THE PERIPHERAL (William Gibson, 2014; Spanish edition 2017).
First novel of the trilogy (not yet finished) the Jackpot. In 2020 the second novel, "Agency" was published (I am reading it now). I haven't seen the Amazon Prime version and I'm not sure I'm going to see it. The reason is that I don't think it can live up to the novel. Perhaps one of the best novels translating today's complex reality (past, present, fact, fiction, economics, politics...).
It was interesting but not true enough to settings and ideas of the novel. I have yet to finish watching the series. Too much was tossed and it was too shooty ('Muricans love their guns) in my opinion. Where were the cardboard cars? The setting in America was supposed to be verging on destitute.
"Thousands of records documenting daily lives around the globe in the time of the European Expansion, Colonialism, and Resistance."
"The aim of the German-British Prize Papers Project is the complete digitization and sorting of the Prize Papers including the preservation of the collection’s material, the initial and in-depth cataloguing, the creation of research-oriented metadata and finally the presentation of the digital copies and the metadata in an open access research database. The portal development reflects our continuous engagement with developments in the field of Digital Humanities. We also pursue various research projects, and we cooperate with numerous international researchers and research institutions working on the Prize Papers and in project-related areas."
Heritage Dynamics. Understanding and adapting to change in diverse heritage contexts by Kalliopi Fouseki (UCL Press, 2022). #OpenAccess
"Kalliopi Fouseki develops a theoretical and methodological framework of ‘heritage dynamics’, which is used as the analytical thread of six heritage contexts: heritage-led transformation in historic urban places; decision-making on energy efficiency and heritage conservation in ‘everyday heritage’ residential buildings; lifecycles of heritage collections; exhibition dynamics and the impact of participation with emphasis of ‘difficult heritage’; dynamics of dissonance on contested museums and the dynamics of ‘intangible heritage’ with emphasis on flamenco."
"The Most Important Network of Art Institutions that You’ve Never Heard of" by Jason Waite (ArtReview).
"Arts Collaboratory is a network of 25 art spaces, mainly from the Global South, including Raw Material Company, Dakar; Kunci, Yogyakarta; Lugar a dudas, Cali; Ashkal Alwan, Beirut; ruangrupa, Jakarta; and Cooperativa Cráter Invertido, Mexico City, among others. It started in 2007 as more of a traditional art network like the long-running Triangle Network, begun in 1982 and with partnerships in 40 countries, only with the difference that its initiators, the Dutch NGOs DOEN Foundation and Hivos and the publicly funded Mondriaan Fund, provided financial support for the art institutions while wanting to ease bureaucracy for their grantees, provide a platform for them to exchange knowledge and foster South-South art institutional connections."
I have read Nnedi Okorafor's novella, Binti, and I found it wonderful (as well as very entertaining). Also, with a witty reflection on the decolonization of museums.
"Robert E Lee statue that sparked Charlottesville riot is melted down: ‘Like his face was crying’" by Nora Neus (The Guardian).
"The melting was the culmination of a years-long effort to remove the Confederate statue from downtown Charlottesville. The issue became a flashpoint in 2016, and sparked a deadly white nationalist riot a year later, in 2017, which resulted in the death of the counter-protester Heather Heyer and two police officers, whose helicopter crashed.
After a series of lawsuits, the statue was finally removed in 2021 to much fanfare. It had been sitting in a warehouse in an undisclosed location until even more lawsuits made their way through the justice system. Then, on 26 September this year, the final lawsuit ended. The statue could be melted down."
Graeber, David; Wengrow, David. The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (2021)
I have already finished reading this long and powerful book. Now I have to meditate on the ideas it brings...
"Over the course of these chapters we have instead talked about basic forms of social liberty which one might actually put into practice: (1) the freedom to move away or relocate from one’s surroundings; (2) the freedom to ignore or disobey commands issued by others; and (3) the freedom to shape entirely new social realities, or shift back and forth between different ones."
"The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology (formerly
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology) is a growing teaching and learning
resource. Its goal is to facilitate access to scholarship in Social Anthropology
for experts and non-experts worldwide. All entries are written and peer-reviewed
by leading academics."
"The Identity Politics of Heritage.
Decommunization, Decolonization, and Derussification of Kyiv Monuments after Russia’s Full Scale Invasion of Ukraine" by Olena Betlii (2022).
"Russia’s war against Ukraine has shown not only how the Kremlin has weaponized history, but also how the victim can fight back by breaking historical ties with the aggressor. Since March 2022, Ukraine has been developing new identity politics of heritage. The article focuses on decisions made by the Kyiv City Council, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory regarding material objects associated with Russian or Soviet heritage. It also shows how Kyiv opinionmakers and experts have reacted to changes that will eventually result in the reshaping of the city’s memory landscape".
HERITAGE, THE POWER OF THE PAST, AND THE POLITICS OF (MIS)RECOGNITION by Laurajane Smith (2022).
"Heritage is a political resource; no matter how this concept is defined, “heritage” is charged with representing individual and group identity, sense of place and belonging".
"This paper will illustrate how heritage and museum visiting, as a leisure activity, facilitates or impedes recognition and redistribution in direct and indirect ways. Drawing on extensive qualitative interviews with visitors to 45 heritage sites and museums in the USA, Australia, and England, the paper demonstrates the importance of emotions in mundane struggles over recognition and misrecognition. How emotions uphold or challenge investments in heritage narratives are examined."
DIGITAL ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS
CREATING ONLINE ACCESS TO CULTURAL HERITAGE by Katja Müller (2021) (Made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license).
"Museums and archives all over the world digitize their collections and provide online access to heritage material. But what factors determine the content, structure and use of these online inventories? This book turns to India and Europe to answer this question. It explains how museums and archives envision, decide and conduct digitization and online dissemination. It also sheds light on born-digital, community-based archives, which have established themselves as new actors in the field".
"Alveus XR is the first online repository of historically themed 3D models. We incorporate collections of high-quality scientific virtual reconstructions to facilitate the disclosure of the past, and we enable 3D design professionals to use rigorous historical assets in their reconstructions, video games, or animated films.
Our historical objects (or assets) are organized into civilizations and these, in turn, are subdivided into collections. Each collection of assets refers to a specific cultural context (the Roman port; the Renaissance winery; etc.) and they organize the different 3D historical objects from our collection. These collections are not closed sets but rather groups of objects that will grow progressively as new pieces are added."
Venice to start charging visitors entry fee next year (Reuters).
"Venice plans to experiment with an admission fee of 5 euros($5.35) for day trippers next year to try to manage the flow of tourists drawn to its historic canals, the city council said on Tuesday.
The fee will be applied on a trial basis on 30 days next year, focusing mainly on spring bank holidays and summer weekends when tourism numbers are at their peak. All visitors over the age of 14 will have to pay it.
The aim was to find "a new balance between the rights of those who live, study or work in Venice and those who visit the city," Venice tourism councillor Simone Venturini said."
3D RESEARCH CHALLENGES IN CULTURAL HERITAGE III by Marinos Ioannides and Petros Patias (editors, Springer, 2023).
An interesting #OpenAccess#Book containing an article of the Antikythera Mechanism.
"This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access. Explores 3D technologies used in the domain of cultural heritage. Originates from a unique study on 3D digitisation of tangible cultural heritage. Study launched by the European Commission."