This project of the International Exchange on Media and Religion focuses on images as cultural products that enable a wide range of practices within or in interaction with religious symbol systems. We will begin with a critical discussion of selected theoretical frameworks that allow an analysis of (audio)visual media as social practices related to religious representation, beliefs and communities. We will post further details online.
Program Workshop
Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento/IT, 28-30 August 2014
Tuesday 28 Afternoon, From London to Trento: ‘imaginary’ and ‘practices’
14.30: Welcome and introduction
Davide Zordan
15.00: The book project Religion in Cultural Imaginaries
Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati
15.30: Why do practices need images?
Paolo Costa
17.00: Discussion
Friday 29 Morning, The new project: theoretical issues and perspectives
9.00: Practices of visualization of the body. Some theoretical reflections on the iteration of images in the public space
Baldassare Scolari
10.00: Introduction and discussion of the shared bibliography:
Natalie Fritz presents Hans Belting’s ‘Introduction’ in Likeness and Presence (1990)
Léa Burger presents Mieke Bal’s Visual Essentialism and the Object of Visual Culture (2003)
Davide Zordan presents Robert Orsi’s When 2+2=5 (2007)
Friday 29 Afternoon, Four case studies
14.30: Perception of death: Swiss ossuaries and religious practice
Anna-Katharina Höpflinger and Peter Eschbacher
15.15: Instructions for a happy and successful life: The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints in the commercial series I am a Mormon
Marie-Therese Maeder
16.00: Bodies, images, technologies. (Religious) images and symbols as lived practice
Alexander Darius Ornella
16.45: Charisma and the aesthetics of the foreign in Medieval and Early Modern Christian Art
Alberto Saviello
Saturday 30 Morning, Agenda and Project planning
9.00: Final discussion
How to deal with our new topic: project perspectives, possible cases studies and the coverage of the subject matter, future steps, possible publication, etc. …
12.00: Conclusion