This talk explores a diverse array of visual and material culture, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, liturgical objects, and even quipus (mnemonic devices consisting of knotted cords) in the forging of an anticolonial consciousness in the eighteenth-century Andes. Conversely, it also explores artistic patronage and production in the repressive post-rebellion era, looking specifically at the means by which official portraiture, cartography, and religious paintings sought to erase and reconfigure social memory of these upheavals in their aftermath. An attention to visual and material culture sheds light on a multiplicity of responses to rebellion by artists, viewers, and patrons who may not otherwise appear in the documentary record. Through interdisciplinary investigation that brings into conversation select works of art with the vast legal paper trail left behind by the age of rebellions, this talk offers new perspectives on the ways historical actors harnessed the visual world as an agent of political transformation.

The talk would be given via Zoom: https://ufl.zoom.us/j/92785502466?pwd=MFdDWm94SEhSdWdhNlhZYTdicCsyUT09 (Passcode: 064017)

Dr. Amor will lecture on specific chapters of her career-long research on late modern artistic practices by artists from Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela as it implies a reflection on historical, local, and material conditions of cultural production beyond the dominant narratives of art history. Dr. Amor teaches modern and contemporary art with a focus on expanded mediums, intermedial practices and interdisciplinarity. Her approach is global, highlighting the role of institutions and exhibitions in the production of cultural representations. Her published research engages postwar abstraction and post-object aesthetics as well as the transatlantic dialogues between Europe and South America.

This lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Plural Domains: Selected Works from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, which is held simultaneously at the Harn Museum of Art (September 7, 2021–April 24, 2022) and the University Gallery (September 14, 2021–February 26, 2022) of the University of Florida.

The talk will be given via Zoom: https://ufl.zoom.us/j/92785502466?pwd=MFdDWm94SEhSdWdhNlhZYTdicCsyUT09 (Passcode: 064017)

Black Art Futures examines the state of the contemporary arts ecosystem to propose sustainable pathways for art, innovation and activism. Drawing on a book in progress of the same name, this talk is inspired by the current exhibition, Shadow to Substance, to demonstrate how photography, throughout its history, has played a key role in both documenting and delivering social change.

Thursday, February 17, 2022 9:00am - 13:30pm EST
Friday, February 18, 2022  9:00am - 15:10pm EST

Divination has played an irreplicable role in the diffused religious life of the Chinese people.

Although it faced periodical suppressions, especially in the modern era, divination and diviners have not only survived but also flourished in digital media in recent decades. Built on decades of innovation scholarship conducted through the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (IKGF) at the University Erlangen-Nuremberg, this international symposium brings together a group of eminent scholars from various disciplines of Chinese studies to focus on Chinese diviners, examining how they adopted new technology and adapted their practices to changing social, political, and cultural contexts throughout Chinese history.

The talk will be given via Zoom: https://ufl.zoom.us/j/92785502466?pwd=MFdDWm94SEhSdWdhNlhZYTdicCsyUT09 (Passcode: 064017)

Keynote Lecture by Dr. Michael Lackner

Signs and Signification in a Global Perspective: A Review of the Research done at the IKGF, Erlangen

9:00-10:30 AM, Thursday, February 17

Michael Lackner, Professor of Chinese Studies, Department of Middle Eastern and Far Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

The International Consortium for Research in the Humanities (better known under the German abbreviation IKGF) “Fate, Freedom, and Prognostication” was established in 2009 and can therefore look back to more than 12 years of an international transdisciplinary community of scholars. This talk will deal with two important aspects of the research conducted at the IKGF, where the often unjustly criticized comparative perspective proved extremely fruitful. We compared attitudes, views, and theories of premodern literati regarding prediction and divination in East and West and identified a broad spectrum ranging from skepticism to credulosity, with numerous differentiations “in between”. We further compared divinatory practices from the angle of their techniques (often based on calculation) and their respective religious affinity (sometimes empowered by prophecy). The talk will provide examples for each of these topics.

 Symposium Schedule 

Thursday, February 17, 2022 (all times here are EST)

9:00-9:10

Welcome Address

Guolong Lai, University of Florida

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9:10-10:30

Keynote Lecture: Signs and Signification in a Global Perspective: A Review of the Research done at the IKGF, Erlangen

Michael Lackner, Professor of Chinese Studies, Department of Middle Eastern and Far Eastern Languages and Cultures, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

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10:40-12:00

Some Reflections about Shang Diviner Groups Mantic and Epigraphic Practices in Anyang

Olivier Venture, École Pratique des Hautes Études

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Why Did Anyone Believe in Divination?

Paul Goldin, University of Pennsylvania

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12:10-13:30

Divination and Narrative Strategy in the Zuo Tradition

Hanmo Zhang, Renmin University

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Before the Duke of Zhou: The Significance of the Yuelu Dream-book for the Genealogy of Chinese Oneirocritics

Dimitri Drettas, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

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Friday, February 17, 2022 (all times here are EST)

9:00-10:20

Do They Really Believe in Divination? With Discussion on the Plurality of the Qin-Han Divination

Byung-joon Kim, Seoul National University

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Diviners, Prognostic Techniques, and Faith in the Warring States Period

Guolong Lai, University of Florida

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10:30-11:50

Views of Destiny in Daoism

Fabrizio Pregadio, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg

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Mediators of Imperial Fate: Doctors and Diviners in the Northern Histories

Steve Kory, University of Florida

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12:00-13:20

Reading the Sutra of the Great Divine Spells of Auspiciousness

Lidu Yi, Florida International University

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Chan Master Dayi’s Inscription on Sitting Meditation

Mario Poceski, University of Florida

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13:30-14:50

Diviners in Fiction: A Study of Narratives about Diviners in Ming-Qing xiaoshuo

Vincent Durand-Dastès, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales

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Divination in Qingwei Daoism

Richard Wang, University of Florida

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14:50-15:10

Conclusion

“Plural Domains: Art in, of, from Latin America” includes one art history lecture and a panel discussion comprised of internationally recognized artists and a scholar, each with a distinguished career and record of exhibitions, publications and participation in public events. The events take as their point of departure the exhibition Plural Domains: Selected Works from the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Collection, which is curated by Jesús Fuenmayor for University Galleries and the Harn Museum of Art. The exhibition will be on view at the Harn from September 7, 2021 to April 24, 2022 and at the University Galleries from September 7, 2021 to December 3, 2021. The panel addresses the interconnections between artistic practices, curatorial research as well as diversity and pluralism in the contemporary art of Latin American.

Focusing on turn of the nineteenth-century France, from the eve of the Revolution to the Napoleonic period, this lecture seeks to explore relations between portraits of people and portraits of diseases. During this period both physical and mental disorders started to be visually recorded in a systematic manner. At the same time, portraiture was a very popular medium and I will argue that definitions and practices of portraiture evolving around the notion of character were crucial for the development of the pathological image meant to capture the “characteristic traits” of a disease.