VIA 2011: 18-19 April
Making final corrections and adjustments to my VIA paper for next week. I’m really looking forward to the conference. The workshop last October was a real breath of fresh air – exactly the sort of thing I think archaeological illustration has been in desperate need of for about ten years – actually, thinking about it, ever since “The Cultural Life of Images” was published, which was what (quick Google) 1997? Blimey – it’s been a while. I think that volume was the first I’d ever seen any evidence that people were thinking and writing about archaeological illustrations as opposed to just doing them. In the five years between graduating and finding that book, I’d thought a lot about the way that archaeological illustrations worked (or, indeed, didn’t work) – but somehow didn’t think anyone else was thinking what I was thinking. Fortunately, I was wrong.
That’s why when I finally heard about the VIA project from Stephanie, I was so excited. For the first time since the Cultural Life of Images came out, I felt like I was not just one of a small band thinking and writing about archaeological illustration – and trying to put what we were thinking and writing into practice. Stephanie, of course, has been prolific in her attention to the field – but how great to discover last October that there were so many others equally interested.
If this year’s conference is even half as good as the workshop last October, I will be well pleased. My only concern is: once the VIA project comes to an end, what happens next?
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