Conceived in a moment of increased consciousness of the political and aesthetic dimensions of the air we breathe, this symposium is intended to be a forum for scholars across a number of disciplines in the humanities to consider how a visual study of air could augment our understanding of it as a cultural artifact, scientific object, or artistic medium.
Against the hazily looming backdrop of anthropogenic climate change, recent events of national and global import have drawn special attention to the status of “air” as more than just the chemical ‘stuff’ humans in- and exhale. Rather, air is a complex amalgam of particles and practices, effects and affects — a literal and metaphorical medium for thoughts and things, as manifold in its meanings as it is literally ubiquitous on planet earth. Bringing together art historians, media theorists, and literary scholars, Imagining the Atmospheric Invisible aims to ask: how might an interrogation of “the air” in its artistic, technological, and political contexts inform our theories of nature and culture, as well as our praxes of ecology and aesthetics.
Featuring lectures by Sugata Ray, Kimberly Bain, Margareta Ingrid Christian, Yuriko Furhata, Silvia Benedito, and Ina Blom.
Live Q&A Webinars. April 10 & 11, 2021, 3 PM EST
To register to attend the conference and receive the password to the website, please visit the website link or send us an email. Participants will have the opportunity to watch the lectures and ask questions before the live webinar sessions.
Sponsored by the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at the Clark Art Institute and Venti Journal
Organized by Jessie Alperin and Troy Sherman with Emmelyn Butterfield-Rosen
Image Credit: Jans Mankes, Row of Trees, 1915, Oil on Canvas