What does a transition mean?

• Main Author: Louise Hitchcock
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Art History, University of Birmingham 2016-12-01
• Series: Journal of Art Historiography
• Subjects: Donald Preziosi; Minoan; architecture; module; transition; Classics; entanglement
• Online Access: https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/hitchcock.pdf

This contribution is inspired by Donald Preziosi’s ground-breaking study of the planning, intercultural influences, spatial syntax, and modularity found in the monumental architecture of the Minoan civilization on the island of Crete (ca. 1900-1450 BCE) in the Aegean Sea. In particular it considers his ruminations on the meaning of imposing western notions of order and identity in the search for modularity, in order to meditate on the symbolism of transitions and cultural negotiations as found in our temporal frameworks, notions of spatial boundedness, entangled identities in the past and present, ethnocentricities, and academic frameworks and discourses. It concludes that like modularity, transitions are fluid and dynamic, rather than fixed.