El sábado 26 de abril ha tenido lugar la sesión «Blogging Archaeology» en la SAA, con la presentación de un libro sobre el tema en el que participo con el último post de este blog... Como lo prometido es deuda, aquí va.
Muchas gracias a todos los que me habéis seguido durante estos siete años. Este blog ha sido un desahogo para mí y lo recordaré con cariño toda la vida. Ahora me dedico a mis vagancias, como las series. Supongo que algún día volveré, aunque no sea aquí.
*****
The end of a cycle. Blogging about public
archaeology in Spain. El fin de un ciclo. Blogueando sobre arqueología pública
en España
*This is a bilingual text.
**Con bilingüe quiero decir que hay partes
en español, and others in English.
14 Apr 2014, 16:07
In this exact moment, I am writing the last
post on the first blog I ever created. I am correcting the proofs of this
chapter, which will be the last post of the “Public Archaeology” blog. The next
lines are an overview of the blog, how it started and how it ended. La última
reflexión antes de cambiar de ciclo.
Introduction. So you had a blog?
28 Sept 2007, 14:30
That is the exact moment I started my first
blog. I cannot remember much more. I was a bit bored in those days. My MA in
London had just started and the blog seemed to be a great idea to share public
archaeology with my Spanish colleagues. I remember I checked domain names and
both “Public Archaeology” and “Arqueología Pública” were available, so I picked
them for myself. The Spanish Government had started a campaign to make us
create web pages by giving us free domains. I had chosen
“arqueologiapublica.es”, so while figuring out what I was going to do with the
domain name (and its blog), I started using the English domain for myself. For
a while I thought about doing the blog in English, but I felt my audience
should be in Spain, so I went for it and created a Spanish blog.
When you start a blog you are a bit
obsessed with statistics, for a while. For weeks I was writing and checking my
blog statistics several times a day. I thought I was going to write about my
experience in London, but at the end it was about raw public archaeology more
than my experiences.
One day I had dozens of posts and thousands
of visits. My presence in the Internet had increased a lot, and with it my
prestige. Early in 2008 I received an email from a professor in Galicia who was
starting a blog about the use of the past in popular culture. She wanted me to
participate and, of course, I did. “Pasado Reciclado” is a successful blog,
still active, in which we analyse contemporary material culture evoking past
icons. It is the most fun you can have writing about archaeology.
Almost seven years later I manage four
blogs about archaeology with regular content, of which “Public Archaeology” and
“Pasado Reciclado” are still the most important. In the meantime, “El futuro de
la arqueología en España” (http://elfuturodelaarqueologia.blogspot.com [i])
served its purpose as an extension of the same titled book for almost two
years, with several controversial posts that triggered debate in different
events. Today, I still try to use blogging for something different. “El diario
de Lancaster Williams” (http://eldiariodelancasterwilliams.blogspot.com [ii])
is the extension of a different book, “El Hallazgo”. Besides announcing events
and offers, it is the platform for the voices of two of the main characters,
Lancaster Williams, and Ian MacAllister (http://irlandescabreado.wordpress.com [iii]),
in what has been called a “blognovel”.
Seven years ago, I would never have
imagined I was going to be such a blogger. I have over 800 blog posts and more
to come.
 |
| Figure 1: Public Archaeology's first post in 2007 |
Toda la arqueología es pública por definición
¿Por qué empieza todo esto? En 2005 le dije
por primera vez a mi tutora lo que quería hacer en mi tesis. Arqueología
Pública. «Pero toda la arqueología en España es pública por definición» me
contestó… Y entonces se me cayó el alma a los pies y decidí ir a Londres. Puede
que allí empezara todo, en mi frustración a la hora de explicar qué es lo que
hacía. Nadie me entendía. Tenía que cambiar aquello.
Por un momento, las pocas referencias que
podías encontrar en España a la arqueología pública estaban en mi blog. Ya
había algunos equipos trabajando con comunidades, pero mi posición iba un paso
más allá. Yo quería tratar las relaciones arqueología/público en toda su
extensión, especialmente la política y la económica.
