Dead Images Conference
The Dead Images conference brought together people whose relationships to collections of human and ancestral remains differed considerably: Indigenous scholars and repatriation practitioners, museum professionals and collection custodians, physical anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, artists, and researchers.
Rather than bringing together people around a shared position, the conference deliberately brought differing, sometimes conflicting perspectives into a space for encounter and negotiation. Discussions addressed the formation and histories of skull collections, scientific research and display, colonial violence, provenance and repatriation, relationships between ancestors and descendant communities, and the affordances and challenges of artistic engagements with human remains.
The conference accompanied the opening of the Dead Images exhibition and extended its commitment to multiperspectivity and direct conversation. Bringing these different positions into dialogue opened new relationships and possibilities for cooperation beyond the event itself.
The programme began on 28 June with a public conversation between Tal Adler and bioarchaeologist Charlotte Roberts, moderated by Director of Collections at National Museums Scotland, Sam Alberti. The conference took place on 29 June and was followed on 30 June by Skull X, a lecture-performance by Flinn Works.
Edinburgh College of Art, 28–30 June 2018
Conference organisation: John Harries, Anna Szöke
Opening discussion: Tal Adler and Charlotte Roberts, Moderated by Sam Alberti
Speakers: Christine Borland, Sabine Eggers, Te Herekiekie Herewini, June Jones, Elizabeth James-Perry, Konradin Kunze, Rebecca Redfern, Layla Renshaw, James Riding In, Elise Smith, Joan Smith, Anna Szöke, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Paul Turnbull
Skull X / Schädel X – Lecture-performance by Flinn Works