Symposium
Modes of Compression: Aesthetics, Operations, Formats
Organized by Ruth Ezra, Ella Klik, Anna-Maria Meister, and Anna Luise Schubert
Diagonal 'compression crease' demonstrating the failure of a fibrous material in compression. J.E. Gordon, Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down (London: Penguin, 1978), p. 276, fig. 3b.
Like the bellows of an accordion, many human-made objects are designed to compress: to respond to external conditions through a series of contractions and expansions. Though the term COMPRESSION is most often used today to theorize digital operations (e.g. formats, algorithms, codecs, bitrates), its historical, material, and aesthetic dimensions stretch far wider, encompassing cylinder seals, lithography stones, collection inventories, and elided narratives of architectural reliefs. This interdisciplinary symposium aims to explore these and other precursors in dialogue with contemporary conceptions of summarization, abstracting, code, and storage. We consider compression both as a technical procedure and as a mode through which aesthetic meaning takes shape amid constraints — whether material, ecological or economic. Paper topics span temporalities, localities, and media, from medieval pyxides to film stock, nineteenth-century books to DNA bunnies, hand knitting to mass production. As we convene in the city of schiacciata, special attention will be paid to the squashed techniques of Florentine sculptors and to pietra paesina quarried from the Arno riverbed.
To participate online via Zoom on May 12, please join here.
To participate online via Zoom on May 13, please register here.
Program
Tuesday, 12 May (I Tatti)
Villa I Tatti, Via di Vincigliata 22, Florence
10:30 – Coffee
10:45 – Introduction
Ruth Ezra, I Tatti / University of St Andrews
11:00am
1: Two-And-A-Half Dimensions
Chair: Baptiste Tochon-Danguy, I Tatti
Nicole Pulichene, Hood College
Premodern Pyxides and the Dogged Pursuit of Ivory
Christopher S. Wood, NYU
Epitome of a Journey
Alina Payne, I Tatti
Plane and Simple: Architecture and the Seduction of Relief
Discussion
Buffet Lunch
2:30pm
2: Spooling
Chair: Steven Lauritano, I Tatti, Leiden University
Kirsty Sinclair Dootson, University College London
The Film Print: Compression and Reversal
Michael Faciejew, Dalhousie University
Microfilm and Machine \ Learning in the Postcolonized World
Discussion
4:00pm
Interlude: Expansion
Samir Boumediene, CNRS
Expansion: A Thermodynamic Counterpoint
Tea
4:45pm
3: Threads
Chair: Paul Galvez, I Tatti
Anna Olszewska, AGH University of Kraków
Laced Memory: Data Compression as Textile
Ella Klik, Bar-Ilan University
DNA Bunnies: Volume | Density | Plentitude
Discussion
Aperitivi
Wednesday, 13 May (KHI)
Palazzo Grifoni Budini Gattai, Via dei Servi 51, Florence
9:30 – Coffee
9:45 – Introduction
Anna-Maria Meister, KHI Florenz / KIT Karlsruhe
10:00am
4: Fluidity and Force
Chair: Bianca de Divitiis, KHI Florenz / Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II
Frank Fehrenbach, Universität Hamburg
Under Pressure: Bodies and Liquids, c. 1290 – 1650
Marika Knowles, University of St Andrews
Water Pressure: Intaglio Printmaking and Painting on pietra paesina in Florence ca. 1600
Discussion
Coffee
11:45am
5: Criticism and Canon
Chair: Anna-Maria Meister, KHI Florenz / KIT Karlsruhe
Jeremy Melius, University of York
Erosion and Compression in Ruskin's Santa Croce
Malika Maskarenic, Universität Bern
Canon as Compression
Discussion
Vegan Lunch at Casa Zuccari (Via Giuseppe Giusti, 49)
2:30pm
6: Models
Chair: Anna Luise Schubert, KHI Florenz
María Matilde Morales, I Tatti / Harvard University
Boccaccio's Summaries: Narratological Compression, Comprehension, and Comparison
Carlos Spoerhase, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Compressing "Capital", Volume 1: Modes of Abridging Marxism
Discussion
Marek Jancovic, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Response | AV1 TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME
Break
5:00pm
It's a Match! Jens Schröter and Rosa Menkman on Compression Artifacts
Introduced by Lise Meitner Group "Coded Objects", KHI Florenz
Discussion
With support from Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; Lise Meitner Group "Coded Objects," Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut; Association for Art History; School of Art History, University of St Andrews; Henry Moore Foundation; and the STAIRS Nascent Partnership Fund.
Location and Access
On 12 May, this event will be hybrid and take place in person at Villa I Tatti, Via di Vincigliata 22, Firenze. To participate online via Zoom, please join here.
On 13 May, this event will be hybrid and will take place in person at Palazzo Grifoni in Via dei Servi 51, Firenze. The building can be entered about half an hour before the event. Ring the bell at “Photothek” if the door is not open yet. The event space is located on the first floor, reachable with 3 steps of stairs at the entrance and a large stairway or elevator (with limitations for wheelchair users). The location can be accessed with a wheelchair via an alternative entrance from Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, but advance request is necessary. During the presentations, automated captioning through Zoom will be available. If you have any access needs, e.g. verbal descriptions or alternative seating, please let us know in advance via info@khi.fi.it, and we will try to accommodate those. To participate online via Zoom on May 13, please register here.
Downloads
12 – 13 May 2026
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
Via dei Servi 51
50122 Firenze
Villa I Tatti
Via di Vincigliata 22
50135 Florence
To attend the talk in person no registration is necessary.
To participate online via Zoom on May 12, please join here.
To participate online via Zoom on May 13, please register here.
Further information
Notice
This event will be documented photographically and/or recorded on video. Please let us know if you do not agree with the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz using images in which you might be recognizable for event documentation and public relation purposes (e.g. social media).