Text, Music, and Image-Object as Counterparts in Resonant Relationships
At the beginning of the winter semester 2021/22 the members of the International Graduate School “Resonant Self-World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices” met at the University of Graz for their semiannual conference on resonant world relations. This time, the focus was on texts, music and image-objects and their ability to be resonating bodies on the one end of a two-ended resonant world relationship. To shine light on such relationships was generally attempted from two sides: first by showing various examples of supposed resonance in texts, music or image-objects, and secondly by outlining methodologies how to grasp this resonance scientifically.
In addition to the faculty of the international graduate school based in Erfurt and Graz the following invited speakers followed the call to Graz: Mario Baumann (Dresden), Markus Hafner (Graz), Katharina Lorenz (Gießen), and Sibylle Trawöger (Würzburg). The presentations of the IGS’s own Hartmut Rosa (Erfurt/Jena) and Jutta Vinzent (Birmingham/Erfurt) could not be given. Instead Jörg Rüpke (Erfurt) and Andreas Pettenkofer (Erfurt) gave insights into their recent work.
The conference opened with a presentation by Ursula Gärtner (Graz) on the ekphrasis of the sack of Troy on the Temple in Carthage in Vergil’s Aeneid. She showed how the text of the Aeneid brings the recipients to experience what Aeneas, the protagonist, experiences when seeing an image of his home town on a foreign temple wall, on the one hand, but also how the text makes the recipients aware that Aeneas’s interpretation of the image is wrong, on the other. On this example Ursula Gärtner problematized the relationship between performativity and resonance in literature. Mario Baumann (Dresden) continued the subject of Latin literature with a presentation on the performativity of the Play of the Seven Sages by Ausonius.
The second day opened the floor to a range of disciplines. The morning was dedicated to archaeology with Katharina Lorenz’s (Gießen) presentation on Roman group portraiture and Laerke Recht’s (Graz) presentation on zoomorphic vessels in bronze age Cyprus. Katharina Lorenz showed how intricate movements were captured by Roman statues and what effects this would have on their audiences; Laerke Recht showed how the nature of the zoomorphic vessels could only be determined by their use in performative ritual contexts. The afternoon of day two introduced the disciplines of sociology and musicology to the discussion. Andreas Pettenkofer (Erfurt) proposed that certain texts, describing earlier demonstrations, became foundational for the German antinuclear movement. Verena Weidner (Erfurt) suggested that noisy backdrops might have played an important role in the resonant experience of early music in Europe. The program of the second day was enriched with short presentations by the new doctoral students of the graduate school Christopher Bégin, Behnaz Ghazi Moradi, Marios Kamenou, Veronika Kolomaznik, Matthias Scholler, Clemens Wurzinger and Alina Zeller, and by alumnae/i and advanced doctoral students Enno Friedrich, Gabriel Malli, and Ramón Soneira Martínez.
The third and last day of the conference returned to the field of literature with Markus Hafner’s (Graz) contribution on monstrous images in Aeschylus’s Eumenides. He discussed how monstrosity on stage could lead to resonant experiences in the audience. Sibylle Trawöger (Würzburg) introduced the term ‘passability’ in her analysis of a Christian prayer practice. A lively discussion followed and ended the conference.