Better busses for better cities

 Great podcast about busses - and a book... better busses for better cities. 

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/missing-the-bus/

Other key words: frequency, maintenance, transit

Frequency is freedom!

Len Grant, writer, sketcher, photographer

A wonderful website - with wonderful stories of people. Images do matter! Because images contribute to the stories one tells. 

O comunitate face atâta cât poveștile pe care le spune despre ea însăși. 

 https://www.lengrant.co.uk

Place and Migration, Contemporary Exhibition and Research in Anthropology

Some great examples of using exhibitions as devices to delve into contemporary research in anthropology: 

Orly Orbach  -Rehearsed Futures: Supplementary school performances in and beyond the Museum of London

Robert Deakin  - Motorcycle in Repose: 4 Images of the Pre-Regenerated Aberfeldy Estate

AMONG OTHERS. 

Read more: 

https://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-geography/the-anticipation-of-place

https://www.therai.org.uk/conferences/anthropology-and-geography/robert-deakin

Memory collection in Norway

A great project, done by the Folklore Museum in Norway: https://minner.no/; very simple and effective memory collections (with two tabs: read more and send memory).

The national museum network Contemporary Network is behind the fundraising campaign.
The Norwegian Folk Museum archives and manages the contributions that are submitted.

A project managed by Audun Kjus
audun.kjus@norskfolkemuseum.no

An interractive documentary experiment by Katerina Cizek

The Highrise
http://highrise.nfb.ca/onemillionthtower/1mt_webgl.php

Berkley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive

Luisa Caldas - Prof of Arhitecture
Interested in user experience, narrative and storytelling, the use of immersive environments for building design and simulation, green buildings, energy efficient buildings

https://bampfa.org/on-view?field_event_series_type_value=1&field_dates_value=2&field_dates_value2=2 

1000 postcards

A wonderful project!

https://www.naomiloves.com/blog/2018/1/5/thousand-postcards-art-for-arts-sake

Everything Must Go. Exhibition 2012 (as part of the Waste of the World project)

http://www.holymountain.co.uk/other-stuff/everything-must-go/


A public exhibition and event, taking place at The Bargehouse on London’s South Bank in January 2012,  that brought artists and academics together to tell the story of our worn clothing as it passes through charity shops and recycling bins and is sold into the global marketplace.

It’s the culmination of a five year academic social science project ‘Waste of the World’. The exhibition brought invisible global waste economies into public view, revealing the people involved and how the trade impacts upon their lives. 
As the academic process drew to a close, we came in to devise a way of telling the story to a wider public.

Everything Must Go was curated by anthropologist Dr Lucy Norris and artist Clare Patey, produced by Boz Temple-Morris with Tiphaine Tailleux and included photography by Tim Mitchell, workshops by Lizzie Harrison, film by Meghna Gupta and design by Brighten the Corners.

We also hosted a discussion series, ‘Talking Rubbish’, where researchers, designers, filmmakers, business entrepreneurs and third sector leaders came together to critically engage with the issues raised and the implications for the way in which we think about our old clothing.

Sahia Vintage

http://sahiavintage.ro/studio/

Curating Development Virtual Exhibition

https://www.curatingdevelopment.com/virtual-exhibition

Visualisation of complex information

Is it enough to think complex ideas, if these ideas do not reach the public?
How information is transmitted, synthetized and publicised are also three very important factors we need to bear in mind.
LA LOMA designed some great exhibitions/ projects, from The Fascinating World of the Piano (http://laloma.info/en/projects/faszinationklavier), visual tactics for protests and activists, The Glass Room pop-up expo (about looking into your online life https://theglassroom.org/) and many others.





http://laloma.info/en/category/projects

Good to think with: Visualising Cultures: Media, Technology and Religion (BASR Annual Conference 2019)

The British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR) is receptive to including the
participation of scholars in other disciplines and fields of study.

