Abstracts for the Annual SECAC Meeting in Roanoke, VA Oct 19 - 22, 2016 Conference Chair: Kevin Concannon, Virginia Tech Lindsay Alberts, Framingham State University Pietre Dure: Materiality and Meaning in the Hardstone Collection of the Cappella dei Principi The Cappella dei Principi in Florence, a massive chapel decorated floor to dome with variegated hardstones, was constructed at staggering expense to house the bodies of the Medici grand dukes. Covered floor to ceiling in rare and expensive pietre dure (hardstones), the chapel asserts the political, financial, and spiritual authority of the Medici through the display of an impressive collection of natural specimens and in the meanings of the stones themselves. The hardstones decorating the chapel are themselves physically ponderous materials, heavy and impervious to damage, symbolically conveying the stability of the dynasty. The names of the stones reflect their often far-flung origins, such as malachite di Siberia. Their exotic nature, directly translated into cost, was multiplied by the difficulty and commensurate expense of their transport from these locales back to Florence. The diplomatic ties necessary to transport large amounts of these stones attest to Medici connections across the known world. The chapel’s materiality reflects associations of earthly and spiritual power through Albertus Magnus’s belief that unusual stones were infused with divine power. As evidence of the diversity of nature in flux and a magnificent collection of expensive specimens, the chapel’s hardstones underlie its assertions of political and spiritual privilege. Cristina Albu, University of Missouri—Kansas City Mental Exchanges: Biofeedback in Art of the 1960s and 1970s As interest in altered states of mind grew in the 1960s, artists started to experiment with biofeedback technology to reveal the conscious and unconscious ways in which we modulate experience. While the first creative uses of electroencephalography betrayed artists’ fascination with using this technology as an instrument for self- portraiture (e.g., Robert Morris, Self-Portrait (EEG), 1963) or as a catalyst for meditative states [e.g., Alvin Lucier, Music for Solo Performer, 1966), the new medium eventually came to be employed for enhancing interpersonal awareness. In the early 1970s, David Rosenboom created The Ecology of the Skin, a multisensory environment that enabled up to ten participants to have their brain activity and heart rhythms concomitantly recorded in order to modulate acoustic and visual stimuli. During the same decade, Nina Sobell conceived Interactive Brainwave Drawings, a participatory scenario in which two visitors could observe via live video a composite image of the interconnections between their brainwave oscillations. In this paper, Albu maps out the historical trajectories of these works and place them in relation to participatory art tendencies. Drawing on theories of embodiment and system complexity, she examines the aesthetics of biofeedback and the nonverbal exchanges established among art participants engaged in experimental scenarios. James Alexander, University of Alabama at Birmingham The Pause that Refreshes: Art, Architecture & Design between the Two World Wars The end of World War I created an environment in which existing norms and values were questioned and new theories of art, architecture and design were considered. The two decades from 1917 to 1936 were a period of explosive artistic exploration which refreshed and redefined contemporary art. In Holland, the De Stijl Movement (1917–1931) exhibited geometric clarity through the designs of Theo Van Doesburg, the paintings of Piet Mondrian, the sculpture of Georges Van Tongerloo, and the architecture of Gerrit Rietveld. In Germany, the clean lines of the Bauhaus Design School (1919–1933) were applied to works of art, architecture, and functional objects by Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Joseph Albers. In post–Bolshevik Revolution Russia, the Constructivist Movement (1919–1932) led by Vladimir Tatlin, Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo explored a geometric order free of unnecessary ornamentation. This pause between the two wars also provided the context for the emergence of Surrealism, Dadaism, and a pastoral Futurism after the deaths of sculptor Umberto Boccioni and architect Antonio Sant’Elia, during the “Great War.” This paper explores these artistic movements that emerged during that pregnant pause between the wars and redefined modernism after World War II’s conclusion. Elsie Alonso, The Graduate Center, CUNY American Nostalgia in the Trompe l’oeil Paintings of William Michael Harnett Two noteworthy examples of late nineteenth-century trompe l’oeil painting are the “After the Hunt” series and “The Faithful Colt” by William