Enfilade

Programming from CRASSH at the University of Cambridge:

Things: Material Cultures of the Long Eighteen Century
Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), Cambridge, ongoing series

Please note the change to the time and location of the seminar:
We meet alternate Tuesdays 12.30-2.30pm in the CRASSH Seminar Room at 7 West Road on the Sidgwick Site. A light lunch will be provided.

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The eighteenth century was the century of ‘stuff.’ Public production, collection, display and consumption of objects grew in influence, popularity, and scale. The form, function, and use of objects, ranging from scientific and musical instruments to weaponry and furnishings were influenced by distinct features of the time. Eighteenth-century knowledge was not divided into strict disciplines, in fact practice across what we now see as academic boundaries was essential to material creation. This seminar series will use an approach based on objects to encourage us to consider the unity of ideas of the long-eighteenth century, to emphasise the lived human experience of technology and art, and the global dimension of material culture. We will re-discover the interdisciplinary thinking through which eighteenth-century material culture was conceived, gaining new perspectives on the period through its artefacts.

Each seminar features two talks considering the same type of object from
different perspectives.

1 May 2012 – Food
Dr Melissa Calaresu and Dr Emma Spary (University of Cambridge)

15 May 2012 – Decorative Textiles
Dr Mary Brooks (York Museums Trust) and Dr Tara Hamling (University of Birmingham)

29 May 2012 – The Ship
Dr James Davey, Dr John McAleer and Dr Quintin Colville (National Maritime Museum)

12 Jun 2012 – The Body
Dr Faramerz Dabhoiwala (University of Oxford) and Dr Simon Chaplin (Wellcome Library), Guest Respondent: Jane Munro (Fitzwilliam Museum)

We will be rounding off the year with a one-day colloquium on Friday, 28 September 2012, We Need to Talk about ‘Things’: Concluding Colloquium. Details can be found at http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/1980/

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You’re invited to visit the external blog and welcome to subscribe to the group mailing list at https://lists.cam.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/crassh-things