A very public affair: art meets science

ABSTRACT

What happens in interdisciplinary practices between the arts and sciences? What determines their successes and failures, and how they should be conducted? Here I propose that we can deepen our understanding of them by looking at the role of one specific and, to my mind, vital aspect of many (most?) successful art/science collaborations, namely their presence in public. More specifically, I suggest that museums, having played a crucial historical role in shaping some specialized disciplinary thought, are now well-placed to encourage an opposite tendency towards trans-disciplinary activity. I elaborate this argument by focusing on three characteristics of museums that have made them ideal places to locate art-science collaborations: the role of exhibitions as units of investigation; the ascendency of artist/curators as unusual enquirers; and the enduring value of middle-sized things in these risky initiatives.     

High-resolution radiocarbon dating of marine materials in archaeological contexts: radiocarbon marine reservoir variability between Anadara, Gafrarium, Batissa, Polymesoda spp. and Echinoidea at Caution Bay, Southern Coastal Papua New Guinea

The remains of shellfish dominate many coastal archaeological sites in the Pacific and provide a wealth of information about economy, culture, environment and climate. Shells are therefore the logical sample type to develop local and regional radiocarbon chronologies. The calibration of radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates on marine animals is not straightforward, however, requiring an understanding of habitat and dietary preferences as well as detailed knowledge of local ocean conditions. The most complex situations occur where terrestrial influences impinge on the marine environment resulting in both the enrichment and depletion of ¹⁴C (Ulm Geoarchaeology 17(4):319–348, 2002; Petchey and Clark Quat Geochronol 6:539–549, 2011). A sampling protocol that combines a high-resolution excavation methodology, selection of short-lived samples identified to species level, and a tri-isotope approach using ¹⁴C, δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O, has given us the ability to identify ¹⁴C source variation that would otherwise have been obscured. Here, we present new research that details high-resolution mapping of marine ¹⁴C reservoir variation between Gafrarium tumidum, Gafrarium pectinatum, Anadara granosa, Anadara antiquata, Batissa violacea, Polymesoda erosa and Echinoidea from the Bogi 1 archaeological site, Caution Bay, southern coastal Papua New Guinea. These isotopes highlight specific dietary, habitat and behavioural variations that are key to obtaining chronological information from shell radiocarbon determinations.     

Book reviews

CHINA

BOB HODGE and KAM LOUIE. The Politics of Chinese Language and Culture: the Art of Reading Dragons. London: Routledge, 1998. A$150.00, hardcover; A$52.95, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

LEWIS R. LANCASTER and RICHARD K. PAYNE (eds). Religion and Society in Contemporary Korea. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1997. 282 pp. Preface, index. $US20.00, paper.

DOH C. SHIN. Mass Politics and Culture in Democratizing Korea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. A$90.00, hardcover; A$34.95, paper.

GEIR HELGESEN. Democracy and Authority in Korea: the Cultural Dimension in Korean Politics. Richmond: Curzon Press, 1998. £40.00, hardcover.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

J. E. LLEWELLYN. The Legacy of Women's Uplift in India. Contemporary Women Leaders in the Arya Samaj. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998. 224 pp. Rs325, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

R. E. ELSON. The End of the Peasantry in Southeast Asia: a Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800‐1990s. Basingstoke and London: Macmillan Press, 1997. xxvii, 335 pp. Tables, abbreviations, glossary, index. A$49.95, paper.

GENERAL ASIA

JAMES W. MORLEY (ed). Driven by Growth: political Change in the Asia-Pacific Region. Revised Edition. Armonk, New York; London, England: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 393 pp. Preface, tables, figures, bibliography, index. US$24.95, paper.     

Biography without history?

Kevin Perkins: Menzies: Last of the Queen's Men, Rigby, Adelaide, 1968, pp. 264, $5.50.     

Book reviews

Hans Granqvist: The Red Guard: A Report on Mao's Revolution, trans. Erik J. Friis, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 159 + ix, $5.95.

James A Maxwell: Commonwealth‐State Financial Relations in Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp. 124 + ix, $5.00.

J. R. Flynn: American Politics: a Radical View, Blackwood and Janet Paul Limited, Auckland, 1967, pp. 255, $5.50.

Colin Mackerras and Neale Hunter: China Observed, 1964/1967, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 194, $4.95.

F. Alexander: Australia Since Federation, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 352, well illustrated, $4.95, $2.50 (paperback).

G. R. Elton: The Practice of History, Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1967, pp. 178 + viii, $3.00.

A. Jones: Andrew Jones M.H.R. by Himself, Rigby Ltd., Adelaide, 1967, pp. 186, $0.95.

R. W. Connell and Florence Gould: Politics of The Extreme Right, Sydney Studies in Politics, No. 7, Sydney University Press, 1967, pp. 115, $2.50.

R. R. Walker: Communicators: People, Practices, Philosophies in Australian Advertising, Media, Marketing, Lansdowne Press, Melbourne, 1967, pp. 416, $10.

Basil Mitchell: Law, Morality and Religion in a Secular Society, Oxford University Press, London, 1967, pp. 141 + vii, $4.25.