Seminar and workshop
Date: Nov. 27, 2025, Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online
Location: Bibliotheca Hertziana, Max Planck Institute for Art History, Rome
Speakers: Dr. Eszter Polonyi, Dr. Sašo Grozdanov, and Rohini Devasher
In this interdisciplinary seminar, an artist, a historian and a physicist come together to explore how visual methods produce knowledge about astronomical phenomena. How does the human observer approach the unseeable, the unknowable? In 2019, the iconic visualization of a black hole was released by the Event Horizon Telescope. This builds upon a long history of visual methods in observing celestial objects, from drawing to analog and digital photography. The seminar revolves around Dr. Eszter Polonyi and Dr. Sašo Grozdanov’s work on black holes and photography, and on Rohini Devasher’s artistic practice on portraying the Sun. We explore visual methodologies and interdisciplinary work processes – spanning art, physics, and history – through the lense of the astronomical image.
