24 Apr Truth Claims: Art History Graduate Student Association 40th Annual Symposium
Peter Galison (Art History, Harvard University)
Friday, April 24 / 9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Santa Barbara Harbor and State Street Conference Rooms, University Center
In her 1965 painting, Rhinoceros, based on a newspaper photograph, contemporary artist Vija Celmins makes conscious reference to Albrecht Dürer’s canonical 1515 print of the same subject. In this image, paint mimics the appearance of a newspaper photograph, presenting the viewer with a representation twice divorced from the original subject. In so doing, Celmins directs our attention to the separation between object and experience, an issue that has also been addressed in modern discussions of Dürer’s work. Our conference draws on a long tradition of critiques of authenticity and objectivity in the arts, humanities and interpretative sciences. We ask, how do art and architecture inform, represent or embody these questions of truth-making, as the products of particular moments and cultures? How does our engagement with and interpretations of objects and sites change according to our shifting understanding and analysis of truth claims?Presenting on a range of topics, these questions will be addressed by nine graduate student participants and our keynote speaker.
Peter Galison’s work addresses the interaction between experimentation, instrumentation, and theory in the history of science. His scholarship has received notable recognition, including the Max Planck Prize and Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society for his book, Image & Logic (University of Chicago Press, 1997). He has worked collaboratively to produce several volumes on the boundaries between science and other fields, including his recent publication with Lorraine Daston, Objectivity (Zone Books, 2007), which considers the relationship between visual representation and the concept of scientific objectivity.
Sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, the Office of the Dean, Humanities and Fine Arts, the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, the Graduate Student Association, Associated Students, the Dept. of History of Art and Architecture, the Media, Arts and Technology Program, the Center for Middle East Studies, the Dept. of Germanic and Slavic Studies, the Dept. of Comparative Literature, the Dept. of Latin American and Iberian Studies, the Dept. of Film and Media Studies, the Dept. of Philosophy, and the Dept. of History.