[Discussion] How Maps and Images Have Transmitted Visual Knowledge Along the
Silk Road, Zurich, May 14-15
sule tarakcioglu
suletar@bilkent.edu.tr
Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:36:45 -0700
CONF.- Maps, Images and Visual Knowledge Along the Silk Road, May 14-15,
Zurich
Conference: "Maps and Images: How They Have Transmitted Visual Knowledge
Along the Silk Road"
Zurich, Switzerland, May 14-15, 2004
Web Site: http://www.ori.unizh.ch/maps
Conference Theme:
Maps and images have provided a unique access to many scholarly domains as
well as diverse literary and visual genres. The conference participants
will
investigate the topics related to the transmission of representation of
space along the Silk Road. "Visual knowledge" has been chosen as the
central
theme to encourage comparisons in methodological approaches across
disciplines such as art history, Asian studies, astronomy, cartography,
cultural studies, geography, history of religion, history of science,
Islamic studies, Medieval studies, travel literature, etc. While scholars
have thoroughly studied the transmission of texts across cultures, a lot
remains to be discovered on the ways in which visual representations have
been copied, forged, or adapted to new circumstances.
For two thousand years, the Silk Road has been the most important
connection
between the Far East, the Middle East and Europe. This network of
commercial
routes and prosperous states has allowed the diffusion of complex
representations, such as city and country maps, landscape paintings and
drawings that have shaped the perceptions of space and time. Astronomical
and mathematical sketches have deeply influenced our understanding of the
cosmos. Texts and images of deities and holy men have merged into many
religious traditions. The Silk Road can therefore offer fascinating
examples
for the study of the transmission of visual knowledge.
The conference program includes not only Chinese and Islamic, but also
Mongol and Tibetan, Central Asian, Byzantine, Western-Medieval and Western
travel studies. Social events and time-breaks will facilitate informal
exchange during the conference.
Please check the conference program website
(http://www.ori.unizh.ch/maps) for titles, abstracts and updates.
Registration of Participants:
To encourage discussion, registered participants will receive the paper
drafts in advance and may join the conference social events. Registration
fees are 50 Swiss Francs for non-students and 15 Swiss Francs for
students.
Participation is free to the conference chairs and speakers. For
registration, send a message to: maps{at}oriental.unizh.ch.
Program
Conference opening:
Hans-Ulrich Feldmann (Swiss Society of Cartography)
Ulrich Rudolph (Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Zurich)
Panel A. Paintings and Drawings
Friday morning, May 14, 2004, 9.15-12.30 h
University of Zurich, Kollegiengebaeude 2
Karl Schmid-Strasse 4
8006 Zurich
Room KO2-F-152
Chair: Robert Gassmann (Institute of East Asian Studies, University of
Zurich)
1. Jeong-Hee Lee-Kalisch (Korean Studies, East Asian Seminar, Freie
Universitaet Berlin):
Korean Art
2. Nicolas Zufferey (Program of Chinese Studies, University of Geneva):
"Traces of the Silk Road in Han Dynasty Iconography: Questions and
Hypotheses"
3. Natasha Heller (East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department,
Harvard University):
"Visualizing Pilgrimage and Mapping Experience: Mount Wutai on the Silk
Road"
4. Dorothy C. Wong (McIntire Department of Art, University of Virginia):
"The Mapping of Sacred Space: Buddhist Cosmography in Dunhuang Mural
Paintings"
5. D. Neil Schmid (Department of Philosophy and Religion, North Carolina
State University):
"Imaging Ritual/Space and the Narrative Negotiation of Identities
along the
Silk Road"
6. Dickran Kouymjian (Armenian Studies Program, California State
University, Fresno):
"The Intrusion of Far Eastern imagery in Medieval Armenia: Political
and
Cultural Exchange Along the Silk Route"
Panel B. Maps up to the 15th Century
Friday afternoon, May 14, 2004, 14.00-17.30 h
University of Zurich, Kollegiengebaeude 2
Karl Schmid-Strasse 4
8006 Zurich
Room KO2-F-152
Chair: Valerie Hansen (History Department, Yale University)
7. Karen C. Pinto (American University of Beirut):
"Alternate Influences: What Medieval Islamic Cartography Owes to the
East"
8. Yossef Rapoport (Oriental Institute, Oxford University):
"The Book of Curiosities: A Medieval Islamic View of the East"
9. Andreas Kaplony (Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Zurich):
"The Map of Mahmud al-Kashghari"
10. Peter-Karl Soustal (Tabula Imperii Byzantini, Austrian Academy of
Sciences, Vienna):
The Byzantines and their Maps
11. Sonja Brentjes (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science,
Berlin):
"Revisiting Italian and Catalan Portolan Charts: Do they Contain
Visual
Elements of Asian Provenance?"
