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Books by Rebecca Uchill

The Barnes Then and Now: Dialogues on Education, Installation, and Social Justice, edited by Martha Lucy, 2023

Published in a volume celebrating the centennial of the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, t... more Published in a volume celebrating the centennial of the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, the essay ponders the role of the global and folk art collected by Albert C. Barnes in dialogue with European modernism, which formed the thrust of his collection.

Slow Jamz, 2022

Published by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY

Object―Event― Performance: Art, Materiality, and Continuity Since the 1960s (Bard Graduate Center - Cultural Histories of the Material World) , 2022

In Why Art Museums? The Unfinished Work of Alexander Dorner. The MIT Press, 2018: pp. 42-67., 2018

Storehouse to Powerhouse / Uchill WHY HAVE ART MUSEUMS? This provocative question, posed by Alexa... more Storehouse to Powerhouse / Uchill WHY HAVE ART MUSEUMS? This provocative question, posed by Alexander Dorner in a 1941 manuscript, provided ground for its author to cover a range of territory in his answers. Dorner's essays and lectures on this topic address matters including histories of dimensional rendering, epistemologies of seeing, and social action by mobilizing individuals through museum education. Many of these texts dedicate considerable attention to the failures of conventional museums-a line of argumentation tied to the claim for which Dorner has come to be most mythologized, that a museum should be a "living" and "dynamic" place filled with "energy." More than just buzzwords for action, Dorner's concepts of life and energy were offered with explicit allusions to art history, pragmatist philosophy, and theoretical physics. Throughout most of his career, Dorner championed museums as platforms for cultural development and civic training. And, for a time, Dorner's theories of museum work, initially formulated within the rapid democratic expansion and contraction of Weimar Germany and brought into a relatively optimistic cultural context in the United States, found a promising home at RISD. This volume publishes, for the first time, the layout proofs for "Why Have Art Museums?," Dorner's most significant manuscript authored during his directorship of the RISD Museum. 1 Funded with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, but never completed or published, the manuscript remains a compendium of ideas that this theorist of art and museums continued to cultivate over his lifetime. Central to its message is Dorner's career-long objection to what he considered to be the most calcifying aspect of the museum construct: its potential for being reduced to a "storehouse," or a place to contain and deanimate (rather than interpret and enliven) the meaning of historical artifacts. This critique of museumsequal parts admonition and straw man (in that it describes what Dorner felt his museum was not)-recurs throughout his written work, including in texts authored, possibly with new resonance, after the conclusion of his museum career. Dorner never stopped writing about museums, even when it was clear that he would not return to work in them. Through these written texts, as well as his curatorial projects, it is evident that Dorner's commitment to producing experiences of vitality and dynamism for his audiences was unwavering, even as his allegiance to art may have shifted over time.

MIT Press blurb: Experience offers a reading experience like no other. A heat-sensitive cover by... more MIT Press blurb:

Experience offers a reading experience like no other. A heat-sensitive cover by Olafur Eliasson reveals words, colors, and a drawing when touched by human hands. Endpapers designed by Carsten Höller are printed in ink containing carefully calibrated quantities of the synthesized human pheromones estratetraenol and androstadienone, evoking the suggestibility of human desire. The margins and edges of the book are designed by Tauba Auerbach in complementary colors that create a dynamically shifting effect when the book is shifted or closed. When the book is opened, bookmarks cascade from the center, emerging from spider web prints by Tomás Saraceno. Experience produces experience while bringing the concept itself into relief as an object of contemplation. The sensory experience of the book as a physical object resonates with the intellectual experience of the book as a container of ideas.

Experience convenes a conversation with artists, musicians, philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and neuroscientists, each of whom explores aspects of sensorial and cultural realms of experience. The texts include new essays written for this volume and classic texts by such figures as William James and Michel Foucault. The first publication from MIT’s Center for Art, Science, & Technology, Experience approaches its subject through multiple modes.

The book is designed by Kimberly Varella of Content Object Design Studio.

