Describing Forms

Where is the deluge of images produced, how does it circulate, and how does it take shape? What is a “form” in an age of dilution? What becomes of style?

Colour

Visual Saturation and the Desaturation of the World

  • Lead investigators
Prof. Marie-Theres Stauffer (History of Architecture, Faculté des Lettres)
Prof. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel (Digital Humanities, Art History and Visual Studies, Faculté des Lettres)
 
  • Abstract

Despite living in a world flooded with colour images, modern visual culture has long been shaped by black-and-white reproduction. This strand investigates how monochrome circulation altered colour, perception, and the global transmission of artistic and architectural forms.

  • Related activities
• Seminar (in French): Visual Saturation and the Desaturation of the World (2026–2027): "Quand la Couleur disparaît". 
• Conference: Color in Motion. Transfers, Transformations, Translations. Final Conference of the Visual Contagions Project SNSF 2021–2026). 
 

Style

  • Lead investigators
Prof. Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel (Digital Humanities, Art History and Visual Studies, Faculté des Lettres)
Prof. Svyatoslav Voloshynovskyy (Computer Scienc, Faculty of Sciences)
 
  • Abstract
From art history to artificial intelligence, this project examines how styles circulate, transform, and challenge traditional notions of authorship and copyright.

  • This project builds on earlier research conducted between 2021 and 2025, including workshops, publications, and collaborative experiments on style analysis, cultural circulation, and artificial intelligence.
    • Seminar: "Styles", revisited. From Iconology to Digital Image Studies: 2021-2022 and 2022-2023.
    • Publication: Style Revisited. Artl@s Bulletin. Volume 13, Issue 2 (2024). https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/artlas/vol13/iss2/
    • Invited Lectures and Keynotes.
      • Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel,  "Modernism by Reproduction: Dalinism, and the Global Dynamics of Mimetic Circulation." Metropolitan Musem of Art Lauder Research Center, New York, 30 April 2026.
      • Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, "Faire du Dali sans en avoir vu. Médiations techniques et circulation mondiale d'un style". Université de Fribourg : séminaire du Prof. Emmanuel Alloa, "Techniques de la sensibilité". March 24, 2026. 
      • Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel,  "Mapping Motifs and Images: Epistemological Challenges in Large-Scale Visual Analysis". Paris, Sorbonne Université, Seminar of the project VHS (Vision artificial & Analyse historique de la circulation des illustrations scientifiques): January 6, 2026.