12. Jason Neelis (Department of Religion, University of Florida):
"Pathways to the Silk Routes as Marked by Buddhist Images and
Inscriptions
from Northern Pakistan"
Panel C. Maps Since the 16th Century
Saturday morning, May 15, 2004, 9.00-12.30 h
University of Zurich, Kollegiengebaeude 2
Karl Schmid-Strasse 4
8006 Zurich
Room KO2-F-152
Chair: Caverlee Cary (Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative and Geographic
Information Science Center, University of California, Berkeley)
13. Sophie Linon-Chipon (Center for Travel Literature Studies,
Paris-Sorbonne University):
"The Maps in the Travel Accounts of the Maritime Spice Route in the
17th
and 18th Centuries"
14. Kathryn A. Ebel (Department of Geography, Ohio Wesleyan University):
"The Silk Roads and the Spatial Imaginary of the Ottoman Empire"
15. Shamsiddin Kamoliddin (Institute of History, Uzbekistan Academy of
Sciences, Tashkent):
"Abraham Maas' Map and the Evolution of Historical Macrotoponymy of
Central Asia"
16. Karenina Kollmar-Paulenz (Institute for the Science of Religion,
University of Bern):
"Mongol Maps since the 18th Century"
17. Elio Brancaforte (Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, Tulane
University):
"Representative Space: German Baroque Depictions of the Safavid Empire"
18. Philippe Foret (Institute of Cartography, Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology at Zurich):
"The Mapping of the Silk Road by European-Chinese Expeditions
(1912-1949)"
19. Hakan Wahlquist (Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm):
"Sven Hedin as Artist and Photographer: Visual Representations of
the Silk
Road"
Panel D. Sciences and Techniques
Saturday afternoon, May 15, 2004, 14.00-17.30 h
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich
Collegium Helveticum
Schmelzbergstrasse 25
8092 Zurich
Meridiansaal
Chair: Erwin Neuenschwander (Institute of Mathematics, University of Zurich)
20. Paul Kunitzsch (Department of the History of Sciences, Ludwig
Maximilians-Universitaet Munich):
"Celestial Maps and Illustrations in Arabic-Islamic Astronomy"
21. Martin Brauen (Ethnographic Museum, University of Zurich):
"Images of the Tibetan Cosmos"
22. Marcel Watelet (Ministry of Equipment and Transportation and
Louvain-la-Neuve University):
"The Maps of Constantinople and the Bosporus at the End of the 18th
Century and the Beginning of the 19th Century Barbie du Bocage and the
Diffusion of Francois Kauffer's Cartographical Work"
23. Johannes Thomann (Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Zurich):
"Sources of Physiognomy in the Middle East and Central Asia"
24. Jonathan Bloom (Boston College, Chestnut Hill):
"Paper and Maps along the Silk Road"
Conclusions
Support:
Generous support from the Cogito Foundation, the Zuercher
Hochschulstiftung,
the Gerda Henkel Stiftung and the Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes - und
Sozialwissenschaften has made this conference possible. The University of
Zurich and the Collegium Helveticum (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
at Zurich), have kindly provided the conference rooms.
Conference "Maps and Images: How They Have Transmitted Visual Knowledge
Along the Silk Road", Zurich, Switzerland, May 14-15, 2004.
c/o Institute of Oriental Studies
Wiesenstrasse 9
CH-8008 Zurich
Switzerland
phone: +41 1 634 07 36
fax +41 1 634 36 92
e-mail: maps@oriental.unizh.ch
web: http://www.ori.unizh.ch/maps.
Philippe Foret, Ph.D.
Associate Researcher, Institute of Cartography
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich.
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kaplony
Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Zurich.