| The Archaeological Eye: Visualisation and the Disciplinary Foundations of British Archaeology |
 |
Sara Perry
University of Southampton
|
| |
Description:
The significance of imagery to the development of professional archaeology has barely attracted enquiry. Decades of research both within and beyond the discipline have testified to the complexity of visual representations as, variously, tools, subjects and conduits of interpretation; yet histories of archaeology hardly (if ever) call attention to the genealogy of archaeologists’ picturing practices or the relationship of these practices to the making of disciplinary expertise. With focus on the production, circulation and consumption of images in the first archaeology departments in the UK, this project draws upon archival research and semi-structured interviews to trace the intimate networks between people and pictures present in early classrooms, field training environments, and administrative settings. I see images as vital actors in disciplinary formation, and as such argue that visual culture has partly made possible the science (i.e., the sites, experts, procedures, audiences, networks and knowledge bases) of archaeology. By probing the manufacture and trafficking of a ‘professional vision’ for the discipline, this project thus offers a critical history of, and analytical toolkit for assessing, visual traditions in the field. |
| Further Information |
|
| A brief description of this research has been published in Museums and Galleries History Group Newsletter 6: 6. Preliminary results will be discussed in Creating and Created by Images: Visualisation and the Establishment of the Earliest Archaeology Departments in Britain, a paper for the 30th annual meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group, 15 - 17 December 2008. |
|
|
| Related Internet Links & Resources |
|
|
|
| site map | links | copyright statement | privacy policy | terms & conditions | contact us | 
