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Guldgubbar's changing ontology : Scandinavian Late Iron Age gold foil figures through the lens of intra-action

Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie LU orcid (2020) In Social Archaeology and Material Worlds p.184-201
Abstract
This chapter discusses minuscule gold foil figures from the Scandinavian Late Iron Age anddemonstrates how the figures are continuously in the making, rather than being still representations of gods. In the past, the figures’ affectual qualities, such as their small size, their shininess and their human-like and foldable character, invited play and experimentation, stressing the figures’ ongoingness. Equally, their capacities to be simultaneously image,object and component allowed them to be reconfigured into new arrangements, stressing their fractal, emerging and open-ended character. By contrast, in the present, they become ‘victims’ of representationalist thought, through the framing and boundary making practices set up by for instance... (More)
This chapter discusses minuscule gold foil figures from the Scandinavian Late Iron Age anddemonstrates how the figures are continuously in the making, rather than being still representations of gods. In the past, the figures’ affectual qualities, such as their small size, their shininess and their human-like and foldable character, invited play and experimentation, stressing the figures’ ongoingness. Equally, their capacities to be simultaneously image,object and component allowed them to be reconfigured into new arrangements, stressing their fractal, emerging and open-ended character. By contrast, in the present, they become ‘victims’ of representationalist thought, through the framing and boundary making practices set up by for instance museums, keeping the figures in complete motionlessness. Instead, itis only through the help of different apparatuses (digital photography, copying etc.), that theybecome generative and are in the making in the present, stressing that we today to a greater
extent deal with gold foil figures’ hauntology, rather than their ontology.
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Images in the Making : Art, Process, Archaeology - Art, Process, Archaeology
series title
Social Archaeology and Material Worlds
editor
Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie and Jones, Andrew Meirion
pages
18 pages
publisher
Manchester University Press
ISBN
9781526142849
978-1-5261-4285-6
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
b24cf3ae-ada7-420d-9136-98daf6f6f386
date added to LUP
2023-04-05 14:48:52
date last changed
2023-09-12 18:31:56
@inbook{b24cf3ae-ada7-420d-9136-98daf6f6f386,
  abstract     = {{This chapter discusses minuscule gold foil figures from the Scandinavian Late Iron Age anddemonstrates how the figures are continuously in the making, rather than being still representations of gods. In the past, the figures’ affectual qualities, such as their small size, their shininess and their human-like and foldable character, invited play and experimentation, stressing the figures’ ongoingness. Equally, their capacities to be simultaneously image,object and component allowed them to be reconfigured into new arrangements, stressing their fractal, emerging and open-ended character. By contrast, in the present, they become ‘victims’ of representationalist thought, through the framing and boundary making practices set up by for instance museums, keeping the figures in complete motionlessness. Instead, itis only through the help of different apparatuses (digital photography, copying etc.), that theybecome generative and are in the making in the present, stressing that we today to a greater<br/>extent deal with gold foil figures’ hauntology, rather than their ontology.<br/>}},
  author       = {{Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie}},
  booktitle    = {{Images in the Making : Art, Process, Archaeology}},
  editor       = {{Back Danielsson, Ing-Marie and Jones, Andrew Meirion}},
  isbn         = {{9781526142849}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{08}},
  pages        = {{184--201}},
  publisher    = {{Manchester University Press}},
  series       = {{Social Archaeology and Material Worlds}},
  title        = {{Guldgubbar's changing ontology : Scandinavian Late Iron Age gold foil figures through the lens of intra-action}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}