DoppelHouse author Antoinette LaFarge gives the keynote talk at this all-day virtual symposium celebrating the life and legacy of Norman Daly, who “discovered” the fictional civilization of Llhuros in the late 1960s. Visit https://symposium.civilizationofllhuros.org/ to learn more about the symposium and the exhibition that was described by Newsweek in 1972 as “an archeological magical mystery tour the like of which has never been seen before.”

LaFarge will discuss the implications of the ruin, both real and fabricated, as a source of aesthetic pleasure and cultural value. She considers the dual nature of presence and absence that afflicts ruins, thereby placing viewers into a state of cognitive dissonance.

Find out more about Antoinette LaFarge’s work in her art historical compendium Sting in the Tale: Art, Hoax, and Provocation.