Transgressive Materiality

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Material Collective

Organizer Name

Heather Coffey, Holly R. Silvers

Organizer Affiliation

OCAD Univ., Independent Scholar

Presider Name

Heather Coffey

Paper Title 1

Depicting the Sound of Silence in Spinello Aretino's Magdalene Banner

Presenter 1 Name

Amy Gillette

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Temple Univ.

Paper Title 2

Making Marvels – Faking Matter

Presenter 2 Name

Beate Fricke

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of California-Berkeley

Paper Title 3

Transgressive Materials? An Eighth-Century Reliquary of Bone and Lead

Presenter 3 Name

Genevra Kornbluth

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Kornbluth Photography

Start Date

15-5-2015 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1355

Description

For this session, the Material Collective aims to bring together scholars working in a variety of disciplines to explore instances of transgression by artists, scribes, readers, viewers, or encoded in surviving objects. We welcome imaginative interpretations of the session topic from any area of Medieval Studies.

In 2005, the world witnessed an intense controversy surrounding the representation of the Prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Despite contemporary opposition to depicting the Prophet, renditions of Muhammad—in illustrated manuscripts, frescoes, and printed materials—were in sporadic circulation throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds from the twelfth-century onwards, challenging reputed prohibitions against his figuration. Historically, such seeming transgressions were not unique to religious imagery nor Islamic content.

Speakers in the session could address the materialization of illicit or confrontational subject matter; iconoclasms and erasures; subversive morphologies; materials usurping their physical properties; unexpected fusions or aggregate forms; or objects intended to provoke the viewer or test existing social norms. Alternatively, instances of transgressive materiality could also function positively, fostering formal innovation, technical experimentation, or forging relationships within controversial or expanding networks. That which is deemed transgressive is geographically and culturally relative, a point which we hope will ignite the lively reconsideration of any number of artifacts, texts, or patrons.

This session is sponsored by the Material Collective and co-organized by Heather Coffey and Holly R. Silvers

Holly R. Silvers

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May 15th, 1:30 PM

Transgressive Materiality

Schneider 1355

For this session, the Material Collective aims to bring together scholars working in a variety of disciplines to explore instances of transgression by artists, scribes, readers, viewers, or encoded in surviving objects. We welcome imaginative interpretations of the session topic from any area of Medieval Studies.

In 2005, the world witnessed an intense controversy surrounding the representation of the Prophet Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Despite contemporary opposition to depicting the Prophet, renditions of Muhammad—in illustrated manuscripts, frescoes, and printed materials—were in sporadic circulation throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds from the twelfth-century onwards, challenging reputed prohibitions against his figuration. Historically, such seeming transgressions were not unique to religious imagery nor Islamic content.

Speakers in the session could address the materialization of illicit or confrontational subject matter; iconoclasms and erasures; subversive morphologies; materials usurping their physical properties; unexpected fusions or aggregate forms; or objects intended to provoke the viewer or test existing social norms. Alternatively, instances of transgressive materiality could also function positively, fostering formal innovation, technical experimentation, or forging relationships within controversial or expanding networks. That which is deemed transgressive is geographically and culturally relative, a point which we hope will ignite the lively reconsideration of any number of artifacts, texts, or patrons.

This session is sponsored by the Material Collective and co-organized by Heather Coffey and Holly R. Silvers

Holly R. Silvers