Aggregates: Phenomenologies of Water – International Graduate Seminar 'Maritime Art History'.

Organised by Johannes von Müller and Caecilie Weissert.

The Graduate Seminar 'Maritime Art History' addresses international graduate and postgraduate students. The Seminar is part of the profile ‘Maritime Art History’ affiliated with the professorship for early modern art history (1400-1800) at the Department of History of Art at the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel. For the academic year 2023/24, the Graduate Seminar invites junior scholars – planning a PhD, about to start a programme or in the early stages of one – under the keyword Aggregates to present, discuss and further develop projects that are dedicated to a phenomenology of water in the widest sense.
Studies are welcome that investigate historical practices of art- and image-making, as well as aesthetic discourse, which concern the material qualities of water in its various states of aggregation: solid, liquid, aeriform. The aspects addressed may include (but are not limited to) a buoyant quality of water by virtue of which it functions as a medium, as well as its reflective surface, which places it in close relationship to light, granting an epistemic quality to both the encounter with and the representation of water. Possible themes are the artistic representation of water in all its aggregate states, the use of water as well as ice and steam as artistic materials, pictorial forms of scientific engagement with water, as well as the metaphorics of transformation conceived in the mutability of the compound known as ‘water’. The notion of the aggregate connects with Aristotle’s theory of elements, designating a not necessarily permanent and therefore potentially ephemeral and inherently changeable connection of elements. In this sense, the term implies a connection’s constant mutability, which can even include dissolution.
The Seminar takes place over two days at the beginning of the upcoming Winter Semester in Kiel (Nov 2023). In addition to the two conveners, an internationally renowned guest is invited to participate in discussions of the presented works as well as present their own research in the context of the Seminar. At a second meeting held virtually at the end of the semester (Feb/March 2024), the results of the individual work carried out on the respective projects are presented. The publication of the proceedings is possible. A particular concern of the Graduate Seminar is the international networking of junior academics in Kiel. Therefore, a maximum of 3 of the 9 available places to be awarded are reserved for students based in Kiel. The language of presentation is English.

Applications are to be sent by 30 July 2023 to vonmuellerkunstgeschichte.uni-kiel.de and should include an abstract (max 300 words), a CV and a brief statement about the motivation for participating (max 150 words).