Abstract
Things are back. After a century of neglect, and after decades of linguistic and textual turns, there has for a while been much buzz about a material twist in the humanities and social sciences: a (re)turn to things. The fascination with Saussure, Derrida, and discourse has diminished, matter has replaced symbols, text is substituted with “flesh”, also reported as the return of the real. In studies ranging from political science to English literature, things, objects and materiality are suddenly figuring prominently on the agenda. Associated with this “turn to things” is the vast array of theoretical developments that already have had a significant impact on social and cultural research, such as actor-network theory as developed by Bruno Latour, John Law and others, Manuel DeLanda’s “assemblage” theory, and object-oriented ontologies as proposed by for example Ian Bogost, Levy Bryant and Graham Harman.
Our CAS project is an explicit attempt to critically scrutinize this material turn, to explore its consequences and potentials for two traditionally thing-oriented disciplines, archaeology and heritage studies, and thereby to prepare new ground for studying things in the humanities and social sciences. While acknowledging and drawing on the profound contributions to thing theory made in philosophy, science and technology studies, sociology, geography, anthropology and other fields, this project differs in accentuating a renewed trust in the material itself. It is the project’s grounding assertion that a successful turn to things cannot be accomplished through theoretical and discursive reconfigurations alone but must also be grounded in the tactile experiences that emerge from direct engagements with things – including broken and stranded things. Building on archaeology’s long and intimate engagement with things, and anchored in field studies of modern ruin landscapes and abandoned sites, our research will focus on three main themes: the materiality of memory, the affective aspects of material encounters, and the ethics of things. By bringing a concern with ruins and things themselves to the forefront, this project aims to develop a new platform for debating archaeology and heritage in the 21st century.
End Report
Bringing together an international and interdisciplinary research group at CAS provided a unique opportunity to address and explore the research themes and objectives of After Discourse and its “mother project” Object Matters (funded by the Norwegian Research Council). Through individual and cooperative research, daily exchange, seminars, and workshops, we managed to scrutinize all the objectives and thematics outlined in our application. Thus, as an overall judgment this was a very successful undertaking!
Researchers bringing their own research to CAS to be merged with the particular objectives of this project, created very interesting synergies and new ways of approaching and articulating the After Discourse thematics.
It is important to emphasize that the full outcome and results of the stay at CAS cannot be conceived at the present moment. Research initiatives were started, new questions posed, publication and other disseminations started or planned, and what become of all this is yet to be seen. A number of outside scholars visited CAS for seminars, lectures and workshop, and the contacts established also with them offer new possibilities for research and collaboration. Thus, the larger network that emerged through the initiatives of our active group is indeed an important achievement.
While our approach to things and materiality is importantly theoretical we also worked from the premise that a new awareness and inclusion of things in social and cultural research must be grounded in the tactile experiences that emerge from direct engagements with them. The way we successfully managed to keep the “mundane material” a constant focus of attention, as explored through our main themes of memory, affects and ethics, was indeed a major achievement, and one well visible in our published and forthcoming articles and books. Another important achievement that is directly related to this is the rethinking of the concept of heritage. While for long being subjected to a social and cultural reductionism, where the question of use-value is predominant, the After Discourse group has approached heritage from different ethical and affective perspectives, and also questioned the dominant trope of preservation. Moreover, by working from a more inclusive understanding of heritage that also involves waste, pollution and the unwanted, we have explored the material “unruliness” of this present past, and the way it triggers involuntary memories.
Fellows
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Bailey, Doug
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Bjerck, Hein B.
