Alejandro González Milea

Dangerous drawings and the debate about the future on the Mexico-United States border:Contests over urban-architectural designs in the 1930s

In the 1930s, a small and weak office of the Mexican government -the Directorate of Monuments and Buildings- proposed a work plan to transform the appearance and material conditions of all its spaces and facilities on the dividing line with the United States. The drawings, which represented the buildings that had to be built in about 12 border towns, constituted a varied sample of modernist currents (eclecticism, neocolonialism, art deco, functionalism, etc.) and promised to “improve” Mexican urban spaces compared to their neighbors. The office proposed to finance these ambitious works by taking a percentage of the import taxes, which corresponded to the localities, and at the same time make transparent, make more visible, and decent, the surveillance and control system that had been built since the demarcation of the border line in 1848. Thus, the paper explores an interpretation of architectural drawing, or design, where the conflict between border towns and the federal government over the redistribution of money made the tension emerge between a moral and amoral landscape, between places of regulated trade and smuggling, between national identity and multiethnicity, in the control of wealth. From another point of view, we are interested in understanding the various ways in which these artifacts circulated and were used, drawings of buildings that were never going to be built but that constituted evidence of a reasoning. The presentation, in addition to using a large amount of material from historical archives, is supported by theoretical frameworks of border studies, sociotechnical systems, the sociology of the State, and sociopolitical reflection on projects understood as anticipation mechanisms.

Dr Lucy Razzall

Piles of empty boxes’: Bureaucracy, Infrastructure, and Design in the Great War

In July 1917, the Field Marshal Commanding-in-Chief of the British Armies in France wrote to the Secretary of the War Office in London to inform him of an urgent matter relating to the design of military hardware. ‘It has been found that unpainted ammunition boxes are extremely conspicuous to the observation of the enemy’ he wrote, asking if ‘consideration may be given to the question of colouring all unpainted ammunition boxes in such a way as to render them inconspicuous, more particularly to aerial observation’. He added that ‘as piles of empty boxes are particularly apt to attraction attention it is very desirable that boxes should be coloured both inside and out’.

These dry traces of the bureaucracy of conflict reveal the iterative approaches to design that warfare prompts. In this instance, it is not ammunition but the necessary infrastructure around it which requires re-design: ironically, these unassuming objects have become far too visible, especially when they are empty. Drawing on records from The National Archives, UK, this presentation will think about the material culture of conflict in terms of infrastructure, waste, and residual matter. These ammunition boxes epitomise the inevitable waste of warscapes: they are essential for storing and transporting their lethal contents, yet also present ongoing challenges of design even after they have served their primary purpose. Today, ammunition boxes from the first world war are collectable objects, revived from the wastelands of conflict as ‘memorabilia’. The presentation will examine the shifting place of the ammunition box as an object which prompts particular questions of design, across the landscapes of conflict to the archive of the state and beyond.

Bengisu Köse

Stiletto, or breaking the nontransitivity of objects

This research examines how objects are used in everyday life in Turkey to reflect manhood, masculinity, power, and social structure and questions why some objects are labeled as masculine or feminine through a short Turkish film called Stiletto, directed by Can Merdan Doğan. Objects of daily life are the objects that catch people's eyes the least but are the objects they use the most. These objects are not questioned by society and are used almost with an instinct. However, while some objects are open to use regardless of gender, some objects are assigned according to gender by society and cannot transition between genders and face resistance (such as a stiletto). Yet some people try to pass these boundaries. To explain this specific attempt to pass, I use a phrase called "breaking the nontransitivity", considering the transition that might result in resistance from society when they see a person who attempts since these objects are already labeled for the opposite gender. Analyzing, archiving, and examining these types of objects in a typological manner, carries a potential importance in understanding why such objects are gendered, when they become symbols of power, and what kind of status they can be indicative of in society. As a final point, for this research, I use object biography methodology and examine the film Stiletto to understand the results of breaking the nontransitivity through objects and understand the relations between objects and manhood, masculinity, power, and social structure. By synthesizing power, society, and gender, this research seeks answers to the issue mentioned at the beginning.

