Cultural heritage, curation & creativity

Week 02 - Constructing Cultural Heritage

REESES PIECES
MC CHRIS

Course structure
Studio-practicum course Weekly lectures / seminar discussions Independent projects Group project Studio crit presentations Final project report

Weekly Lectures
Each week 2 students will work together to present the readings assigned for discussion that week. Signup for specic weeks will be available online. Additional content will be presented by Dr Russell.

Readings
All readings will be made available digitally via Dropbox. Additionally readings may be assigned/changed as deemed necessary throughout the course to address any unexpected trajectories of interest in the class.

Assignments
There are 4 written assignments - totalling approximately 10-12 pages. There are a series of deadlines relating to the independent projects which will be treated as assignments.

Independent projects
A project proposal including a statement, project description, academic rationale, timeline and outline of nal deliverables. The proposal must also include plans address practical issues of health and safety, audience engagement, publicity/communicaiton, execution, etc. An oral presentation to the class in a studio critique format. A written project report supported by research, evidence and argumentation and addressing the readings and discussions of the entire course. This must also include a self assessment of the critical successes and fails of the project in respect to the initial project proposals stated ambitions, intentions and outcomes. It must also demonstrate an engagement with the perspectives and feedback from the in class studio presentations. A revised project proposal demonstrating critical, practical and professional development based on the experience of the executing the project and critical feedback from the in class studio critiques. The revised proposal should be presented as if it were being submitted to granting body as a professional project.

Group project
Students will collaboratively conceptualize, develop and implement a creative cultural heritage project which be featured in Marchs Gallery Night. All students will be required to participate in the development, execution, reection and evaluation of the program in both written and oral forms.

Field trip and lm nights

These are designed to enrich and provide practical application of critical thought. There will be one eld trip to Fall River to visit Battleship Cove. This will be on a Saturday. There will be two lm nights.

GOODBYE LENIN (2003)

WOLFGANG BECKER

show & tell

CONSTRUCTIVISM
RODCHENKO & POPOVA - PAINTERLY ARCHITECTONICS (1910S)

CONSTRUCTIVISM
RODCHENKO - LILYA BRIK POSTER (1924)

CONSTRUCTIVISM
RODCHENKO - MOVING STAR (1936)

CONSTRUCTIVISM
RODCHENKO - POSTERWORK

AMERICAN WAR PROPAGANDA

NORTH KOREA
C. 2000

DESIGNING HOPE
SHEPARD FAIREY (2008)

is it just good design?

WHO CONTROLS THE PAST,' RAN THE PARTY SLOGAN, 'CONTROLS THE FUTURE: WHO CONTROLS THE PRESENT CONTROLS THE PAST.' AND YET THE PAST, THOUGH OF ITS NATURE ALTERABLE, NEVER HAD BEEN ALTERED. WHATEVER WAS TRUE NOW WAS TRUE FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING. IT WAS QUITE SIMPLE. ALL THAT WAS NEEDED WAS AN UNENDING SERIES OF VICTORIES OVER YOUR OWN MEMORY. 'REALITY CONTROL', THEY CALLED IT: IN NEWSPEAK, 'DOUBLETHINK'

GEORGE ORWELL
1984 (1949)

Why do we call the whole worlds attention to the fact that we have no past? Its bad enough that the Romans were erecting great buildings when our forefathers were still living in mud huts; now Himmler is starting to dig up these villages of mud huts and enthusing over every potsherd and stone axe he nds. All we prove by that is that we were still throwing stone hatchets and crouching around open res when Greece and Rome had already reached the highest stage of culture. We really should do our best to keep quiet about this past. Instead Himmler makes a great fuss about it all. The present-day Romans must be having a laugh at these revelations. Hitler quoted in Inside the Third Reich 1970: 94-5

The one and only thing that matters to us, and the thing these people are paid for by the State, is to have ideas of history that strengthen our people in their necessary national pride. In all this troublesome business we are only interested in one thing to project into the dim and distant past the picture of our nation as we envisage it for the future. Every bit of Tacitus in his Germania is tendentious stuff. Our teaching of German origins has depended for centuries on a falsication. We are entitled to impose one of our own at any time. Hermann Rauschning quoting Himmler, 1973

HEINRICH SCHLEIMANN
EXCAVATIONS OF TROY (C. 1875)

SUPPOSED MIGRATION OF THE SWASTIKA

SEIDLUNGSARCHAEOLOGIE KULTURKREIS

POTS = PEOPLE?
GUSTAF KOSSINNA (1858-1931)

We have found the courage once more to admit to the deeds of our ancestors. Their honour is our honour! The millenia separate us no longer. The eternal stream of blood binds us across the ages to those Nordic farmers sons, who had to ght for southern German soil twice in the course of four millennia. Hans Reinerth, Federsee Moor 1936, 5

THE NAZI PAST

HANS REINERTH

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

HITLERS ARCHITECT

But if the Movement should ever fall silent, even after thousands of years this witness here will speak. In the midst of a sacred grove of age-old oaks the people of that time will admire in reverent astonishment this rst giant among the buildings of the Third Reich. Adolf Hitler, 1937

