The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto: Block Museum - Northwestern University
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The Heart’s Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto

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Edited: Michael Metzger
Contributions: Robert M. Brain, Daniel K. L. Chua, Patrick Feaster, Stefan Helmreich, Elizabeth A. Kessler, Julius B. Lucks, Michael Metzger, Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell, Alexander Rehding, Jennifer L. Roberts, Dario Robleto, and Claire Isabel Webb
Publication Date: January 2023
Page Count: 160 pages
ISBN: 978-1-64657-031-7
Publisher: The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University,
Distributed: ARTBOOK DAP
Produced : Lucia | Marquand, Seattle
Price: 39.99
The prints, sculptures, and films of American artist Dario Robleto (b. 1972) explore the pathos and the speculative potential of scientific inquiry. The Heart's Knowledge: Science and Empathy in the Art of Dario Robleto traces the artist's intertwined fascinations with the human heart and the cosmic boundaries of perception: How does the history of cardiography speak to the scientific quest to picture the invisible? How do the heart's cultural and spiritual connotations shape our understanding of the universe we inhabit and the unknown forms of life it may contain? Structured around three broad themes that run through Robleto's practice Heartbeats, Wavelengths, and Horizons -this book traverses physical and intellectual boundaries, extending from the pulses and brainwaves of the human body to the faintest interstellar glimmers from the edges of our observable universe. Through contributions across the disciplines of musicology, anthropology, cardiology, engineering, history of science, and art history, The Heart's Knowledge offers an engaging and accessible companion to Robleto's wide-ranging work. Richly illustrated with images including selections from his 2017 portfolio, The First Time, the Heart (A Portrait of Life 1854-1913), which powerfully transforms the delicate pulse waves of early cardiography into a gallery of vanished souls, and the astral projections in such films as The Boundary of Life Is Quietly Crossed (2020)-the book reflects a decade of profound creative exploration and proposes new models for understanding research-based creative practice in visual culture studies.