Interpreting Environmental History through Material Culture

In an exhibition called UnEarthing the Secret Life of Stuff: Americans and the Environment, the Strong Museum uses nineteenth- and twentieth-century domestic artifacts to ntroduce its audience to the subject of environmental history. The author, who served as principal researcher for the exhibit, discusses strategies for using material culture analysis to explore both the ideas about nature that everyday objects convey and the changing historical relationships between people and their surroundings that objects embody. Examples from the exhibit show how museum audiences can be enlisted in the effort to make environmental meanings from their material culture. Résumé Dans le cadre d'une exposition intitulée UnEarthing the Secret Life of Stuff: Americans and the Environment, le musée Strong fait appel à des articles ménagers des XIXe et XXe siècles pour introduire les gens à l'histoire environnementale. L'auteur, qui a été chercheur principal dans le cadre de l'exposition, décrit pourquoi l'analyse de la culture matérielle permet de découvrir comment ces objets courants reflètent ce qu'on pense de la nature et comment ils sont l'expression de l'évolution des liens historiques entre les gens et leur milieu. Des exemples tirés de l'exposition indiquent comment les visiteurs d'un musée peuvent cerner la signification environnementale de leur culture matérielle

Unspeakable Desire To See, And Know : Paradise Regained And The Political Theology Of Privacy

In this essay, Eric B. Song considers the artistic, religious, and political value of privacy in Paradise Regained. The topic of privacy condenses Milton\u27s thinking about gender and sexuality, domesticity, the fraught work of publishing intimate truths, and the relationship between Christian and Hebraic modes of religious polity. The depiction of privacy in Paradise Regained relates not only to Milton\u27s earlier poetry and prose but also to twentieth-century theories of private and public life that contrast classical and modern societies. The productive friction between Milton\u27s religious convictions and his advocacy for personal liberty speaks to controversies that persist in present-day American politics

Potency by Name? ‘Medicine Buddha Plant’ and Other Herbs in the Japanese \u3ci\u3eScroll of Equine Medicine\u3c/i\u3e (\u3ci\u3eBa’i sōshi emaki\u3c/i\u3e, 1267)

Buddhist ritual healing and medical therapies included care for domestic animals, such as the horse. In pre-modern Japan, equine medicine (ba’i 馬医) was not restricted to the treatment of military horses; it was also practiced in a religious context. The Scroll of Equine Medicine (Ba’i sōshi emaki 馬医草紙絵 巻, 1267) is an enigmatic picture scroll held by the Tokyo National Museum. It extends to more than six meters and contains images of ten divine figures related to the healing of horses, followed by seventeen pictures of plants, and a postscript emphasizing that the content of the scroll should be kept secret. Many of the plants listed in the scroll are either associated with the world of Buddhism, e.g. Yakushi-sō 薬 師草, ‘Medicine Buddha plant,’ or with horses, e.g. metsu-sō 馬頭草, ‘horsehead plant.’ Previous analyses of the scroll largely focused on the botanical identification of the sketches of the plants. This article reviews current interpretations of the scroll and explores the question of whether the plant names were thought to empower the plants to be used as potent materia medica for veterinary purposes. Based on earlier analyses, I suggest a new interpretation of the scroll from a study of religions perspective taking into consideration that some of the plant names in the scroll indicate both health-related and salvific potency. I also address the possible use of the scroll. The scarcity of textual information and the choice of textual detail and imagery in this ‘secret’ scroll suggests that it was used in the context of an oral transmission and empowerment ritual. The scroll itself seems to have been an object of ritual empowerment, rather than a compendium of materia medica for practical daily use when caring for horses

To Find a Stairwell

To Find a Stairwell is an exploration and written supplement to my painted works and how it relates to loss, depression, and compulsive tendencies. Through examples of my own paintings and the research and influences leading my education is an articulate web chronicling two years of work from a focus in abstract painting to a place where representation and abstraction intersect

STATIC! The Aesthetics of Energy in Everyday Things

Abstract: Static! is a project investigating interaction and product design as a way of increasing our awareness of how energy is used in everyday life. Revisiting the design of everyday things with focus on issues related to energy use, we have developed a palette of design examples in the form of prototypes, conceptual design proposals and use scenarios, to be used as a basis for communication and discussion with users and designers. With respect to design research and practice, the aim has been to develop a more profound understanding of energy as material in design, including its expressive and aesthetic potential, thus locating issues related to energy use at the centre of the design process

Max Ernst and the Aesthetic of Commercial Tourism: Max Among Some of His Favorite Dolls

abstract: "Max Ernst and the Aesthetic of Commercial Tourism: Max Among His Favorite Dolls" examines Surrealist artist Max Ernst's practice of collecting Hopi and Zuni kachina figurines. Ernst, like some other European Surrealists, was an avid collector of Native Amercian material culture and ceremonial hardware. Surrealists interest in Indigenous material was part of a larger program to destabilize European privileging of the mind and art as rational constructs. This paper focuses on James Thrall Soby's 1941 photograph of Ernst surrounded by his collection of kachina figurine, which was first published in the April edition of View Magazine. As Soby's portrait of Ernst has been reproduced many times over course of the past six decades, it has become an emblem of the Surrealists general interest in Native Americana. In contrast to vanguardism with which Ernst and other Surrealist's collecting practices is usually credited, this paper examines Soby portrait of Ernst's within practices of commercial tourism and the souvenir industry in the Southwest. By the mid 1940s, Hopi and Zuni kachina figurine makers had a well-developed commercial kachina figurine industry that targeted the patronage of visitors to the regions. Evidence levied in the development of Ernst's tourist aesthetic includes his mode of collection, display, and stories that surround Max's assemblage of kachina figurines. This paper further differentiates it from the collecting practices of Surrealist counterparts such as André Breton

The rise and fall of the Forsytes : from Neo-Victorian to Neo-Edwardian marriage

This chapter looks at Neo-Victorian and Neo-Edwardian marriage