21L.015
INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA STUDIES
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- CAVE PAINTING ON THE WEB
- Tuesday 4 February 1997
- Martin Roberts
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- A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS: THE STRANGE CASE OF THE GROTTE CHAUVET
- SETTING
- Vallon Pont d'Arc, Ardèche, South-East France. (Oh, and Paris.)
- 1994-present
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- CAST
- Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel-Deschamps, Christian Hillaire [discoverers
of the cave]
- Jacques Toubon, French Minister of Culture
- Jean Clottes, Conservateur Général du Patrimoine
- The Coulanges family
- Pierre Peschier, Sully Ollier, Henri Helly (owners of the land above
the cave)
- Jean-Pierre Ageron, socialist mayor of Vallon Pont-d'Arc
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- "It's just behind the pont d'Arc, where the clear water of the
Ardèche river slides by. Facing due south, the limestone cliff shimmers
in the sun. Only with binoculars can you make out, halfway up the cliff,
a simple antenna. The antenna is linked to cameras, alarms, and two armored
gates hidden by trees. This elaborate system protects from the curious
gaze a treasure, a gold-mine of memory: the Chauvet cave, a majestic prehistoric
site lined with paintings and engravings thirty thousand years old."
Le Monde, 19 January 1997: 19.
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Back to class page
mroberts@mit.edu