02/07/2026 17:20
- 19:30
HALL: Parenzo - A2
Contact:
Conty A.
Chair:
Conty A.
authorAMC:
Conty A.
Speaker:
Crews J.,
Hintersteiner N.,
Lelong F.,
Mertel K.
The normative history of modernity begins with the Renaissance and the invention of linear perspective in order to emphasize the placing of man, instead of God, at the center of the world. The vanishing point of linear perspective gives the world to be seen from the perspective of the single right eye of a singular subject, and it is this perspective that inspired Descartes' optics and his isolated cogito as the prime example of modern subjectivity. This book will return to the invention of linear perspective in order to seek another interpretation of linear perspective that might give an alternative modernity to be seen. Using the work of Renaissance theologian and mystic Nicolas of Cusa, we will trace a different genealogy, one that provides a different vision of modernity that allows the world, and the painting, to return our gaze. In elucidating the critique of the Cartesian subject by 20th century philosophers Benjamin, Heidegger, Lacan, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Marion, we will ask how modernity could be re-conceived if philosophers were to take into account the geometric vision of Nicolas de Cusa, and how his alternative vision might enable us to escape narcissism and share our world with the absolute other.
