Exhibit: University of Pittsburgh

September 4, 2014

As a result of a graduate seminar in the History of Art and Architecture department led by Professors Drew Armstrong and Joshua Ellenbogen, the students of the University of Pittsburg organized an exhibit, titled “Configuring Disciplines: Fragments of an Encyclopedia”. Broadly, it examines how images (maps, portraits, anatomical illustrations, etc.) shape disciplines such as physics, anthropology, and architecture history. Because of this thematic orientation the objects are quite diverse, from 16th century botanical illustrations to Andy Warhol portraits and a 21-foot timeline. Between an Otto Neurath display and volumes of Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie, PhD student Annika Johnson placed four volumes of Das Leben des Menschen, the poster Der Mensch als Industriepalast​, and enlarged reproductions of several of his mechanical analogies. The idea was to examine three different instances of revelatory approaches to the organization and visualization of knowledge, and these artist/author’s efforts to make information accessible to a broad audience.

University Art Gallery at Pitt (Blog)