This year, the conference (Leeds, UK/ 2-4 September 2019)  will be held in collaboration with documentary film makers from Leeds Trinity University’s Media, Film and Culture team and IRIS (International Research Centre for Interactive storytelling) and will include the screening of several documentary projects. As such, we welcome papers and panels on the theme of screen media, film and religion as well as on the academic study of religion/s more generally. It does not need to fit the theme. 


This can include religion in all types of media, including, but not limited to:
• Film
• Documentary
• Gaming – virtual worlds
• Digital technology
• Production of screen media projects on religion
In addition, we welcome any research approach applicable to the study of religion/s,
including but not limited to:
• Visual ethnography
• Filmmaking
• Collaborative practice
• Photo-elicitation
• Other innovative research methods

More info at: https://basr.ac.uk/annual-conference-2019/
Keynote: Dr James Kapalo, University College, Cork, who is the Principal Investigator of
the European Research Council Project Creative Agency and Religious Minorities: Hidden
Galleries in the Secret Police Archives in Central and Eastern Europe (Hidden Galleries).
www.hiddengalleries.eu

Memory stones/ Stolpersteine, Jewish and Roma Heritage in Europe

The German artist Gunter Demnig began his Stolperstein project in the mid-1990s as a guerrilla art installation in Berlin. It has grown enormously, and now it is arguably the world’s largest participatory counter-memorial. Stolpersteine -‘stumbling stones’ – are 10 cm x 10 cm brass plates affixed to cobblestones, bearing the names and dates of birth, deportation, and murder or survival of victims of Nazi Germany; they are installed in the pavement/sidewalk in front of the ‘last residence of choice’ of the person(s) being commemorated. There are now over 70,000 Stolpersteine located in 24 countries. The installations are organized through a combination of individual, state sponsored and grass roots efforts.

The scholars Ruth Mandel and Rachel Lehr are carrying out multi-sited ethnographic research about this and other site-specific artists’ responses to the Holocaust. They describe here what they are finding, starting in Norway where the traveled 5,000 km with Demnig, observing and even taking part in installation ceremonies. Mandel and Lehr attended many installations–not only in Norway, but Austria, Hungary, and Germany (we hope to attend many more). At all these, people treated the stones with great reverence. The improvised installation rituals we observed took many forms—religious, secular, simple, elaborate; but all seemed to share a sense of the sacred—even if momentary. Flowers, candles, stones, and photos of the deceased, were arranged around the Stolpersteine, and were well-documented. This was a striking contrast with the local landscape directly following an installation. Afterward, the stone simply became a small glint interrupting the grey stones surrounding it, offering passers-by a chance to stumble across it, bend down, read, and reflect—or to pass on by.

Some of the questions of the two researchers are:

For example, why are there so few stones in Poland—despite the artist’s offer to donate and install them gratis?  Why have some municipalities  banned their installation? Why do some Jewish leaders opposed them? Do they pose threats? How do different generations of descendants respond? How do local people interact with them?
These are some of the questions that will be guiding the next stages of our ongoing research

There are two things I find really inspiring about this project. First that it allows small gestures and material presences of memorisation to weave into the social fabric of contemporary Europe. Second, that it prompts contemporary stories about Europeans reactions to these acts of memorialisation. Some of them are really disturbing - you would not imagine people still having something 'against' the victims...

Please read more:

https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/have-your-say/kaddish-in-norway/

In Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, there is a lot of potential into 'planting' these stones into the pavement of cities and villages, for the many victims...
The artist, in his website says that the victims were: Jews, Sinti, Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, mentally and/or physically disabled people, those persecuted for their political views, their sexual orientation, forced laborers, people persecuted on the grounds that they were ‘asocial’ such as homeless people or prostitutes—anyone who was persecuted or murdered by the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945.

Open Access: how to disseminate published research

In many countries around the world, people do not have access to research publications. The fees are too big to be paid by researchers themselves and institutions are not ready to sign complicated and expensive deals with publishing companies and on-line libraries.

