Wolf Humanities Forum on Stuff, "Re-Stuffing Theory, Re-Thinking Assemblage"

Bill Brown
Karla Scherer Distinguished Service Professor in American Culture, University of Chicago

"Re-Stuffing Theory, Re-Thinking Assemblage"

Assemblage theory within the social sciences has paid no mind to the practice of assemblage across the visual, plastic, and literary arts—a practice famously devoted to “everyday stuff.”  How can such practice differently animate that theory?  And how can the theory expand our apprehension of the artistic mode we associate with the likes of Joseph Cornell, Robert Rauschenberg, Noah Purifoy, and Betye Saar (who “just started collecting stuff”).  Answering those questions can help to explain why we’re in a moment when stuff has attained a new kind of value within the arts and drawn increasing attention within the humanities.

Cosponsored by the Department of English.

THIS EVENT REQUIRES REGISTRATION (FREE)

To regsiter, or for more information, visit: https://wolfhumanities.upenn.edu/events/re-stuffing-theory-re-thinking-assemblage

Robert Rauschenberg, from the Chow Bag series: Goat Chow, 1977. Screenprint collage with hand sewing. Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania Art Collection, Philadelphia, PA.