Conferences

International Conference: Diagrams in Dialogue. Visual Configurations and their Contexts

The conference represents a cooperation between the DFG/FWF-project ‘History as a Visual Concept. Peter of Poiters' Compendium historiae’ with the research project B4, CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics and the Centre of Premodern Europe (ZVE, Zentrum Vormodernes Europa). 

Diagrams as media for understanding philosophical, mathematical, and scientific concepts have played a significant role in multiple histories: the history of ideas, the history of science, the history of visualization. But diagrams have also had their own history independent of the disciplines they have served over the centuries. Between the textual and pictorial, diagrams enable ways of thinking beyond text and picture. Their visual and abstract character is suited not only to mapping and modelling, but also to symbolizing abstractions, such as infinity and perfection. And yet, the allure of symmetry and geometry can derail these purposes. Often found decoupled from text, diagrams thus tend to acquire figural features or attract diagrammatic companions. In turn, collections of diagrams became works in their own right. A widespread phenomenon in the medieval Latin west, the clustering and proliferating of diagrams reveals much about methods of production and reproduction, as well as about imagination and re-imagination, throughout the Middle Ages. This conference investigates how medieval diagrams, in dialogue with one another, begat new conceptual and aesthetic paradigms. Speaking to more than how diagrams map out space, time, and elusive philosophical and theological concepts, these contributions address how likely and unlikely pairings, copies and miscopies, as well as material and pictorial interventions have changed history.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster

International Conference: Change in Aesthetics and Elite Interaction in the Greek World between the 6^th and 5^th century BC

Scholars have long drawn connections between the social and political transformations between the late archaic and classical periods and the stylistic changes in the visual representation of human beings (and anthropomorphic gods) that took place at the same time. While systematic discussions of this problem have long been the exception, recent years have seen the emergence of a sustained debate on the topic. While some scholars vigorously affirm the connection between socio-political developments and aesthetic changes during this period and point, others emphasize the internal logics of artistic production and regard social, political, and cultural developments as secondary factors. A third group rejects any direct connection between aesthetic and political change but accepts longer-term socio-cultural developments as drivers of stylistic transformations. Consensus on the question has not yet emerged.
Our conference aims to forge a new path in this debate by inviting participants to reflect on what we consider to be a central aspect of the problem: the relationship between personal elite interaction, the aesthetic practices that characterized these interactions, and the changing modes of visual representations of human beings in sculpture and vase painting. We focus on elite interaction because of the important role the personal, face-to-face interaction played in the socio-political life within Greek communities of the age. Aesthetic practices played a major role in negotiations about influence and status. In contrast, there is the aesthetic logic of the production of artefacts: Although the production and illustration of symposium ceramics, for example, or the specific design of statuary sculpture cannot be thought of independently of their concrete cultural contexts, the question nevertheless arises as to whether the particularities and changes in form and style can be explained by seemingly obvious political transformations, or whether this does not at least partially fail to recognise the complexity of the connection between the specific design of visual media, the changing use of objects and socio-political practice. The conference will therefore have to consider socio-political, cultural and art autonomous factors in equal measure.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster

International Conference: Literature and Art 'for occasions'. Continuities and Transformations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Occasional poetry and occasional speeches have fundamentally shaped text production in the German language since the early 17th century. At the same time, the question of artistically valid practices of writing, speaking and publishing 'upon occasion' came into the focus of aesthetic discourse. This relationship shifted towards the end of the 18th century, as the increasing autonomy of the literary field coincided with the growing attractiveness and programmatic development of aesthetics based on genius and autonomy. From the perspective of educational history, the rhetorical and compositional paradigms of classical language teaching receded in the face of instruction in modern German. As a result, the institutional entrenchment of occasional literature was reduced, so that it occupied a niche in aesthetic discourse and gradually lost prestige.
Nevertheless, the crisis of the rhetorical paradigm in no way signifies the end of occasional literature. The monumental Handbuch des personalen Gelegenheitsschrifttums in 31 volumes (2001-2013) shows that the production of occasional lyric poetry increased in some German-speaking areas towards the end of the 18th century. This results in a disconnect between theory and practice, which potentially challenges accepted divisions of different periods in literary history. In other words, the exploration of continuities and changes in occasional literature over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries promises a wealth of new literary-historical insights and re-evaluations.

Downloads: Conference programme, Call for Papers

International Conference: The Aesthetic Vocabulary of the Premodern Era. New Approaches to Historical Semantics

The CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics explores the aesthetics of texts, pictures and objects of pre-modern Europe. Project B3 is dedicated to the semantics of the aesthetic in German literature of the Middle Ages. It assumes that the vocabulary with which texts attempt to grasp their own origin, design or effect forms an access point to contemporary understandings of the aesthetic. For this reason, the project would like to compile such lexemes as are relevant in the context of literary self-description and explore their aesthetic meaning. Within the framework of the CRC 1391 Different Aesthetics, the aim is to evaluate the extent to which aesthetic semantics in medieval and early modern texts refer to the autological, creative as well as to the heterological, social dimension of acts and artefacts. According to the proffered hypothesis, this is where a specificity in pre-modern aesthetic vocabulary might be located.
The conference “The Aesthetic Vocabulary of the Premodern Era. New Approaches to Historical Semantics” takes this hypothesis as a starting point. Given the approach and aims of the CRC 1391, we hope to broaden the range of source texts and passages studied so far, for example to include ‘Gebrauchstexte’ (‘functional texts’). It is also important to expand our understanding of the duality of autology and heterology on various levels. Therefore, the conference would like to examine words, word combinations, parts of speech, concepts, as well as types of texts, which particularly navigate the dynamic exchange between the autological creative form and heterological social pragmatism. To ensure a concise discussion and a speedy publication of the articles, the conference will be held after pre-circulating the papers. This means that contributions will be sent to all participants in advance so that the conference can be entirely concerned with discussion.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster, Call for Papers

