Hello!

I’m excited to be presenting as part of #festivalCHAT2020. My thanks to the CHAT committee and all of the organizers.

My thread today is entitled “Blood, sweat, and tears: field notebooks as art objects” and I hope you enjoy! /1 #festivalCHAT2020

Archaeology notebooks might be as “official” as this one from Forestry Suppliers ( https://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/products.php?mi=72311&itemnum=49240), or - much more likely - as simple and inexpensive as the ones shown here /2 #festivalCHAT2020

Survey notebooks are integral to projects, but the role they serve(d) is frequently invisible in publications; the data are entered into databases and GIS, to be visualized, analyzed, organized, while the notebooks themselves are stored or even discarded. /3 #festivalCHAT2020

They can be understood as archival (archival research is also important! https://twitter.com/J_Green_505/status/1315874609498132481?s=20), memory, or even archaeological objects in their own right. Here, I'm viewing them as art objects, the assembled results of processes. /4 #festivalCHAT2020

One of my general touchstones for this is Mierle Ukeles’ “Manifesto for Maintenance Art” (1969); her work was very much focused on art as process and on forcing/encouraging engagement with "invisible" work (she looked at women's household work) /5 #festivalCHAT2020

These survey notebooks (from @SinisArchProj) are composites preserving not only the imprints of pencil and pen but (potentially) dirt, sweat, sunscreen, blood, and plant matter (fieldwork is usually hot, always tiring, and sometimes prickly!). /6 #festivalCHAT2020

The notebooks showcase a wide variety of artistic skill, and the variations provide an intriguing window onto data organization/quantification, individual artists’ informational priorities, and general wear and tear. /7 #festivalCHAT2020

While broadly consistent in terms of categorization and physical size, they demonstrate a wide range of data organizational strategies, with project members prioritizing compactness, thoroughness, whimsy, or some combination thereof. /8 #festivalCHAT2020

Some recordings sprawl confidently across entire pages, large, lazy pencil strokes taking up large sections of formerly blank canvas. Others are slightly more restrained, sectioned into 2-3 areas for individual units. /9 #festivalCHAT2020

Several of that latter category also feature images, probably connected to the survey unit in which they appear -- including grass/wheat, sheep, and an unhappy sun (not to be confused with the other, cooler sun)! /10 #festivalCHAT2020

These notebooks are material and thus archaeological, but they are also visual media capable of evoking emotions -- one definition, arguably, of art. It requires a bit more digging with dense, information-packed pages compared to ones with doodles... /11 #festivalCHAT2020

...but every mark does more than just communicate data. The marks, the page itself, and the notebook as a whole are active, changing participants in the documentary/archaeological process. This is art as a participatory, mutable, interactive practice. /12 #festivalCHAT2020

This presentation is intended as both an act of simply surfacing these objects for a wider audience and a recognition that there are a variety of ways to approach them, just one of which is as art! /13 #festivalCHAT2020

Thank you for reading and following along! I'd also like to thank the members of the @SinisArchProj 2019 team for letting me photograph their work. I'm hoping to be able to continue this after the next field season. /14 (fin!) #festivalCHAT2020