Your Bio
Michael Shanks - archaeologist at Stanford University
Archaeology - working on ruin.
Photography - arresting contingent moments.
Archaeography - picturing the archaeological imagination.
See more of my work at michaelshanks.org | weblog - mshanks.com
Archaeology - working on ruin.
Photography - arresting contingent moments.
Archaeography - picturing the archaeological imagination.
See more of my work at michaelshanks.org | weblog - mshanks.com
![Northumberland - Chorography Series One : Being there. Ambient details.
Haecceity.
The specifics, often overlooked, the mundane and unspectacular are often what create a sense of place. Here is a series of photos that attempt to deal with this "haecceity" - the "this-ness" or "here-ness", the qualities of place of the border county of Northumberland, UK.
Deliberate are the references to seventeenth and eighteenth century accounts of region - the chorographies that mingled natural history with genealogy with toponymy with archaeology with geology with folklore with history with poetry with musicology.
[Link to my Stanford site]](/photos/random.mg?AlbumID=7270885&Size=Tiny&AlbumKey=rVbgQ&rand=5904 "Northumberland - Chorography Series One : Being there. Ambient details.
Haecceity.
The specifics, often overlooked, the mundane and unspectacular are often what create a sense of place. Here is a series of photos that attempt to deal with this \"haecceity\" - the \"this-ness\" or \"here-ness\", the qualities of place of the border county of Northumberland, UK.
Deliberate are the references to seventeenth and eighteenth century accounts of region - the chorographies that mingled natural history with genealogy with toponymy with archaeology with geology with folklore with history with poetry with musicology.
[Link to my Stanford site]")
![San Jose 2004 : August 2004. Philip Dhingra told me about an apartment in San José that he knew would interest me. The tenant had disappeared some two years earlier. No one knew where he had gone. The landlords had approached the Police and local authorities and were about to move in and clear the place.
I went in with the cameras one sweltering afternoon. It was in the 100s. The place was deeply disturbing. There were signs of packing, a suitcase on the stripped bed, packing cases, and the mess of organizing things. There was also a grenade on the dining room table, a five inch artillery shell in the kitchen, a watch, live round and credit card on the coffee table. Everything had been left behind. Or maybe not. There were two gun cleaning kits in the cupboard alongside a row of deodorants and after shave, but no guns.
Read more - [Link]](/photos/random.mg?AlbumID=11053790&Size=Tiny&AlbumKey=iayRn&rand=2045 "San Jose 2004 : August 2004. Philip Dhingra told me about an apartment in San José that he knew would interest me. The tenant had disappeared some two years earlier. No one knew where he had gone. The landlords had approached the Police and local authorities and were about to move in and clear the place.
I went in with the cameras one sweltering afternoon. It was in the 100s. The place was deeply disturbing. There were signs of packing, a suitcase on the stripped bed, packing cases, and the mess of organizing things. There was also a grenade on the dining room table, a five inch artillery shell in the kitchen, a watch, live round and credit card on the coffee table. Everything had been left behind. Or maybe not. There were two gun cleaning kits in the cupboard alongside a row of deodorants and after shave, but no guns.
Read more - [Link]")
![Tri Bywyd 1995 : Tri Bywyd (Three Lives), Clwedog, Wales. A work of theatre/archaeology from Brith Gof, a European performance company.
More - [Link]](/photos/random.mg?AlbumID=11056703&Size=Tiny&AlbumKey=tRpYv&rand=9243 "Tri Bywyd 1995 : Tri Bywyd (Three Lives), Clwedog, Wales. A work of theatre/archaeology from Brith Gof, a European performance company.
More - [Link]")
![Three Landscapes 2000 : The artist - McLucas. The Jesuit - Llywelyn. The archaeologist - Shanks. A collaborative work across disparate media and fields and investigating three landscapes. The (fault) line - California. The surface - the (eighteenth century) Hafod estate in west Wales. The volume - the (archaeological excavations of) the ancient hilltop town of Monte Polizzo, Sicily.
The works - three essays, three preformed lectures, a book in a room, a map on a wall, and the ruins of an account of the year.
[Link]](/photos/random.mg?AlbumID=11181779&Size=Tiny&AlbumKey=ysdA6&rand=1086 "Three Landscapes 2000 : The artist - McLucas. The Jesuit - Llywelyn. The archaeologist - Shanks. A collaborative work across disparate media and fields and investigating three landscapes. The (fault) line - California. The surface - the (eighteenth century) Hafod estate in west Wales. The volume - the (archaeological excavations of) the ancient hilltop town of Monte Polizzo, Sicily.
The works - three essays, three preformed lectures, a book in a room, a map on a wall, and the ruins of an account of the year.
[Link]")
![The Locked Door : An archaeology of the store rooms of the Cantor Center for the Visual Arts, Stanford.
[Link]](/photos/random.mg?AlbumID=11185639&Size=Tiny&AlbumKey=fpdFH&rand=5559 "The Locked Door : An archaeology of the store rooms of the Cantor Center for the Visual Arts, Stanford.
[Link]")
