Objects as Curricula - learning with museum artefacts through art/archaeology practice

Short Abstract:
The idea of objects as a curriculum has informed our work on Blackfoot items in UK museum contexts in which digital imaging was employed to aid in the revitalization of knowledge renewal for Blackfoot makers and has framed continued work in ethnographic collections both in the UK and in Sweden.

Long Abstract:
The Blackfoot Elder Frank Weasel Head observed that for members of the Blackfoot community the objects held in UK museums were a curriculum. This insight informed our work on Blackfoot items in UK museum contexts in which digital imaging methods were employed to aid in the revitalization of craft making practices and knowledge renewal for Blackfoot makers. This insight has also framed our continued work in ethnographic collections both in the UK at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford and in Sweden at the Ethnografiska Museet, Stockholm.

The idea of objects as curricula was intended to underscore the importance of Blackfoot items held in distant museums for Blackfoot people, but over time the concept has gained a new momentum offering us a sense in which all museum items have the potential to teach. Coupled with this, our work on Blackfoot material adopted a series of innovative art/archaeology practices beginning with utilising digital imaging methods commonly used in archaeological fieldwork to developing remote-viewing sessions using these technologies informed by inclusive and open-ended art practice. In a dual sense then the museum archive collection was both a carceral container of of Indigenous teaching, and a site to be opened for innovation and learning: what was learnt very much depended on how we approached and intra-acted with the archive. This session will present a round table panel with a series of papers from members of the teams involved in a series of ongoing and interconnected projects.

• https://imaginingfutures.world/projects/...