Dear all, Have you ever been described as “infantile”? Have you ever classified someone or something as such? As part of exploring what history is, whether it has a goal, age and direction, and what the means to answer these questions are, you are invited to submit artworks to be displayed in the Department ofContinue reading “Infantile History – Exhibition in the Department of History at York University”
Category Archives: Contemplations
Back to School
This year I’m teaching two tutorial groups in a first year introductory course: ‘War, Revolution & Society in the 20th Century.’ Our main secondary source is the book Twentieth Century and Beyond: A Brief Global History (2008). In the third chapter, ‘The Great Powers of Europe,’ on p. 39, there is a photograph of theContinue reading “Back to School”
Interdisciplinary Method and Human Behavior
Interdisciplinary method in research on human behavior is the other side of working with a diverse group of participants in a social experiment; both halt reductionism in our perception of “human being.” If the perception of the examined phenomenon and its agents is not restricted by the examiner by narrowing down the tools of inquiry,Continue reading “Interdisciplinary Method and Human Behavior”
Everything!
Noa Yaari, Everything! 2005. Letterset on a mirror. Tel Aviv. Photographer: Kfir Harbi.
From Iconic to Symbolic Signs
Last Tuesday (May 10) I took a late morning walk in the beautiful campus of University of Notre Dame, Indiana. It was a quiet rainy day, and I had some free time before lunch. In the Vatican emblem there are two keys. The golden one symbolizes the power Christ gave to Saint Peter and hisContinue reading “From Iconic to Symbolic Signs”
From Symbolic to Iconic Signs
Leonardo da Vinci’s (1452-1519) drawing of the psychophysical question exemplifies a transition from symbolic to iconic signs, which generates new knowledge. In these drawings Leonardo tries to explain how mind and body function together. In 1487, in the Royal Library MSS 12626r and 12627r, he illustrated schematic cross sections of the head and mapped mentalContinue reading “From Symbolic to Iconic Signs”
Place in Image Captions III
But… ethically, if we think about the caption more as part of the book than as an element that accompanies the artwork, the historian has a say. For example, the caption of Fig. 181 in Burckhardt’s Civilization raises interesting questions about the responsibility of the historian, editor and publisher for updating locations of artworks thatContinue reading “Place in Image Captions III”
Place in Image Captions II
In my last post, I suggested to indicate in captions “any location that contributes to the meaning of the work” when the artwork has no body. Upon reflection I realize that it’s problematic and, unfortunately, I have to disagree. Artworks do not begin and end with a place in which their materiality and physicality settle.Continue reading “Place in Image Captions II”
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun
A monographic exhibition of the French painter Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) has been traveling through Europe and North America. It started at Grand Palais in Paris, it’s currently on display at the Met Museum in NY (until May 15), and will end in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (Jun 10 – Sept 11).Continue reading “Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun”
Crossing Disciplines is Studying What Is
Between March 14-16, the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies hosted its Distinguished Visiting Scholar Prof. Pamela H. Smith (Columbia University). During her visit Prof. Smith gave two talks: “Historians in the Laboratory: Art and Science in Early Modern Europe” and “Transforming Matter and Making Art in a Sixteenth-Century Workshop,” as well as two lab-workshopsContinue reading “Crossing Disciplines is Studying What Is”
Noa Yaari 