Por eso, en las entradas del blog intenté
analizar la actualidad arqueológica desde la arqueología pública, intercalando
entradas más explicativas durante los primeros años, con otras más «extrañas»
después.
Entre los dos blogs, conseguimos que la
arqueología pública llegara a mucha gente. Sólo quedaba asentar el proceso. ¿Es
posible que internet cambiara en algo la forma de entender la arqueología? No.
Pese a la estupenda acogida de los blogs y la rápida incorporación de otros
dedicados a diferentes ámbitos de la arqueología, los blogs no movían la
actualidad española. En lo que a mi concierne, congresos y publicaciones
hicieron el trabajo, pero los blogs se convirtieron poco a poco en una
referencia alternativa a las vías oficiales.
La arqueología en España está aún lejos de
ser pública por definición, pero si me volvieran a decir eso hoy, ya podría
reaccionar de otra manera.
Ranting, ranting and ranting
I have said that “Public Archaeology” was a
blog in Spanish, but, there were certain topics I needed to write about in
English. The blog was the only platform I had to express myself in more than a
couple of lines. What happened? If I needed to express myself in English, the
reason could not be good. Actually, a boycott and a half…
The WAC controversy:
April 2012
November 2012
I never met Peter Ucko. Unfortunately, he
passed before I went to London. However, his spirit was still there, especially
for public archaeology students. UCL changed my mind in very different ways and
the World Archaeology Congress (WAC) was one of them. These kinds of congresses
are monstrous, and lately too standardized for my taste. Although there was
something about WAC that made it different. It really was a World Archaeology
Congress. My relationship with the organization has been turbulent, and now I
just want it to change back to what Ucko wanted it to be. For details, check
the links.
The Springer controversy:
In close relation with the WAC controversy,
I just exploded last December (2013) with the publisher Springer and decided to
start a personal boycott against them. The post did not have much repercussion
besides my own journal, which declined to review any books from them. Funny
thing was, that this same day (I saw the article the day after, shared dozens
of times in Facebook) a Nobel Laureate did so and made a huge impact. I need a
good award in order to rant properly.
The System controversy:
With the boycott to Springer still fresh,
in late winter 2014, events came like a syzygy and I felt like ranting again
about the system itself. What was the point of participating anyway? This has
not been made for foreigners. But this same day I got an email about this book
(the one you are reading now) and just forgot about it. Crazy chapter going on
in Spanish and English…Will anyone read it?
La audiencia
La verdad es que he tenido varios finales
en falso para el blog, pero siempre que digo que lo dejo, tengo muchas cosas
que contar de repente. Estoy convencido de que el blog ha sido un éxito, pero
hacía ya unos años que la audiencia me tenía decepcionado. La interacción pasó
de poca a nula y no me gusta escribir para que nadie lo lea, sobre todo cuando
se trata de temas controvertidos.
Hoy, con la perspectiva que da escribir
sobre el tema y varias semanas a un ritmo muy bajo, me pregunto si en el fondo
el blog no habrá sido un fracaso. Me resisto a pensarlo y la experiencia de «El
futuro de la arqueología en España» me ayuda a reafirmarme en ello. El
colectivo arqueológico español está aún poco decidido a debatir en un blog.
Mientras en las mesas redondas asociadas a los eventos de presentación del
libro nos quedábamos sin tiempo para debatir, en el blog nada…
Pero la mayor desesperación llega cuando te
comparas con otras plataformas y ves que allí hay más movimiento. En cualquier
caso, la oferta es tal, que hoy en día es difícil encontrar lo que buscas sin
el apoyo de otras redes sociales, lo que implica tener también una audiencia en
esas redes sociales.