Kavita Peterson

I-cula - Feeding Into the Cannibal Myth

This paper explores the misrepresentation of Fijian heritage by deconstructing the so-called “cannibal fork” or “flesh fork”, which often holds a central position in Western museum collections of Fiji. Western narratives, shaped by colonial interests and sensationalism, have perpetuated the idea of Fiji as a land of savage cannibals, including through the misattribution and display of this cultural object in museums worldwide. Although the object has a number of different names in Fijian languages, these names are rarely attributed to it in museum archives in favour of names which emphasise the consumption of human flesh. Interestingly, this naming trend can be observed regardless of the languages used in the Western institutions holding this object in their collections–it appears that once the object was indelibly linked with anthropophagy by British colonisers, the “cannibal fork” nomenclature became the standard in both the museum sector and the art market.

The truth behind this object and its purpose is, as one would expect, far more nuanced. However, despite contemporary understandings about the actual function of this object in Fijian society, museums have largely failed to update their displays and catalogues to reflect this new understanding and challenge problematic colonial narratives.

This case study research explores the past as well as the potential futures of the representation of Fijian i-cula in Western cultural institutions. It emphasises the need to engage in meaningful collaboration with communities of origin to ensure accurate representation. It also suggests that by reflexively acknowledging their complicity in colonial meaning-making through object names and descriptions, museums can transform into inclusive spaces of learning which represent diverse cultural histories accurately and respectfully while remaining accountable for past harm.

Althea Ruoppo

Germany’s Refugee Crisis as Global Public Emergency:

Civic Transnationalism in Isa Genzken’s Schauspieler II, 8 (2014)

In the last decade, German-born artist Isa Genzken (b. 1948) has addressed the difficult

realities of marginalization in contemporary society. Her sculptures have dealt with pervasive issues of impoverishment and homelessness as well as forced migration. This paper focuses on Genzken’s Schauspieler II, 8 (2014), a work that engages with her home country’s policy and response to the escalating refugee crisis. Created in a year in which a staggering sixty million people were forcibly displaced worldwide by wars, conflict, and persecution, and the estimated refugee population grew to nearly seventeen million, Schauspieler II, 8 thematizes the absence of the built environment, the lack of appropriate infrastructure, and the challenge of integration. This work is a prominent example of what I call Genzken’s civic transnationalism, a humanistic approach to sculpture that articulates social resonances between multiple urban environments through the juxtaposition of disparate everyday objects, industrial and commercial materials, and cultural references and titles from Germany and other national contexts.

For an artist whose selection and combination of objects is always deliberate, the black child mannequin, faux German passport, Baltic life jacket, and Riddell-brand helmet that comprise Schauspieler II, 8 are significant. Genzken’s reference to an official German travel document and inclusion of name-brand consumer products from Sweden and the United States–– two countries that have a long tradition of welcoming refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers and that have been the most open to the influx of immigrants since the mid-2010s––suggests her perception of Germany’s migrant issue not just as a national humanitarian crisis but as a global public emergency. I propose that Genzken’s civic transnational strategy opens ways for us to move beyond stale conceptions of the autonomous nation state and points to globalization’s impact on the complex dynamics of increased international interdependence in the twenty-first century.

(Maria) Rocio (Mercedes) Naval

Vibrant piña textiles: revealing relationality and queer entanglement

Exploring the vibrancy of piña textiles through several assemblages including colonial histories, changes in socio-economic positionalities, and their contextualisation in an art exhibition, this paper hopes to open discussions by introducing a queer and decolonial perspective to Material Studies as a possible avenue for further discourse and future research. The prefix “trans-“indicates the permeability of concepts and the disruption of rigid classifixation (cf. Van der Tuin and Verhoeff). Stephanie Comilang and Simon Speiser’s (Filipino and Ecuadorian-German artists respectively) joint exhibition “Piña, Why is the Sky Blue?” takes a transdisciplinary and transcultural approach towards ideas of heritage and inheritance. The display of pineapple textiles

with traditional patterns created by a self-learning algorithm spotlight the historically charged material and its “transubstantiation” (cf. Chi and Azara) into new contexts.

