Periodic Reporting for period 4 - Global Horizons (Global Horizons in Pre-Modern Art)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-03-01 bis 2024-02-29
Several paradigms and narratives in art history have been developed for art works originating from the first world, and later transferred to and applied to subfields studying the art of further regions. While this imbalance has been and still is discussed and addressed for the history of collections, on the methodological and theoretical level only few attempts have been made to overcome and address this imbalance. The project members in our team research and study different subfields of the discipline (art history), but develop together in a dialogue new approaches for the study of medieval/pre-modern art. Even the periodical label is problematic in this regard and still reveals its eurocentristic origin. The research team of Global Horizons included members researching medieval/pre-modern art of Armenia, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Germany, France, India/Southasia, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Russia, Spain, Syria, Switzerland, Tangut, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
We have successfully researched the visual analysis of historical modes of representation regarding the representation of Horizons and Pictorial Space in different cultures (Bird-eyes view, Simultanbilder/simultaneous scenes, voids, spaces and stripes) and of the Mapping the Cosmos/Modes of representation in cartography/Cosmological knowledge in diagrams/Combinations of spatial, temporal, and symbolic modes in maps, altar panels and manuscript painting). In working together on similar research questions, but on different objects originating from different subfields and different visual cultures, we develop novel methods and theories to describe the development of representation modes and the history of representation.
In our collaborative efforts we have developed together novel theoretical approaches to address more explicitly the imbalance of extant archives, to better write about gaps in art history, and to collaboratively develop new art historical methods and - eventually new narratives to describe the history of representation overcoming the eurocentristic ones coining the major discussions in the discipline at large.
We have successfully researched the visual analysis of historical modes of representation regarding the representation of Horizons and Pictorial Space in different cultures (Bird-eyes view, Simultanbilder/simultaneous scenes, voids, spaces and stripes) and of the Mapping the Cosmos/Modes of representation in cartography/Cosmological knowledge in diagrams/Combinations of spatial, temporal, and symbolic modes in maps, altar panels and manuscript painting). In working together on similar research questions, but on different objects originating from different subfields and different visual cultures, we develop novel methods and theories to describe the development of representation modes and the history of representation.
In our collaborative efforts we have developed together novel theoretical approaches to address more explicitly the imbalance of extant archives, to better write about gaps in art history, and to collaboratively develop new art historical methods and - eventually new narratives to describe the history of representation overcoming the eurocentristic ones coining the major discussions in the discipline at large.
The project was devided into three subject areas I: Horizons and Pictorial Space - II: Mapping the Cosmos/Modes of representation in cartography and III: Constellations and Representations of the Divine. The PI has completed the book manuscript on cosmology and creation theories and their representation in manuscript illumination in the Latin West (Beautiful Genesis - as part of project area II), has published one article on horizon and panorama and has taught a lecture course on horizon and pictorial space as well as on gaps developping the conceptual frames for the second monograph as part of project area I and collaborated with one of the phd student writing an article on celestial globes in the Latin West and Arabic East (as part of project area III). The co-authored book on objects travelling from one cultural context to another without being accompanied by texts and the edited volume on Destroyed, Dissappeared, Lost, Never where includes contributions from several of the collaborators and one of the PhD students in the project discussion the survival of memory and the past in different cultural contexts during the pre-modern era - the latter contributions address representations of the divine (project area III). The edited volumes are related to subject area I (shifting horizons) and the censers on subject area III.
As part of the outreach and the for semination our research and results to wider audiences the PI has given seminars in collaboration with a scholar on art works from medieval Afghanistan in European collections, a research seminar for students in China on Western and Eastern modes of representation (students from Bern, Hamburg & from Chinese universities). The PI has also given book seminars for a general audience In addition to these public events several of our collaborators were in contact with Swiss collections holding non-Western objects and have studied works in the deposits of several museums.
All 6 PhD Students have completed their PhDs in the subfields of Mesopotamian Art, African Art, Islamic Art, Central Asian Art ("Silk Road"), Late Antique Art, European Art in the pre-modern period. They, together with collaborators in these fields as well with experts on Arts of the Late Antiquity, the Americas in the pre- and postcolumbian periods, Asian Art (India, Japan, China, Tangut) have come up with new shared methodological approaches acknowledging the efforts to strengthen the perspectives of subfields of the discipline in collaboration with colleagues working on European medieval art to reevaluate dominant narratives of our discipline at large, problems in historiography and find individual - object and region-related approaches as a result of multiperpective discussions. Two of the dissertations have already been published, the others are in preparation. Three edited volumes have been published, several articles and three monographs and one co-authored monograph (with Finbarr Barry Flood) have been published. Furthermore we were successful in stablishing a new journal OA (diamond - 21:Inquiries) for the entire discipline with significant efforts to bridge different academic writing traditions.
As part of the outreach and the for semination our research and results to wider audiences the PI has given seminars in collaboration with a scholar on art works from medieval Afghanistan in European collections, a research seminar for students in China on Western and Eastern modes of representation (students from Bern, Hamburg & from Chinese universities). The PI has also given book seminars for a general audience In addition to these public events several of our collaborators were in contact with Swiss collections holding non-Western objects and have studied works in the deposits of several museums.
All 6 PhD Students have completed their PhDs in the subfields of Mesopotamian Art, African Art, Islamic Art, Central Asian Art ("Silk Road"), Late Antique Art, European Art in the pre-modern period. They, together with collaborators in these fields as well with experts on Arts of the Late Antiquity, the Americas in the pre- and postcolumbian periods, Asian Art (India, Japan, China, Tangut) have come up with new shared methodological approaches acknowledging the efforts to strengthen the perspectives of subfields of the discipline in collaboration with colleagues working on European medieval art to reevaluate dominant narratives of our discipline at large, problems in historiography and find individual - object and region-related approaches as a result of multiperpective discussions. Two of the dissertations have already been published, the others are in preparation. Three edited volumes have been published, several articles and three monographs and one co-authored monograph (with Finbarr Barry Flood) have been published. Furthermore we were successful in stablishing a new journal OA (diamond - 21:Inquiries) for the entire discipline with significant efforts to bridge different academic writing traditions.
The research trips have been organized together with experts in subfields of art history (Alka Patel/Afghanistan), Carlos Rojas Cocoma (Colombia), Kristopher Kersey (Japan), Georgia (Zaza Shirtladze/Philip Ursprung). These research trips are organized like a manuscript conference, based on a research project by the leader of the trip (Kris Kersey for Japan). All sites, monuments and objects visited are part of the book project of the trip organizer and the members of the travel group are all representing another subfield of art history, but all pre-modernists. These combination of "medieval" perspectives from very different cultural contexts has led to intensive discussions about the extant narratives in art history regarding the history of representation and the origin and development of the various modes of representation. In this particular constellation (with several weeks of preparatory meetings in which the travelling members were reading and learning about the culture they were about to visit) has led to a constructive reconsideration of these paradigms and narratives and we have developped alternative concepts to describe the history of representation - within the manuscript of the leading scholar organizing the trip to "his/her" research objects as well as in various co-authored articles and as impact upon the dissertations written in the project. The numerous prizes awarded to the junior researchers are exceptional, and currently we have two monographs and have completed three edited volumes.