Posts tagged Smithsonian

I am SO PUMPED about my senior work this week. After a kind of traumatizing start (I started writing a week later than I scheduled, then spent a whole day staring at a blank Word document and flipping the eff out), I am finally in a really confident place and feel good about what I have so far. Double spaced, I have five pages. It doesn’t sound like much BUT that means I’m already halfway done with the first part of my three-part, 35 page paper! It’s been really scary to sit in front of so much research and raw information and not know what to do with it, but after I gave myself a whole day to really truly freak out about it, I feel a lot more capable. Look at that awesome and productive-looking screenshot. SO MUCH WINNING HERE. - Meg

I am SO PUMPED about my senior work this week. After a kind of traumatizing start (I started writing a week later than I scheduled, then spent a whole day staring at a blank Word document and flipping the eff out), I am finally in a really confident place and feel good about what I have so far. Double spaced, I have five pages. It doesn’t sound like much BUT that means I’m already halfway done with the first part of my three-part, 35 page paper! It’s been really scary to sit in front of so much research and raw information and not know what to do with it, but after I gave myself a whole day to really truly freak out about it, I feel a lot more capable. Look at that awesome and productive-looking screenshot. SO MUCH WINNING HERE.

- Meg

This is the thing I am most stupidly proud of this week: the outline for my senior work, a 35-40 page paper exploring the relationship between art museums and archaeologists in approaching commercially exploited artifacts through the controversy over a proposed exhibition at the Smithsonian. To summarize, the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery wanted to put on an exhibition of artifacts commercially salvaged from a 9th century shipwreck off the coast of Indonesia. Archaeologists at the Smithsonian and across the States objected strongly due to the questionable ethics of exhibiting commercially exploited objects. In an amazing turn of events, a meeting that convened in December to discuss the issue decided to propose to Indonesia a re-excavation of the shipwreck instead of putting on the exhibition. This issue has been one of the foremost things in my brain (along with sushi and Twitter) for the past YEAR. It’s been almost an entire year since I proposed this topic for my senior work to my Plan committee. Now, after researching the topic over the fall and interviewing the actual people involved in the debate over field work term, I’m in the process of turning all this information into a 35-40 page article that will be my advanced work in anthropology and art history and that I will eventually publish in a peer-reviewed journal. This was all really intimidating and scary until I brought this outline to my advisor, Carol Pal, who looked at it and said, “This works!” Which in Carol-ese means, “GOOD JOB I HAVE NO CRITICISM KEEP ON WORKING.” Emboldened by her accolades, I’ll begin writing this week. - Meg ‘12

This is the thing I am most stupidly proud of this week: the outline for my senior work, a 35-40 page paper exploring the relationship between art museums and archaeologists in approaching commercially exploited artifacts through the controversy over a proposed exhibition at the Smithsonian. To summarize, the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery wanted to put on an exhibition of artifacts commercially salvaged from a 9th century shipwreck off the coast of Indonesia. Archaeologists at the Smithsonian and across the States objected strongly due to the questionable ethics of exhibiting commercially exploited objects. In an amazing turn of events, a meeting that convened in December to discuss the issue decided to propose to Indonesia a re-excavation of the shipwreck instead of putting on the exhibition.

This issue has been one of the foremost things in my brain (along with sushi and Twitter) for the past YEAR. It’s been almost an entire year since I proposed this topic for my senior work to my Plan committee. Now, after researching the topic over the fall and interviewing the actual people involved in the debate over field work term, I’m in the process of turning all this information into a 35-40 page article that will be my advanced work in anthropology and art history and that I will eventually publish in a peer-reviewed journal. This was all really intimidating and scary until I brought this outline to my advisor, Carol Pal, who looked at it and said, “This works!” Which in Carol-ese means, “GOOD JOB I HAVE NO CRITICISM KEEP ON WORKING.” Emboldened by her accolades, I’ll begin writing this week.

- Meg ‘12

D.C. FWT: Week 1

This is my third full day of living in Washington, D.C. for field work term and already I’ve spoken to a Smithsonian museum director, been given the email for Lord Colin Renfrew (a mega superstar in archaeology/cultural heritage), and super nervously emailed the assistant Director-General of UNESCO’s Culture sector. 

AAHH.

