The Archaeology of Time Travel Gustafsson Represents a Particularly Significant Way to Bring Experiencing the Past the Past Back to Life in the Present
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This volume explores the relevance of time travel as a characteristic contemporary way to approach (Eds) & Holtorf Petersson the past. If reality is defined as the sum of human experiences and social practices, all reality is partly virtual, and all experienced and practised time travel is real. In that sense, time travel experiences are not necessarily purely imaginary. Time travel experiences and associated social practices have Chapter 5 become ubiquitous and popular, increasingly replacing more knowledge-orientated and critical To Make and to Experience The Archaeology approaches to the past. The papers in this book Meaning explore various types and methods of time travel of Time Travel and seek to prove that time travel is a legitimate Niklas Ammert and Birgitta E. and timely object of study and critique because it The Archaeology of Time Travel The Archaeology Gustafsson represents a particularly significant way to bring Experiencing the Past the past back to life in the present. in the 21st Century Archaeopress Edited by Archaeopress Archaeology www.archaeopress.com Bodil Petersson Cornelius Holtorf Open Access Papers Cover.indd 1 24/05/2017 10:10:17 The Archaeology of Time Travel Experiencing the Past in the 21st Century Edited by Bodil Petersson Cornelius Holtorf Archaeopress Archaeology Archaeopress Publishing Ltd Gordon House 276 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 7ED www.archaeopress.com ISBN 978 1 78491 500 1 ISBN 978 1 78491 501 8 (e-Pdf) © Archaeopress and the individual authors 2017 Economic support for publishing this book has been received from The Krapperup Foundation The Hainska Foundation Cover illustrations are taken from the different texts of the book. See List of Figures for information. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com Contents Preface �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������vii Introduction Chapter 1: The Meaning of Time Travel ����������������������������������������������������� 1 Cornelius Holtorf Part One Emerging Possibilities in Virtual Time Travels Chapter 2: Time Travel Using 3D Methodologies Visualising the Medieval Context of a Baptismal Font ����������������������������� 25 Nicoló Dell’Unto, Ing-Marie Nilsson† and Jes Wienberg Chapter 3: The Kivik Grave, Virtual Bodies in Ritual Procession Towards New Artistic Interactive Experiences for Time Travellers �������� 47 Magali Ljungar-Chapelon Commentary: Time Travel Paradoxes and Archaeology �������������������������� 79 Per Stenborg Commentary: Taking Us to the Past and the Past to Us ��������������������������� 83 Isto Huvila Part Two Time Travel as an Educational Method Chapter 4: Use the Past, Create the Future The Time Travel Method, a Tool for Learning, Social Cohesion and Community Building ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 89 Ebbe Westergren Chapter 5: To Make and to Experience Meaning How Time Travels are Perceived amongst Participants ������������������������� 113 Niklas Ammert and Birgitta E. Gustafsson Commentary: Forming Bridges Through Time Travel ��������������������������� 129 Cecilia Trenter i Part Three Living the Distant Past Chapter 6: Performing the Past Time Travels in Archaeological Open-air Museums ������������������������������� 135 Stefanie Samida Chapter 7: Being There Time Travel, Experience and Experiment in Re-enactment and ‘Living History’ Performances ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 157 Mads Daugbjerg Chapter 8: Face-to-Face with the Past Pompeii to Lejre �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 175 Cornelius Holtorf Commentary: The Power of Time Travel ������������������������������������������������ 191 Roeland Paardekooper Commentary: Mediated and Embodied Pasts – A Comment������������������� 195 Carsten Tage Nielsen Part Four Time Travel on Screen Chapter 9: Waterworld Travels in Time between Past and Future Worlds ���������������������������������� 201 Bodil Petersson Chapter 10: A Cup of Decaf Past An Archaeology of Time Travel, Cinema and Consumption ������������������� 213 Dawid Kobiałka Commentary: On Time Travelling and Cinema �������������������������������������� 229 Laia Colomer Commentary: A Cup of Decaf Past and Waterworld ������������������������������ 233 Niklas Hillbom ii Part Five Time Travel and Contemporary Society Chapter 11: History as an Adventure Time Travel in Late Modernity from the Perspective of a European Ethnologist ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 241 Michaela Fenske Chapter 12: Time Travel to the Present Interview with Erika Andersson Cederholm ����������������������������������������������� 257 Cornelius Holtorf and Bodil Petersson Commentary: Time-Travelling Tourism Reflections on the Past as a Place of Fascination as well as Refuge ������������ 271 Thomas Småberg Commentary: Time Travels as Alternative Futures ������������������������������������ 277 Britta Timm Knudsen Conclusion Chapter 13: Anachronism and Time Travel ������������������������������������������������ 281 Bodil Petersson About the Authors���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 299 Index ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������305 iii Chapter 5 To Make and to Experience Meaning How Time Travels are Perceived amongst Participants Niklas Ammert and Birgitta E. Gustafsson Abstract Time travels provide the opportunity for participants to make an imaginary trip back in time to learn about places, times and events, and to learn about themselves. To travel in time can be described as an encounter between the past and the present. Such an experience encourages participants to relate the present to the past and to reflect upon their own lives as they interact with another time. In that way one can replace an ‘us and them’ attitude with an approach that unites people and highlights what they have in common. This type of encounter carries the potential for meaning- making. Merging the ‘now and then’ with ‘similar and different’ can make it possible to understand one’s own place in – and relation to – history. But how do participants perceive time travels, what do they learn, what is their view of the past, the present, the future, themselves and the other? In the participator’s reflections we have identified how they perceive different narratives with potential for meaning-making. Keywords: Time travels, participants, narratives, meaning, pupils Introduction Time travelling, professionally arranged by museums at historical sites, provides the opportunity for participants to make an imaginary trip back in time to learn about significant places, times and events, and to learn about themselves. To travel in time can be described as an encounter between now and then. Such an interlude encourages participants to relate the present to the past and to reflect upon their own lives as they interact with the unfamiliar time. In that way one can replace an ‘us and them’ attitude with an approach that unites people and highlights what they have in common. This type of encounter carries the potential for meaning- making. Merging the ‘now and then’ with ‘similar and different’ can make it possible to understand one’s own place in – and relation to – history. ‘Dealing with the past is not an escape; escape is when you focus on the present and future with dogged concentration that is blind to the heritage of the past that influences us and that we must live with’ (Schlink 1999). 113 114 The Archaeology of Time Travel In this chapter, from a didactic position, we first discuss time travels as meaning- making processes. Second, we present a model to analyse how participants interpret time travelling and in what way the participants express meaning when talking about time travels and their historical experiences. The participants are pupils in secondary school and visitors – mainly tourists – at historical sites in southern Sweden. Our goal is to provide a useful tool for teachers and organizers of time travels when staging and evaluating time travels as a meaning-making event. Learning in terms of meaning-making Meaning-making is a crucial concept in this chapter. The term meaning-making refers here to an educational approach in which learning occurs during interactions between people or between people and a narrative. It cannot be seen, therefore, as something that is isolated and occurs within the individual’s own head. Learning is, from this perspective, a process in which individuals in a social context challenge Figure 5.1. Time travel at an outdoor festival. To Make and to Experience Meaning 115 themselves and their existing thought patterns through cultural and temporal encounters. Time travels provide for such cultural encounters, which can occur amongst individuals, groups, ideas and conceptual worlds. Meaning-making entails being able to relate oneself to the events of the time travel. The participants understand the world if they are involved in the events that are enacted. Time travelling can be seen as an arena in which one can understand oneself in relation