In spite of my giving sometimes a very different picture, I am not always a very orderly or organised person. Yes, I like to be prepared for stuff, but sometimes things escape me. And sometimes I just let a "that should work... somehow... possibly" solution go on way, way too long.

I have just finished sorting all the stuff I took home from the conferences of the past years. Usually, you get handed a little something - a bag or even a canvas bag or a folder - stuffed with a little info about the place you are, the conference programme, museum leaflets, an attendants address' list, and other papery stuff. Now, I have solved the note-taking-and-finding conundrum some years ago when I started to write down all notes from a conference in a single book I made just for that purpose. The papery stuff handed out? I had put them into a magazine file thingie to keep them all together somehow. I have now put all of it (including older notes and stray notes taken on loose leaf paper) into one large ring binder, sorted by conference, and gotten rid of all the old ad leaflets and brochures. And that made me realise... I went to a lot of conferences during those last years. I suspect I may have missed one or two, but during the last years, I almost always went to two conferences each year.

Now I only need to find all the printed-out or scribbled-down notes for the different presentations I gave at the various conferences and put those into a ring binder... and I will be all sorted and have a new, nice, relatively future-proof system. Whew.

This landed in my email inbox yesterday:

Dear all,

We are glad to inform you that it will be possible to follow the international workshop An integration of use-wear and residues analysis for the identification of the function of archaeological stone tools, “La Sapienza” University of Rome, 5th – 7th March 2012  live on the website www.archaeologicaltraces.org.

Everybody is welcome to participate, actively or not, in the discussion sessions using the chat.

So in case you read this in time, you can have a look. In case you are too late (or not interested in stone tool use wear analysis), you can still join me in thinking this a really awesome and really cool thing. Live streaming and interactive discussion on conferences! Welcome to the future! Yay!

I'm currently preparing the powerpoint slides for my paper at the "3000 years of Colour" conference, and I'm having the usual problem again: I need an intro bit explaining what I was doing, then some words about methodology and experiments, then the intro to the experiment design and the data gained from it.
And by the time I can get into talking about the analysis, this means quite a lot of time has gone already. And I need to keep it much, much shorter than I would like to. This is such a common problem when you're working in a niche field - I usually end up taking about 5 minutes to explain what I am doing, and why, in a conference paper. Many of the conferences on experimental archaeology only give you a 20 min slot, so that means a quarter of my allotted time is gone before I can get properly started with my research and results presentation.

Can somebody please invent something to slow time during a talk? That would be so, so nifty sometimes.

Today is a day for taking care of odds and ends - all those small annoying things that need doing. Like checking for updates for my programmes, or fixing small oopsies on websites, or updating some things in the shop, or answering mails and phone calls. It's amazing how many of these small tasks keep coming up - some garden gnome or something like that to take care of stuff would be really helpful!

While I am working on diminishing the annoying-small-tasks list, maybe you would like to check out the programme for the next conference of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), which will take place in Helsinki August 29-September 1? You can find their homepage here, and the call for papers will be open until end of March.

And here's another heads-up regarding a symposium - I will be there as well:

On the occasion of a three-year research project on 'Dyeing techniques of the prehistoric Hallstatt-Textiles' funded by the Austrian Science FWF [L431-G02] at the Natural History Museum of ViennaTextiles' funded by the Austrian Science FWF [L431-G02] at the Natural History Museum of Vienna both an exhibition and a symposium will be organized. In co-operation with the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, the Austrian Society for Textile-Art-Research and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands at both events, a colourful spectrum of research and art is presented.

Exhibition:
colours of hallstatt |textiles connecting science and art
hallstattfarben | Textile Verbindungen zwischen Forschung und Kunst
Venue: Natural History Museum Wien
Date: 17th January to 29th of June 2012

Symposium:
3000 Years of Colour – from Tradition to Art and Innovation
2nd International Symposium on Hallstatt-Textiles
Venue: Natural History Museum Wien
Date: 21st to 23rd March 2012
Registration and further information: http://3000yearsofcolour.nhm-wien.ac.at

Hallstatt in Upper Austria is famous for its prehistoric salt mining. Due to the conservation by the salt, organic finds survived more than 3000 years. Among them are the oldest dyed textiles of Europe, from the Bronze Age (15th - 13th cent. BCA) and the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt-Culture, 800 - 400 BCA).

During both the exhibition and the symposium scientists and artists will provide you with a thorough insight into the unique world of prehistoric textiles and their colours. It will be shown how prehistoric dyers succeeded to use the colours of nature for dyeing textiles and what these colours mean to us today. The last three years scientists investigated the prehistoric dyeing and textiles techniques, analysed the dyes and fibres of the prehistoric finds, collected dye plants, cultivated woad, performed dyeing experiments and experimental textile archaeology and produced replicas of Iron Age ribbons. By the archaeological textiles, by ancient dyeing and textile techniques, by colours and ornaments artists were inspired to create objects of contemporary art.

In the exhibition the various topics will be presented together with prehistoric textile finds from Hallstatt, the reproductions of the ribbons and the art objects.

The three-day Symposium will include lectures of these topics, an art performance and tours of the exhibition and of the textile collection of the Papyrus Museum. A social program will enable you to exchange your experience with an international audience in a relaxed atmosphere and will complete your own "Hallstatt Experience".

On the occasion of a three-year research project on 'Dyeing techniques of the prehistoric Hallstatt-Textiles' funded by the Austrian Science FWF [L431-G02] at the Natural History Museum of Vienna both an exhibition and a symposium will be organized. In co-operation with the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, the Austrian Society for Textile-Art-Research and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands at both events, a colourful spectrum of research and art is presented.

Exhibition:

colours of hallstatt |textiles connecting science and art

hallstattfarben | Textile Verbindungen zwischen Forschung und Kunst

Venue: Natural History Museum Wien

Date: 17th January to 29th of June 2012

Symposium:

3000 Years of Colour – from Tradition to Art and Innovation

2nd International Symposium on Hallstatt-Textiles

Venue: Natural History Museum Wien

Date: 21st to 23rd March 2012

Registration and further information: http://3000yearsofcolour.nhm-wien.ac.at

Hallstatt in Upper Austria is famous for its prehistoric salt mining. Due to the conservation by the salt, organic finds survived more than 3000 years. Among them are the oldest dyed textiles of Europe, from the Bronze Age (15th - 13th cent. BCA) and the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt-Culture, 800 - 400 BCA).

During both the exhibition and the symposium scientists and artists will provide you with a thorough insight into the unique world of prehistoric textiles and their colours. It will be shown how prehistoric dyers succeeded to use the colours of nature for dyeing textiles and what these colours mean to us today. The last three years scientists investigated the prehistoric dyeing and textiles techniques, analysed the dyes and fibres of the prehistoric finds, collected dye plants, cultivated woad, performed dyeing experiments and experimental textile archaeology and produced replicas of Iron Age ribbons. By the archaeological textiles, by ancient dyeing and textile techniques, by colours and ornaments artists were inspired to create objects of contemporary art.

In the exhibition the various topics will be presented together with prehistoric textile finds from Hallstatt, the reproductions of the ribbons and the art objects.

The three-day Symposium will include lectures of these topics, an art performance and tours of the exhibition and of the textile collection of the Papyrus Museum. A social program will enable you to exchange your experience with an international audience in a relaxed atmosphere and will complete your own "Hallstatt Experience".