So far this spring/summer, my experimental efforts at "brand building" for my art have been, as best I can tell, a flop. I've gotten entries in my Summer Selfie Contest from just a single person: Columbia-based artist and friend Flavia Lovatelli. If the first month of the contest is any indication, Flavia is going to win hands down.

While I'm still hopeful that the scheme will start to work, I'm not optimistic. Over the past week I've had large, fairly photogenic pieces in two highly visible spots and . . . crickets. I watched people take photos with my 8.5' seahorse "Rocket Queen" at West Columbia's Kinetic Derby Day and . . . nothing. "Beauty and Grace" has been on full display at ArtFields this week and . . . nothing. The word on the street is that there will be a free popcorn machine next to it tomorrow, so maybe something will happen there. Fingers crossed.

For those of you in Columbia, Saturday presents another opportunity to not take a photograph of yourself with my work. I created a piece called "The Rabbit Hole" for the Tapp's putt-putt golf fundraiser this weekend. My hole (I think it's the 16th hole) plays with concepts of binary oppositions that we so often use as shortcuts to simplify, describe, and understand the world. It is built around the contrast between stable and unstable equilibrium points: it's much easier to tip over the edge and go down into the rabbit hole than it is to sharpshoot your way out. It's got two winged rabbits ("Zero" and "One") that will be for sale when they're done. It's also got lights. And I'm hoping there will be music. I won't be there to turn everything on, so "The Rabbit Hole" is in capable hands of Wilson. It's all yours, Wilson.

I'll be sorry to miss the fun at Tapp's, and I'll sorry to miss the awards day at ArtFields (also on Saturday). I'll be at the beach with my kids. Art is great, but I would be more sorry to miss that. Plus I could really use a day at the beach.

Tomorrow will be our last day in the field at 38FA608. Last Friday we finished excavating the features in the block and got Unit 13 almost down to where it needs to be. Tomorrow we'll backfill the block and collect final information from the profile exposed by Unit 13. We may not have time to get everything done during the day, so I'll probably have to finish up when I go out next week to break down the toolbox and grab the screens, etc.

If you like snakes, you'd love 38FA608 this time of year.

Enjoy the video! 

I've been busting my butt on weekends and evenings to complete "Rocket Queen," a seahorse built around the frame of a tandem bicycle.  Don't believe me? Watch the video.

The piece will be on display (and for sale) this Saturday at Kinetic Derby Day in West Columbia. This is a new event, and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. I'm going to take my kids to the parade and the race in the morning, and visit my beloved seahorse at some point. I'm not familiar with West Columbia, but it shouldn't be too hard to spot an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall seahorse. I made sure it would poke up above the crowd.

As for the name . . .  My original concept for the piece was an exploration of the complementary tension between art and science. I used a lot of blue and orange because they are complementary colors (and because I had an old Ford air cleaner that I wanted to use for the snout). I tried to blend in some other complementary oppositions also.

In my book, the song "Rocket Queen" is among the best things that Guns 'N' Roses ever did. It energetically blends the "guns" and the "roses" sides into a single thread that wraps around and bookends itself. Remember the "duality of man" scene from Full Metal Jacket? At its best, the music of Guns 'N' Roses is that.  Holding and accepting two contradictory ideas in your head (and heart) at the same time isn't easy. Art can do that.

The song is also important to me historically. I first heard Appetite for Destruction at a small party in high school. It was a crazy night that I feel like I remember better than I probably actually do. The album blew me away from the first time I heard it. I got someone to make a cassette for me, but the last part of the last song -- "Rocket Queen" -- got cut off because of length. I didn't hear the last half of the song until I saw the 1988 concert at The Ritz on MTV. In that performance, Axl Rose disappears during one of the verses and then tosses the microphone at someone offstage before the very end of the song. So I didn't hear all of the song. But I did get to hear most of the last part, with those sappy lyrics and an actual melody. That concert made a big impression on me and changed how I wanted my own music to sound and feel. I still like watching it.

Eventually I did get my own copy of the full song. It was a mainstay of mine for years of gearing up and getting going. The whole story worked and still does.

If you're headed to the Kinetic Derby, I hope you have a chance to check out my work. "Rocket Queen" is probably one of the most photogenic things I've made -- ironic because it's so big I haven't yet been able to get a picture of it that I like. I incorporated a mirror if you'd like to work that into your entry in the Zero Point Mechanic selfie contest. I bet it's the biggest seahorse you'll see all weekend.​ 

We've only got two more days left in the spring 2018 season at 38FA608. The weather looks good for this Friday, so I may end up threading the needle with yet another season with no time lost to rain.

While we're in good shape to finish up in the block on Friday, Unit 13 is going slower than I'd hoped. It just won't stop being interesting. As you will see in the video from Week 11, I took two students out for an extra day to work on the Late Archaic deposits and try to keep things moving along. There is still work to be done before we reach the Middle Archaic zone, and there's no telling what we'll run into down there. If the broad pattern of field archaeology holds, we'll find something extremely interesting this Friday that will bring the whole endeavor to a screeching halt.

The video for Week 11 is a long one, as it includes footage from an extra field day. I resisted the temptation to pose on a lawn chair in the back of the pickup truck. Enjoy!

My work time this week has been dominated by preparing my presentation for the annual Society for American Achaeology (SAA) meetings. My main presentation, titled "Patterns of Artifact Variability and Changes in the Social Networks of Paleoindian and Early Archaic Hunter-Gatherers in the Eastern Woodlands: A Critical Appraisal and Call for a Reboot" will be this evening. I'll also be participating in a "lightning round" workshop tomorrow morning on engaging pseudoscience. For that I'll be giving a super quick (presentations are limited to 3 minutes) primer on what I learned from Swordgate.

The meetings are in Washington, D.C., which is not a cheap town. I used most of my allotted institutional travel support for the SEAC meetings in the fall, so I'm mostly on my own dime for this one. Consequently it will be a quick trip -- one night in DC and then I'm headed back home.

We another great day last Friday at field school. Normally I made the videos on Mondays, but I needed that time this week to work on my SAA talk. I'll do the Week 11 video when I'm back in the office early next week. This Friday while I'm gone the students will be in my lab washing the artifacts we have recovered so far this season.

I had hoped to have my presentation up and available by now, but I'm going to hold off while I continue to tweak it en route. I'll post it on my Academia.edu page when it's done. (Update: here it is.)

We're officially in the "end times" of this season's fieldwork at 38FA608. After last Friday, we have just two more days to actively excavate at the site (the students will be doing lab work while I'm at the SAA meetings, and the last day will be reserved for buttoning things up and backfilling).

We made good progress last Friday, ending the day with Features 11 and 12 exposed in profile. Feature 11 is a relatively deep, midden-filled pit, while Feature 12 is a shallow basin associated with some large pieces of fire-cracked rock. As I'll discuss at some point in the future, both of these kinds of features are well-known from sites of similar age. Analysis of the contents of the features will help us understand activities at the site as well as refine the chronology of site occupation. 

As you can see in the video, Unit 13 refuses to stop becoming more interesting. Both of the Savannah River points from Friday came from an area of slightly darker sediment that is probably a feature. I'm planning on spending tomorrow working at the site with a couple of volunteers to keep things moving along in Unit 13.

I'm happy to report that my campaign to raise money to support next year's field school has passed a quarter of the goal of $4000. My sincere thanks go to Mike Morgan, Ken Kosidlo, and two anonymous donors for their generous contributions and support.

Enjoy the video!