[ridiculously] authentic madison

This article is what ridiculous authenticity is all about [remember, a phrase comprised of my favorite and most hated words, respectively]. This article also identifies one of the major tenents of American historic preservation that makes me loathe it so and vow to never use my preservation training for economic gain unless I'm desperate: authenticity. But read it closely. These conservators, preservers, whatever-they-want-to-call-themselves, are not maintaining the "authentic" as they claim, but instead revisioning the past, through a contemporary lens, and claiming authenticity to a reconstruction.

I believe in preserving the past, but don't fool ourselves and act like our memories or interpretations (otherwise known as history) are actually the past. We can never see the past as it was, or the present as it is for that matter, except in the narrow frame of our own experience and the limited sources we choose to use to support the claims of history. Preserving the past doesn't mean freezing (or returning) in time our built heritage. Stories are the most powerful tools we have for preserving the past, and while buildings make a nice backdrop for lots of stories, they are not the soul of them. Too frequently the people--especially those traditionally underrepresented in historical accounts, who make up the bulk of the past--are lost in all the "authenticity" of the stone, brick, and mortar.

This ridiculous return to authenticity is a lie that no one seems to acknowledge in the process. Buildings have a life of their own, and sometimes that means someone uses, changes, and enriches them once the dead, white, wealthy men are well, dead. Deal with it. Realize there is a story, a merit, a significance to life after the dead white men that should not be erased because of contemporary conservative (well, down right, reactionary) attitudes about our built heritage and the people who give it meaning.

A whole other rant can ensue based on these merits of "authenticity" that uphold certain values and attitudes about what should even be preserved or remembered. I'll give you a hint: it has something to do with the supremacy of dead white men at the expense of others.