2022 Louise Bross Smith Lecture Series: Alina Payne

11 October, 2022 at 12 AM-14 October, 2022 at 12 AM

The Department of Art History at the University of Chicago is pleased to announce the 2022 Louise Smith Bross Memorial Lectures taking place at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago campus October 11-14. ​ Please join us for what promises to be a ground-breaking lecture series focusing on the theme of “Architecture in Two Dimensions,” presented by architectural historian, Alina Payne, the Paul E. Geier Director of the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti) and Alexander P. Misheff Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.

The Department of Art History at the University of Chicago is pleased to announce the 2022 Louise Smith Bross Memorial Lectures taking place at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago campus October 11-14.  

Please join us for what promises to be a ground-breaking lecture series focusing on the theme of “Architecture in Two Dimensions,” presented by architectural historian, Alina Payne, the Paul E. Geier Director of the Harvard Center for Renaissance Studies (Villa I Tatti) and Alexander P. Misheff Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. 

Architecture in Two Dimensions 

Architects have perennially struggled with the problem of conceiving and executing three-dimensional structures using vehicles at scales and materials vastly different from those of the finished buildings. Yet, these conceptualizing and visualizing tools, among them drawings, prints, models, books, photographs, slides, computer models, and even paintings are not transparent devices, invisibly and seamlessly connecting the mind with the finished product. Rather, I argue, they leave significant residues on the object of architecture; as tools and mediators they themselves have agency. In these three lectures then I seek to address the consequences of the most fundamental distortion that architecture suffers: the design of buildings and environments as conditioned by two-dimensional supports. Taking a longue durée perspective, my case studies focus on pivot points in the history of architectural representation—from the invention of orthogonal projection in drawings, through photography to computer modeling— that is, moments when genuine paradigm changes occurred that allowed two-dimensional biases to seep into the design of architecture and remain quietly at work within the realm of tools, beneath the surface, for a long time thereafter. 

The Bross lecture series was generously endowed by the late John Bross, long-time friend and supporter of the department and the university. We are deeply grateful for the continued support of the Bross Family for this series of events, presented every three years by a distinguished scholar of pre-1800 European art, in memory of our doctoral alumna Louise Smith Bross. 

We hope to see you there,  

Department of Art History  

The University of Chicago