Perspectives on Critical Heritage: Constructing and performing Authenticity in Touristic and Material Displays
Gordon House 106
On Tuesday 16th June 2009 from 10.00 to
17.30
The Centre of
Museums, Heritage and Material Culture at UCL proposes a one-day
workshop on the theme of the construction and performance of authenticity in the
arenas of the everyday, cultural institutions and tourism industries; framed
within critical paradigms on heritage. Heritage, here is not only apprehended as
objects or cultural sites but overall as a practice encompassing the dimensions
of performative tourism and material display in dynamic contemporary settings.
The workshop will be held on the 16th of June 2009 at Gordon House, in room 106.
The workshop aims to provide a ground for reflecting upon the
construction of authenticity as locally defined, performed and materialised
through tangible and intangible heritage, in various parts of the world. This
will be explored by ways of describing and analysing the mechanisms that
underline local 'authentification' processes and therefore the particular
actions mastered in the creation and consolidation of authenticity seen as both
a form of value and of identity. In other words, we propose that by revisiting
the notion of authenticity through the lens of performative tourism, museums and
generally material culture, critically aware and diverse definitions of
authenticity and heritage will emerge.
Rather than being considered as a
'phenomena', heritage involving the dimensions of tourism and museums is seen as
an analytical framework that is an active and interactive ground from which
networks of socio-cultural, material and symbolic or semiotic interactions (Law
& Hassard 1999, Latour 2005) are weaved and systematically performed by
local and non local actors. Under this perspective, the dimension of the
'society spectacle' (Debord 1983) or exhibitionary cultures and complexes
(Bennett 1995) in the context of performative tourism and material display will
constitute the locus for discussions on the construction of authenticity and
material identities.
The workshop is organized into 2 sessions dealing
with the themes of 'things and people on display' and 7 papers grounded in
empirical materials that describe the particular relationships or interplay
between people and things in exhibiting, performing or creating an authentic
self or culture. The following two aspects will be considered: a) people's
'mise-en-scene' of the 'self' and of 'the body', b) the production and mediation
of visual and material/immaterial culture with a focus on objects becoming
subjects that is as cultural agents.
Co-organized by Shaila Bhatti
(UCL Anthropology), Laurence Douny (UCL Archaeology). If you wish to attend
please e-mail: shaila.bhatti@ucl.ac.uk or l.douny@ucl.ac.uk. Please contact Shaila Bhatti if
you want to attend.
Gordon House is located on the north-west corner
of Gordon Square, next to the Institute of Archaeology:
http://personal.rhul.ac.uk/UHAP/027/MSci/Files/ucl.html
The conference is free. The participants will make their own
arrangement for lunch.
The workshop is sponsored by the Journal of
Material Culture and the Department of Anthropology at UCL
Website Links
University College London -
Department of Anthropology
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/
Journal of Material
Culture
http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsProdDesc.nav?prodId=Journal200859
Centre for Museums, Heritage and Material Culture
http://www.mhm.ucl.ac.uk/
Maps and Directions
A UCL Campus map is
available online:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/about-ucl/location/maps
The
nearest underground station is Euston, which is on the Northern line. The
Anthropology Department is within walking distance (5-10 minutes) of the
following underground and train stations: Euston, King's Cross, St Pancras,
Euston square, Warren Street, Goodge Street and Russell Square.
For an
underground map click here:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1108.aspx
For
information on travelling into London from various Airports:
http://www.visitlondon.com/
or http://www.ukguide.org/
For transport within London:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
Programme
I. MORNING SESSION: 'Things' on display
Themes: Material
Culture/Museums & Landscape: the socio-cultural construction of identities
through the landscape and local/national museologies, collections and curatorial
practice.
Chair: Graeme Were (UCL Museums &
Collections)
9.30 - 10.00 Coffee
10.00 - 10.10:
Presentation of UCL Collections and Material Culture Studies by Graeme
Were
10.10 - 10.20: Introduction of the session by Laurence
Douny (UCL Archaeology)
10.20 - 10.50: "Brokering
Culture - Authenticating Pakistan's national history and culture at the Lahore
Museum" by Shaila Bhatti (UCL Anthropology)
10.50 - 11.20:
"Africa on Display: Curating Postcolonial Pasts in the Cameroon
Grassfields" by Mike Rowlands (UCL Anthropology)
11.20 - 11.40
Coffee break
11.40 - 12.10: "Changing
Art Traditions on Exhibit" by Nelson Graburn (University of California,
Berkeley)
12.10 - 12.40: "Houses
as museums of the self: domestic landscape and cultural identity in Southern
Brazil" by Clarissa Sanfelice Rahmeier (UCL Anthropology)
12.40
- 13.30 Lunch
II. AFTERNOON SESSION: 'People on display'
Themes: Masquerades &
festivals, Intangibility & people performing heritage, performing
"otherness", Body aesthetics, Material identities, geneaologies and diasporas,
'Domestic aesthetics' and everyday life on display.
Chair: Beverley
Butler (UCL Archaeology)
13.30 - 13.40: Presentation of the
"Centre of Museums, Heritage and Material Culture at University College
London" by Beverley Butler
13.40 - 14.50: Introduction of the
session by Shaila Bhatti (UCL)
14.50 - 15.20: 'Materialising
genealogical identities: making tangible intangible family histories in the
Scottish diaspora' by Paul Basu (UCL Archaeology)
15.20 - 15.50:
Processes
and Politics of Performing "the Other" in the Heritage Industry by
Alexis Bunten (Humboldt State University).
15.50 - 16.20 Coffee
break
16.20 - 16.50: Performing
Heritage and Rethinking Authenticity at the Vanuatu Cultural Centre by
Marilena Alivizatou (UCL Archaeology)
16.50 - 17.20: "Conclusion
& general discussion: Perspectives on Critical Heritage"
17.20
- 17.30: Concluding word: Shaila Bhatti and Laurence Douny