Contributors
Tauba Auerbach, Bevil Conway, John Dewey, Olafur Eliasson, Michel Foucault, Adam Frank, Vittorio Gallese, Renée Green, Stefan Helmreich, Carsten Höller, Edmund Husserl, William James, Caroline A. Jones, Douglas Kahn, Brian Kane, Leah Kelly, Bruno Latour, Alvin Lucier, David Mather, Mara Mills, Alva Noë, Jacques Rancière, Michael Rossi, Tomás Saraceno, Natasha Schüll, Joan W.Scott, Tino Sehgal, Alma Steingart, Josh Tenenbaum, Rebecca Uchill

Papers by Rebecca Uchill

Journal of Art Historiography, 2019

In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his 'two art histor... more In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his 'two art histories', this paper reflects on the exhibition sub-merging: a wetland project by the art collective spurse, which I organized in 2006 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Using a series of conceptual protocols drawn from theories of knowledge production from Bruno Latour and others, the artists looked at processes of decision-making that consecrate 'What Matters' to the museum (and which material 'matters' become sanctioned for recognition within it). The project forced awareness of and discussions about representation, access, and valuation. Our process of producing the exhibition, described in this article, also explored the rich conceptual potential of incongruities in departmental policies or disciplinary methods within the organization. Ultimately, this project explored the reality that a museum – like any commons – is not just one institution or thing, but a multitud...

Visual Resources, 2010

If an art museum were ever the optimal place to view contemporary art, it certainly no longer see... more If an art museum were ever the optimal place to view contemporary art, it certainly no longer seems so. Many recent artistic approaches do not fit comfortably in museums and galleries: Tino Sehgal (b. 1976) produces an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, that ...

Art Papers, November/December Nys Dambrot, Shana, …, 2009

Journal of Art Historiography, 2019

In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his ‘two art histories’... more In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his ‘two art histories’, this paper reflects on the exhibition sub-merging: a wetland project by the art collective spurse, which I organized in 2006 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Using a series of conceptual protocols drawn from theories of knowledge production from Bruno Latour and others, the artists looked at processes of decision-making that consecrate ‘What Matters’ to the museum (and which material ‘matters’ become sanctioned for recognition within it). The project forced awareness of and discussions about representation, access, and valuation. Our process of producing the exhibition, described in this article, also explored the rich conceptual potential of incongruities in departmental policies or disciplinary methods within the organization. Ultimately, this project explored the reality that a museum – like any commons – is not just one institution or thing, but a multitude of propositions.

Architectural Theory Review, 2019

Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that ... more Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that emphasized the visual perception of its audiences; his associate and occasional collaborator, Alexander Dorner, also approached the conception of exhibitions by focusing on viewer experiences. Their similar emphasis on the centrality of subject-viewers and differing philosophies of perception and publics came together into productive comparison in the first United States touring retrospective of Bayer's work, organized by Dorner. The story of that exhibition, The Way Beyond "Art," is one episode within a longer, trans-continental conversation between two modern exhibition makers. Bayer's galleries oriented information for a visitor's optical register, often at a massive, immersive scale. Dorner's conveyed experiences of cultural perception, allowing exhibited objects to be overpowered by "atmospheres," were meant to progress learning and action outside of exhibition spaces. In the book associated with the Way Beyond "Art" exhibition, Dorner advocated (now famously) for the museum to become a "powerhouse" for producing new energy, rather than exhibiting only existing artifacts and works. Their negotiations over Bayer's art within Dorner's "Way" ultimately were not only discussions about the roles of curator and artist in determining subject matter, but also reckonings over the degree of responsibility that an exhibition has to its public: whether the task of the exhibition is to situate and inform or to catalyze new cultural movement.

