The Clever Object

Objects, according to the anthropological adage, are good to think with. But just what kind of thinking is it that objects enable—or constrain? Are some objects made “cleverer” than others simply through their manufacture or embodied virtuosity? And how might attention to such inherent cleverness enable one to reconsider the aesthetic objects privileged by historians of art? The Clever Object presents a multidisciplinary exploration of the ways objects materialise, embody, or negotiate various forms of intelligence. Experts from the fields of anthropology, philosophy of science, design history and artistic practice offer rich insights into objects that frustrate conventional modes of narration while seeming to guide—even entrap—the subjects who make, behold, and interpret them. Original and thought–provoking, The Clever Object defines, explores, and expands the category of “the clever object” as an analytic tool of art–historical interpretation for the twenty–first century.

6 Notes on Contributors 8 Chapter 1 The Clever Object: Three Pavilions, Three Loggias, and a Planetarium Matthew C. Hunter and Francesco Lucchini 32 Chapter 2 Aleardino’s Glass Francesco Lucchini 52 Chapter 3 Object, Image, Cleverness: The Lienzo de Tlaxcala Byron Ellsworth Hamann 80 Chapter 4 Picture, Object, Puzzle, Prompter: Devilish Cleverness in Restoration London Matthew C. Hunter 102 Chapter 5 Screen Wise, Screen Play: Jacques de Lajoue and the Ruses of Rococo Katie Scott 142 Chapter 6 William Morris’s Tapestry: Metamorphosis and Prophecy in The Woodpecker Caroline Arscott 160 Chapter 7 Fischli and Weiss’s Equilibre/Quiet Afternoon (1984–5) Rachel Wells 174 Chapter 8 Clever Objects – Tell–Tale Objects Simon Starling in conversation with Christiane Rekade 186 Chapter 9 Fragments of Great Visions Ian Kiaer in conversation with Christiane Rekade 198 Chapter 10 Response: Clever Fetishists Roman Frigg 204 Chapter 11 Response: Playing Dumb Glenn Adamson 211 Index

Matthew C. Hunter is Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University. He is author of Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London (2013) and co–editor of Beyond Mimesis and Convention: Representation in Art and Science (2010). Francesco Lucchini is a Psychoanalytic Training Candidate at the C. G. Jung Institut, Zurich. He is also an art historian and theorist with an interest in the relationship between objects and ideas, thinking and things.