Inspired by the current debates around how history is (re-)researched, understood, used, and misused.
Black historical figures
Black historical figures who shook the world, from a warrior queen to a Mexican president
Votes for Women
The Museum of London have launched a virtual exhibition building on their great show in 2018/19 documenting the campaign for the vote and the stories of some of the self-proclaimed terrorists involved.
Re-thinking the origins of human complexity
David Wengrow and the late David Graeber’s book The Dawn of Everything is available for pre-order
‘…the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities than we tend to assume.’
Cultural restitution and colonial violence
Dan Hicks’ superb book on the story of the Benin Bronzes, seized by British army in the late C19th, and now held by a number of museums including the British Museum.
Between these folded walls
Hard to believe it is fifty years since Linda Nochlin’s seminal work Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? In it she states:
Assumptions must be questioned and the mythical basis of much so-called “fact” brought to light.” We must learn from the past to build a more inclusive, diverse world.
To mark its anniversary Aesthetica rounds up five digital exhibitions and talks that champion women practitioners – envisioning a brighter future.
Black Quantum Futurism wins this year’s Collide residency award
I am fascinated by the intersection of art and science and can’t wait to see what emerges from the latest CERN Collide residency.
Black Quantum Futurism is a multidisciplinary collaboration between the artists Camae Ayewa and Rasheedah Phillips. The duo explores the intersections of futurism, creative media, DIY-aesthetics, and activism in marginalised communities through an alternative temporal lens. Their work focuses on personal, cultural, familial and communal cycles of experience, and their expression methods range from writing, music and film to visual art and creative research projects.
An ancient take on objective reality
As a researcher one of the issues that is often a hot topic is the nature of knowledge and reality. So this really piqued my curiosity. I, for one, am happy to live in a pluri-verse.
In the grand scheme of history, modern reality is a bizarre exception when compared to the worlds of ancient, precolonial and Indigenous civilizations, where myths ruled and gods roamed, says historian Greg Anderson. So why do Westerners today think they’re right about reality and everybody else is wrong?