Through the Explorers Lens
What can the photographs of the Hungarian explorer Aurel Stein’s expeditions into the deserts of western China tell us about ever changing ideas of memory, collecting, and ownership?
Spolia, Souvenirs, and Capriccio
Thoughts on and examples of the act of going somewhere and taking something back home with you, or the repurposing of something old for a new purpose.
Searching for Treasure in the Taklamakan Desert: The Terracotta Monkeys of Khotan
Very tiny figures in the form of monkeys, some of them playing instruments, some enganged in sexual activity, some noticably distressed, kept washing up on the banks of the Khotan river in western China.
Attar’s Table
Medieval Persian bronze works and the poetry their owners may have been reading.
The Exhibition of Time
How can we be sure the oldest object in the museum is what it says it is?
Medardo Roso: Vision and Memory
The sculpture of Medardo Roso and how vision and memory was understood in his time.
The Digital Atlas of Museum Memory
What could Aby Warburg have done with the internet?