Through the exhibition, the cloth swatches become evidence of the transing connections between binaries (the natural vs. the technological, the past vs. the present, etc.) as a means of (re-)carrying information and (re-)producing knowledge. This paper aims to shed light on the parallels of trans/queer theory and Jane Bennett’s discussion of vibrant materialities via the prism of the aforementioned case study,

which automatically situates materiality in a queer space and raises these questions for queer potentialities in Material Studies. In an effort to rid the thinking of heritage as exclusive to one narrative, Jane Bennett’s notion of vibrant matter serves to exemplify narrative complexity –– parallel to this, queer theory serves to challenge dominant narratives and undermine modernist dualist thinking, simulating a point of departure for decolonial research. The piña is a metaphor for queer and indigenous survival as well as a tangible example of the intersections of experience.

Iskander Guetta

A House and a Hole

During a visit to the village of a friend in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco, I observed an adobe house with a substantial hole in the garden beside it. Upon inquiry, my friend explained that the hole was used to extract adobe for building the house. This experience prompted me to question the colonial modes of inhabiting and the extractive logic that displaces violence and exploitation toward the South, slowly erasing Indigenous know- ledge and modes of inhabiting. The adobe constructions, attempting to resist the overw- helming environmental impact of cement production and concrete-based architecture, are gradually altering the local landscape.

The essay “A house and a Hole'' explores Moroccan indigenous architecture, and the way it represents modes of dwelling that are radically different from the western colonial modes of inhabiting and relating to the land. Developped within the fellowship program HistoricALL ! by Onomatopee Projects (Eindhoven, 2023), I employed oral history, visual ethnographic methods, and a political ecology lens to examine the impact of colonialism through architectural practices in Morocco. Additionally, a short film produced during the fellowship provides further insights of the indigenous practice disrupted by colonial-capi- talist extractivism.

Henrica Langh

Distressed Garments: Clothes as silent witnesses of troubled worlds

In one of the large exhibition halls in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich,stands a mannequin dressed in the coat that Admiral Nelson wore when he was fatally wounded in the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar. There is a mundane simplicity to the way in which the uniform casually stands there surrounded by other uniforms and artefacts, yet its eerie presence is palpable. Disrupted by visible bullet holes and stains, the fabric silently remembers a time of both individual and collective distress. As this example suggests, material things, such as clothes, partake in our being in the world and become connected to people, places, and events, thus bearing witness to past experiences and emotions. If the experienced moment is intense enough the garment may come to have an intensely evocative presence that can affect us either positively or negatively.

This paper looks at garments as witnesses that partake in and silently speak of troubled worlds – even long after we are gone. However, rather than taking a traditional representational approach, this paper considers garments as manifestations of distress in relation to the concept of magical contagion. It proposes that the affective power of certain garments is a result of magical awareness; that is, whether we are conscious of it or not, they are experienced as maintaining a direct contact to people, places, and events and this is what enables us to be affected by them on such a deeply emotional level. Using different historical and contemporaryexamples of ‘negatively charged’ garments, this paper explores different ways in which clothes can manifest distress and how our perception of these garments is influenced by our inherent tendency for magical thinking.

Fabiola Adamo

Beyond Constriction: Empowered Femininity within Chitè's Lingerie Designs

The discourse surrounding specific female undergarments, particularly corsets, bras and girdles, has attracted considerable attention, often analyzed within Foucauldian frameworks as manifestations of “body technologies” perpetuating heteronormative feminine norms and sexuality (Bordo, 1993). Prominent within feminist movements, notably during the so-called “second wave”, this discourse has witnessed acts of resistance against such garments, exemplified by events like the symbolic “freedom trash can” demonstration against the Miss America protest in Atlantic City in 1968. At the core of the controversy lies the dual functionality of these undergarments, capable of potentiallyconforming the body to desired standards and potentially restricting movement.

Nevertheless, alternative perspectives have emerged, for example suggesting that an item like thecorset can signify wearer agency rather than mere instruments of subjugation and passivity (Kunzle, 1982; Steele, 2001). Furthermore, scholars have emphasized the potential for pleasurable experiences in the sensation of constriction. Within feminist discourse, the “sex wars” have also revealed divergent views on sexuality, with sex-positive feminists advocating for sexual exploration as a form of empowerment, thereby influencing attitudes toward sensual and provocative attire.

