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Avant-Guardian Musings

  • Fall 2025
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“Art is an outlet toward regions which are not ruled by time and space”
— Marcel Duchamp

Avant-Guardian Musings is a curated space of ideas and information, resources, reviews and readings for undergraduate and graduate students studying modern and contemporary art history and visual art theory, film and photography studies, and the expanding field of visual culture and screen studies. For students currently enrolled in my courses or the field school, the blog and associated social media links also serve as a place of reflection and an extension of the ideas and visual material raised in lecture and seminar discussion.

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Blog
Making Sense of Art in the Age of Machine Learning—A Suggested Reading List
Making Sense of Art in the Age of Machine Learning—A Suggested Reading List
about a week ago
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
From the Archives | How (And Why) To Take Excellent Lecture Notes
about 11 months ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
Weekly Musings + Round Up... And A Few More Things
about 2 years ago

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How to describe the Palazzo Butera in Sicily? Take a baroque palace on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, restore it with great care, and then fill it with your collection of contemporary art, antiquities, ephemera, and a sprinkle of modern and Renai
How to describe the Palazzo Butera in Sicily? Take a baroque palace on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, restore it with great care, and then fill it with your collection of contemporary art, antiquities, ephemera, and a sprinkle of modern and Renaissance works. Add a beautiful cafe with a terrace facing the sea and invite the public to admire it all. This is the best of what a private collection can be— bravo to the curators and anyone who had a hand in planning this space. It is breathtaking! A must visit if you come to Sicily. . . . #palermo #sicily #arthistory #contemporaryart #artcollection #palazzobutera #modernart #artmuseum
A stroll through Palermo capturing colour, light, and mood 💙
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#sicily #italy #palermo #urban #architecture #arthistory #flaneur
A stroll through Palermo capturing colour, light, and mood 💙 . . . #sicily #italy #palermo #urban #architecture #arthistory #flaneur
Buongiorno bella Sicilia! ✨I arrived in bustling Palermo after sunset last night just in time for a lovely al fresco dinner with my dynamic Urban Emotions research group, and awoke this morning to the beauty, light, and colour of Sicily, enjoying my
Buongiorno bella Sicilia! ✨I arrived in bustling Palermo after sunset last night just in time for a lovely al fresco dinner with my dynamic Urban Emotions research group, and awoke this morning to the beauty, light, and colour of Sicily, enjoying my coffee on my hotel’s rooftop terrace and strolling quiet streets as the city awoke. I will be here for the week participating in a round table discussion at the AISU Congress (Association of Italian Urban Historians) exploring the intersection of emotions, cities, and images with the wonderful individual researchers (from Italy, UK, Turkey, and the US) with whom I have been collaborating through online discussions and meetings for over a year. We first connected in Athens last summer at the EAHN European Architectural History Network Conference and have been working on a position paper that will be published later this year in the Architectural Histories journal expanding on our individual case studies to argue for the broader relevance of urban emotions as a multidisciplinary field of study. It is so wonderful to finally meet as a group and continue our conversations! . . . #urbanhistory #italy #palermo #sicily #arthistory #urbanemotions #contemporaryart
What are the books I would recommend to any artist, art historian, or curator if they wanted to get a critical handle on the state of art in the age of AI? I have some suggestions as I spent the past several months assembling a set of readings that w
What are the books I would recommend to any artist, art historian, or curator if they wanted to get a critical handle on the state of art in the age of AI? I have some suggestions as I spent the past several months assembling a set of readings that will shape the core questions of a course I will be teaching on this topic come fall at @kwantlenu @kpuarts @kpufinearts . By request, I am sharing the reading list and core questions on my blog (check out top link in bio) in an effort to encourage the consideration of these ideas to a wider audience. I hope to report back at the end of the semester about what I learned teaching this course, and I will be on the lookout for others in my field taking on this topic as a much-needed addition to the art school curriculum in the years to come. IMAGE: Lev Manovich’s exploratory art work from 2013 is made up of 50,000 Instagram images shared in Tokyo that are visualized in his lab one year later. . . . #contemporaryart #machinelearning #ai #artificalintelligence #arthistory #newpost #avantguardianmusings
Celebrating Virgo season and another successful trip around the sun!☀️♍️✨🎂💃🏼Every year I add to this life is its own little miracle. And in a world unforgiving of women getting older, being able to age with health, strength, high energy, peace of
Celebrating Virgo season and another successful trip around the sun!☀️♍️✨🎂💃🏼Every year I add to this life is its own little miracle. And in a world unforgiving of women getting older, being able to age with health, strength, high energy, peace of mind, and eyes wide open is a huge flex. It is a gift I do not take for granted. . . . #happybirthday #virgoseason #genx #motorcyclelife #aprilua #apriliatuonofactory #motogirl #motogirls

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© Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com, 2010-2023. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Dorothy Barenscott, Avant-Guardian Musings, and dorothybarenscott.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Yoko Ono exhibition Growing Freedom opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery on October 9th and runs through next spring. I captured this shot of the exhibition posters on the north side of the gallery this past week.