Architectural Theory Review , 2019

Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that ... more Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that emphasized the visual perception of its audiences; his associate and occasional collaborator, Alexander Dorner, also approached the conception of exhibitions by focusing on viewer experiences. Their similar emphasis on the centrality of subject-viewers and differing philosophies of perception and publics came together in the first United States touring retrospective of Bayer’s work, organized by Dorner. The story of that exhibition, The Way Beyond “Art,” is one episode within a larger, trans-continental conversation between two modern exhibition-makers. Bayer’s galleries oriented information for a visitor’s optical register, often at a massive, immersive scale. Dorner’s conveyed experiences of cultural perception, allowing exhibited objects to be overpowered by “atmospheres,” were meant to progress learning and action outside of exhibition spaces. In the book associated with the Way Beyond “Art” exhibition, Dorner advocated (now famously) for the museum to become a “powerhouse” for producing new energy, rather than exhibiting only existing artifacts and works. Their negotiations over Bayer’s art within Dorner’s “Way” ultimately were not only discussions about the roles of curator and artist in determining subject matter, but also reckonings over the degree of responsibility that an exhibition has to its public: whether the task of the exhibition is to situate and inform or to catalyze new cultural movement.

Original und Reproduktion was the title of a 1929 exhibition hosted by a small Hanover art societ... more Original und Reproduktion was the title of a 1929 exhibition hosted by a small Hanover art society in which original artworks were displayed alongside replicas. Launched amid a lengthy published debate over the ethics of art facsimiles, the exhibition was overseen by curator Alexander Dorner, one of the more prolific contributors to the debate and perhaps its most radical apologist for the value of art reproductions. From the cautionary traditionalism of Dorner’s contemporaries Max Sauerlandt and Kurt Karl Eberlein to the more liberal provocations of Erwin Panofsky—and later reverberations in the work of Walter Benjamin—the debate saw repeated elisions of reproduction, restoration, and exhibition, revealing broader period anxieties about defining and protecting the true nature of artistic experience.

The Barnes Then and Now: Dialogues on Education, Installation, and Social Justice, edited by Martha Lucy, 2023

Published in a volume celebrating the centennial of the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, t... more Published in a volume celebrating the centennial of the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, the essay ponders the role of the global and folk art collected by Albert C. Barnes in dialogue with European modernism, which formed the thrust of his collection.

Slow Jamz, 2022

Published by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY

Object―Event― Performance: Art, Materiality, and Continuity Since the 1960s (Bard Graduate Center - Cultural Histories of the Material World) , 2022

In Why Art Museums? The Unfinished Work of Alexander Dorner. The MIT Press, 2018: pp. 42-67., 2018

Storehouse to Powerhouse / Uchill WHY HAVE ART MUSEUMS? This provocative question, posed by Alexa... more Storehouse to Powerhouse / Uchill WHY HAVE ART MUSEUMS? This provocative question, posed by Alexander Dorner in a 1941 manuscript, provided ground for its author to cover a range of territory in his answers. Dorner's essays and lectures on this topic address matters including histories of dimensional rendering, epistemologies of seeing, and social action by mobilizing individuals through museum education. Many of these texts dedicate considerable attention to the failures of conventional museums-a line of argumentation tied to the claim for which Dorner has come to be most mythologized, that a museum should be a "living" and "dynamic" place filled with "energy." More than just buzzwords for action, Dorner's concepts of life and energy were offered with explicit allusions to art history, pragmatist philosophy, and theoretical physics. Throughout most of his career, Dorner championed museums as platforms for cultural development and civic training. And, for a time, Dorner's theories of museum work, initially formulated within the rapid democratic expansion and contraction of Weimar Germany and brought into a relatively optimistic cultural context in the United States, found a promising home at RISD. This volume publishes, for the first time, the layout proofs for "Why Have Art Museums?," Dorner's most significant manuscript authored during his directorship of the RISD Museum. 1 Funded with a grant from the Carnegie Corporation, but never completed or published, the manuscript remains a compendium of ideas that this theorist of art and museums continued to cultivate over his lifetime. Central to its message is Dorner's career-long objection to what he considered to be the most calcifying aspect of the museum construct: its potential for being reduced to a "storehouse," or a place to contain and deanimate (rather than interpret and enliven) the meaning of historical artifacts. This critique of museumsequal parts admonition and straw man (in that it describes what Dorner felt his museum was not)-recurs throughout his written work, including in texts authored, possibly with new resonance, after the conclusion of his museum career. Dorner never stopped writing about museums, even when it was clear that he would not return to work in them. Through these written texts, as well as his curatorial projects, it is evident that Dorner's commitment to producing experiences of vitality and dynamism for his audiences was unwavering, even as his allegiance to art may have shifted over time.

