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Showing posts with label pale blue dot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pale blue dot. Show all posts

4.26.2010

Stories of Art, Part II


Part I of my posts on James Elkins’ Stories of Art begged the questions:
Is the Story of Art History a multicultural one? Or is it an inherently Western Story?
Why does it matter {how the Story of Art is told} anyway?

the pale blue dot, from NASA's website

Before I can begin to answer these questions, I must look back at where the discipline of Art History began. Weird to think that at some point it was non-existant, no? In my world, it’s as essential as Math or English. But as far as the universe is concerned, Art History is barely a blip on the radar. Which reminds me, have you ever seen the famous “pale blue dot” photo of the earth taken by Voyager 1 as it exited our solar system? The earth appears as a single pale blue pixel lost in the vastness of space – as though it were a blemish on an otherwise dark spectral canvas that begs to be photoshopped out. That’s the kind of perspective I’m talking about ;)