MUSEUM FATIGUE

Some Thoughts at the End of Spring Semester 2020

May 14, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

Today is my last day of classes for Spring semester 2020. Some thoughts: In anthropology we discuss how time is a sociocultural construct, and up until now there were always those who didn’t quite understand what that means. The fact that the first week of classes back in February is a world away makes this point pretty clear. In a typical semester I conclude my courses with a wrap up and summary of how far we have come and the […]

Categories: Classes, COVID Spring • Tags: end of the semester

Can We Learn to Live Well in the Pandemic? Kill Debt.

May 6, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

This pandemic is historic, unprecedented and a national emergency. We are reminded of risk, danger and threats everywhere. Because the virus spreads easily, asymptomatically and has such a long incubation period we live at social distance in a constant state of anxiety. Because we have little testing and contract tracing we have few tools for knowing. This is getting old and acceptance is more difficult than disbelief in an environment with so little trust. It is, frankly, understandable to me […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: Latour

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Making String Figures Amid the Troubles (on Zoom)

April 9, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

In Staying with the Trouble (2016), Donna Haraway offers a figure which combines a number methods of thinking thoughts and telling stories together in ways that emphasize a shared nature of giving and receiving, of participation, of crafting, tracing and following. They are ways of connecting across species and space together—that sometimes work, sometimes fail, are active and at times hold still. The figure, which she describes with the letters SF evokes multiple practices which address in imaginative and creative […]

Categories: Anthropocene, COVID Spring • Tags: Donna Haraway, SF, Staying with the Trouble, string figures

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Things to Remember From the COVID Spring #8: Everything is Haunted

March 31, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

Lots of folks are commenting on the way that “social distancing” is making them aware of other’s bodies and their relationship their own. This novel Coronavirus has required us to respond in novel ways. To keep six feet away from others is not something that can be done causally or covertly. It is a visual statement in every encounter: walking off the sidewalk to avoid someone, standing far back at checkout counters. We are now pushing away the world with […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: bodies, Haunting, Space

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When This is All Over…

March 29, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

When this is all over I wonder how it will change our relationship to technology. Will this time of physical distance with social contacts pushed through machines move us to a stage of more comfort and more satisfaction with our digital lives? Or, will we be so tired of seeing and speaking and typing at a distance that when the all-clear arrives the first thing we will do is find others in person and hug them and grab their hand […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: sociality, technology

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Things to Remember From The COVID Spring #7: People on the Streets

March 28, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

One thing I definitely will remember about this strange period is seeing so many people out walking in the neighborhood and in the parks. It seems counter intuitive that “social distancing” and “sheltering in place” would result in so many people about in public spaces. With many people at home and few options for other things, it seems everyone wants to get outside. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that it’s springtime. Streets with so many people on them must be […]

Categories: Uncategorized

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Things to Remember From the COVID Spring #6: Tired

March 26, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

Tonight I was thinking I might forgo writing about things that I want to remember when this is over, because I’m just too tired. Then I realized that my tiredness is worth trying to remember. I don’t feel like I deserve to even write about it. I have friends who have much larger burdens: more kids, rougher jobs, no jobs, older parents, illnesses. I have relatives that are doctors helping people with the Coronavirus. In commenting on tiredness, I don’t […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: tired

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Things to Remember From the COVID Spring #5: Astronauts

March 25, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

For over two years I have taken a deep dive into the literature on the Anthropocene—the climate crisis, human/non-human/inhuman worlds, and the issues of human culture’s effects on the Earth’s biosphere. It has been a fascinating yet dark slog through some pretty terrifying and important stuff. I began this semester very excited to work through a selection of highlights from my readings with our senior anthropology majors. The syllabus I put together charts a journey through the deep time of […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: Anthropocene, classroom experience

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Things to Remember From the COVID Spring #4: Tic-Tac-Toe

March 24, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

When I look back on today from sometime in the future. I don’t want to remember The President’s shameful sideshow, the news of an increasing number of layoffs, and the growing nervousness that the number of deaths will grow. I don’t want to remember how the US National government, dismantled all these years by “small government” Republicans, selfish no-new-tax mutherfuckers, and currently led by a reality TV star, didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. I especially don’t want to remember […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: Care, neighbors

Things to Remember From the COVID Spring #3: The Avengers Can’t Save Us

March 23, 2020 by Museum Fatigue

Americans are restless. We are always doing something. Always working. Always busy. Being busy is a virtue. How many jobs have I had where even if there was a pause in the work my boss would admonish me to “look busy.” Moving, hustling, starting up, making shit happen. America is all offense. Hit them before you get hit. Even our defense is offense: build so many weapons that nobody would dare mess with you. Americans invented superheroes—a modern pantheon of […]

Categories: COVID Spring • Tags: Americans, superheroes

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