Art

Art

episodes

Interviews with artists and scholars of art about their new books.

Anna Kornbluh, "Immediacy: Or, The Style of Too Late Capitalism" (Verso, 2024)

March 17, 2024

Immediacy

Anna Kornbluh
Hosted by David Maruzzella

What is the status of art and culture in a world dominated by apps, algorithms, and influencers? Anna Kornbluh’s newest book Immediacy, Or the Style o…

Umme Al-wazedi and Afrin Zeenat, "Veil Obsessed: Representations in Literature, Art, and Media" (Syracuse UP, 2024)

March 17, 2024

Veil Obsessed

Umme Al-wazedi and Afrin Zeenat
Hosted by Shobhana Xavier

In their edited volume Veil Obsessed: Representations in Literature, Art, and Media (Syracuse University Press, 2024), Umme Al-wazedi and Afrin Zeenat…

Gavin Butt, "No Machos Or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk" (Duke UP, 2022)

March 13, 2024

No Machos Or Pop Stars

Gavin Butt
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How do art schools influence music? In No Machos or Pop Stars: When the Leeds Art Experiment Went Punk (Duke UP, 2022), Gavin Butt, a Professor of Fin…

Xin Gu, "Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity: Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Industries" (Routledge, 2023)

March 11, 2024

Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity

Xin Gu
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

How can artists survive today? In Cultural Work and Creative Subjectivity: Recentralising the Artist Critique and Social Networks in the Cultural Indu…

Jon Robson, "Aesthetic Testimony: An Optimistic Approach" (Oxford UP, 2022)

March 10, 2024

Aesthetic Testimony

Jon Robson
Hosted by Carrie Figdor

A lot of what we claim to know we learn from other people's testimony: they tell us, and in many ordinary contexts that is enough to gain knowledge. B…

Angie Chau, "Paris and the Art of Transposition: Early Twentieth Century Sino-French Encounters" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

March 6, 2024

Paris and the Art of Transposition

Angie Chau
Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

A brief stay in France was, for many Chinese workers and Chinese Communist Party leaders, a vital stepping stone for their careers during the cultura…

Roseen Giles, "Monteverdi and the Marvellous: Poetry, Sound, and Representation" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 4, 2024

Monteverdi and the Marvellous

Roseen Giles
Hosted by Kate Driscoll

The marvellous, a key concept in literary debates at the turn of the seventeenth century, involved sensory and perspectival transformation, a rhetoric…

Alvita Akiboh, "Imperial Material: National Symbols in the US Colonial Empire" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

March 3, 2024

Imperial Material

Alvita Akiboh
Hosted by Lachlan McNamee

This is an ambitious history of flags, stamps, and currency—and the role they played in US imperialism over the 20th century. In Imperial Material: Na…

Mai Corlin, "The Bishan Commune and the Practice of Socially Engaged Art in Rural China" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

February 26, 2024

The Bishan Commune and the Practice of Socially Engaged Art in Rural China

Mai Corlin
Hosted by Suvi Rautio

On the podcast today, I am joined by Mai Corlin, who is external researcher at the department of cross-cultural and regional studies in the University…

T. Corey Brennan, "The Fasces: A History of Ancient Rome's Most Dangerous Political Symbol" (Oxford UP, 2022)

February 21, 2024

The Fasces

T. Corey Brennan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

"Fascism" is a word ubiquitous in our contemporary political discourse, but few know about its roots in the ancient past or its long, strange evolutio…

Christiane Gruber, “The Praiseworthy One: The Prophet Muhammad in Islamic Texts and Images" (Indiana UP, 2019)

February 18, 2024

The Praiseworthy One

Christiane Gruber

In our most recent public memory, images of the Prophet Muhammad have caused a great deal of controversy, such as satirical cartoons of Muhammad in Fr…

Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss, "The Sun King at Sea: Maritime Art and Galley Slavery in Louis XIV's France" (Getty, 2022)

February 17, 2024

The Sun King at Sea

Meredith Martin and Gillian Weiss
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Mediterranean maritime art and the forced labour on which it depended were fundamental to the politics and propaganda of France’s King Louis XIV (r. 1…

Ed Simon, "Relic" (Bloomsbury. 2024)

February 15, 2024

Relic

Ed Simon
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Object Lessons is a Bloomsbury series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. This book, Relic, by Dr. Ed Sim…

Criticism

February 15, 2024

Criticism

Matt Seybold

In this episode of High Theory, Matt Seybold tells us about Criticism, the glue that holds the bricks of culture together. Cultural critics are a nece…

Ana Lucia Araujo, "The Gift: How Objects of Prestige Shaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

February 11, 2024

The Gift

Ana Lucia Araujo
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The Gift: How Objects of Prestige Shaped the Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism (Cambridge University Press, 2023) explores how objects of prestige …

Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel, "After Darwin: Literature, Theory, and Criticism in the Twenty-First Century" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

February 10, 2024

After Darwin

Devin Griffiths and Deanna Kreisel

Creative storytelling is the beating heart of Darwin's science. All of Darwin's writings drew on information gleaned from a worldwide network of scien…

Sabina Andron, "Urban Surfaces, Graffiti, and the Right to the City" (Routledge, 2024)

February 4, 2024

Urban Surfaces, Graffiti, and the Right to the City

Sabina Andron
Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

Sabina Andron's book Urban Surfaces, Graffiti, and the Right to the City (Routledge, 2024) focuses on urban surfaces, on exploring their authorship a…

Dustin Kiskaddon, "Blood and Lightening: On Becoming a Tattooer" (Stanford UP, 2023)

February 4, 2024

Blood and Lightening

Dustin Kiskaddon
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Any tattoo is the outcome of an intimate, often hidden process. The people, bodies, and money that make tattooing what it is blend together and form a…

William L. Bird, "In the Arms of Saguaros: Iconography of the Giant Cactus" (U Arizona Press, 2023)

February 3, 2024

In the Arms of Saguaros

William L. Bird
Hosted by Daniel Moran

An essential—and monumental—member of the Sonoran Desert ecosystem, the saguaro cactus has become the quintessential icon of the American West. In th…

Alex Burchmore, "New Export China: Translations Across Time and Place in Contemporary Chinese Porcelain Art" (U California Press, 2023)

February 2, 2024

New Export China

Alex Burchmore

Why do so many contemporary Chinese artists use porcelain in their work? How do artists make sense of the legacy that porcelain has in China, and how …