Senior Research Seminar with Professor John Tresch (The Warburg Institute)

This talk presents cosmograms— objects which express the universe as a whole— as useful objects for anthropology, science studies, and history. Looking at when, why, and with what materials people depict the cosmos to each other can shed light on the cosmopolitical contexts of individual and collective projects, and the frictions that ensue when they clash. Studying cosmograms also facilitates comparison and critique: for example, a recurrent pattern of “trap cosmologies” allows for a suggestive juxtaposition between forms of life of hunter-gatherer collectives and the technoscientific predation of contemporary social media.

John Tresch is professor of history of art, science, and folk practice at the Warburg Institute, London. He has written on history and anthropology of science, on neuroscience, romanticism, 1848, and Edgar Allan Poe. He contributed to the science-art-politics collaborations N01SE, Making Things Public, Critical Zones, and the HKW Anthropocene Curriculum in Berlin, and from 2014 to 2025 was editor of History of Anthropology Review. His next book is Cosmograms: How to Do Things with Worlds.