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Archives in art history
Art history is not linear; although it is often taught as such. Culture is a multi-dimensional network that feeds and builds upon itself in a mashup that transcends time.
Bilderatlas mnemosyne
In Greek mythology, Atlas was the name of a titan, brother of Prometheus, who confronted the Gods of Olympia, to take over their power and give it to humankind. The story goes that he was punished in the same measure of his force. While a vulture ripped Prometheus’ liver in the borders of the East, Atlas in the West (between Andalusia and Morocco) was compelled to hold the whole celestial dome on his shoulders. So more tells the story, this burden gave him in surmountable knowledge and desperate wisdom. He was the ancestor of astronomers, geographers, and some say he was the first philosopher. A mountain (Atlas), an ocean (Atlantic) and an anthropomorphic architectural support (Atlant) got their name after him.
- FROM THE ATLAS » MNEMOSYNE«
More recent Warburg research has shown that it is plausible that Aby Warburg’s historiography was formed in conjunction with technical media. So the structure of Warburg’s “Thinking in Pictures” (“Denken in Bildern”) was modelled by means of, among other things, imaging and image transmission processes such as cinematography, and the materiality of these media extends deep into Warburg’s historiographical and epistemological designs. This presentation aims to shed some light onto the origins of Warburg’s main work, his picture atlas. Based on archive discoveries, there is a theory that Warburg’s MNEMOSYNE picture atlas is owed to a special desk which Warburg deemed to be exceptionally valuable from an epistemological point of view. This presentation aims to reconstruct this desk and its significance for Warburg.
- gombrich?
- warburg
- zkm
- Cornell Uni - Ten panels from the Mnemosyne Atlas
Arcades Project
- Walter Benjamins unfinished project