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Celebrating Imperfection: John Ruskin and the Creative Arts in the 21st Century

Activity: Participating in or organising an event typesParticipation in conference -Mixed Audience

17/05/2019

Keynote: 'Ruskin and Polygon'
For Ruskin the world was equally an object of science and of the human imagination. His work bypassed orthodox thinking. It was not just a set of contents but a powerful set of imaginaries, reflecting complex processes of vision and embodiment, the verifiable and the imagined, the objective and the creative. ‘I have been able, during all active work, to use … my power of contemplative imagination, with as easy command of it as a physicist’s of his telescope,’ he wrote in Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century (1884).
This presentation will explore Ruskin legacies for the creative arts in the 21st century through an investigation of his reposing of fundamental questions of world-building and of what it means to be human. In particular, Ruskin’s emphasis on plural repertoires of knowledge and the interplay of scientific knowledge and social and cultural value seem increasingly relevant today.

Event (Conference)

TitleCelebrating Imperfection: John Ruskin and the Creative Arts in the 21st Century
Date17/05/19 → …
LocationSchool of Art, Birmingham City University
CityBirmingham
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom