Our next scholar-in-residence, Ann-Sophie Lehmann, will join us for a week of virtual programming. She will visit a course and present an informal seminar to the BGC community, in addition to delivering the Museum Conversations Seminar.

Ann-Sophie Lehmann is chair of art history and material culture at the University of Groningen. Her research develops a process-based approach to art and visual material culture. In particular, she studies how materials, tools, and practices partake in the meaning-making of art; how images and texts represent and reflect creative practices; and how knowledge about making engenders material literacy. In 2019, she published Lessons in Art: Art, Education, and Modes of Instruction, edited with Eric Jorink and Bart Ramakers. Prior to joining University of Groningen, she was associate professor of media and culture studies at Utrecht University.

Classroom Visit

Tuesday, November 2, 9:30 am–12 pm
38 West 86th Street

Ann-Sophie Lehmann will join “History and Material Culture: New Directions” with Professor Ivan Gaskell.

The Museum Conversations Seminar
“Object Biography: The Life of a Concept”

Tuesday, November 2, 5–6:30 pm
Zoom

This event will be virtual: held on Zoom and screened in the Lecture Hall.

The object biography has gained popularity in art history, material culture studies, archaeology, history, conservation and restoration, and museum studies. As a concept, the biography creates attention for the individual trajectories of objects and how these change over time; it enables the connection of different approaches, usually dealt with by sub-disciplines (i.e. research into making, provenance, exhibition history, conservation, reception); it offers entry points even if no information is available and encourages interdisciplinarity as objects straddle many fields. Finally, the object biography stimulates new forms of writing because it lends the object a voice and foregrounds narrative. But the concept’s anthropocentric foundations also raise questions. To have a ‘biography’ implies biological and mental development, which objects typically do not have. Are young objects less settled and do objects grow wiser the older they get? Metaphors of birth, maturing, and death might cover up exclusively thing-specific characteristics. Likewise, the proposed ‘life’ implies agency, but do objects really speak for themselves? Who actually tells their story, and would objects be better if we used concepts such as itineraries or necrographies to capture their histories?

This talk presents a brief history and theory of the concept of the object-biography, from its literary and didactic origins in the eighteenth-century to its recent critics, asking what the concept can help us see, which we otherwise would not.

Brown Bag Lunch
“Object Careers”

Wednesday, November 3, 12:15–1:15 pm
Zoom

This event is for BGC audiences only and virtual in format: held on Zoom and screened in the Lecture Hall. Please complete the Google Form below to RSVP.

This talk discusses a particular historical genre of educational objects, produced from the 1920s to 1960s, which trace the development of a thing from raw material to finished product by showing actual specimens in a display case. What (historical) conceptions of education, sensory experience, and knowledge-making do these objects express? How did they obtain their paradoxical format, which presents the actual thing but shuts out haptic experience, and can recent insights in cognitive perception of three-dimensional objects help us to make sense of this format? Are object careers interesting again today, in order to incite material literacy and increase ecological awareness and sustainable living?