MIT Press blurb: Experience offers a reading experience like no other. A heat-sensitive cover by... more MIT Press blurb:

Experience offers a reading experience like no other. A heat-sensitive cover by Olafur Eliasson reveals words, colors, and a drawing when touched by human hands. Endpapers designed by Carsten Höller are printed in ink containing carefully calibrated quantities of the synthesized human pheromones estratetraenol and androstadienone, evoking the suggestibility of human desire. The margins and edges of the book are designed by Tauba Auerbach in complementary colors that create a dynamically shifting effect when the book is shifted or closed. When the book is opened, bookmarks cascade from the center, emerging from spider web prints by Tomás Saraceno. Experience produces experience while bringing the concept itself into relief as an object of contemplation. The sensory experience of the book as a physical object resonates with the intellectual experience of the book as a container of ideas.

Experience convenes a conversation with artists, musicians, philosophers, anthropologists, historians, and neuroscientists, each of whom explores aspects of sensorial and cultural realms of experience. The texts include new essays written for this volume and classic texts by such figures as William James and Michel Foucault. The first publication from MIT’s Center for Art, Science, & Technology, Experience approaches its subject through multiple modes.

The book is designed by Kimberly Varella of Content Object Design Studio.

Contributors
Tauba Auerbach, Bevil Conway, John Dewey, Olafur Eliasson, Michel Foucault, Adam Frank, Vittorio Gallese, Renée Green, Stefan Helmreich, Carsten Höller, Edmund Husserl, William James, Caroline A. Jones, Douglas Kahn, Brian Kane, Leah Kelly, Bruno Latour, Alvin Lucier, David Mather, Mara Mills, Alva Noë, Jacques Rancière, Michael Rossi, Tomás Saraceno, Natasha Schüll, Joan W.Scott, Tino Sehgal, Alma Steingart, Josh Tenenbaum, Rebecca Uchill

Journal of Art Historiography, 2019

In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his 'two art histor... more In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his 'two art histories', this paper reflects on the exhibition sub-merging: a wetland project by the art collective spurse, which I organized in 2006 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Using a series of conceptual protocols drawn from theories of knowledge production from Bruno Latour and others, the artists looked at processes of decision-making that consecrate 'What Matters' to the museum (and which material 'matters' become sanctioned for recognition within it). The project forced awareness of and discussions about representation, access, and valuation. Our process of producing the exhibition, described in this article, also explored the rich conceptual potential of incongruities in departmental policies or disciplinary methods within the organization. Ultimately, this project explored the reality that a museum – like any commons – is not just one institution or thing, but a multitud...

Visual Resources, 2010

If an art museum were ever the optimal place to view contemporary art, it certainly no longer see... more If an art museum were ever the optimal place to view contemporary art, it certainly no longer seems so. Many recent artistic approaches do not fit comfortably in museums and galleries: Tino Sehgal (b. 1976) produces an exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, that ...

Art Papers, November/December Nys Dambrot, Shana, …, 2009

Journal of Art Historiography, 2019

In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his ‘two art histories’... more In honour of Charles W. Haxthausen with an offering on the museum side of his ‘two art histories’, this paper reflects on the exhibition sub-merging: a wetland project by the art collective spurse, which I organized in 2006 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Using a series of conceptual protocols drawn from theories of knowledge production from Bruno Latour and others, the artists looked at processes of decision-making that consecrate ‘What Matters’ to the museum (and which material ‘matters’ become sanctioned for recognition within it). The project forced awareness of and discussions about representation, access, and valuation. Our process of producing the exhibition, described in this article, also explored the rich conceptual potential of incongruities in departmental policies or disciplinary methods within the organization. Ultimately, this project explored the reality that a museum – like any commons – is not just one institution or thing, but a multitude of propositions.

