Visualizing Cities Summer Institute | Exhibiting Hidden Histories: Bringing Art History Projects to Publics through Digital Exhibitions and XR

This is a a two-year Advanced Topics in Digital Art History Summer Institute on the topic “Exhibiting Hidden Histories: Bringing Art History Projects to Publics through Digital Exhibitions and XR.” After six editions of two-week summer workshops introducing concepts and methods for digital art and architectural history through hands-on tutorials and collaborative project development, this Institute draws upon several years of research-institute development collaboration within the Visualizing Cities consortium. Led by representatives from Duke University and the partner institutions, interdisciplinary teams consisting of faculty and staff leaders, graduate students, postdocs, and other project collaborators will gather from June 5-16, 2023, in Venice, Italy at Venice International University, with follow-up activities taking place over the course of the 2023-24 academic year, and leading into a follow-on gathering in Summer of 2024.

Course leader

The generous support of the Getty Foundation, Duke University’s Digital Art History & Visual Culture Research Lab (DAHVCR Lab), in partnership with the Università degli Studi di Padova, the University of Exeter, and Venice International University.

Target group

The target audience for the workshop will be established teams working in the field of digital art history or cultural heritage. We anticipate approximately 6 - 7 teams of 2 - 3 persons each, for a total of 16 - 18 participants. Proposed teams should include senior project team leaders (PI's) as well as other partners. Applicants are expected to be leading a Digital Art History project and to have a key set of research questions identified, as well as to have demonstrated some progress in developing their research program. Groups with difficult historical topics or those that deal with bringing to the fore often overlooked cultural actors and art historical communities are especially encouraged to apply as are those teams interested in extending their work into public digital environments. Alumni of past Visualizing Venice Summer Workshops will be especially encouraged to apply on behalf of their research teams, but all parties may respond to this open call.

Course aim

Questions of how classed, racialized, and gendered individuals and social groups are erased in standard art histories or dealt with as difficult topics have become all the more urgent and central to our scholarly concerns. By engaging with the topic of Exhibiting Hidden Histories, the Institute will take a critical approach to cultural heritage and memory. The Institute leaders will draw upon examples from prior work in the Visualizing Cities Consortium (the Venetian Ghetto, Nazi-occupied Krakow, Black Charlotte, NC communities under urban renewal). In particular, all participants will begin by collaboratively modeling the issues of difficult art histories through the case study of the island of San Servolo itself, whose history encompasses its transition from a convent in early-modern Venice to a mental asylum through the Fascist period. They will be expected to take these lessons learned into developing their own individual team projects. This theme is central to current concerns in shifting art historical questions to a broader and more critical range of historical and cultural subjects.

Credits info

5 EC
A Duke University/Venice International University joint Certificate will be issued at the end of the course.

Fee info

EUR 0: Scholarships are available in order to support tuition, travel, board and accommodation expenses.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available in order to support tuition, travel, board and accommodation expenses.