Weekly Round Up... And A Few More Things

October 24, 2021

Midterm mayhem is in full swing, and my silence last week was due to a family emergency that had me scrambling to rearrange my schedule and shift gears to keep my head above water as the tsunami of grading pours in. I kept thinking about that infamous I Love Lucy episode where Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance work on an assembly line and try to keep on top of wrapping chocolates that are coming faster and in larger quantities down the conveyor belt.

Life is full of unexpected events, and these are the times we need to shed any pretense of perfectionism and our original game plan. As I told many of my students this past week, there is no shame in acknowledging when you are in over your head. If that means handing in an assignment that is incomplete and/or maybe not up to your standards, rethinking your expectations for a project, or even dropping a course that you know you are already failing, there is virtue in recognizing and facing the reality of the situation. The most important thing is not to beat yourself up about it. Look forward and carry on. Enjoy the weekly round up 😁

"Welcome To The Age Of Newstalgia"
"Welcome To The Age Of Newstalgia"

refinery29.com

"Lost in translation? The one-inch truth about Netflix’s subtitle problem"
"Lost in translation? The one-inch truth about Netflix’s subtitle problem"

theguardian.com

"Banksy’s “Love is in the Bin,” Explained"
"Banksy’s “Love is in the Bin,” Explained"

arsty.net

"Vienna Museums Are Revealing Their Raciest Art (and Educating the Masses) on the Adult Site OnlyFans"
"Vienna Museums Are Revealing Their Raciest Art (and Educating the Masses) on the Adult Site OnlyFans"

artnet.com

"Is Paris really taking London’s art crown? (PODCAST)"
"Is Paris really taking London’s art crown? (PODCAST)"

artnet.com

"Why Hollywood is Reluctant to Stop Using Real Guns as Props"
"Why Hollywood is Reluctant to Stop Using Real Guns as Props"

slate.com

"The True Cost of Wealth on HBO’s Succession"
"The True Cost of Wealth on HBO’s Succession"

theatlantic.com

"Culture Gabfest “I’ll Be Your Mirror” Edition (PODCAST)"
"Culture Gabfest “I’ll Be Your Mirror” Edition (PODCAST)"

slate.com

"For This Artist, the Medium Is the Body"
"For This Artist, the Medium Is the Body"

nytimes.com

Meret Oppenheim: Mon Exposition / Retrospective at Kunstmuseum Bern (VIDEO)
Meret Oppenheim: Mon Exposition / Retrospective at Kunstmuseum Bern (VIDEO)

vernissagetv

"Welcome To The Age Of Newstalgia" "Lost in translation? The one-inch truth about Netflix’s subtitle problem" "Banksy’s “Love is in the Bin,” Explained" "Vienna Museums Are Revealing Their Raciest Art (and Educating the Masses) on the Adult Site OnlyFans" "Is Paris really taking London’s art crown? (PODCAST)" "Why Hollywood is Reluctant to Stop Using Real Guns as Props" "The True Cost of Wealth on HBO’s Succession" "Culture Gabfest “I’ll Be Your Mirror” Edition (PODCAST)" "For This Artist, the Medium Is the Body" Meret Oppenheim: Mon Exposition / Retrospective at Kunstmuseum Bern (VIDEO)
  • Welcome To The Age Of Newstalgia

  • Lost in translation? The one-inch truth about Netflix’s subtitle problem

  • Banksy’s “Love is in the Bin,” Explained

  • Vienna Museums Are Revealing Their Raciest Art (and Educating the Masses) on the Adult Site OnlyFans

  • Is Paris really taking London’s art crown? (PODCAST)

  • Why Hollywood is Reluctant to Stop Using Real Guns as Props

  • The True Cost of Wealth on HBO’s Succession

  • Culture Gabfest “I’ll Be Your Mirror” Edition (PODCAST)

  • For This Artist, the Medium Is the Body

  • Meret Oppenheim: Mon Exposition / Retrospective at Kunstmuseum Bern (VIDEO)

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© Dorothy Barenscott, 2010-2025