The UCL Institute of Archaeology is delighted to host the 41st annual Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference in December 2019. Founded in 1937, the Institute is one of the largest centres for world archaeology, archaeological sciences and heritage & museum studies in the UK, situated in the heart of the capital.
Venue: UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Those wishing to attend this workshop should gather shortly before 2pm at the meeting point near to the conference registration desk in the foyer of the Institute of Education. The group will then progress to the Octagon Gallery just after 2pm.
The workshop will commence with a behind-the-scenes tour of the Octagon Gallery, led by the curators which will be followed by a handling sessions with some of the objects, artworks, specimens and items that had been considered for the exhibition but failed to be selected.
These material encounters will enable participants to critically examine what failure means in different contexts and in particular to interrogate the frequently and unquestioningly used, simplistic perspectives of failure as either a disaster or a useful learning experience. Such perspectives rely on an unspoken assumption that we all know, and agree upon, what failure is, which directly responds to the theme of this year’s TAG meeting, as it highlights the inherent power dynamics behind what it means to succeed or to fail.
During the workshop participants will be invited to link their own stories of failure, whether personal, professional or imagined, with one of the objects they encounter. These stories will then form the jumping off point for a critical conversation on the role failure plays/played in the past, present and future. We will aim to capture the content of this conversation in a creative and participatory way so that it can be shared with others not attending the session.
Organiser details:
Thomas Kador, UCL, t.kador@ucl.ac.uk Vesna Lukic, Middlesex University, v.lukic@mdx.ac.uk Coinciding with an exhibition at the UCL Octagon Gallery focusing on the topic of failure (on show October 2019 to February 2020) this workshop invites participants to engage hands-on with failure as a concept.