Occupying a niche between the well-known and the exotic ethnographic museums have become object of ongoing discussions about who posseses the legitimate right to exhibit, what can be exhibited, and how one should go about it. Through interviews with curators at ethnographic museums in Europe and North America this thesis follows these debates as they unfold in contemporary ethnographic museums.
The thesis argues that rather than a translation between two separate worlds – that of the ethnographic ’field’ from which things originate, and that of the museum – the ethnographic exhibition can be perceived as the result of a thought process distributed in time and space. Through the collection and preservation of objects the museum connects a range of agents who each in their own way (producing, collecting, dealing, cataloguing, displaying) influence how other actors in the network can act and be recognised for their acts. It is further argued, that rather than explaining the meaning and function of objects, exhibitions should strive to convey how objects have intended and non-intended effects and aim at creating new effects.
Så er det endelig blevet tid igen efter vores succesrige symposium i efteråret ”Senses and Materiality: The Senses at Work” efterfulgt af en lang hård vinter. Men nu skal vi i gang igen og du inviteres hermed til næste møde i Netværket:
In this symposium we wish to thematise the importance of the senses and the body in relation to how we act on material elements around us, as well as how they act upon us. Though the senses and the body play a crucial role in our relation to material elements, we tend to ignore them in order to focus on the content of experience – on the information we receive. The central concern of the symposium will be to give proper attention to both the senses and the body.
Programme
09.30-9.45
Welcome
Assistant Professor and Director of the Research network for Material Culture, Cognition and Nature Henning Høgh Laursen, Aarhus University
09.45-10.15
Torben Nielsen: “Hunting the Shadow – Catching the Light”
10.15-11.00
Ansa Lønstrup: “The Materiality of Sound – The Art of Listening”
Sound, Voice and Listening – in Contemporary Art and outside art
Based on a phenomenological method as developed by Don Ihde in his newly reedited book, Listening and Voice. Phenomenologies of sound (1. ed. 1976, 2. ed. 2007) and inspired by different examples from the broad scene of contemporary art my paper will explore how voice – both as a sounding aesthetic agent and as a concept – works in different art-expressions and contexts, and how the listening ear (body) may interact with those intermedial and contextualized voices. The chosen examples will range from audio-poetry, electro-acustic music and soundart to multimedia-installation. The relation between sound and listening will be theorized, and transgressing those different genres I will also consider the relation between experience of sound, space and motion in space. If there is time (and space!) I might carry out a small experience with voicesounding and listening.
11.15-12.00
Brian Moeran: “The Situated Meanings of Smell”
We know certain things about smell: that it is virtually impossible to describe it accurately in language, but that it communicates all sorts of things about ourselves in terms of gender, race, the supernatural and social relations in general. We know, too, that we use smell as part of our daily practices of communication and impression management, and that smell can be a powerful source of memory. Yet, if – as we also know – there are no inborn olfactory preferences, how do we go about creating a ‘scent culture’? How can we take advantage of the situated meanings of smell in different cultures? These are the sorts of questions this lecture will address
12.15-13.15
Senses Lunch
13.15-14.00
Anders Moe Rasmussen: “Dinner time. On the temporal aspects of the meal”
By its consumptive nature the meal is something fundamental vanishing. On the other hand the meal plays an essential role in our structuring and experiencing of time. The temporal aspects of past and future are essential parts of the meal as remembrance and hope are always at play when eating together.
14.00-14.30
Break
14.30-15.30
Nina Schriver: “Space and materiality – co creators of movement, memory and relations”
The presentation focuses on how space and materiality can be meaningful for movement by being a co-creator of relations and support memory, meaning and focus.
We will work actively in the space and watch pictures from movement in other spaces. The experiences and the empirical material will be elucidated through drawing on theory about space and atmosphere, space and sociality and space and meaning.
15.30-16.30
Tim Flohr Sørensen: “Moving Light: When human beings are touched by luminosity”
This paper explores the centrality of luminosity to various aspects of human life. At a spiritual level, light has a long history as a metaphor for truth and/or the divine, and perceptually light and shadows are integral to the visual experience of the world. At the same time, light remains a stubbornly difficult phenomenon, regularly being perceived as ephemeral, ethereal or un-thingly. Paradoxically, human beings may often create a more or less distinct object out of light despite of its slippery nature. Light is thus frequently used to materialize phenomena that are object-defying; being too large, too small or too transcendental to be matched by solid matter. The paper pursues this exchange between luminosity and materiality by drawing on art, architecture, interior design, and on intersections of matter and metaphor in spiritual life. In turn, it proposes that the politics, symbolisms, imaginaries, atmospheres and socialities that are related to luminosity result from historically, culturally and corporeally situated appreciations of light.
Where and when
26th of November 2009 at Aarhus School of Architecture, “gymnastiksalen”, entrance from Paradisgade 4 and Nørreport 17.
It is possible to participate in a special senses lunch cooked by Claus Brænder, but there are limited seats. The price is 110 kr. In order to reserve a seat please contact ‘senses_and_materiality@hum.au.dk’. Deadline for registration is 18th November.
13-14: Offentlig forelæsning med titlen “What did it mean to design an aeroplane? Handley Page Ltd’s disputed claim to the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, 1919-1922“.
Den 13. maj er der arrangement med Don Ihde, organiseret i samarbejde med STMC-netværket. Bemærk at der inden den offentlige forelæsning fra 14-16 er mulighed for at tilmelde sig PhD-workshop om formiddagen fra 9.30-12 med Don Ihde. Tilmelding skal ske gennem stm@au.dk. Arrangementet afholdes i mødelokale 1.1 (formiddag) og mødelokale 1 (eftermiddag) i bygning 1421.
Kære alle sammen – 2009 bliver det afgørende år for Netværket. Som I ved, er “Videnssamfundet” afsluttet, men Forskningsnetværket “Materiel kultur, Kognition og Natur” – som du/I er en del af, har gjort så stort et indtryk, at vi har fået en generøs bevilling, som tillader os at arbejde videre et år og få afsluttet projektet på en ordentlig måde.
Vi er allerede i gang med at planlægge et par større ting, men jeg tror vi har mulighed for at få endnu mere ud af det – og det er her du/I kommer ind i billedet.Vi har mulighed for at understøtte lokale aktiviteter, så hvis I har planer/muligheder for at arrangere noget – lokale minikonferencer, invitation af spændende mennesker, etc. – så send en mail til mig – så kigger vi på mulighederne.
SÅ BARE KOM I GANG MED AT FÅ GODE IDEER.
2
REMINDER om vort møde den 1. april med Jørgen Tietze – information/poster/plakat vedlagt.
3
Jeg tror vi har tid til – minimum – endnu et møde i foråret. Jeg kunne forestille mig, at vi fortsætter traditionen fra sidste år med et holde et heldagsseminar med indlagt frokost – og ellers med en planlægningsdel samt et fagligt indhold.
Forslag til fagligt tema modtages meget gerne – måske noget med rum og landskab eller agency.
4
Sæt allerede nu x i kalenderen den 26. november, da vores arrangement om “Sansernes materialitet” (eller hvad det nu ender med at hedde) løber af stabelen. Carsten Friberg har arbejdet med at få etableret kontakter til folk, som kan sige/gøre noget om/med de forskellige
Sanser, og det meste skulle faktisk være næsten på plads nu.
