Indiana Jones is returning to our screens. After the disappointment of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull back in 2008 – a film widely critiqued for ‘jumping the shark’ or more specifically ‘nuking the fridge’ – Indy is now making a comeback in a more realistic manner. But rather than appearing on the big screen … More Punching Nazis just like Indiana Jones
Last weekend I attended the opening of the Perpetual Uncertainty – Contemporary Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene exhibition that has been curated by Ele Carpenter of Goldsmiths University at Umeå’s Bildmusset. The exhibition which accompanies Carpenter’s new edited book, The Nuclear Culture Source Book, brings together the works of artists from all over the world … More Perpetual Uncertainty – Contemporary Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene at Umeå’s Bildmuseet
As I start to write this post I am sitting at a departure gate in Stockholm’s Arlanda airport waiting for the late night flight north to Umeå. I am on my way back from Moscow where, for the last few days, I have been taking part in a conference at the Higher School of Economics’ … More Social Media and the Death of Serendipity (or on experiencing the ‘pre-bump’ for the first time)
I think I am now safe in saying I have survived my first (full) Cold Swedish Winter. This morning we threw open all the windows and spring-cleaned the flat, while the snow has finally receded far enough to consider going out in normal footwear. It is probably because of this sense that the season is … More SNOW: Musing on my first (full) Cold Swedish Winter
After our involvement in the Public Archaeology 2015 Project (Narratives and Counter-Narratives – A Line Through Contemporary London), Oli Mould (Royal Holloway) and I got talking about the protest potential of protecting one of the remaining fragments of the Heygate estate, an amputated concrete footbridge, and turning it into a memorial to create, of sorts, … More Protest Memorialisation: Should we Protect ‘The Heygate Arch’?
The news of whales being found dead on Lincolnshire beaches yesterday brought John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea back to the forefront of my thoughts. I saw Vertigo Sea a couple of weeks back just before it closed at Umeå’s Bildmuseet. Sitting on a couple of beanbags with my fiancé, with the snow falling onto the frozen … More Bodies on Beaches: John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea
The UK’s annual national festival of the humanities, Being Human, drew to a close on the 22nd November but the memory of its many inspiring events lingers on. For me one of the highlights of the festival was the Goldsmith’s series of Radical New Cross events and more specifically a panel discussion coordinated and chaired … More Lewisham 13th August 1977: The Forgotten Battle?
I recently read Matt Houlbrook’s excellent blog post, ‘on being a one trick historian’ (appropriately accompanied by The Smiths’ Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before) and was struck by the particular resonance of some of his words. “It is not easy to turn new tricks in the world we inhabit. Starting … More Embracing interdisciplinarity
Samuel Merrill 