Amidst this multifaceted landscape, various viewpoints coexist regarding the empowering potential of clothing and lingerie. This study seeks to elucidate the perspectives of the creative team behind an independent company named “Chitè”, based in Milan, Italy, which positions itself as an “empowering” and “inclusive” lingerie brand. To conduct the following analysis, on-site ethnography was employed, including participant observation and interviews with the designers,model-makers, and the CEOs. As the individuals responsible for the creative direction, this exchange aims to unveil Chitè's conceptualization of empowered femininity as reflected in its design choices.The findings reveal that the creative team diverges from the over-sexualization and constriction of the body, instead advocating for a portrayal of a “classy”, “natural”, and “free” woman. The interviews shed light on the designs the creative team avoids and, conversely, what design choices are believed to best convey this ideal of femininity.

Anna Derriks

TruckBloc & Co: Aesthetic sublimation of hostile vehicle mitigation barriers

This paper follows the implementation of mobile hostile vehicle mitigation barriers at a square in Berlin since 2017. Its aim is to show how their aesthetic appearance, under the conditions of militarization and privatization of public space, is under pressure to mask itself as something inconspicuous.

In 2016, Breitscheidplatz saw the worst islamistic attack in Germany so far. As a result, the square became fortified by barriers – objects signaling a securitized public space. Theynegotiate the need to allow »safe circulation« of tourists and to deny »transgressive circulation« of terrorists (Stephen Graham, 2010). As such they constitute an internal national border. The problem with this border space is that it disturbs a major economic factor: tourism.

The barriers and their appearance are therefore at the heart of a debate between security and tourism. Thus, they come under pressure to change as objects. Despite its heavy look the first barrier did not provide physical safety, only a subjective feeling of safety. It was exchanged for a pilot project consisting of three barrier types. These provided physical safety but increased a feeling of unease because of their martial looks. Those who are economically dependent on tourists wish for these barriers to be exchanged for objects visually less intrusive.

Despite being installed as a temporary measure, the barriers resist to being removed. The discussion about their future circles around what should replace them. The question whether their existence is necessary pales under their self-evident presence. But one thing seemscertain: Since our society as a whole is organised as a market economy and is financially dependent on the flows of »safe circulation«, the suggestion of »transgressive circulation«must disappear from the public space. Sooner or later, therefore, the barriers will have to adopt an aesthetic that is compatible with the aesthetics of »safe circulation«.

Zeina Malmer

Confronting Chinoiserie through the lens of Anti-Asian Hate: An Experimental Case Study

How can a 19th century French chinoiserie porcelain inkstand provide an opportunity to discuss contemporary political and social events surrounding race? During the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, the staggering rise in anti-Asian hate crimes put canonical readings of this inkstand, which underline, for example, artistic merit, provenance, and networks of dissemination, under pressure. Although the study of European porcelain has recently benefited from a small but noticeable shift in perspective to include issues of racial representation, this inkstand constitutes a necessary case study that provides additional nuance to this subject. Employing an experimental research methodology that foregrounds my positionality as a European and Asian, polycultural immigrant to the United States and emotional and uncomfortable encounter with this inkstand recognizes the violent racism targeted at Asian Americans and further challenges rather than affirms the rigid exigencies of the European porcelain canon.

The inkstand exemplifies the material culture of the chinoiserie style that the commercial success and luxury status of porcelain helped disseminate across Europe by the eighteenth century. The adjusted methodology however unveils a layer of violence and Othering within its figural design, represented by the figurines of an East Asian boy and a girl with removable heads, their hollow bodies designed to contain ink and sand. When read against the backdrop of anti-Asian hate, the inkstand’s fantasy depictions of “Orientalism” resist convenient categorization as another example of the chinoiserie style. Even though this inkstand does not depict actual scenes of violence, analyzing its design and function prompts the question, to what extent can art harbor the power to monumentalize and even incite violence? What role does this type of object fulfil within a museum collection? How can this historical object be used to lead post-pandemic discussions around Asian identity today? This proposal calls for an urgent re-evaluation of objects such as this inkstand in relation to anti-Asian hate. It also calls for positionality and emotion to be embraced as valid traits of the academicself to usher in urgent methodological shifts in times of crisis.

Helena Bosch Vidal

Objects for desires in pandemic times

The COVID-19 pandemic shaped all aspects of our lives. We faced death, distancing, home office, and a complete switch in our relationships. In March 2020, many countries implemented a domiciliary lockdown, a situation hardly lived before. The diverse effects of a pandemic elude a simple double principle: On one hand, it made existing problems, asymmetries, and privileges wider and more visible. The LGBTIQ+ community, for

instance, was forced to endure additional isolation not only from people but also from much-needed sources of acceptance for identities.

