Dear Friends,
I am very pleased to be re-united with some familiar faces and to meet some new ones. Again, this seems like a wonderful group and I’m sure that the next two days will be just as much fun and as useful as today. I am going to take a slightly different approach to documenting these events. Instead of attaching all of my pictures, I’m going to let Sharon put them where she sees fit. I have noticed that I do not have much server space left on the LitSciMed server so I must restrict my ‘official’ documentation to text for now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do something more creative with the photographs (as well as pass them onto Sharon and anyone else who wants copies) at a later date but it’ll mean more faffing around than it did with the first event and I’m getting to a place where I can write after a much longer journey than up the stairs to the room in St Deiniols!
So, what happened today? Let us see!
We had some great sessions run by the Wellcome Collection team, at least three of whom recognised me from the library. You see, I practically live in that library anyway, spending at least half of the week in there. It’s my favourite place to work. The other half of the week (when I’m not engaged in teaching or going to seminars et cetera, is spent in the British Library. The BL is my second place to work – even though some of their security guards are ruffians! That said, even though I use the library extensively already, I discovered some useful things from Jenn Philips-Bacher: I always wondered what the ‘lightbox’ was on the Wellcome catalogue! Also, someone who I have only ever seen being quiet, spoke very well about some cabinet doors (William Schupbach. Carol Reeves also gave a lovely talk about some ‘lies’ and gave us all some diaries. I am the only one I know of with a 1940 diary. I’m going to wait until the days of that year align with the days of the 1940 year and use a good quality diary! She also set up a competition that I hope others will enter (I certainly will!) to make a history of medicine movie: deadline is 1st June… I’m going to have a bash at that after Easter! Also, Ross McFarlane shepherded us though this adventure providing an expert introduction and the glue that stuck it all together.
So, what did I learn today? I think that’s a question that’s rather difficult to answer, if I’m not going to just write about the odd trick I’ve learned for the library catalogue. You see, this session – indeed, this event – is about objects, using objects, and thinking about objects. I’m going to have to do this extensively in my own Ph.D., I think, as I don’t want my writing to be an anthology. Similarly, however, I’m not keen on simply applying theorists like many seem content to be doing. I agree that they have a lot to offer but I don’t think theory is the be-all and end-all. I remember a discussion on this website a few months ago where Jerome said that we were perhaps ‘post-theory’. I think that’s largely true – at least, that is, we can operate within the framework of theories without refining theories being the crux of the work. Anyway, the question of using objects is one that I’ve already paid a lot of attention to. One thing that William mentioned that stuck with me, however, is that a painting is only 1mm or so of image and the rest is object (I’m paraphrasing!). I like that and I think it will sit well with my thinking about the ‘it-narrative’ that I’m going to write a little about in the coming days.
I think I’ll be better placed to talk about objects and my thinking about them and their use in the next two days. Today was more geared towards finding and using objects in a very general manner.
Contrary to St. Deiniols… the food in the hotel was awfully dry, expensive, and left me with a gaping spiritual hole…
Paul William Craddock