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Burström, Mats
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DeSilvey, Caitlin
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González-Ruibal, Alfredo
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LeCain, Timothy
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Naguib, Saphinaz-Amal
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Pétursdóttir, Þóra
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Tamm, Marek
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Witmore, Christopher
Previous events
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09 Jun 201718:30 - 20:00Litteraturhuset, Wergelandsveien 29, Oslo Litteraturhuset, Wergelandsveien 29, Oslo
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01 Jun - 02 Jun 2017(all day)Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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19 May 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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12 May 201714:15 - 16:00Department of Archaeology, Blindernveien 11, seminar room 1 Department of Archaeology, Blindernveien 11, seminar room 1
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05 May 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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28 Apr 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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21 Apr 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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06 Apr 201718:30 - 20:30Litteraturhuset, Oslo Litteraturhuset, Oslo
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22 Mar - 23 Mar 2017(all day)Turrent Room, CAS Turrent Room, CAS
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17 Mar 2017
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10 Mar 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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24 Feb 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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10 Feb 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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03 Feb 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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27 Jan 201714:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS Oslo Turret Room, CAS Oslo
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10 Jan 201718:30 - 20:00Litteraturhuset Litteraturhuset
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16 Dec 201614:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS, Oslo Turret Room, CAS, Oslo
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09 Dec - 10 Dec 2016(all day)Turret room, CAS Turret room, CAS
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02 Dec 201614:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS, Oslo Turret Room, CAS, Oslo
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25 Nov 201614:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS, Oslo Turret Room, CAS, Oslo
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18 Nov 201614:15 - 16:00Turret Room, CAS, Oslo Turret Room, CAS, Oslo
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04 Nov 201614:15 - 16:00Turret room, CAS Oslo (Centre for Advances Study) Turret room, CAS Oslo (Centre for Advances Study)
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26 Oct 201612:00 - 13:00The Turret Room, Centre for Advanced Study The Turret Room, Centre for Advanced Study
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14 Oct 201614:15 - 16:00Turret Room, Centre for Advanced Study (CAS), Drammensveien 78, Oslo Turret Room, Centre for Advanced Study (CAS), Drammensveien 78, Oslo
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07 Oct 201614:15 - 16:00The Turret Room, top floor of the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Drammensveien 78, Oslo The Turret Room, top floor of the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Drammensveien 78, Oslo
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16 Sep 201613:15 - 15:00Turrett room, CAS Turrett room, CAS
News
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Former CAS scholars receive generous funding
22.12.2020 -
Alumni Spotlight: Bjørnar Julius Olsen
30.11.2020 -
Former CAS fellow awarded Tromsø Research Foundation Starting Grant
16.11.2018 -
'Arv': Mankind's Unpleasant Cultural Heritage
30.04.2018 -
Talk by Levi Bryant: A Critique of Object-oriented Philosophy
30.06.2017 -
The Heritage of War
15.06.2017 -
Robert Macfarlane: – We are the Generation Anthropocene
26.04.2017 -
Articulating the Anthropocene
21.04.2017 -
Vardø’s Rich Street Art Scene: Will the City Become an Ecomuseum?
28.03.2017 -
Charred Memories: Ephemeral survivors in my uncle’s burnt-out home
14.03.2017 -
Defining Things
12.01.2017 -
Life among Soviet ruins: – the past is still present
05.01.2017 -
Ballast: Loads with history
05.12.2016 -
Object Study: Blok P
28.11.2016 -
We are not in control of the afterlife of things
07.11.2016
Group leader
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Bjørnar Julius Olsen
Title Professor Institution UiT The Arctic University of Norway (UiT) Year at CAS 2016/2017
Publications
- Bailey, D.W. 2017. The Book of Miko. Volume 4, number 4 (Reproduction and Fossil).
- Bailey, D.W. 2017. The Book of Miko. Volume 8, number 3 (Subjects and Dissection).
- Bailey, D.W. 2017. The Book of Miko. Volume 17, number 1 (Ethnicity and Sexuality).
- Bailey, D.W. 2017. The Book of Miko. Volume 23, number 6 (Grid and Classification).
- Bailey, D.W. 2017. The Book of Miko. Volume 43, number 6 (Release and Destroy).
- Bailey, D.W. 2018. Breaking the Surface: An Art/Archaeology of Prehistoric Architecture.
- Bjerck, H. B. 2016. “Brannstasjon i bakspeilet. Samtidsarkeologiske betraktninger under avviklingen av Sentrum Brannstasjon i Trondheim våren 2015”.
- Burström, M. 2017. Ballast: Laden with history.
- DeSilvery, C. 2017. Curated Decay: Heritage Beyond Saving. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
- González-Ruibal, A. 2018. “Ethics in archaeology”.
- González-Ruibal, A. 2019. The Age of Destruction. An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era.
- LeCain, T. 2017. The Matter of History: How Things Create the Past.
- LeCain, T. 2017. “Copper and Longhorns: Material and Human Power in Montana’s Smelter Smoke War, 1860-1910”.
- LeCain, T. 2017. "Technology and the Environment."
- Naguib, S.A. 2017. “Engaged Ephemeral Art: Street Art and the Egyptian Spring”.
- Naguib, S.A. 2017. “Når veggene taler. Gatekunst, graffiti, kalligraffiti og den arabiske våren i Egypt”.
- Olsen, B. 2016. “Sámi archaeology, postcolonial theory, and criticism”.
- Olsen, B. & Þ. Pétursdóttir 2016. “Unruly Heritage: Tracing Legacies in the Anthropocene”.
- Pétursdóttir, Þ. 2017. “Drift”.
- Pétursdóttir, Þ. & Olsen, B. 2017. “Theory Adrift: The Matter of Archaeological Theorizing”.
- Tamm, M. 2016. “Displaced History? A New “Regime of Historicity” Among the Baltic Historians in Exile (1940s-1960s)”.
- Tamm, M. 2016. “The Republic of Historians: Historians as Nation-Builders in Estonia (late 1980s–early 1990s”.
- Tamm, M. 2016. “Writing Histories, Making Nations: A Review Essay”.
- Pétursdóttir, Þ. 2017. “Climate Change? Archaeology and Anthropocene”.