NEW WORKSHOP SERIES: Grappling with things

Have you ever wondered how to include visual and material sources in your research and writing?

The Visual and Material History Working introduced in November 2021 a new format of workshops and informal coffees to create a space for exchange in dealing and including ‘objects’ in scholarly research.Our introductory workshop was held in Sala degli Stemmi, Villa Salviati on 15 November. It acted as an opportunity to share some useful tools, bibliography and methodologies to start working with these types of sources. Prof. Giorgio Riello, Liu Shi and Moïra Dato shared their own experience of working with visual and material sources in the early stages of their career. Then the workshop centered on an introduction on how to include material and visual sources within your research: how to analyze visual and material evidence, access to museum and databases, and find an adequate storage system. Participants were invited to bring images of a visual source or an object for discussion.

Based on the interest and themes discussed we are returning with montly informal coffees to focus on materials, objects and contents, participants are bringing. With a small group of presenters and interested parties we concentrate on how to approach objects and include them in our thinking and writing.
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Throughout the next months we aim also to work on updating a bibliography on visual and material history scholarship. Stay tuned for this!

IMAGE CREDITS: Csendélet napraforgóval by Gross Arnold. Rippl-Rónai Megyei Hatókörű Városi Múzeum, Kaposvár, Hungary. CC BY