Historical perceptibility is used, and is still used, to claim, to define capacities for self-rule, to apportion social and political possibilities, to, in effect, empower and disempower Indigenous peoples in the present. Such categorical forms of recognition and mis-recognition are indebted to deep philosophical histories of seeing and knowing [...] And so it is that concepts have teeth and teeth that bite through time. (Audra Simpson, 'Ethnographic Refusal', Junctures, 2007, p.69). The Concepts Have Teeth network brings together artists, archaeologists, anthropologists, digital technologists, historians, museum professionals, Indigenous studies scholars and Knowledge Holders of the Blackfoot Confederacy of Canada/USA to reconsider artefacts held in UK museums. Led by an art school (Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London), the network will investigate the potential of critical approaches and innovative practices of fine artists, in conversation with a transdisciplinary range of technical and theoretical practices and perspectives, to inform the future of digital imaging applied to cultural heritage collections, and to support cultural engagement and revitalisation. The network builds on Blackfoot research projects in Canada and the UK (New Frontiers research project at University of Lethbridge, Canada, and Blackfoot Collections in UK Museums Network), but constitutes an expanded network, bringing new skill-sets together to break new ground by reconsidering recently developed digital technologies - including structure-from-motion photogrammetry (SFM), Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and virtual and augmented reality - from diverse disciplinary perspectives. Advances in imaging technology facilitate a novel investigation into issues around access, tangibility, materiality and self-representation, and the project will explore the potential for a new conjunction of art practices with digital technology developed in archaeology to open access to collections and develop new contexts and associations by re-reading or counter-mapping existing material. Through the agency of Blackfoot Knowledge Holders, the network will access objects held in collection stores in museums across the UK, including the British Museum, the Wellcome Collection; University Museums, University of Aberdeen; and National Museums Scotland, where the collection has never before been visited by Blackfoot Knowledge Holders. Examination of examples within these collections will offer the network opportunities to explore how digital imaging of museum artefacts might offer the potential for approaching material culture in ways which can respond carefully to Blackfoot concerns relating to the endangered cultural knowledge immanent in their stranded objects, to investigate the possibilities for self-representation afforded by digital methods to mark lived experience, lived and re-lived memories and futurities, and to reveal endangered knowledges (of crafting techniques, for example). Network participants will experiment with alternate methods for creating 3D digital models harnessed to the Blackfoot worldview, modelling approaches for engaging with the Blackfoot objects in ways which embed their cultural context, layered histories and stories, sounds and metadata. Existing knowledge structures, be they local to the Blackfoot, the skills of network members or established historical narratives, will be starting points for collective sharing and developing new knowledge over a series of four network events in the UK and Canada, culminating in an event-based public exhibition in London convened under First Nations protocols as a Circle: a model for interaction, co-creation and dialogue. Crossing boundaries between archaeological analytical approaches and artistic practices associated with digital image production, the network will embody unique perspectives on the capabilities of digital imaging for Indigenous artefact collections

Living birds evolved from a flightless ancestor. The changes that eventually made flight possible not only involved modifying the theropod dinosaur body plan and evolving feathers, but also required the brain and senses to be developed to cope with life off the ground. To fly, a bird needs detailed feedback about its position in the air from its organs of balance, and also from visual information. The processing of these signals mostly occurs in a region of the brain called the flocculus, which is easy to see on a bird brain because it projects like a finger from the sides of the cerebellum. The flocculus varies greatly in size between species and, because of its function in balance, this size variation may relate to certain kinds of flying behaviour. The variation might also relate to the habitat in which a species lives, because flying in enclosed environments such as forests requires different flying skills to flying over open ground. Modern X-ray micro-CT techniques now allow us to see inside the skull of both living and fossil birds, revealing how the brain of modern birds has evolved. Using CT analysis, the size of the flocculus can be determined in dinosaurs and living and extinct birds, because its shape - and that of the brain as a whole - is impressed on the inner surface of the skull. The likelihood that flocculus size relates to flying ability has led some palaeontologists to infer flying ability for early birds such as Archaeopteryx from this structure. However, the relationship between flocculus size and flying behaviour has never been tested. It might be that the dimensions of the bony pocket that houses the flocculus are an overestimate of its size because other tissues lie between the flocculus and the bone. It might also be that the size of the flocculus is related to the overall size of the bird rather than to its flying ability or habitat preference. This project intends to test these possibilities by CT scanning the skulls of nearly 100 living species, and creating 'virtual brain models' from the internal space that housed the brain in life. The volume of the flocculus in each 'virtual brain' will be measured and analysed statistically to find out if flocculus size can be used to predict flying behaviour and/or habitat, or whether the size of the bird is the controlling factor. If strong relationships are not found we will know that palaeontologists should avoid speculating on the flying ability of extinct species based on flocculus size. Alternatively, if relationships are found, our test will have provided palaeontologists with a tool to test current ideas about the evolution of avian flight, and the transition from dinosaurs to birds.