Upcoming 2021-22 Residencies

Monday, November 29 to Friday, December 3, 2021: Hannah Baader

Monday, January 31 to Friday, February 4, 2022: Shamil Jeppie

Monday, February 14 to Friday, February 18, 2022: Claudia Swan

Monday, February 28 to Friday, March 4, 2022: Charlotte Vignon

Monday, March 14 to Friday, March 18, 2022: Paul Basu

Monday, March 21 to Friday, March 25, 2022: Lothar von Falkenhausen

Monday, March 28 to Friday, April 1, 2022: Mónica Domínguez Torres

Monday, April 4 to Friday, April 8, 2022: Alison Clarke

Monday, April 11 to Friday, April 15, 2022: Bénédicte Savoy

Monday, April 18 to Friday, April 22, 2022: Carlo Ginzburg

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                                                <p>Our next scholar-in-residence, <strong>Ann-Sophie Lehmann</strong>, will join us for a week of virtual programming. She will visit a course and present an informal seminar to the BGC community, in addition to delivering the Museum Conversations Seminar.</p>
<p><strong>Ann-Sophie Lehmann</strong> is chair of art history and material culture at the University of Groningen. Her research develops a process-based approach to art and visual material culture. In particular, she studies how materials, tools, and practices partake in the meaning-making of art; how images and texts represent and reflect creative practices; and how knowledge about making engenders material literacy. In 2019, she published <em>Lessons in Art: Art, Education, and Modes of Instruction</em>, edited with Eric Jorink and Bart Ramakers. Prior to joining University of Groningen, she was associate professor of media and culture studies at Utrecht University.</p>
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                                                                           <p><strong>Classroom Visit<br />
</strong></p>
<p>Tuesday, November 2, 9:30 am–12 pm<br />
38 West 86th Street</p>
<p>Ann-Sophie Lehmann will join “History and Material Culture: New Directions” with Professor Ivan Gaskell.</p>
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                                                                           <p><strong>The Museum Conversations Seminar<br />
</strong>“Object Biography: The Life of a Concept”</p>
<p>Tuesday, November 2, 5–6:30 pm<br />
Zoom</p>
<p><em>This event will be <b>virtual</b>: held on Zoom and screened in the Lecture Hall. </em></p>
<p>The object biography has gained popularity in art history, material culture studies, archaeology, history, conservation and restoration, and museum studies. As a concept, the biography creates attention for the individual trajectories of objects and how these change over time; it enables the connection of different approaches, usually dealt with by sub-disciplines (i.e. research into making, provenance, exhibition history, conservation, reception); it offers entry points even if no information is available and encourages interdisciplinarity as objects straddle many fields. Finally, the object biography stimulates new forms of writing because it lends the object a voice and foregrounds narrative. But the concept’s anthropocentric foundations also raise questions. To have a ‘biography’ implies biological and mental development, which objects typically do not have. Are young objects less settled and do objects grow wiser the older they get? Metaphors of birth, maturing, and death might cover up exclusively thing-specific characteristics. Likewise, the proposed ‘life’ implies agency, but do objects really speak for themselves? Who actually tells their story, and would objects be better if we used concepts such as itineraries or necrographies to capture their histories?</p>
<p>This talk presents a brief history and theory of the concept of the object-biography, from its literary and didactic origins in the eighteenth-century to its recent critics, asking what the concept can help us see, which we otherwise would not.</p>
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                                                                           <p><strong>Brown Bag Lunch<br />
</strong>“Object Careers”<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p>Wednesday, November 3, 12:15–1:15 pm<br />
Zoom</p>
<p><em>This event is for BGC audiences only and <b>virtual </b>in format: held on Zoom and screened in the Lecture Hall. Please complete the Google Form below to RSVP.</em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This talk discusses a particular historical genre of educational objects, produced from the 1920s to 1960s, which trace the development of a thing from raw material to finished product by showing actual specimens in a display case. What (historical) conceptions of education, sensory experience, and knowledge-making do these objects express? How did they obtain their paradoxical format, which presents the actual thing but shuts out haptic experience, and can recent insights in cognitive perception of three-dimensional objects help us to make sense of this format? Are object careers interesting again today, in order to incite material literacy and increase ecological awareness and sustainable living?</span></p>
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                                                                           <h3>Upcoming 2021-22 Residencies</h3>
<p>Monday, November 29 to Friday, December 3, 2021: <strong>Hannah Baader</strong></p>
<p>Monday, January 31 to Friday, February 4, 2022: <strong>Shamil Jeppie</strong></p>
<p>Monday, February 14 to Friday, February 18, 2022: <strong>Claudia Swan</strong></p>
<p>Monday, February 28 to Friday, March 4, 2022:<strong> Charlotte Vignon</strong></p>
<p>Monday, March 14 to Friday, March 18, 2022: <strong>Paul Basu</strong></p>
<p>Monday, March 21 to Friday, March 25, 2022: <strong>Lothar von Falkenhausen</strong></p>
<p>Monday, March 28 to Friday, April 1, 2022: <strong>Mónica Domínguez Torres</strong></p>
<p>Monday, April 4 to Friday, April 8, 2022:<strong> Alison Clarke</strong></p>
<p>Monday, April 11 to Friday, April 15, 2022: <strong>Bénédicte Savoy</strong></p>
<p>Monday, April 18 to Friday, April 22, 2022: <strong>Carlo Ginzburg </strong></p>
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