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
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