2015 - Ruskin and Forgetting
The Mikimoto Memorial Ruskin Lecture of 2015 was held on 19 November in Lancaster University's Management School (Lecture Theatre 1).
Speaker: Professor Francis O'Gorman (University of Leeds)
Title: 'Ruskin and Forgetting'
This lecture considers the place of forgetting in John Ruskin's sustained writing on memory. Thinking in particular about Ruskin's conception of architecture as a way of remembering, Professor Francis O'Gorman explores what it might mean to be remembered only in pieces or inaccurately. Ruskin preferred these to being misunderstood, which was what he frequently found true of himself. Forgetfulness was, in turn, clarifying for Ruskin even if it was, to an extent, falsifying. And this poses an intriguing question now for the reader of Ruskin, in all his extensive multiplicity. Do we understand him better if we forget a lot?
2015 - Ruskin and Forgetting