Michael Harnett. The French phrase “trompe l’oeil” translates into English as “to fool the eye.” During the time of their creation, American culture reflected themes of the Civil War, westward expansion, and social instability. Some paintings of the nineteenth century contain subject matter evoking ideas of the nation’s pride, such as the grand landscapes of Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, which explicitly portray the beauty of the expanding United States. Harnett’s “After the Hunt” series and “The Faithful Colt” combine suggestions of nationalistic triumph like those conveyed by Church and Cole, with the illusionistic component of trompe l’oeil. As the nineteenth century came to an end, it may be said that Harnett’s trompe l’oeil paintings created nostalgic associations for the contemporary public because of the context of the subject matter involved. Since these paintings allude to events in the nation’s past, they are examples of nostalgic Americana. This analysis focuses on how Harnett’s subjects in his “After the Hunt” series and “The Faithful Colt” allude to technological advancement, triumph, and patriotism. Kasie Alt, University of Texas at Austin “Nature Itself”: Illusionary Reality at the Regent’s Park Diorama As part of its debut in London in 1823, the Regent’s Park Diorama laid claim to originality primarily through the use of a rotating platform that transported the audience from one view to another. The controlled, whole-body experience of the show evoked rapturous reviews claiming that it surpassed “mere art,” declaring “the whole thing is nature itself.” The Diorama experience included a painting with changing effects created by the manipulation of light, as well as music or other sounds, and the physical experience of the rotating platform in the specially designed viewing room. Together these created an illusion of “reality” in which the visitor participated physically and imaginatively, an aspect that has been neglected in scholarly studies of the Diorama. Considering the Diorama as an entire experience, this paper demonstrates that the spectacle capitalized on devices like the moving platform to enhance the illusion that visitors had actually been transported to a distant time or place. Combined with the visual qualities of the painting and its placement in Regent’s Park, the Diorama created a “frappante vrit,” an illusionary, or even virtual, reality bringing the experience of the world, not merely its details, into the heart of the metropolis. Jordan Amirkhani, University of Tennessee Chattanooga “There Is No Antidote to Capitalism”: Revisiting Peter Burger’s Theory of the Avant-Garde through the Work of Francis Picabia Frustrated with the failures of May 1968 and eager to continue the work of the Frankfurt School theorists in the wake of the failed social projects of the 1960s, Peter Bürger published The Theory of the Avant-Garde, a text born out of his disgust with the commodification and domestication of the art market under advanced capitalism. While the text outlines Bürger’s collapsed hope in the historical avant-garde of the early 20th century, the narrow network of gaps and disavowals within the text have shaped critical dialogues on radical art practices since its publication. Bürger’s silence on the elusive work, polemics, and politics of the French Dadaist and painter Francis Picabia points to the great contradictions at the heart of the Frankfurt School’s radical project: that the avant-garde was not immune from the domesticating forces of capital, but complicit in its unfolding, and that the categorization of the “historical avant-garde” was never the autonomous transformative social emanation outside of reification that Frankfurt theorists so claimed. Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton, Southeastern Louisiana University The Marriage of the Hand and the Digital Due to the rapid expansion of technology, there are many options for artists and designers to create illustrations. There is no shortage of apps and filters in software to create effects. Although there are a lot of options out there, students still run the risk of having their work look the same and relying on technology to do things for them. To avoid having that happen, it is important for students to have a number of techniques and ways of making to create their own illustrations. This presentation discusses in detail the guidelines and techniques that are involved in an image-making project, which involves creating imagery and illustrations digitally, by hand, with the use of various drawing and mark-making materials, mixed media and the combination of illustrations created by hand and with the computer. Elissa Armstrong, Virginia Commonwealth University Do Over: Somewhere Beyond the Deadline The constructs of higher