We communicate when we move; our bodies feel vibrations—but how do we propagate memory through motion, and how can we recover ideas silenced by the history of signs? In this talk, Isaiah Lorado Wilner turns to the archive of body knowledge to reframe the discourse of modernity. Beginning with an iconic image of the anthropologist Franz Boas posing as a “cannibal,” he reveals the narrative of nonviolence encoded by the image. Seeing Boas as a host body of Indigenous knowledge, civilized by the people he studied, compels us to rethink our assumptions about who is modern, and who creates modernity.
This workshop will take the format of a 30-minute discussion on the pre-circulated paper, followed by Q+A. Lunch will be provided to those who RSVP.