Posts tagged looting

This week in Andy Spence’s Thematic Exposure tutorial, I made a lot of headway in my exhibition on the modern history of looting. I decided to divide up my exhibition into three parts: the first will focus on looting in Egypt during the 19th century, the second on when looting became industrialized in the 1960s, and the third on how overwhelmingly widespread and mechanized looting is today. Here are some really cool images I found for my section on Egypt. During the 19th century, Europeans got really into Egyptian antiquities and style. In addition to traveling to Egypt to get their exotic fix, they also brought a lot of Egypt back to Europe and created super elaborate and exaggerated exhibitions. I could spend all day looking for more images like this, and I actually I have to remind myself that I CAN because this is homework so it’s totally justified. 

- Meg

Earlier this year, I was super honored to be asked to present at the 2012 conference for the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). When I’m not blogging for Bennington, I’m also part of another blogging community of academics, journalists, and museum people who talk a lot about the illicit antiquities trade and cultural heritage issues. (you can check my blog out here.) Last month, I did a guest post for the ARCA blog, after which I was asked to present. YAY, RIGHT? Well, now I have to figure out how to pay for it. Luckily, Bennington is really into supporting its students doing things outside of the college. We have a conference grant where you can get up to $500 to attend or present, but that’s not totally going to cover traveling to Italy in the summertime. So then I emailed Noelle Murphy, whose job is all about finding grants, fellowships, and funding opportunities for Bennington students. She very helpfully did some research for me but unfortunately couldn’t find that many funding opportunities for undergraduates. So I brought up my issue with Carol Pal, my advisor, who told me to email her the call for papers so she can tell Duncan Dobbelman, the dean of students, about my work and how attending this conference would benefit me so he can see what other options are out there. I’m hopeful that with my advisor’s help and with the help of the administration, getting started with my Life Work Term will be a well-funded and supportive transition! - Meg

Earlier this year, I was super honored to be asked to present at the 2012 conference for the Association for Research into Crimes Against Art (ARCA). When I’m not blogging for Bennington, I’m also part of another blogging community of academics, journalists, and museum people who talk a lot about the illicit antiquities trade and cultural heritage issues. (you can check my blog out here.) Last month, I did a guest post for the ARCA blog, after which I was asked to present. YAY, RIGHT? Well, now I have to figure out how to pay for it.

Luckily, Bennington is really into supporting its students doing things outside of the college. We have a conference grant where you can get up to $500 to attend or present, but that’s not totally going to cover traveling to Italy in the summertime. So then I emailed Noelle Murphy, whose job is all about finding grants, fellowships, and funding opportunities for Bennington students. She very helpfully did some research for me but unfortunately couldn’t find that many funding opportunities for undergraduates. So I brought up my issue with Carol Pal, my advisor, who told me to email her the call for papers so she can tell Duncan Dobbelman, the dean of students, about my work and how attending this conference would benefit me so he can see what other options are out there. I’m hopeful that with my advisor’s help and with the help of the administration, getting started with my Life Work Term will be a well-funded and supportive transition!

- Meg

This term for “Thematic Exposure”, a tutorial on creating exhibitions, we’re proposing two make-believe exhibitions: first, a time-based exhibition that we’ll focus on for the first seven weeks, and then a culture-based exhibition that we’ll do in the last seven weeks. Of the five of us who are in the course, four work right here in the Admissions office, so you’ll get to see what we’re all doing throughout the term!

My time-based exhibit is going to be a history of modern looting/the commercial exploitation of archaeological sites, from the Napoleonic occupation of Egypt to the mass looting currently going on in places like Iraq and Peru. These photos are some of my favorite examples of how horrifying and violent looting is. They were taken by archaeologists who work in Peru and use photography as a way to cope emotionally with coming across looted sites. As you can see, the looters basically dig holes as deep as they need to in order to get to the graves of people around 800 years old. Then, they tear everything apart in order to get to the most valuable objects, such as precious metals, ceramics, and perfectly preserved textiles. These objects are then sold on the black market for as little as a few dollars to tourists, or for millions of dollars to private collectors. What’s left is a horrifying landscape of body parts and artifacts that have been robbed of respect and of archaeological context. These are the kind of images that get me up in the morning and drive my work at Bennington.

- Meg ‘12