Research on the cultural history of the material world occurs in different places at the BGC--in classrooms, in the seminar series, in the BGC Gallery—and also in different forms—the presentation, the research paper, the exhibition. As we look to the future we think also about the ways the research function can be carried out in a new media environment in which new kinds of questions can be asked without sacrificing the rigor of philological and hermeneutical exegesis.
This page contains a sample of videos made for exhibitions and for a class. Each shows how the tools of the scholar and the horizon of knowledge have been expanded using new media. Videos made to accompany exhibitions suggest the range and ambition of our exhibition program; those made to accompany a class the ways in which cultural histories of the material world can be told in different ways. The Media Lab in our new academic center (opening Fall 2009) will offer students opportunities to acquire skills and intellectual perspectives that will place them at the leading edge of new thinking about materiality in the twenty-first century.
Exhibition Videos
Duchess Street and Household Furniture
(25:42)
Designer, patron, collector, and author Thomas Hope (1769 - 1831) is one of the major figures in the history of British design and helped shape and define what became known as "Regency Style," a mode of design and decoration that continues to be influential. This virtual recreation of the interior design of Thomas Hope's Duchess Street home in London is based on his published drawings for the project.
Thomas Hope and the Deepdene
(6:57)
Thomas Hope's interior and architectural designs for his country estate in Surrey, England.
Lions, Dragons, and Other Beasts:
Aquamanilia of the Middle Ages, Vessels for Church and Tables
(39:10)
Medieval Aquamanilia are functional sculptures used to pour water for hand washing. This video demonstrates metalworking processes used by early craftspeople to create these objects.
Course Projects
999. Creating a Virtual Exhibition/ Digital Story: “Walter Benjamin’s New York”
In this course students studied a text, Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, and were taught to make a multi-media movie using current desktop technology. The goal of the course was an understanding of Benjamin’s examination of material Paris of the nineteenth century, and an understanding of how to make an intellectual argument about this work in digital media.
