In the world of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, self-representation can easily be curated through photos, status updates, and videos. Samantha's Ph.D. project examines the curation of artists’ identity in early modern Europe and asks the question: Why do painters portray themselves as musicians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
Samantha's research project extends beyond earlier studies of music iconography and performance practice, and focuses on the conceptual analogies between painting and music, specifically those of intersensoriality, synaesthesia, performativity, temporality, and identity. Through a sensory-focused approach, her work generates an opportunity to re-examine the intermediality of art forms and re-imagine the senses as a sensorium. This type of interdisciplinary study engages in dialogue with disciplines, including art history, historical musicology, history, and anthropology.
Samantha Chang is currently a Ph.D. Candidate from the Department of Art History at the University of Toronto. Her research is funded by several awards, including the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) Doctoral Award, the Faculty of Arts and Science Top (FAST) Doctoral Fellowship, and the Mary H. Beatty Fellowship.
Image: Lavinia Fontana, Self-Portrait at the Keyboard, 1577, Oil on canvas, 27 × 24 cm.
Accademia
di San Luca, Rome.