Department Michalsky
Cities and Spaces in Premodernity
Research promoted by the department revolves around questions concerning historical concepts of space and their transformation in Premodernity. One geographical area of special interest in this context is Southern Italy, specifically Naples and the Mediterranean region.
Among the key questions addressed are:
- How were historical spaces structured?
- What was the role of diachronic neighbourhoods in their formation in urban space?
- How did political, religious, and social functions shape urban and sacred spaces?
- How can spaces and landscapes constantly changing across time be described in images, texts, and maps?
- How have spaces and landscapes been constructed across time in different media, especially in cinema?
These questions are addressed from different perspectives in five Research Areas that host individual as well as departmental research projects.
Research Areas
Research on Naples and Southern Italy is the most intense focus of the Department. The main aim of our projects in this Research Area is to test new interpretative approaches and theoretical models, especially that of
scaling. This concept, metaphorically borrowed from the history of cartography, is intended to express the conviction that the examination of any object of study must fundamentally reflect the scale or measure of one's research.
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As part of its fundamental nature, the motion picture captures a slice of the visible to create a specific spatiality. As a medium, it activates transformative processes at the intersection of spatiality and visuality. Cinema has actively participated in the construction of concepts such as “place,” “landscape,” or “environment,” developing strategies for making social relationships visible and for mapping their connections to specific territories, cities, or regions.
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Foregrounding the subject of Historical Spaces may seem anachronistic since art historians and others have been dealing with it for a very long time. However, things have changed with the ‘spatial turn’: the notion that spaces are not simply (re)presented in various media, but above all created by these very media, has finally gained acceptance.
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Maps are privileged media for representing knowledge. The cartographic dispositif not only makes it possible to organize existing knowledge but often generates new knowledge by spatializing data and illustrating connections.
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The field of Medieval Studies is undergoing a process of transformation that is calling the concept of the “Middle Ages” into question. What we know of the Middle Ages is always filtered through a medievalist lens and the very substance of medieval buildings, objects, and images has been altered accordingly.
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