The issue in itself is very problematic and totally un-fair. On one hand, researchers do research without paying to gather the information they accumulate; on the other hand, publishing houses restrict access to the knowledge produced and disseminate it among those who have the money to pay for it.

As a reaction to this problem, some publishing houses started to publish open access ( for example UCL Press), other research publications turned this policy into their favour (e.g. HAU Journal).

Interestingly enough, universities in the UK ask their staff to up-load on their open access platforms Author's Pre-Publication Versions of their articles. Only if up-loaded there their publications matter for the next REF. Goldsmiths has a Ref 2021 Eligibility & Open Access guide where researchers are asked to up-load their published articles no later than three months after publication.
 It is true that articles do not look so beautiful as they would look, once published and formatted. And also that one cannot really know how to quote properly (what page should they put? ). But, at least, in a more rough form, we can say that we see an interest in making research' outcomes more open.

A very good website where one can check publisher's copyright policies is 
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php
Another one is
Scopus

For the first one, just introduce the name of the article.

The Merger, and other films at the Migration Film Festival 02 December 2018

I was invited by Alternative Fictions, which works with film and multimedia to explore issues around representation and storytelling,   to attend round-table discussions around migration and representation in the London Migration Film Festival.

For some reasons, I did not see the invitation and I did not manage to attend this great initiative. Looking at the list of films screened I saw the trailer for The Merger.

 

I like the title of this movie and the very idea of merging.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7891470/

It is a comedy, and yes we know that very often experiences of migration are far from humorous... But at the same time I think dislocation, and all the bitterness and hardships surrounding the migration process, offers to all those who live through it, and to all those who support 'the migrants,' also possibilities of wonder and of irony and humour, and last but not least playfulness - with all the staging that it presupposes. What it is needed in a society to be accepted?

https://www.migrationcollective.com/lmff-2018-programme
https://www.alternative-fictions.com/

Maybe the very act of merging, which is so difficult to be done in classical museum displays, is something that could be used in future exhibitions about migration.

Below the Surface

https://belowthesurface.amsterdam/en/vitrines

Are you bored with museums? This museum in Amsterdam seems like a good remedy for that.
I did not see it, but I would love to. This one and The Museum of Jurassic Technology!
Let's start a list of the weird independent sector.

Local History Museums and Ordinary Curating in London

Have you ever wondered why some people around the world are so fascinated with heritage, local memory and local history?
If the big museums in London are too predictable, you can take a different route: the small local history museums, that seem to exist in each London neighbourhood and where ordinary curating finds its home.

http://www.love-london-museums.com/local-history-museums.html

For example,
What can be more interesting than to see a micro museum about a big museum project - The Crystal Palace?

The Crystal Palace Museum

The Crystal Palace Museum tells the story of the Hyde Park and Sydenham Crystal Palaces using photographs and displays of original documents and ceramics.

The museum is located inside the only surviving building built by the Crystal Palace Company circa 1880.

Address

Anerley Hill, Crystal Palace, London SE19 2BA

Tel: 020 8676 0700

OpenSat & Sun 11:00 - 3:30

Admission - FREE

Cambridge conference on the future of ethnographic museums

The SWICH conference derives from a project co-funded by the European Council: Exhibiting Culture, Exhibiting Empire, Exhibiting Europe.

Looking at the list of speakers,  one could see some of the 10 institutional partners: museums in Oxford (Pitt Rivers), Berlin, Leiden, Hamburg, Wellington (Te Papa Museum), Stockholm, Dublin, Rome, Marseille, Lubliana. Really curious about the outputs of this event.

This image from a shop in London (2008) represents my contribution to the topic. The future of ethnographic museums is to be found outside the ethnographic museums!

