Art and the Ends of Consensus
HIAA 2026/2027 Lecture Series
Most of art and architectural history has a troubled but persistent relationship with collective bodies and shared interpretations: propaganda mandates that everyone receive the same message; performance- and participatory art always, and sometimes self-consciously, produces the very collectivity that it purports to reflect; architecture has been variably celebrated and criticized for structuring social behavior through the organization of space and time; ritual arts are about the collective choreography of bodies and instilling appropriate modes of interaction; and religious works of art and architecture work to instill collective understandings of divinity. In some historical contexts, art is understood as a vehicle for transferring the experiences and feelings of the collective to the ruler; in others, the organization of space and images is about delivering the rule of law to the people.
This question of collectivity raises important challenges: first, it makes clear how some of the reasons art and architecture are celebrated (bringing people together, communicating information) are the same reasons for which it is condemned (controlling, directing, indoctrinating). It also raises the question of the relationship between collective understandings and the capacity for instigating social and epistemological change. These intersecting challenges – among art and interpretation, interpretation and social life – become even more urgent in moments of the breakdown of consensus and shared social reality.
This lecture series brings together art and architectural historians from various vantage points and specializations to think critically about collectivity and consensus, the promises and problems of a shared interpretation of art, and by extension the world. It is our hope that this focus on consensus will mobilize specifically art- and architecture-historical tools to address some of the most pressing challenges of today.