Barbara Stafford

Taking the long perspective, Barbara Stafford's research has charted the polyopticalities, or multiple means of spatial presentation, characterizing the early modern period up to and including the contemporary era of electronic media. While always working at the intersection of the imaging arts, the visualizing sciences, and performance technologies, she has now expanded her intense focus on the body and embodied experience. Her recent essays examine the revolutionary ways in which the brain sciences are changing our view of the total sensorium and inflecting our fundamental assumptions concerning perception, sensation, emotion, mental imagery, and subjectivity. She is currently engaged in writing a cognitive history of images.