On the other hand, and fortunately, the lockdown was also a catalyst for creative and innovative projects on many levels. Following restrictions to touch, affection, and pleasures, the sex industry witnessed a sex toy boom in the spring of 2020. Adult content subscription platform OnlyFans went mainstream, and sex toy providers reported an increase in sales between 50 and 200%. The data used on those surveys also showed that the great majority of its participants were heterosexual and cis-gender. Opposite from the panic buying, the internet went high on DIY sex toys as quarantine projects. Online marketplace OnBuy released that there were over 23,000 searches in the UK about DIY vibrators and lube.

The appropriation and re-design of objects as sex toys have been part of LGBTIQ+ and female sex culture for many years, with the vibrator Magic Wand, created to treat hysterical patients and turned into the best-seller sex toy of all time. If the desire is already such a creative motor regularly, to what extent did it multiply during times of COVID-19 health crisis? Which artifacts, re-designs, hackings, and use switches were conceived during lockdown to satisfy individual pleasures? How are they witnesses of a specific

time, and what will follow? Most importantly, how can objects be a seismographic measure of the desires, values, and contexts during a time of crisis?

Aya Yamamoto

Layout Design of ‘World Proletarian Theatres Overview’

This presentation focuses on the photographic expressions in magazines for the Proletarian Theatre Movement in Japan. The Nihon Proletarian Theatre League (PLOT) led the movement and eagerly produced flyers, newspapers, and magazines to promote proletarian ideas. During their active period, the authorities repeatedly intervened and banned their activities, such as their theatrical performances, gatherings, and publishings. Theatrical photo magazines were never launched, despite their ambition of delivering their aims to low-income and non-intellectual workers and peasants through photographs.

This presentation argues that the 20-page article ‘World Proletarian Theatres Overview’ (Sekai ProletariaEngeki Taikan), which was printed in the 1932 June issue of Chuokoron, was one of the most significant photography features dedicated to the Proletarian Theatre Movement in terms of its volume and graphic design. The article contains 57 photographs alongside illustrations and proletarian slogans. This article was edited by Senda Koreya, who studied theatre and took part in ATBD (Arbeiter-Theater-Bund Deutschlands) in Berlin. In those times, magazines Chuokoron and Hanzaikagaku produced experimental photography features in magazine spreads. Senda published photography features in both magazines in 1932. In these features, he introduced new layout styles that seem to be influenced by constructivism in Germany and Russia. In addition, the ‘World Proletarian Theatres Overview’ article had an unusual structure that forced the readers to go through pages back and forth to grasp the messages. Previously, Senda had created a folding screen-style exhibition piece for ATBD in 1931 and another for PLOT in 1932 using photographs and slogans. This presentation points out that the Chuokoron article could be another re-creation of the exhibition pieces based on its unique layout design.

Eilidh Duffy

Transcending the Imperial: the shifting codes of the M-65

The US Army M-65 field jacket, designed and deployed for new recruits in the Vietnam War, first appears on the bodies of soldiers in the Provisional IRA (PIRA) in August 1979 at a rally organised by Provisional Sinn Fein which was used by the organisation to promote their strength as an armed resistance group.

Developed in 1965 by Alpha Industries for the mountainous terrain of Vietnam’s Annamite range, the M-65 was used primarily by conscripted US Army recruits entering the conflict through conscription. Its use by these young, unprofessional soldiers, who eventually made up the majority of members of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) campaign group, has meant that the M-65 has become a garment uniquely emblematic of the conflict. Its frequent use in costuming the troubled heroes of cinematic representations of US veterans suffering from what we now know as PTSD, in films such as Taxi Driver (1976) and The Deer Hunter (1978), has further embedded the M-65’s association with the horrors – both physical and psychological – of the Vietnam War.

When the M-65 appeared on the bodies of PIRA soldiers, however, it absorbed a whole new set of cultural meanings, prompting the question: how does a garment designed for a particularly violent form of imperial warfare interact with popular media to become a symbolic marker of an anti-colonial struggle? This paper aims to answer this question by constructing a network of images and cultural symbols attached to the M-65 to arrive at an understanding of how this jacket travelled through popular culture and across geography in the 1970s to arrive at a place in which it represents the liberation of Northern Ireland through its adoption by the PIRA.