Gestionar un blog es mucho más que
escribir. Para triunfar sin ser de antemano una personalidad, necesitas
mantener un nivel muy alto en las entradas, con unos contenidos atractivos. ¿Y
eso qué significa? Que hay que elegir entre un blog comercial, y un blog
personal (lo que creo que era el sentido original). Pero, sobre todo, como
diría Lorna Richardson, que hay que diseñar una buena estrategia de
comunicación digital.
En cualquier caso, esa sensación que tenía
al comenzar el blog ya no existe. No tengo la necesidad de escribir que tenía
antes. Pero, sobre todo, ahora tengo muchos compañeros escribiendo blogs de
gran calidad. No siento que tenga nada más que aportar. Es el final de un
ciclo.
-Pablo Aparicio: http://pabloaparicioweb.blogspot.com [viii]
-Antonio Vizcaíno: http://pi3dra.tumblr.com [ix]
-Juan I. García: http://arqueoart.blogspot.com [x]
-Adrián Carretón: http://arqueoblog.com
[xi]
De hecho, cuando hace unas semanas el autor
de este último blog me dijo que «Public Archaeology» había sido un ejemplo para
él, lo tuve claro. Si el alumno supera al maestro, quítate del medio.
 |
| Figura 2: Un pantallazo de Pasado Reciclado (captura de pantalla) |
The end of a cycle
So, that was all! Seven years and a…legacy?
I want to think that all my writing was for something. It helped me clarify and
share ideas. During this time I had the opportunity to share everything that
was going on in public archaeology, set some ideas that I was about to publish
in the traditional academic media, and, more importantly, build a small network
of researchers and students willing to work under the premises of pubic
archaeology. I don’t remember if I had a goal when I started the blog, but even
if I was so pretentious to think I could indoctrinate my colleagues, I finally
managed to do it (I want to believe it was not only through the blog). What was
the point of continuing? This is the story of an end; like the last post of a
long-living blog that ran out of ideas. I am glad I have now the opportunity to
write it.
Having a look at the list of “friend blogs”
I linked to in my blog, I see that most of them are out of business now. Some
of them did not even last a couple years. People get tired, sooner or later. It
has taken me more time, but, I am tired too. I think I’ve run out of ideas and
I don’t want the blog to become a collection of news, or a ranting platform. It
was a place for reflection and analysis, and that is over now. It is hard to
admit it, but at some point you have to stop.
What happens now? I guess I will continue
collaborating with “Pasado Reciclado”, although “Pi3dra” is offering great
content in this same line. Sharing the blog makes it easier to maintain the
activity at least. I know that I will come back at some point, with renewed
strength, so this is more like a “see you later” or an “under refurbishment”
than a “good bye”.
¿Y ahora qué?
Ahora he empezado un blog sobre series de
televisión y me tomaré un tiempo para pensar qué quiero hacer con mis redes
sociales. Tengo más blogs de los que cuidar y quiero que todos ellos mejoren en
calidad y en contenido. Mi abuela siempre me decía: «quien mucho abarca, poco
aprieta» y puede que ese haya sido el detonante de mi adiós. Simplemente no
podía más, pero cuando escribes más de 100 entradas al año, es imposible
mantener el nivel.
Voy a terminar la tesis, voy a cerrar
proyectos y, mientras tanto, me divertiré un poco…
[*English speaking friends, you can find
subtitles in the video]
Epilogue
I have just started a new blog about
different TV Series. Quite a change, but I cannot avoid writing about
archaeology sometimes. I really hate to give up on archaeology blogging, so I
will keep doing it. This is like a drug, or a therapy… After all this time, I
can only conclude that blogs have been one of the greatest advances in
communication. We might have a limited audience, but search engines always find
you when someone is looking for the topics you talk about. Academic publishing
is becoming more and more difficult for certain topics. The market is obscene
and the rankings are actually killing talent in the fake search for quality. Blogs
let you write about topics that would not make an article, or would not even
need to make an article, but are interesting for the community. They have been
extremely useful for me, both as an author and researcher, so I only have good
words.
I said this was the last post of my
blog…Ask me again in another seven years.
