Enfilade

Programming from CRASSH at the University of Cambridge:

Things: Material Cultures of the Long Eighteen Century
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), Cambridge, ongoing series

Please note the change to the time and location of the seminar:
We meet alternate Tuesdays 12.30-2.30pm in the CRASSH Seminar Room at 7 West Road on the Sidgwick Site.

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The eighteenth century was the century of ‘stuff.’ Public production, collection, display and consumption of objects grew in influence, popularity, and scale. The form, function, and use of objects, ranging from scientific and musical instruments to weaponry and furnishings were influenced by distinct features of the time. Eighteenth-century knowledge was not divided into strict disciplines, in fact practice across what we now see as academic boundaries was essential to material creation. This seminar series will use an approach based on objects to encourage us to consider the unity of ideas of the long-eighteenth century, to emphasise the lived human experience of technology and art, and the global dimension of material culture. We will re-discover the interdisciplinary thinking through which eighteenth-century material culture was conceived, gaining new perspectives on the period through its artefacts.

Each seminar features two talks considering the same type of object from
different perspectives.

24 January 2012 — Fashion
Professor John Styles (University of Hertfordshire) and Amy Miller (National Maritime Museum)

7 February 2012 — Advertising
Dr Philippa Hubbard (Adam Matthew Digital) and Jenny Basford (University of York)

21 February 2012 — Porcelain
Dame Rosalind Savill (Wallace Collection) and Dr Anne Gerritsen (University of Warwick)

6 March 2012 — Artist’s Things
Dr Katie Scott (Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Hannah Williams (University of Oxford)

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Subscribe to the group mailing list at https://lists.cam.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/crassh-things

Visit the external blog at http://thingsc18th.wordpress.com/