Inês Jorge

Reinventing diplomatic ties in post-Brexit Britain: The Kingdom of Heaven (2017) installation at Manchester Cathedral

Following the partial destruction of UK’s Manchester Cathedral by the Manchester Blitz in 1940 and the IRA bombing in 1996, the cathedral has undergone a long process of restoration, including multiple commissions of works in tapestry, metalwork, stained glass, letter carving, and furniture. My paper focuses on The Kingdom of Heaven, a permanent installation commissioned to the Portuguese artist Cristina Rodrigues by Manchester Cathedral. The dedication of the Stoller organ on 14 September 2017 was described by Warren J. Smith, the High Steward of Manchester Cathedral, as ‘the final piece of the jigsaw’ in the reconstruction of the Cathedral. The dedication of The Kingdom of Heaven, which took place only three days later, therefore seems to mark a different era in the life and goals of the cathedral.

This installation is comprised by seven altar frontals, executed by six professional artisans from Castelo Branco, a city in central Portugal. The frontals were produced in a technique from that region, known as Castelo Branco Embroidery. They were a gift by the artist to Manchester Cathedral, with total funding from the Castelo Branco city council. Drawing on primary and secondary sources as well as an interview with Rogers Govender, Dean of Manchester Cathedral, I examine the ways in which Rodrigues’s project generated a cultural agreement between the cities of Castelo Branco and Manchester, which aims to mitigate feelings of isolation among those who self-identify as ‘remainers’ in post-Brexit Britain. This transregional pact differs from the enduring diplomatic ties between Portugal and Britain, reflecting an attempt to uphold the links between UK and Europe after Brexit.

Anne Hollmuller

Art, Loot, Artifact, Art: Reactivating the Treasures of Béhanzin

In the years since French President Emmanuel Macron’s landmark address at Ouagadougou in November 2017, museums in France and elsewhere have engaged in the difficult work of returning contested artifacts and ancestral remains to their nations of origin. In the French context, the largest return to date has been of the Treasures of Béhanzin, looted by French colonial forces in 1892 returned to the Republic of Benin in Fall 2021. This set of twenty-six objects, marvels of the courtly art of the Dahomey Kingdom, were trophies of war cherished and showcased by succeeding generations of French collecting institutions, until Afro-French activists helped begin a successful campaign for their restitution. After being shown for a final time in Paris, they were flown to Cotonou, where they were exhibited with works by a new generation of contemporary artists from Benin.

As returned objects like these are drawn out of the museum and back into circulation, they are reanimated and revived, entering the present as we seek to work through the past. This paper will consider the new meanings offered to these artifacts as they are made to do the work of reparation and reconnection, as their dark histories are clarified by new and more collaborative research, and they are made to tell new stories about the past and the present. These objects, representing histories of colonialism, imprisonment and exile, now reclaim their place in the artistic lineage of a nation, and take on new and fraught meanings in a world still shaped by inequality and violence. This paper will discuss the shifting meanings of the Treasures through time, as these objects, held captive and then freed, are made to tell new stories.

Elena Rădoi

The Object of Absence: Anthropogenic Gaps in Fresco Wall Paintings

Gaps are invisible objects. They become visible in the materials of cultural artifacts when these artifacts are to be restored. According to the classical theory of restoration, the lacunae should be treated as objects foreign to the artwork, as “stains on a glass in front of it” (Cesare Brandi). Depending on the conservation plan, gaps are either silenced/concealed or exhibited. The latter generally serves national identity discourses, which stage gaps as monuments commemorating the violence inGlicted on the nation by the Other.

Slit throats, stabbed eyes, sliced arms are human-made gaps left behind on wall paintings in Byzantine churches. Saints’ Gigures have been hit with bladed weapons. Unlike “natural” decay forms – such as erosion or Glacking – or complete obliteration – such as demolition –, anthropogenic gaps are designed to communicate. The border between destruction and signal is debatable, as is the case with Greek Byzantine frescoes from the territories of contemporary Greece and Turkey.

In my paper, I will discuss bladed weapon cuts from three case studies: two historical frescoes from Kastoria (Greece, 16th Century) and Gö reme (Turkey, 13th Century), and a contemporary fresco from Bucharest (Romania, 2019), on which I recreated bladed weapon traces.

