ARTH 3392

Objects in Motion: Transoceanic Japan and the Port Cities of Asia

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2026-2027 Catalog.

What can objects produced in the port cities of the Indo-Pacific world teach us about early modern globalization? Movement into and out of key trade centers in the Indo-Pacific became more interconnected during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this course we study the peoples, animals, objects, and oceanic forces “in motion” that encountered one another in these contact zones, paying particular attention to how such objects are read as evidence of exchange. With a particular focus on the circulation of Japanese material culture and export artworks, our inquiry enables us to re-examine the conceptual and geographic boundaries of identity and artmaking in the early modern world. By tracing the mobilities of the Japanese diaspora through South and Southeast Asia and the Americas, we examine the emergence of diverse hybrid cultures and the creolization of local and global artistic traditions in Nagasaki, Macau, Manila, Goa, Batavia, Acapulco, and beyond. Alongside these case studies, we develop the methods of close looking, provenance research, and material analysis that illuminate objects whose makers and meanings often sit outside the traditional canon. This course also has a curatorial component: each student researches an object related to Asian port cities held in the Herbert F. Johnson Museum collection. Students prepare an exhibition with the selected objects in the Education Gallery, learning to draft object labels, shape a narrative for visitors, and consider the choices that go into presenting art to the public. (ASIAN -SC)

Distribution Requirements (ALC-AS)

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