Scottish Archaeological Forum

The year 2011 is the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of the Scottish Archaeological Forum’s Early Technology in Northern Britain (Kenworthy 1981), the proceedings of the 1979 conference entitled ‘Archaeology and Early Technology in Scotland’. The papers within the volume generally focused on the production and manufacture of material culture within economic frameworks. In keeping with the zeitgeist of the 1970s, technology was considered as a separate object for research divorced from the social dimensions in which things were made and given meaning.

In the intervening period technology has retained a focus for study in archaeology, history, anthropology, philosophy and the social sciences. As we embrace the second decade of the 21st century there appears to be considerable scope for developing further the theme of technology as a sensuous and somatic experience within the social dimension as opposed to an extra-somatic object of study. This conference seeks to explore how technology, as a sensuous embodiment, interfaces with the auditory, haptic and olfactory experiences, which may incorporate aspects of phenomenology, behaviour, practice and agency, identity, materiality, deterritorialisation, landscape studies and other concepts.

Themes:

• Landscape and phenomenology

• Sensory experiences – auditory, haptic and olfactory

• Social dimension, agency, practice and behaviour

• Materiality – how objects can give meaning to the concept of somatic technology

• The philosophy of deterritorialisation – technology as an interface where object and subject are indivisible.

​

Download conference information: