Looking Down to See Up: Parachutes, Parafiction, and the Cold War Spiritual Exercise

D. Graham Burnett, Princeton University and Lisa Young, Rhode Island School of Design

Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Temple University Center for Humanities

Friday, May 6, 2011 5:00 pm EDT

The Library Company

Abstract: As part of a Mellon Foundation "New Directions" Fellowship in 2009-2010, Burnett collaborated with the artist Lisa Young on a video project that engages the problem of the aerial view in the second half of the twentieth century. They'll screen the latest version of their efforts and talk about history, fiction, and work at the boundary of the history of science and the visual arts. D. Graham Burnett is a professor at Princeton University and recently held the Christian Gauss Fund University Preceptorship. The recipient of a 2009 Mellon New Directions Fellowship, he is currently working on connections between the sciences and the visual arts. Lisa Young is a member of the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work explores the relationship between the temporal and the sublime through photography, installation, books, video, and web projects. John Tresch is an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania where his research focuses on the cultural history of science and technology in Europe (especially France) and the USA from 1750 to the present.