Visuality Against the Anthropocene: Landscape Vision and Things That Do Not See

 

Rachael DeLue, professor of art and archaeology and American studies, presented “Visuality Against the Anthropocene: Landscape Vision and Things That Do Not See.” DeLue was the third speaker in the fall 2023 HMEI Faculty Seminar Series.

Defined broadly as a portion of the Earth’s surface that can be seen at one time from one place, or narrowly as an artistic representation of the natural world, landscape supposedly hinges on the presence of a human observer. In this seminar, DeLue considers instances of landscape representation from the sciences in the long nineteenth century that may be described as exceeding a human point of view, often against the grain of intention. Considered alongside entities such as the subterranean and animals without eyes that negate the visual and, by extension, anthropocentric visibility, these pictures imagine how humans might manage to see beyond themselves.

Visuality Against the Anthropocene: Landscape Vision and Things That Do Not See

Publish Date

November 8, 2023

Presenter(s)

Rachael DeLue

Link to Video

https://youtu.be/O7C5nP6OSTE

Video Length

58:14

 

Rachael DeLue, professor of art and archaeology and American studies, presented “Visuality Against the Anthropocene: Landscape Vision and Things That Do Not See.” DeLue was the third speaker in the fall 2023 HMEI Faculty Seminar Series.

Defined broadly as a portion of the Earth’s surface that can be seen at one time from one place, or narrowly as an artistic representation of the natural world, landscape supposedly hinges on the presence of a human observer. In this seminar, DeLue considers instances of landscape representation from the sciences in the long nineteenth century that may be described as exceeding a human point of view, often against the grain of intention. Considered alongside entities such as the subterranean and animals without eyes that negate the visual and, by extension, anthropocentric visibility, these pictures imagine how humans might manage to see beyond themselves.