Materiality and Virtuality. Entanglements of Material and Virtual Worlds in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture
International Conference
Interdisciplinary Research Center for the Medieval and Early Modern Period (IZMF)
Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture (IMAREAL) at the University of Salzburg
Date: 19. – 21. 9. 2023
Venue: Kolpinghaus Campus Krems | Krems/Donau
We seek to specifically understand the mutual interaction between materiality and virtuality, as they do not form an irreconcilable binary opposition; rather, in our view, it is their productive interaction that produces the texture of meanings from which “realities” are made. We assume that people generate culture in ever new processes of negotiation in the interplay of virtuality and materiality. We are particularly interested in the extent of humans’ ability to cope with virtuality, and the degree to which we as humans need points of what is primarily sensory reference and interconnection in and with the material world. We start from the hypothesis that prior to and within what we call the digital age, instances of virtualisation have primarily been practices of materialisation that inscribed sociocultural elements – ideas, narratives and values – into objects. In so doing, they have made the material world accessible to our cognition while simultaneously enabling virtualities to render physical objects into artefacts: cultural things, fabricated in social practices. The conference addresses the manifold entanglements between material and virtual worlds prior to the digital age as well as reflecting on the potential associated with the virtualisation of research data and the various stages of modelling and analysis, particularly the challenges inherent to the digital transformation of material objects.
Please register until 8. September 2023 at the latest via sekretariat.imareal@plus.ac.at
The program is available here.
Conference Programme
19 September
15.00
Opening of the Conference
Christina Antenhofer/Elisabeth Gruber/Alexander Zerfaß, Salzburg
15.15–16.45
Materiality and Virtuality in the History of Knowledge
Chair: Alexander Zerfaß, Salzburg
Virtual Materialities in the History of Substances: Understanding the Emergence of “Modern” Raw Materials between the 18th and 19th Centuries
Sebastian Haumann, Salzburg
Materialität als Potenzialität zur Aufnahme von Form. Die Rolle der Materie im Platonismus der Spätantike
Christian Pietsch, Münster
16.45–17.15 Coffee
17.15–18.45
Visualizing Materiality and Virtuality
Chair: Barbara Denicolò, Salzburg
Virtuality through Materiality. Grave Monuments as a Medial Strategy of Visualizing the Dead on the Example of Klosterneuburg Abbey
Edith Kapeller | Julia Anna Schön, Vienna
Museum Materialities in-between Virtual Objects and Digital Materials
Chiara Zuanni, Graz
19.00
Keynote
Chair: Christina Antenhofer, Salzburg
Cadavers, Dead Bodies, and Human Biomaterials – The Sliding Scale of Human Remains in Mortuary Ritual, Cultural Heritage, and Research Ethics
Liv Nilsson Stutz, Växjö/Sweden
Response
Karin Harrasser, Linz
20 September
9.00–10.30
Sensing Materiality and Virtuality I
Chair: Matthias Däumer, Krems
Virtual Insanity Is What We Are Living in. Attempt at a Systematic Concept of Virtuality (on the Basis of Medieval Afterlife Journeys)
Matthias Däumer, Krems
Durch auflegung des wunter detigen gnaten stein ist mir geholfen worten. Physical Contact as a Practice of Mediating Salvation Using the Example of the so-called ›Fraisensteine‹ from the Pilgrimage Destination Sonntagberg (Lower Austria)
Thomas Kühtreiber/Sabine Miesgang, Krems
10.30–11.00 Coffee
11.00–12.30
Sensing Materiality and Virtuality II
Chair: Matthias Däumer, Krems
Insights into the Mechanisms of Materiality and Virtuality. Using the Example of the Lucerne Weinmarkt Plays
Heidy Greco-Kaufmann, Bern
Apple Variation. Case Studies from the Latin Middle Ages
Katja Weidner, Vienna
12.30–14.00 Lunch
14.00–16.30
Materiality and Virtuality in Space
Chair: Thomas Kühtreiber, Krems
Built Space and Virtual Space: Remodeling the Historical Rooms of Hohensalzburg from Material and Written Sources
Christina Antenhofer/Walter Brandstätter | Stefan Zedlacher, Salzburg
Inventing a Medieval Liberty in the Landscape: Materiality, Virtuality, and the Liberty of Whitby Strand
Thomas Pickles, Chester
Representing the Absent King? Material Dimensions of Royal Presence in Late Medieval France
Michael Brauer, Salzburg
18.00
Keynote
Chair: Elisabeth Gruber, Krems
Materiality and Virtuality, Reconstructing and Exploring the Past Through Objects: Mobility of Objects Across Boundaries 1000–1700
Katherine Wilson, Chester
Reception
21 September
9.00–11.30
Manuscripts between Materiality and Virtuality
Chair: Manfred Kern, Salzburg
The Codex Manesse in TEI format. Towards a Transcription Database for Manuscript C (Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, cpg 848)
Claudia Maria Kraml | Dominik Nießl, Augsburg
New Imaging Technologies and the Invisible Materiality of the Book
Sean Winslow, Graz
The Fascination for Materiality and the Hiatus between Editorial Practice and Literary Criticism. Some Remarks on the Omnipresence of Virtual Manuscripts
Florian Kragl, Erlangen
11.30–12.30
Conclusion
Christina Antenhofer | Elisabeth Gruber | Alexander Zerfaß, Salzburg