Aleisha Barton

Aleisha E. Barton is a historian of print and ephemera, with specialties in color, materiality, and immersive environments. Her research unites technical processes of the art studio with art historical inquiry to advance a methodology rooted in embodied knowledge and praxis. Across Barton’s work, she considers how visual and material culture facilitate connection and world building in North America, Europe, and within related global exchanges. Her interests include theories of perception, explorations of artistic materials, emergent technologies, and community-based artistic practices.

Her in-progress book project, “‘Your Eyes Are Limited’: Psychedelic Print in the Postwar Media Landscape,” analyzes the production of countercultural ephemera in San Francisco, California during the mid-to-late 1960s. Barton’s project deploys speculative histories and process-informed visual analysis in order to explore related themes of nostalgia, coalition building, and radical imagination within the Bay Area’s cultural geography. This research has been supported by multiple institutions, including the Henry Luce Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies; the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation; Harvard University; and the University of Minnesota.

Selected Publications

“Contemplating Light: Experiencing Victor Moscoso’s Psychedelic Lithographs in the Museum.” Arts 12, no. 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12050213.