Unstable Norms – Mutable Forms. Challenging Normativity in Pre-Modern
Visual Culture | RESEARCH-LAB, Bochum, 23-25 Nov 2023

Kunstgeschichtliches Institut, Ruhr-University Bochum
organized by Carolin Behrmann and Georgios Binos


The international research-laboratory „Unstable Norms – Mutable Forms
approaches the complex relationship between normativity and visuality by venturing into a multifaceted spectrum of different historical constellations in pre-modern imagery. Within a research-laboratory format, we seek to explore new perspectives regarding the (multi-)normative efficacy of visuality. We are going to discuss diverging cultural aspects of norms and normative processes as „models of reality“, where the abstraction and imagination of norms are not seen as opposed to, but as coinciding with diverse historical realities.

Five LABs are dedicated to the question how visuality and cultural practices bring forth normative orders. Contributions to the LABs are planned as actively collaborative in revising, reconsidering, and renegotiating aspects of the plurality of visuality and the field of norms, tracing aspects of recognition as well as deviance. Central to all research-labs is the hypothesis of a more complex picture of the relationality between normativity and visuality.

If you plan to attend the conference, please register with due to limited capacities.

PROGRAM
THURSDAY, 23.11.2023 | RESEARCH-LAB | VISUALITY & NORMATIVITY
| 5.00 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.

LOCATION / ORT: HGA 20
(on-campus @ Ruhr-University Bochum)

WELCOME – 5.00 p.m.
Carolin Behrmann & Georgios Binos (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

LAB I – NORM & FORM | KEYNOTE & CO_LAB
| 5.30 p.m.
Jasmin Mersmann (Freie Universität Berlin)
“Norms and Forms, or: Shaping Bodies According to the Rules of Art”

+CO_LAB “FORM & IMAGE” with Jasmin Mersmann | 45 min

FRIDAY, 24.11.2023 | RESEARCH-LAB | VISUALITY & NORMATIVITY
| 10.00 a.m. – 7.00 p.m.

LOCATION / ORT: TG II „Karthago“ / Tagungsraum II (Veranstaltungszentrum VZ)
(on-campus @ Ruhr-University Bochum)

LAB II – LEGAL VISUALITIES
| 10.00 a.m.- 1.00 p.m.

Masha Goldin (eikones, University of Basel):
“Building Cities, Establishing Norms: The Making of Visual Juridical Authority in the Towns of the Medieval Holy Roman Empire”

Katharina Januschewski (University of Paderborn / Berlin):
“Entering A New Architecture of Normativity. Visual Registers of the Normative in the Images at the Marian Portal of the Cathedral Saint-Étienne of Auxerre”

Niko Munz (Christ Church, University of Oxford, UK):
“Bildnisrecht: Early Portraiture’s Legal Aspects”

LAB III – NORM AS MONTAGE | KEYNOTE & CO_LAB
| 2.00 p.m.-3.30 p.m.

Fabian Steinhauer (Max-Planck-Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory in Frankfurt/Main): “Warburgs ‘Staatstafeln’ (State-Tables). Norm and Form & the Lateran Treaty (Rome, 1929)”

+CO_LAB NORM & NORMATIVITY with Fabian Steinhauer | 45 min

LAB IV – POLITICS, IDENTITY AND (NON)CONFORMITY
| 4.00 p.m.-7.00 p.m.

Endre Sashalmi (University of Pécs, Hungary):
“Scholastic Understanding of ‘commune bonum’ as a Norm, or a Shifting Conception of Government? An Analysis of the Engraving Politeia (1579)”

Navya Dennis (St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru, India):
“Crafting Conformity through Performance—Chavittunadakam as a Strategic Instrument for Ecclesiastical Colonisation”

Anna Piotrowska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland):
“Identifying Romani People in Pre-Modern Iconography: the Role of Viewpoints, Norms and Stereotypes”

SATURDAY, 25.11.2023 | RESEARCH-LAB | VISUALITY & NORMATIVITY
| 10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.

LOCATION / ORT: Situation Kunst
(off-campus @ Situation Kunst, Nevelstr. 29 c, 44795 Bochum-Weitmar)

LAB V – CONVENTIONALITY, SUBVERSION, AND VISUAL NORMATIVIZATION
| 10.00 a.m. – 1.00 p.m.

Stavros Vlachos (Ruhr-University Bochum):
“Zwischen Norm und Abweichung: Kreuzigungsbilder in der Kunst des Spätmittelalters und der Frühneuzeit”

Stephan Köhli (Ruhr-University Bochum):
“More Than Static – Illuminating Gender Normativity in ‘Der Welsche Gast’”

Mariam Hammami (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen):
“Närrische Norm. Das Rebus zwischen Regelbruch und Konventionalität in der Frühen Neuzeit”

FUTURE-LAB | CHALLENGES & OPEN HORIZONS OF “Normativity & Visuality”

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registration
If you plan to attend the conference, please register with due to limited capacities.

languages
The conference will be conducted in English and German.

If you need further assistance or have any other requests, please don’t hesitate to contact us.