The idea was that buildings of modern construction were poorly suited to form that 'bridge of tradition' to future generations which Hitler was calling for. It was hard to imagine that rusting heaps of rubble could communicate these heroic inspirations which Hitler admired in the monuments of the past. My 'theory' was intended to deal with this dilemma. By using special materials and by applying certain principles of statics, we should be able to build structures which even in a state of decay, after hundreds or (such were our reckonings) thousands of years would more or less resemble Roman models. (Speer 1970: 56)

To illustrate my ideas I had a romantic drawing prepared. It showed what the reviewing stand on the Zeppelin Field would look like after generations of neglect, overgrown with ivy, its columns fallen, the walls crumbling here and there, but the outlines still clearly recognizable. In Hitler's entourage this drawing was regarded as blasphemous. That I could even conceive of a period of decline for the newly founded Reich destined to last a thousand years seemed outrageous to many of Hitler's closest followers. But he himself accepted my ideas as logical and illuminating. He gave orders that in the future the important buildings of his Reich were to be erected in keeping with the principles of this 'law of ruins'. (Speer 1970: 56)

To this end we planned to avoid, as far as possible, all such elements of modern construction as steel girders and reinforced concrete, which are subject to weathering. Despite their height, the walls were intended to withstand the impact of the wind even if the roofs and ceilings were so neglected that they no longer braced the walls. The static factors were calculated with this in mind. Albert Speer

...when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, not for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stone will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, 'See! this our fathers did for us. John Ruskin, 1849

ALTAR OF ZEUS
PERGAMON MUSEUM, BERLIN

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

ZEPPELIN FIELD, NUREMBERG, 1934

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

ZEPPELIN FIELD, NUREMBERG, 1934

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

NUREMBERG RALLIES, 1933-1938

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

HITLERS ARCHITECT

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

HITLERS ARCHITECT

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

HITLERS ARCHITECT

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

BERLIN (NEVER REALISED)

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

VOLKSHALLE, BERLIN (NEVER BUILT)

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

VOLKSHALLE, BERLIN (NEVER BUILT)

ALBERT SPEER (1905-1981)

1930S AUTOBAHN

I spent the whole morning of my rst day in Cairo at the museum, looking at art, examining artefacts, making notes, learning about the type of men who founded the ancient civilizations of the Nile valley. This was not amateur archaeological interest; it is important for African nationalists to be armed with evidence to refute the ctitious claims of whites that Africans are without a civilised past that compares with that of the West. In a single morning, I discovered that Egyptians were creating great works of art and architecture when whites were still living in caves. Nelson Mandela, 1995

These journeys and visits of mine, with the background of my reading, gave me an insight into the past. To a somewhat bare intellectual understanding was added an emotional appreciation, and gradually a sense of reality began to creep into my mental picture of India, and the land of my forefathers became peopled with living bodies, who laughed and wept, loved and suffered; and among them were men who seemed to know life, understand it, and out of their wisdom they had built a structure which gave India a cultural stability which lasted for thousands of years. Jawaharlal Nehru, 1946

...political correctness may be O.K. in some faculty lounge, but the the Smithsonian is a treasure that belongs to the American people and it should not become a plaything for left-wing ideologies ... A much more limited exhibit is going to be there, and its going to be one which every American, and frankly every citizen of the planet can be proud of. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich on the SmithsonianEnola Gay exhibit, 1995

MAN OF ARAN (1932)

ROBERT FLAHERTY

MAN OF ARAN (1932)

ROBERT FLAHERTY

MAN OF ARAN (1932)

ROBERT FLAHERTY

MAN OF ARAN (1932)

ROBERT FLAHERTY

MAN OF ARAN (1932)

ROBERT FLAHERTY

Case study: Newgrange, Site 1

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

1901

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

THE 1950S

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

NEWGRANGE, CO. MEATH

We, the modern cultures, no longer believe in this illusion of the world, but in its reality (which of course is the last and the worst of illusions) -Jean Baudrillard 1997, 18.

THE MATRIX & BAUDRILLARD

CHOOSING THE MATRIX

In principle a work of art has always been reproducible. Manmade artefacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters for diffusing their works, and, nally, by third parties in the pursuit of gain. (1992a, 212)

In Japanese cultural tradition, the act of emulating works of great predecessors is called honka-dori, taking up the melody. Not looked down on as mere copying, it is regarded as a praiseworthy effort (Sugimoto 2005, 245).

we may fancy an exotic past that contrasts with a humdrum or unhappy present, but we forge it with modern tools. -David Lowenthal, 1985

NUFORMER DIGITAL

http://www.projo.com/news/content/ ARCADE_STORE_HOAX_05-10-11_IUO0FU8_v11.311ca38.html http://www.providenceri.com/mayor/governor-mayor-launchindependence-trail http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/providence/ providence-unveils-its-three-mile-long-independence-trail

Assignments
Based on the thing you selected in class this week, select an additional thing that responds to the rst thing and creates a dialogical relationship that explores cultural heritage in Providence. (3 pages) Send initial thoughts/plans for individual projects to Dr Russell. Group project thinking.

Next class Meet in the Granoff Center Angell St Lobby