SWICH Summative Conference
EXHIBITING CULTURE, EXHIBITING EMPIRE, EXHIBITING EUROPE

King’s College, University of Cambridge

Wednesday 11 – Friday 13 July 2018

Programme
DAY 1: WEDNESDAY 11 JULY

15:30 – 16:30 KEYNOTE 1:

 Sharon MacDonald,

 Alexander von Humboldt Professor, Institut für Europäische
Ethnologie,

 Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

 Respondent: Claudia Augustat
16:30 – 18:00 PANEL 1: _NEW DIRECTIONS_

 Chair: Guido Gryseels, RMCA, Tervuren

 Panelist 1: Christian Schicklgruber, Weltmuseum, Vienna

 Panelist 2: Barbara Plankensteiner, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg

 Panelist 3: Laura van Broekhoeven, Director, Pitt Rivers Museum
18:00 – 19:30 EVENING RECEPTION AT MAA

 Welcome from Nicholas Thomas

DAY 2: THURSDAY 12 JULY

09:30 – 10:30 KEYNOTE 2:

 Arapata Hakiwai

 Kaihautū (Māori Co-leader), Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

 Respondent:

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee
11:00 – 12:30 PANEL 2: _PUBLICS AND THEIR ENGAGEMENTS_

 Chair: Malavika Anderson (Wellcome Trust, London)

 Panelist 1: Rosa Anna Di Lella (Museo delle Civiltà, Rome)

 Panelist 2: Michael Barrett (Värdskulturmuseerna, Stockholm)

12:30 – 13:30 Lunch
13:30 – 14:00 INTERVENTION 1: Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyen

14:00 – 15:30 PANEL 3: _WHAT IT MEANS TO CARE FOR COLLECTIONS_

 Chair: Mark Elliott (MAA, Cambridge)

 Panelist 1: Dean Sully (UCL, London)

 Panelist 2: Michel Lee (Värdskulturmuseerna, Stockholm)

 Panelist 3: Judith Finlay (National Museum of Ireland, Dublin)

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee
16:00 – 16:30 INTERVENTION 2: George Nuku

16:30 – 17:00 Discussion

19:00 – 21:00 Conference Dinner
DAY 3: FRIDAY 13 JULY

09:30 – 10:30 PANEL 4:    GIVING IT BACK?

 Chair:

 Panelist 1: Wayne Modest (Research Center for Material Culture, Leiden)

 Panelist 2: Nicholas Thomas (MAA, Cambridge)

 Panelist 3: Ulrich Menter (Linden Museum, Stuttgart)

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee
11:00 – 12:30 PANEL 5:     _SWICH FUTURES_

 Chair:

 Panelist 1: Salvador Garcia Arnillas (Museu de Cultures del Mon,
Barcelona)

 Panelist 2: Bojana Rogel Skafar (Slovenia Etno-Museum, Ljubljana)

 Panelist 3: Sandra Ferracuti (Lindenmuseum, Stuttgart)

 Panelist 4: Veerle Taekels (Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren)

 Panelist 5: Mikael Mohammed (Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et
de la

 Méditerranée, Marseille)
12:30-13:00 CLOSING REMARKS: WHERE NEXT?

 Michael Cooke (Arts Council England)

 Henrietta Lidchi (Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, Leiden)

 Benoît de L’Estoile (CNRS, France)

13:00-14:00 Lunch

On line communities

A hub, an on-line museum of people, things, ides, events, with key workers in many parts of the world, all volunteers, bringing together material, information, news, content about the Japanese diaspora. the interesting thing is that the design of their web-site was changed from glamorous into more classic - to get in tune with their audience.
http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/about/what-is-nikkei

Jobs, residencies and internships for artists and curators

Are you an artist? Not sure. Me neither.
I  often think that anthropologists and ethnographers are so close to the field of art and rarely have the strength to step out of academia and see if they could have something to say/ work/ in this field.



I thought of putting together a list of websites where jobs, internships, residencies in the field of art could be taken. They are all in the UK. A friend of mine told me about all three of them.

http://www.artsjobs.org.uk/arts-jobs-listings/

 https://www.curatorspace.com/.

https://www.a-n.co.uk/network/

I suppose all these sites might be a good hubs for all those who want to push forward their projects, gain some money from residencies, find about regulations (like data protection in the field of arts).