Export Commodity Cultures: Designing Latin America

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The economics and politics of monocultural production and export-led development have figured strongly in Latin American art and architecture. We consider these aesthetics and infrastructures, from the links between the cattle industry and architectural production in late-nineteenth century Argentina to the graphic design of oil magazines in Venezuela. Latin American “nature” became entangled in vast transnational networks, from the agrilogistics of the Caribbean sugar complex to the commodification of Andean airspace during the Cold War. Through these case studies, we reveal the links between raw materials and the cultural production of the region.

Sub Track

• Art, Architecture and Visual Culture

Session Organizers

• Niko K Vicario, Getty Research Institute

• Ana María León, University of Michigan

Chairs

• Niko K Vicario, Getty Research Institute

• Ana María León, University of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• Meat-Milieu - Fabiola Lopez Duran, Rice University

• Oil, Abstracted: Cruz-Diez Returns to El Farol - Sean Nesselrode, New York University

• Food for Peace: Agri-tectures of Sugar in The Dominican Republic, 1950-1970 - Nikki Moore, Rice University

• Earthbound visions: received cultures of Latin American sky observation - Pedro I Alonso

Discussant

• Irene V Small, Princeton University