It was a little strange to be reading the New York Times and realize that the targeted advertising was for the show at the Asian Art Museum that I helped to make a video for. A video that was just (mostly) finished on Thursday. We need to fix it up a bit still, but it works for now. At some point I’m supposed to go and volunteer at the exhibit (pinch, poke, or prod a real archaeologist!), but I haven’t scheduled that yet.
I haven’t done much this weekend of the dead, a time when we should be honoring Mictecacihuatl, the Aztec protector of the bones. If I finish up this article that I’m writing in time, I may hop on the BART to the Mission to go check out the procession they have there.
The article itself is about the work we’ve been doing in Second Life and it’s a little scary to write, as a lot of the virtual reality archaeologists take themselves Very Seriously while they are making their vacant little worlds and a few things I say in this article are pretty unfriendly to the concept. I also wish I would have tried to publish on a slightly smaller scale first–but when do I ever do things like that? My first conference presentation was during the plenary at the largest anthropology conference in the states. Good thing I had no idea of the significance at the time!
I’m also not sure if I can ask if I can publish it in draft form online–more famous archaeologists have been doing that, but I feel a bit out of my league, obviously. I’m also not sure of an appropriate length–supposedly it’s pretty open, but I don’t want to say too much or too little…so, no, I’m not worried about this at all! Clear skies.
Colleen Morgan 