Category: uncategorized

As I’ve been working on my dissertation, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we learn from objects. How does looking at a sculpture change what we know or who we are?

People often use the word “aesthetics” to indicate an appreciation of the visual aspects of a work of art. Many people also consider this appreciation as merely a superficial survey of the outward properties. Yet, aesthetics is more than that. It’s a way of knowing based on sensory input instead of rational thought.  I think that this form of knowledge is crucial. To understand works of art, we need to discuss the sensory data of works in relation to historical, social, and cultural contexts.

The Clayton, Jackson, McGhie Memorial, 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota is one of the objects in my study of lynching memorials. I’m now thinking about how the memorial affects individuals and society. It’s easy…

As we near the final countdown to the 2012 presidential elections, those of us living in the important swing state of Florida are being bombarded by radio, television, and internet ads denigrating one or the other of the candidates. Thus it is only fitting that The Wolfsonian museum has an exhibit on display highlighting historic election propaganda from an earlier era. Politics on Paper: Election Posters and Ephemera from The Wolfsonian-FIU Collection highlights the mass communication strategies of the first half of the twentieth century, when posters and paper propaganda were the key means of reaching the electorate.

The exhibition also features a video component, Political Advertisement VII: 1952–2008, which projects American television campaign spots compiled by video artists Antoni Muntadas and Marshall Reese. Although television ads were not possible in the 1930s, political campaigners did make good use of cartoons and other film shorts shown before feature films in…