Architectural Theory Review, 2019

Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that ... more Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that emphasized the visual perception of its audiences; his associate and occasional collaborator, Alexander Dorner, also approached the conception of exhibitions by focusing on viewer experiences. Their similar emphasis on the centrality of subject-viewers and differing philosophies of perception and publics came together into productive comparison in the first United States touring retrospective of Bayer's work, organized by Dorner. The story of that exhibition, The Way Beyond "Art," is one episode within a longer, trans-continental conversation between two modern exhibition makers. Bayer's galleries oriented information for a visitor's optical register, often at a massive, immersive scale. Dorner's conveyed experiences of cultural perception, allowing exhibited objects to be overpowered by "atmospheres," were meant to progress learning and action outside of exhibition spaces. In the book associated with the Way Beyond "Art" exhibition, Dorner advocated (now famously) for the museum to become a "powerhouse" for producing new energy, rather than exhibiting only existing artifacts and works. Their negotiations over Bayer's art within Dorner's "Way" ultimately were not only discussions about the roles of curator and artist in determining subject matter, but also reckonings over the degree of responsibility that an exhibition has to its public: whether the task of the exhibition is to situate and inform or to catalyze new cultural movement.

Architectural Theory Review , 2019

Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that ... more Architect, painter, and designer Herbert Bayer was a progenitor of modern exhibition design that emphasized the visual perception of its audiences; his associate and occasional collaborator, Alexander Dorner, also approached the conception of exhibitions by focusing on viewer experiences. Their similar emphasis on the centrality of subject-viewers and differing philosophies of perception and publics came together in the first United States touring retrospective of Bayer’s work, organized by Dorner. The story of that exhibition, The Way Beyond “Art,” is one episode within a larger, trans-continental conversation between two modern exhibition-makers. Bayer’s galleries oriented information for a visitor’s optical register, often at a massive, immersive scale. Dorner’s conveyed experiences of cultural perception, allowing exhibited objects to be overpowered by “atmospheres,” were meant to progress learning and action outside of exhibition spaces. In the book associated with the Way Beyond “Art” exhibition, Dorner advocated (now famously) for the museum to become a “powerhouse” for producing new energy, rather than exhibiting only existing artifacts and works. Their negotiations over Bayer’s art within Dorner’s “Way” ultimately were not only discussions about the roles of curator and artist in determining subject matter, but also reckonings over the degree of responsibility that an exhibition has to its public: whether the task of the exhibition is to situate and inform or to catalyze new cultural movement.

Original und Reproduktion was the title of a 1929 exhibition hosted by a small Hanover art societ... more Original und Reproduktion was the title of a 1929 exhibition hosted by a small Hanover art society in which original artworks were displayed alongside replicas. Launched amid a lengthy published debate over the ethics of art facsimiles, the exhibition was overseen by curator Alexander Dorner, one of the more prolific contributors to the debate and perhaps its most radical apologist for the value of art reproductions. From the cautionary traditionalism of Dorner’s contemporaries Max Sauerlandt and Kurt Karl Eberlein to the more liberal provocations of Erwin Panofsky—and later reverberations in the work of Walter Benjamin—the debate saw repeated elisions of reproduction, restoration, and exhibition, revealing broader period anxieties about defining and protecting the true nature of artistic experience.

Journal of Curatorial Studies, Jan 1, 2012

Tania Bruguera, Generic Capitalism (2009), medium: disruption of public space; technique: interru... more Tania Bruguera, Generic Capitalism (2009), medium: disruption of public space; technique: interrupted conference; materials: former Weather Underground members, planted performers in the audience, interruption of speech by the audience, which takes over. Photos: Rainer Ganahl, ©Tania Bruguera, 2009, courtesy of Studio Bruguera.

