Photography | MUSEUM FATIGUE

No Earthrise in China?

December 28, 2018 by Museum Fatigue

This week was the fiftieth anniversary of the perspective-changing image of the Earth taken from Apollo 8 while in lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968. The iconic photograph of the Earthrise—the first color image of Earth from space—and its effects on our understanding of our home planet were the topic of many articles in the media this past holiday week. So imagine my utter surprise when I showed this photograph to a classroom of over seventy Chinese college students at […]

Categories: China, Environment, Photography, Scripts • Tags: Earthrise

Firing Squad

June 4, 2017 by Museum Fatigue

Categories: China, Photography, Tourism

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What The Photograph Takes, What the Photograph Misses

June 12, 2014 by Museum Fatigue

Fujiazhuang Beach in Dalian presents a dizzying array of of activities and actions, social and personal trajectories of participation and involvement—all jostling up against one another on a small strip of sandy shore. My first day there, as I walked its length I saw a huge group of Russian children having a squirt gun fight next to Chinese couples cuddling nearly fully clothed on beach blankets. While some young men fished at the shore, a large group of retirees sat sunning […]

Categories: China, Mythologies, Photography, Scripts • Tags: Dalian, wedding photographs, 婚纱

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Not Playing Ping Pong Playing Ping Pong

November 27, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

“The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth it is the map that precedes the territory—precession of simulacra—it is the map that engenders the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds are slowly rotting across the map. It is the real, and not the map, whose vestiges subsist here and there…” —Jean Baudrillard (1988: 166). Yesterday a student forwarded an image to me that she found on […]

Categories: Games, Photography, Representation • Tags: analog games, Jean Baudrillard, ping pong, simulacra, simulations, skeuomorph, video games

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Faux Vintage Photos and Profound Academic Labor

September 24, 2013 by Museum Fatigue

Weekly field assignments are making for a very interesting and useful pedagogical experiment in this Fall’s Introduction to Anthropology class. Reviewing and scoring the field journals each Tuesday, however, makes for some intense grading. At least taking a fake Daguerreotype photo of the pile of black Moleskine notebooks, and posting it on Facebook makes it feel like the work of grading is more profound than it might otherwise be. UPDATE: Last night I finished evaluating the last of the journals, […]

Categories: Introduction to Anthropology, Photography, Representation, Social Class • Tags: assignments, faux vinage, school

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