International Conference: The Menorah and the Seven-branched Candelabrum. Jewish and Christian Manifestations in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods

In both Jewish and Christian traditions, the Menorah plays a prominent role as an iconic artefact in medieval and early modern art and thought. As an implement of the Tabernacle as well as of Solomon’s Temple, its outstanding importance in the religious and national life of the Israelites is evident in the Hebrew Bible. After the destruction of the Temple, it became the quintessential symbol of the Jewish people — both in the Land of Israel and throughout the Diaspora. Christians, for their part, regarded the Tabernacle and Temple as prefigurations of the Church; the Menorah thus figures prominently in Christian exegesis and iconography as well. Since Carolingian times, seven-branched candelabra made of bronze or brass were placed in churches. The installation of such artefacts raises questions about their spatial aesthetics and liturgical and performative functions as well as the “Christian Menorah” as adaption or appropriation.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster

International Conference: The Politics of Female Divinity in the Hellenistic Period

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International Conference: The Poetics of Greek Ekphrasis

Hellenistic Ekphrasis operates through a tension between word art and visual art. Well-known works of art, such as Myron's cow statue or Praxiteles' statue of Aphrodite, which were depicted several times during this period and through different media, were also repeatedly described and addressed in Hellenistic epigrams. The descriptions in these epigrams aim less at a detailed representation of the objects than at the aesthetic effects on and reflections of the perceiving subject (e.g. perception, attention, wonder, alienation, judgment). The reflections developed here represent a 'different' aesthetic in the sense of the CRC, insofar as they negotiate implicit aesthetic concepts (i.e. those reflected in the poetic texts themselves), techniques and modes.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster

International Conference: Im Bad wöll wir recht fröhlich sein. Bath and Spa Music in the Early Modern Period

This interdisciplinary and international conference, including presentations and roundtables/workshops, aims to shed light on bathing and spa music in the communicative and interactive space of the public bath. This shall be investigated through the discussion of applied dietetics, artistic practice, reflective theory, as well as social and confessional communication, as reflected in text, image and sheet music. Due to the parameters of project A4, the focus shall be on the early modern period and on the German-speaking area; more comprehensive perspectives are welcome.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster,  Call for Papers

International Conference: Demonology of Illusion. Semantics, Epistemology, Performance

The focus of the conference is the aesthetic potential of the illusio daemoniaca, i.e. an illusion caused by demons, which offers a 'different' prehistory for the concept of aesthetic illusion as it developed over the course of the 18th century. Based on demonological treatises (mainly from France and Germany), the conference traces the complex processes of demonological-aesthetic reflection in the fields of semantics, epistemology and performance. The conceptual fields of illusion (Latin praestigiae, fascinatio, French charme, prestige, etc.), formation and the interaction between pragmatic, narrative and dramatic texts (episteme) will be analysed, as well as the staging of demonic-aesthetic illusion in narrative texts and in the theatre (performance).

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster

Colloquium to mark the 60th birthday of Prof. Dr. Annette Gerok-Reiter on the topic "Textuality, Mediality, Performativity: On the aesthetic energy of medieval lyric"

The colloquium explores the 'aesthetic energy of medieval lyric', which is generated at the intersection of the inherent logic of the aesthetic textual artefact or performative act (autology) and its social integration and functionalization (heterology). Within the triad of textuality, mediality and performativity, the contributions aim to address the characteristic interplay of semantic density and ambiguity, of intra- and intertextual polyphony, of rhythm, sound and rhyme, of carrier medium, text and music, of body and voice that is found in medieval lyric. In doing so, the colloquium addresses Annette Gerok-Reiter’s research interests and the topics currently being addressed within the Tübingen CRC 1391 ‘Different Aesthetics’, which is generously supporting the event. Lectures will be given by Susanne Köbele (Zürich), Almut Suerbaum (Oxford) and Franz-Josef Holznagel (Rostock), three distinguished specialists in the field of medieval aesthetics and poetry. The evening lecture by the poet and medievalist Alexander Rudolph / Tristan Marquardt (Munich) will undertake an artistic-scientific approach to the dynamic exchange between literary studies and poetry.

Downloads: Programme

International Conference: Beautiful and Pure? – Standardization and Aesthetics in Linguistic Purism of the Early Modern Period

At the centre of this international and interdisciplinary conference are the socio-cultural conditions surrounding and interactions between individual European language purisms of the early modern period. At this time, the debate about 'pure language' was absorbed into a variety of standardization models which, due to different ideas of the (im-)pure and (un-) beautiful, stood in competition with one another. They form the theoretical foundation of institutionally anchored language and identity politics, which has affected all of Europe in different ways.

The conference examines standardization processes and debates around linguistic purism in Italy, France and Germany. These will be used to discuss how autological and heterological instances intertwine in different discourse and genre traditions - from language treatises, poetics, grammars and dictionaries to letters, translations and satirical texts. Specific practices, institutions and individuals within language standardization will be examined, as well as metaphors of language purity and/or purification.

Downloads: Conference programme, Poster, Call for Papers