This doctoral research project examined colonial Andean painting (16th-18th centuries) as a distinctive form of communication within early world society, utilizing Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to understand how visual art functioned in peripheral colonial contexts.

The project challenged conventional art historical narratives, particularly the dominant theory linking the 1688 division of Cusco's painters' guild to the emergence of a local painting school. Through critical historiographic analysis, I demonstrated that this institutional explanation overlooked the complex communicative functions of colonial painting as a medium for intercultural meaning-making.

Conducted under the supervision of Professor Dr. Rudolf Stichweh at the University of Lucerne, this research applied Luhmann's systems theory to the analysis of colonial art history. Stichweh's expertise in sociological systems theory and world society formation provided essential theoretical guidance for examining communication processes in peripheral colonial contexts.

Central to this research was the concept of "ornamental systems" - examining how colonial Andean painting operated through the tight coupling of symbolic forms that enabled communication across cultural boundaries. Rather than viewing colonial art as European artistic traditions modified by indigenous influences, the project analyzed how painting constituted itself as a form of communication through ornamental practices that made religious and transcendent meaning accessible to stratified colonial audiences.

The research revealed how "modern" European artistic innovations were absorbed into what I termed "parasitic ornamental systems": heteronomous arrangements that built upon autonomous European art systems while serving different communicative functions in colonial peripheries. This analysis demonstrated how colonial painting participated in spheres of social reality where all experience could be communicated as contingent in light of transcendence.

This foundational work established my approach to understanding how material practices and symbolic systems intersect in communication infrastructures. This analytical framework continues to inform my current research on knowledge infrastructures and the choreographies demanded by contemporary digital technologies.

This research was supported by an ANID doctoral fellowship from the Chilean government and a research fellowship from the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, enabling archival work at the Ibero-American Institute in Berlin. Access to the Institute's exceptional collections of colonial American materials proved essential for developing the project's historiographic analysis.