Places of imagination - spaces of affect:
Forming the sacred through media (1100-1600)

Göttingen, 30 March - 1 April 2010

CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline: 31 October 2010

Sacred places and religious spaces are of vital importance in the
Christian culture of the Middle Ages. Jerusalem as the site of the passion
of Christ was regarded as the centre of the material world which pointed
towards the celestial city and could be projected onto other places,
turning these into an embodiment of itself. The buildings and the rituals
of cities were mapped onto sacred topographies. In processions and in
mental pilgrimage, spaces and places were evoked in the imagination which
merged the actual location with a sacred site. Communal and individual
religious practices use affects to create sacred spaces, typically
exemplified in the settings of devotional forms of emotional and physical
participation in and re-enactment of Christ's passion. By practices such
as these, places and spaces are not only invested with sacred meaning. The
contact with sacred space and the actions performed in it also have an
effect on the objects and the people involved, which can be understood as
a sacramental transformation.

In our view, the importance and the power of sanctified places and sacred
spaces results from practices of media, such as the separating and
arranging of space by architecture, and their fashioning by art, music and
language. Sacred spaces actuate and guide performances, which in turn
grant their permanence and shape the experience of them. The planned
symposium is meant to give an impulse for a (re-)consideration of the
relation between media and (sacred) space, conceiving this relation as
productive and transformative. We suggest the concept of practices of
media as one focal element of such an approach. It seems more promising
than the traditional distinction between production and reception for an
analysis of how sacred topographies are constituted and how they take
effect. Practices of media involve images, texts, music, ritual and
theatrical play. In this framework, relics and the eucharistic species can
also be regarded as media. In which way do media such as these partake in
the transferral and the signification of the sacredness of locations? How
can we describe the roles of imagined, virtual and affective space? How
are sacred topographies joined with one another?

Another focal point concerns the space of the medium, a space which is
specific to the medium and is influenced by its formal, material and
technical conditions. Examples are initial illustrations in manuscripts in
the form of portals, which define a spatial dimension of the text lying
behind them, or pictures which do not only show an illusionistic space but
also connect this space to the recipient's surroundings. The performance
genres of procession and theatrical play also constitute their 'own'
spaces of the medium.

In contrast to earlier studies which applied an exegetical approach to
church architecture and liturgical performances in the tradition of
medieval hermeneutics, we encourage a perspective which does not consist
in decoding the meaning of images, texts, music etc., but rather focuses
on the media-specific practices of space as well as their affective and
(quasi)sacramental effects. In this context, we invite a debate on key
concepts such as 'imagination', 'virtual space' and 'affective space'.
Another area for analysis concerns the relation between the topographies
and topologies of the ars memorativa and the organisation of sacred places
and spaces.

We are calling for papers on medieval and early modern Christian culture
(cultural studies, history, art history, literature, music, religious
studies, theology) which address and combine two or more of the following
areas. Complementary papers on similar phenomena in other religions and
epochs will also be considered.

- space and affect
- artefacts and texts which constitute and transfer places
- artefacts which give form to space (architecture, micro-architecture)
- artefacts which organize or change a given space (e.g. winged
altarpieces)
- media-specific spatial practices
- media-related merging of places or superimposition of one place upon
another
- space in mnemonic techniques and in imagination

The symposium will be held in German and English. Accomodation costs will
be covered by the organisers and travel expenses may be paid after prior
consultation.

Please send your exposé of max. 600 words by 31 October 2010 to

Heike Schlie, Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin:
schliezfl-berlin.org
Elke Koch, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen: ekoch1gwdg.de