This year, instead of doing a typical field work term, I’m doing an independent study to do research for my advanced work in anthropology and art history. My senior project explores the rift between the archaeological and museum words over the ethics of displaying unprovenanced/unscientifically excavated artifacts, and I am using the controversy surrounding a proposed exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery as a case study. I’ve been really lucky to have the full support of the Sackler Gallery’s director, Julian Raby. Not even 24 hours after I got off the train, I met Dr. Raby for a full hour to discuss the controversy. Because I’ve interned at the Smithsonian before, I’m aware that the people who run it are really cool, passionate people, but I’ve just been blown away by how generous this museum director has been with his time and information. Now, I’m spending my weekend emailing the people who were involved in the controversy to ask for interviews, putting together a portfolio to catalogue my research, and burying myself in the stunning images of this exhibition catalogue.

Typical Bennington week:

  1. Learned how to THROAT SING from ethnomusicologist Theodore Levin in my Anthropology of Art class.
  2. Won this sweet pillow with my house at Trivia Night. 
  3. 1 final essay down, three to go.
  4. Secured my field work term independent study: I get to hang out with a Smithsonian museum director to write about a controversial exhibition for my senior work. BOO YA.
  5. Got grab ‘n go from the student center (where we can order from the grill, hang out, get ready-to-go meals, buy stuff from the little store, watch movies, have concerts, WHATEVER) for almost every single meal.
  6. Tried to teach my academic advisor how to throat sing.
  7. Ha ha ha.
  8. Watched three X-Men movies while writing about the disinheritance of personal history in American realist novels.
  9. Watched this video A LOT.
  10. Got all my classes in the course registration lottery. NO GREENWALL FOR ME, BITCHEZ. (Registration takes place in the Greenwall auditorium; students who need to add or drop courses can get their registration forms signed by faculty there.)
  11. Finally got tired of those macrobiotic vegetarian noodles in the student center.

- Meg

This is me (with faded cat make-up from Bingham Halloween coffee hour) being VERY excited about having the phone number of Dr. Julian Raby, the director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian. This field work term, I’m going to do an independent study in Washington, D.C. to either work with or interview Dr. Raby (if he’ll let me) on his proposed exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, “Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds.” The Belitung shipwreck dates to between 700 and 900 CE, and is one of the most important shipwrecks in Southeast Asia. It’s 60,000 Chinese ceramics in an Arab dhow ship indicate there was sea trade between the Tang Dynasty in China and the Arab world. However, the shipwreck was unscientifically excavated by a commercial salvage company hired by Indonesia, which has created a backlash among U.S. academics who don’t want to see unscientifically excavated objects exhibited in the Smithsonian. I think this exhibition is significant because it may actually be a tipping point in the rift between the museum world and archaeologists, and could possibly revolutionize how museums approach the origins and histories of ancient objects. I am focusing on “Shipwrecked” as a case study to research how a single institution reacts to the criticism of colleagues and the public, how it will eventually approach the objects in this controversial collection, and what this particular instance says about the relationship between museum professionals and archaeologists and the slowly altering ethics of museums in the 21st century.  As you can see, THIS STUFF REALLY EXCITES ME. You can read more about my excitement, my research, and my mouthing off to bitchy commenters on my blog: www.thingsyoucanttakeback.com.  - Meg

This is me (with faded cat make-up from Bingham Halloween coffee hour) being VERY excited about having the phone number of Dr. Julian Raby, the director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries at the Smithsonian. This field work term, I’m going to do an independent study in Washington, D.C. to either work with or interview Dr. Raby (if he’ll let me) on his proposed exhibition of the Belitung shipwreck, “Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds.”

The Belitung shipwreck dates to between 700 and 900 CE, and is one of the most important shipwrecks in Southeast Asia. It’s 60,000 Chinese ceramics in an Arab dhow ship indicate there was sea trade between the Tang Dynasty in China and the Arab world. However, the shipwreck was unscientifically excavated by a commercial salvage company hired by Indonesia, which has created a backlash among U.S. academics who don’t want to see unscientifically excavated objects exhibited in the Smithsonian. I think this exhibition is significant because it may actually be a tipping point in the rift between the museum world and archaeologists, and could possibly revolutionize how museums approach the origins and histories of ancient objects. I am focusing on “Shipwrecked” as a case study to research how a single institution reacts to the criticism of colleagues and the public, how it will eventually approach the objects in this controversial collection, and what this particular instance says about the relationship between museum professionals and archaeologists and the slowly altering ethics of museums in the 21st century. 

As you can see, THIS STUFF REALLY EXCITES ME. You can read more about my excitement, my research, and my mouthing off to bitchy commenters on my blog: www.thingsyoucanttakeback.com. 

- Meg