I could not resist taking a stab at this one, although from a more
theoretical standpoint . . .

Is anyone familiar with the concept of an autotopography?  This is a term
coined by Jennifer Gonzalez at UC Santa Cruz (Visual Anth Review v9 #1;
_Prosthetic Territories_; _With Other Eyes_--contact me off-list for
complete bibliographical information).  An autotopography, meaning to write
the landscape of the self, is a systematic arrangement of objects that are
important for specific reasons to a particular individual that serve to
locate that individual culturally/socially.  The objects in the
autotopography are prostheses--originally meant as aids to extend the body
of the subject, they eventually are used so much that they become integral
to the subject and would cause a major dislocation to remove.  For
instance, the shopping bag I used today to carry books home is not a part
of my autotopography, although it may have served as a prosthesis.  My
bookbag which I have used for four years for the same purpose, on the other
hand, is; and it is decorated with various pins and keychains that show my
identification with the museum, the university, plays I've done tech for,
etc.  This might be relevant to those of you working with autobiography.

I am currently interested in the question of whether a rhetoric/language of
objects/artifacts is possible;  if anyone else is considering this, please
contact me off list.

Also, for those of you interested in shrines to individuals, let me
recommend Carol Duncan's book _Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art
Museums_ (Routledge, 1995).  She devotes quite a bit of time to the art
museum as donor memorial, using examples such as the NGA (which was donated
by Mellon, I think, although it isn't specifically advertised as such), the
(old) Getty, the collection in the Met that is displayed as a unit, etc.
This book also has an excellent section on women in the canon of modern art.

My museum ethnography went well; I got an A, but I still want to rewrite it
because I feel that I couldn't give it the time it deserved in the crunch
right before break.

And a politeness comment: PLEASE do not ask the entire list to send you a
copy of something or to forward things to you.  Requests like that should
be directed to the person who originally requested the information, and
they can either forward to you or post what they received to the list if
demand is high.  Some of us are working off slow internet connections and
the messages don't load quickly from the archive, so it is a real annoyance
to have to wade through that; I would imagine it would be worse if I wasn't
receiving the index.

Kathy Mancuso

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