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Dale Tomich, professor of sociology, is showcasing years of research in an exhibit at the University Art Museum while using the exhibit to teach one of his classes.

The exhibit, “Plantation Places: Cotton, Sugar, Coffee and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Slaveries,” features 130 visual images that Tomich collected over four years with a group of international scholars. The interdisciplinary project, funded by a grant from the Getty Foundation, allowed the scholars to study the function and representation of plantation spaces in Brazil, Cuba and the Lower Mississippi Valley.

鈥淲e looked at how the commodities sugar, cotton and coffee emerged and changed the landscape of the plantation and the organization of the land,鈥� Tomich said. 鈥淏ooks about slavery tend to be about master and slave relations, not about geography. We inverted that idea and looked at images to see how geography and the plantation space shaped what slavery was like.鈥�

Tomich鈥檚 class for students in the Binghamton Scholars Problem, Plantation Landscapes, encourages students to use the images in the exhibit to view slavery in terms of what slave systems produced and the geographical landscape. Students in the course will all write research papers that will be made into a book.

鈥淥nly a few of the students in the class are history majors, but there is something here that appeals to everybody,鈥� Tomich said. 鈥淭here are so many different connections that can be made, so students are free to make their own interpretations. We look to the images to find out what is behind them. In this course, students are learning by learning how to see.鈥�

The images, Tomich said, reveal truths about how plantation life changed over time. During the 19th century, slavery was revolutionized as part of the growing and competitive world economy. Industrialization caused a reorganization of the plantation to emphasize maximum productivity.

鈥淢aximum productivity governed everything,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t is about the extortion of human labor based on calculated productivity and about forcing slaves to produce more and more on a larger scale. Everything is a constant flow of movement around extensive land.”

The exhibit鈥檚 blueprints, drawings and maps of sugar plantations in Cuba, for example, show how life and work on the plantation changed as technology changed.

鈥淪ugar is an agricultural product, but it has to be processed right away, so the sugar plantation combined the field and factory,鈥� Tomich said. 鈥淎s technology advanced, everything on the plantation got bigger. There were different systems of measurements used and conveyer line set-ups. Life and work centered on railroads and how long it would take to get materials to market. There was a new conception of time and space that was completely modern.鈥�

Diane Butler, director of the Art Museum, said Tomich鈥檚 interdisciplinary exhibit has touched a wide audience.

鈥淚t has brought in people who don’t usually come to the Art Museum because of its focus on Latin America, history, technology and agriculture,鈥� Butler said. 鈥淚t goes outside of the normal parameters of art and touches on many historical themes.”

Tomich鈥檚 exhibit was already in progress when Butler was appointed. With the support of the university, he had printed reproductions of the images and was preparing to showcase them when Butler became part of the project.

“I think Diane was shocked that we were planning an exhibition that wasn’t an art exhibit, and I was shocked that I was suddenly working with an art director,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t took us both a day to get over the shock, and then it was wonderful. Diane helped me rework and redesign the whole exhibit, and it was much, much better for her intervention. We collaborated really well.”

This collaboration between faculty members and the Art Museum is something Butler plans to continue. Beginning next fall, Butler has plans to feature two exhibitions on China as part of a collaboration with the university鈥檚 Department of Asian and Asian American Studies, the Asian American and Diaspora Studies program, the Confucius Institute and the Theatre Department.

鈥淲e are here to be utilized by a great many people,鈥� Butler said. 鈥淲e love that the art history and studio art departments make use of our collections, but that is just one piece of the pie. Art can be utilized by a great number of people for a great number of things. With faculty collaborations and student projects, more people can really benefit from our collection of over 3,000 objects.”

The exhibit, “Plantation Places: Cotton, Sugar, Coffee and the Making of Nineteenth-Century Slaveries,鈥� will be on display in the Art Museum until Saturday, Dec. 15. The exhibit is free and open to the public.