Visual Resources, Jan 1, 2010

Abstract" A graduate thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the... more Abstract" A graduate thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Art History, Williams College". Thesis presented at the Annual Spring Symposium held at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2005.. Typescript.. ...

Art We Love, 2009

Last weekend MASS MoCA unveiled Guy Ben-Ner's solo exhibition "Thursday the 12th" as part of the ... more Last weekend MASS MoCA unveiled Guy Ben-Ner's solo exhibition "Thursday the 12th" as part of the pioneering western Massachusetts museum complex's 10th anniversary celebration. Consisting mainly of videos, the show provides a gripping overview of the Israel-born artist's unconventional career.

Exhibition booklet accompanying Nancy Holt: Massachusetts at UMass Dartmouth. November 11, 2021-J... more Exhibition booklet accompanying Nancy Holt: Massachusetts at UMass Dartmouth. November 11, 2021-January 23, 2022

What is landscape? How to define landscape in relation to the territory on which we live or which... more What is landscape? How to define landscape in relation to the territory on which we live or which we own? What does it mean to own land, together with its natural resources and their localization? And what grounds do we refer to when we talk about, our “own” land? How to properly grasp that living on Earth means also living of its vast resources that accumulated millions of years ago? Last but not least, how can the questions of spatiality— of land and of the territory—be grasped in relation to the notion of time, a grant scale of deep, geological time, and the time of transitions and entropy? What are the conditions of identity of landscape?
Etymologically, “land-scape” relates to “shape,” used in the physical sense of shaping, which implies bodily engagement. We work the grounds on which and of which we live. We shape them. The effects of the human activity manifest in the environmental changes, climate crisis and hyperobejcts that surpass human comprehension. We even conceived of a new era that acknowledges the impact of humans on the environment. But, from another perspective, the landscape and its accompanying environmental aspects are also shaped by our perceptual apparatus and vision, our always situated knowledge, education, and culture.
This symposium takes up some of these and related questions as starting points of exchanges and dialogues between scholars, researchers, art makers, and educators that present different perspectives on landscape.

Speakers include: Annemarie Bucher , Emily Eliza Scott, Rebecca Uchill, Ryan Dewey, Chris Taylor, Bill Fox, Richard Saxon, Tara Lasrado, Dharmendra, Michael Hiltbrunner, Sally de Kunst, Karin Winzer, Joanna Lesnierowska, Hanna Hölling, Johannes Hedinger and others. Organized by Hanna Hölling and Johannes Hedinger.

Architectural Theory Review, 2019

A thematic issue on the architecture exhibition as environment, edited by Alex Brown and Léa-Cath... more A thematic issue on the architecture exhibition as environment, edited by Alex Brown and Léa-Catherine Szacka, and with contributions by Manuel Rodrigo de la O Cabrera, Jordan Kaufdman, Ross Elfline, Samuel Korn, Christophe Van Gerrewey, Rebecca Uchill, and Maarten Liefhooghe.

Hyperallergic, 2023

We knew that Michael Heizer’s installation City would be impossible to visit when we made our way... more We knew that Michael Heizer’s installation City would be impossible to visit when we made our way through the Nevada desert in the summer of 2016 with a field trip investigating “technical lands” of the American desert for students in history and practice of art, architecture, and science. As our chartered bus departed the Center for Land Use Interpretation, Wendover, on the morning of August 22, we cued up a complicated satellite compass/phone system that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provided to our group as a safety measure, preparing to announce the moment when we passed near to City (we had already abandoned the idea of trying to enter).

The Barnes Then and Now: Dialogues on Education, Installation, and Social Justice, edited by Martha Lucy, 2023

Published in a volume celebrating the centennial of the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, t... more Published in a volume celebrating the centennial of the establishment of the Barnes Foundation, the essay ponders the role of the global and folk art collected by Albert C. Barnes in dialogue with European modernism, which formed the thrust of his collection.