Network of Visual Studies in Archaeology: Limitations and Transgressions of Images

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Annette Haug
• Subject Area: Classical, Roman, Christian and Islamic Archaeology ; Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies ; Art History ; Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 565229008

The proposed network aims to establish a new archaeology of images from an interdisciplinary perspective. To this end, the network pursues three closely related goals: (1) The aim is to strengthen archaeological image studies by adopting a visual culture perspective on early image phenomena. This perspective is to be developed from an interdisciplinary point of view, which makes it possible to determine the specifics of the individual image cultures, but also general image characteristics, from the cultural comparison of the images. Within the network, this will be realized through (3) a systematic approach to pictoriality: namely, an analysis of pictorial boundaries. The network will develop this boundary perspective on images in the context of a sequence of three workshops and conferences dealing with the configuration, transgression and dissolution of images. The aspect of configuration is concerned with how images are constituted. The question "What is an image?" defines a boundary between image and non-image. The aspect of transgression is concerned with the deliberate crossing of boundaries, whereby we concentrate on concrete design strategies that produce transgressions of the physical-material boundary of the image. The dissolution of pictorial boundaries is understood here as the fulfilled transgression, and thus as a state of suspended boundaries, and is perspectivized in a specific way in relation to images: as pictoriality beyond the (limited) individual image. The DFG network can draw on both strategic and substantive preparatory work. A number of workshops and lecture series have already taken place at the CAU in Kiel and in Schleswig/Mainz, which have dealt with images from an interdisciplinary perspective. In terms of content, the proposal builds on three major image science projects by the applicant in the field of classical archaeology: the ERC Consolidator Grant DECOR, the Advanced Grant FRAGILE IMAGES and the Academy Project IMAGINES NUMMORUM. The expertise of the other members of the network, representing prehistory and early history, Near Eastern archaeology, Egyptology, Christian archaeology and art history, results in a significant interdisciplinary expansion. This brings very different image concepts into focus, allowing for a deeper understanding of images in each of the participating scientific fields. The findings from the three thematic areas will be included in three output formats: 1. Publication of the network conferences in three conference volumes, in print and open access. 2. Intensification of the interdisciplinary publication activities of the network members. 3. Application for of a bigger interdisciplinary third-party funding, ideally for a research group, in the second half of the funding period.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks