribbled in a black, hardback, slightly larger than A5 size notebook. Instead of keeping separate notebooks for separate projects, writing in pads which i could detach the individual pages and keep all related pieces together, I kept this one notebook so that I didn’t have the chance of losing or destroying bits of paper as I have often done in the past.
Now of course If had lost or destroyed this notebook I was using I would have lost everything, but luckily I didn’t, I filled each page and now it is full and time to move onto scribbling ink into in to a new, different notebook.
I started my new book, a week ago, and as the now filled notebook had all my project(s) notes in it I kept it on me along with my new notebook so that I could flick through it and find pieces that I need to back to and consult.
Today I only took my new notebook as the plan was to only scribble down what had been dancing around my thoughts since i woke up this morning.
However, as it always goes, as I was in the cafe I had need to consult my, now filled, old notebook, and go over a few sections I had scribbled down mainly in the recent past. The problem of course was that it really was the past I couldn’t remember anything I had written on the subject beyond the general theme. So, alas, I realised perhaps for the first time, that my notebook was not simply a place that I scribbled down thoughts, to ‘exorcise’ them from me, but, instead, the notebook acted as some sort of external record for what I have been working on for the last nine months, a much more faithful residue than my memories perhaps.
- Now the point of this piece, I have become very attached to my notebooks and rely on them more than I realised. I wouldn’t function or research in the same way if I didn’t carry one around with me. And, as I have shown it is not simply the carrying of a notebook that is important, but the collection of notes and observations that goes along with carrying one.
- Now I just need to honour my notebook properly by going through it and ‘excavating’ and ‘rescuing’ the pieces that I have fully forgotten about. I did this recently with an even older notebook and found pieces I had no recollection of ever writing. Finding such pieces brought back ideas of the time and places I had written the pieces, and in some cases the people I had been writing with.
April 9, 2009
I have been meaning to post these for a few days but I have been busy, and now I notice that Boing Boing have another post up about the new police posters turning up around Britain. Boing Boing’s previous posts are here and here . The reason I am posting about this is because the posters seem so poorly designed. The big words on the posters are the words you really don’t want to pay attention to. If you do, they come across as very authoritarian and scary. However, what you have to pay attention to is the small print. These posters are part of the police’s attempt to become more transparent in society. Take for example the poster below.
The large text of this poster is scary, like everybody it is addressing is guilty of something. However, the small text is the bottom is the one to read. It says ” The Police now pledge to keep you informed on how they’re tackling neighbourhood crime. To find out more go to directgov.gov.uk/policingpledge or text PLEDGE to 66101″. Below this text is the title “The Policing Pledge”. Therefore, the poster is not meant to be part of the anti-terror posters that have crept in to the UK (here ,and here for fun remixes of the posters , noticed how all the links are to Boing Boing?)
The point I am trying to make is that this is the police is trying to make itself more personable and transparent yet they seem to be hiding the meaningful information behind intimidating wording and fonting. If you don’t spend the time reading the posters top to bottom, then you won’t get the message, which in advertising is a major problem i would think.
How about another poster to illustrate my point:
Here the text underneath reads ” The police pledge to listen and respond to residents’ concerns about neighbourhood crime, To find out more go to directgov.gov.uk/policingpledge or text PLEDGE to 66101″. Again the big, bold type and words don’t help matters, and you have to spend time stopping and reading the small print.
Oh I should add that I am in Sheffield as are these posters.
April 6, 2009
Below you will find the slides from my 02009 YAPG presentation. It deals with what I am calling a disunity of archaeology model. The ideas and influence come from the disunity of science thesis within the philosophy of science. The ideas contained within the presentation are working notes torwards the first part, of three, that will make up my PhD.
[Edit] I have dug out my original presentation abstract (written in academic).
‘Trading Zones’: archaeology and the disunity of science thesis
A ‘trading zone’, as defined within the philosophy of science, is an ad-hoc academic grouping that exists outside of traditional disciplinary boundaries. Such trading zones are never swallowed by a parent discipline. Members either perform research into the same phenomena, but using different approaches, or they utilise the same approaches, but to investigate different phenomena.
This working paper will take the above as a starting point and present the idea of archaeology as a trading zone, thereby questioning the affects this has on current conceptions of landscape archaeology. Such a viewpoint would open up the possibility of dialogue, and potentially bridge the gap, between the humanities (post-processual) and sciences (processual), which have increasingly become segregated within archaeology, especially in studies of the landscape.
This presentation will be drawn from the first section of ongoing research into a ‘disunity of archaeology’ model.
I hope to have some lengthier notes on the 02009 YAPG, and my evolving research, soon.
March 18, 2009
Dupre’s book ‘Darwin’s Legacy’ is a short (around 124 pages, large type) book dealing with evolution, and what it means today. Dupre even notes in the beginning that he is looking at evolution from a phlosopher who studies biology. While largely a general overview of prevlent themes within evlutionary theory, the trademark opinionated, measured analytical postions of Dupre shine through. Dupre is at home explaining why social biology, and evolutionary pyschology are incorrect. He also seems genuinely positive about the meaning of evolution to people today, largely in the form of systematic treatments of race, sex and gender (the fact that they are not completely biologically meaningful). The passages are a culmination of the book and they work well.
This book isn’t a general, attemtpt at objective, history of evolution, and what it means. This book is a position text for what Dupre thinks evolution should/could be.
March 18, 2009
Dan Hill, writer of the blog City of Sound, has a recent piece up on his site about Sheffield. The piece is interesting, especially the bits that dwell on the music that has come out of the city, concentrating on pulp who I have never really known much about. As I now call this city one of homes, the piece is a good way for me to interact with the city on multiple levels. The first is that I can gleam a little history of the city, both in terms of architecture and in music. I also get some insights of someone who grew up within Sheffield, and how Hill now feels returning, if even for a brief trip.
Much of what Hill sys is interesting and new. I am not sure that I agree with his characterisation of the the Sheffield and the north as monotomous and bleak, and rather uninteresting, but that is something I will address another time when I have the words (and images).
Part the way into the piece Hill says:
Now an almost hollow city, cruelly mined of the manufacturing, trade and resources industries that were its raison d’etre, urban regeneration is pretty much the only strategy in town, leaving a centre defined by cafe bars, galleries and retail, and its edges pitted with vacant development sites next to sheds containing Matalan and Wickes.
It is exactly this city I see when i roam around it, however, it is in this way that I see a sheffield that is becoming and is in many ways a post-industrial sprawl. The city isn’t planned, or organised, neither does all the projects and constant building and converting appear to be.
I even see construction workers, and council maitenance people at work at weekends, and most days before 8am. This, for someone from London, is astonishing, especially if it wakes you up in the morning.However, it the appearance of change and investment of time and money. A city that is not hanging it head to a death bell ringing in its ears. The city is stead moving forward.
One of the things that grabs me as I move about the city is that is feels like itis changing and moving forward, there may be no destination in plain view but that doesn’t matter so much to me.
The ful article is: CITYOFSOUND: Sheffield and the North
March 18, 2009
Now this interview you have to watch. It has Neil Gaiman and Stephen Colbert are on top form, and the interview serves as some of the best press for any book I have seen to date.Watch.
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