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DTSTART:19701025T020000
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DTSTAMP:20260426T094406Z
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260512T093000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260513T200000
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SUMMARY:Modes of Compression: Aesthetics, Operations, Format
DESCRIPTION:Like the bellows of an accordion, many human-made objects are designed to compress: to respond to external conditions through a series of contractions and expansions. Though the term COMPRESSION is most often used today to theorize digital operations (e.g. formats, algorithms, codecs, bitrates), its historical, material, and aesthetic dimensions stretch far wider, encompassing cylinder seals, lithography stones, collection inventories, and elided narratives of architectural reliefs. This interdisciplinary conference aims to explore these and other precursors in dialogue with contemporary conceptions of summarization, abstracting, code, and storage. We consider compression both as a technical procedure and as a mode through which aesthetic meaning takes shape amid constraints --- whether material, ecological or economic. Paper topics span temporalities, localities, and media, from medieval pyxides to film stock, nineteenth-century books to DNA bunnies, hand knitting to mass production. As we convene in the city of schiacciata, special attention will be paid to the squashed techniques of Florentine sculptors and to pietra paesina quarried from the Arno riverbed. TALKS WILL BE LIVE-STREAMED ON ZOOM.    Organized by Ruth Ezra (School of Art History, University of St Andrews), Ella Klik, Anna-Maria Meister, and Anna Luise Schubert.    With support from I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; Lise Meitner Group "Coded Objects," Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut; Association for Art History; School of Art History, University of St Andrews; Henry Moore Foundation; and the STAIRS Nascent Partnership Fund. https://itatti.harvard.edu/event/symposium-modes-compression-aesthetics-operations-formats
LOCATION:Online
URL:https://itatti.harvard.edu/event/symposium-modes-compression-aesthetics-operations-formats
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