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Image and Perception in the Long Fourth Century

On December 17, 2020, the virtual workshop "Image and Perception in the Long Fourth Century" was held, organized by Katharina Lorenz and Claudia Schmieder (Classical Archaeology at JLU) with support from Section 5 Media and Art of the Centre for Media and Interactivity, and assistance from Hilke Wagner and Tamara Ziemer. During the workshop, thirty scholars from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, and the USA (Fig. 1) participated in five lightning talks—10-minute presentations by individual researchers—focusing on phenomena of vision and visibility in the material remains and literature of the "long" 4th century BC. The discussions explored how these phenomena can inform our understanding of ancient perception practices during a period marked by significant visual changes.

The first two contributions examined the role of transitions in transmedial communication as an entry point for understanding the affordances acting on recipients. Verity Platt (Professor of Greek and Roman Art History, Cornell University) presented "Light, Matter, and Medium in Posidippus' Poems on Stones," using an epigram by Poseidippus about a gem (Lithika AB 13, 3rd century BC) to demonstrate how ancient ideas about sensory perception can be extracted from literary descriptions of materiality and effect, which divide experience into sometimes contradictory individual moments. Ivana Petrovic (Professor of Classics, University of Virginia) followed with "Enactive Imagining and Enargeia in Hellenistic Poetry," where she analyzed Theocritus' Idyll 15, exploring the role of sensory stimuli in the detailed description of materialities and activities that intensify the recipient's imagination.

Nathaniel Jones (Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis) continued this line of inquiry with "Sight, Scene, and Unseen in Classical Painting," examining indexical communication in material images. Using a white-ground funerary lekythos by the Achilles painter (c. 440 BC) as an example, he explored visual strategies for guiding the viewer’s gaze and discussed the representation of making the invisible visible in the context of death.

The concluding contributions also focused on viewer guidance strategies. Nikolaus Dietrich (Professor of Classical Archaeology, University of Heidelberg) presented "Visual Strategies in Late Classical Greek Sculpture and Theatre Architecture: The Interplay of Frontality, Multiperspectivity, and Hierarchized Space," analyzing how preferential elaboration of specific views in both sculpture and theatre architecture at Hellenistic Priene led to a new hierarchy of space with aesthetic effects. Asja Müller (Research Assistant for Classical Archaeology, FU Berlin) explored "Landscape as Leitmotif - Landscape as Spatial Module: Enlivening, Perceiving and Conceiving Hellenistic Sanctuaries," using the example of foreign envoys' pathways through the Hellenistic sanctuary of Asclepius at Kos during a religious festival (Fig. 2). She aimed to develop new parameters for understanding the interaction between built and natural spaces as experienced by ancient users, especially at their transitional points.

The lively exchange across various fields of ancient studies, national research cultures, and different media, spanning over three centuries of observation, revealed common threads regarding sensory-motor mediation and transitions in transmedial experiential situations. These will be further investigated for their significance in studying ancient perception practices during the "long" 4th century BC.

Fig. 1 The virtual workshop during a discussion round.

Fig. 2 View of the Asklepieion of Kos by Paul Schazmann. University library of JLU Giessen.

 

 

 

 

The ZMI Section 5 Media and Art invited to a virtual workshop (in English) on: Thursday, 17 December 2020, 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. via Webex.

More information on the content via Eventbrite

Contributors: Nikolaus Dietrich (Ruprechts-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg); Nathaniel Jones (Washington University, St. Louis); Asja Müller (Freie Universität, Berlin); Ivana Petrovic (University of Virginia, Charlottesville); Verity Platt (Cornell University, Ithaca).

Hosts: Katharina Lorenz; Claudia Schmieder.

 
 
 
 
 

Contact: Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz und Dr. Claudia Schmieder