How do objects circulate across physical and digital landscapes and how does this movement affect their status? Do we search differently with objects in the humanities and social sciences? How do we discover, attend to, and channel the network of ideas they help generate?

This two-day conversation highlights the double lives of objects-their local, intimate, and concrete quality as they reside in museums and their global, ubiquitous, and permeable virtual representations in digital media. It investigates the structures of knowledge and emergent network systems whose architectures and formal characteristics facilitate our encounters with objects. Despite the growing interest in object-based ontology and the material turn in fields like art history, anthropology, and political science, objects continue to challenge-and even defy-our desire to tag, interpret, and systematize their form and content.

Investigate these issues through facilitated conversations, creative examinations, and other exploratory engagements. 

Registration required.   Visit the RISD Museum page for full schedule and registration information.

 

Anthropologist are explorers.  We travel to exotic locales to excavate ancient ruins or learn from indigenous communities.  Many of the materials gathered in our research are now in the storerooms and laboratories of University museums.  In this talk, Carla Sinopoli (University of Michigan), opens the storerooms of the remarkable Asian collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology to discuss how archaeological and ethnographic collections made at the start of the last century continue to be of value today.  Dr. Sinopoli focuses on three collections, each with complex (and disturbing) histories: the Worcester collection of photographs from the colonial Philippines; ceramics and other artifacts from the U-M Philippine Archaeological Expedition (1922-1925); and sacred paintings and religious objects from the Himalayan Expedition of 1932-34.  Sponsored by donors to the Jane Powell Dwyer Lecture Fund and the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

 

Learn how a tribal nonprofit organization in Anchorage Alaska and its partners created a new precedent for sustainability and self-determination. As told through the lens of the Inupiat people of Arctic Alaska, the global launch of the puzzle-platformer "Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa)" established a new genre of video games within the industry dubbed World Games, and through an inclusive development process with the Alaska Native people, set a fresh standard for indigenous storytelling for future generations.  Sponsored by the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

Inupiat Eskimo of Northwest Alaska first encountered European explorers in 1816, when a Russian expedition arrived in Kotzebue Sound.  But archaeological research shows that European and Asian trade goods like beads and metal tools were already present in the region.   Excavations lead by Doug and Wanni Anderson, Brown University, along the Kobuk River have revealed that the residents had readily incorporated these exotic items into their daily life, even though at the time they were experiencing food shortage, hunger, and even untimely death.  Present-day Natives of the region refer to those hard times in their oral history, often attributing the misfortunes to shamanistic spells or to enemy attacks.  The integration of their oral historic and archaeological research has provided unique insights into the early history of the region.  Sponsored by the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.

 

Stemming from enduring appropriation of Indigenous material culture, Dr. Jessica R. Metcalfe (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), will speak about how her blog Beyond Buckskin applied creative entrepreneurship as a platform to address local and global social issues.  Dr. Metcalfe is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds a Ph.D. in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. She is the main author of the website, Beyond Buckskin, which focuses on all topics related to Native American fashion, and is the owner of the Beyond Buckskin Boutique, which promotes and sells Native-made couture, streetwear, jewelry, and accessories. Her current work focuses on Native American art and adornment, with special projects focusing on contemporary Native artists and fashion designers.  Sponsored by donors to the Barbara Greenwald Memorial Arts Program Fund and the Friends of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.