Attributed in Greece to Muslims and in Turkey to Christians, the gaps in the eyes of saints and the slits on their bodies have ambiguous origins. They are products of at least two different Kulturtechniken (Bernhard Siegert), either iconoclastic or pious acts (such as the ingestion of painting). The authorship of the handmade lacunae remains debatable and is easily inGluenced by the dominating discourse of the administration (national cultural institutions) of the destroyed artifact. Furthermore, destruction and communication meet in these gaps in an inframince (Marcel Duchamp). In this paper, I will choose from the case studies three types of anthropogenic gaps and analyze them based on forensic traces, national identity discourses, and the inframince.

Sweety Taur

From Screen to Reality: Depictions of Conflict in Indian Media through Objects

This proposal explores portrayal of conflicts-tensions in Indian society through objects featured in television, documentaries and cinema. For an immensely diverse country, film and television media have been shaping a unifying narrative of projected and percolated realities of Indian society. Hence, a historical review of objects used to depict conflicts in media can outline power dynamics, cultural context, and the nature of conflict.

Unlike many other regions, conflicts in the Indian subcontinent are more of an internal crisis than inter-border disputes. These conflicts are intricately layered, involving diverse stakeholders and simmering beneath the surface before emerging visibly. The long narrative style of filmmaking is suitable for showing interconnected issues over time, illustrating various causal factors. For example, in Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975), the tyrant sons of an upper-caste feudal landlord wear khaki shorts. In later decades, khaki shorts became the formal attire of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an Indian right-wing Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organization. Originally a colonial attire, the khaki shorts symbolized adventure in the West but became associated with autocracy in India. Hence, a reading of the khaki shorts through the decades portrays connections between colonialism, upper-caste elitism, and right-wing ideology. Similarly, in Anand Patwardhan's ‘War and Peace’ (2002), nuclear-powered missiles and bombs featured in the tableaus of Mumbai inspired by the 1998 nuclear tests portray the normalization of militarized affirmation of religious politics in the public domain.

These representations have significantly influenced public discourse and shaped perceptions of social conduct, faith, freedom, and the meaning of objects amidst changing socio-political landscapes. By delving into the relational and symbolic dimensions of objects through a critical analysis of Indian media, this proposal aims to shed light on the transformative role of objects in media in shaping experiences of diverse communities throughout India's tumultuous history.

Durre Shehwar Ali

Lotacracy: Unveiling the Political Odyssey of Electoral Symbols in Pakistan

This proposal seeks to explore the multifaceted role of the 'lota,'(a small, spouted, and rounded vessel) a seemingly unassuming, humble vessel used for personal hygiene in the South Asian subcontinent. Beyond its utilitarian role, the 'lota' has metamorphosed into a potent political symbol with profound implications in Pakistan, political ‘lotas’, simultaneously, have become a label for those who frequently switch allegiances, who negotiate with different par1es and who believe in number games to gain clout in government. I aim to dissect the evolution of 'lota,' from a mundane object to a political emblem, indicative of the unstable nature of political alliances. The study will delve into the historical

roots of the 'lota' in South Asian culture, tracing its inception as a tool for cleanliness, then as an electoral symbol and now as a term of disdain where it is used as a derogatory term in political discourse. Analyse the performative nature of such an object in political campaigns, dissecting design choices and their impact on public perception and the power that such symbols acquire in the long run while remaining prone to acquiring new meanings.

Amidst the na1on’s struggles with maintaining a facade of democracy, the study will also touch upon the recent political turmoil in Pakistan surrounding electoral symbols, where a significant number of candidates have opted to run as independents due to the banning of the symbol associated with a certain popular party. This situation caused considerable confusion among citizens, exacerbated by deliberate misinformation spread through internet shutdowns. Ambiguous symbols like a toothbrush, eggplant, comb, energy saver, and human hand, once mundane, now become avenues for subtle shows of resistance against the establishment, as citizens grapple to discern their meanings in the thick of the current political fiasco.

Hella Wiedmer-Newman

Memorial Fetish Objects: The Case of Sarajevo’s War Childhood Museum

In her 2003 essay Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag cautions a left-leaning western public against sentimentalizing their own affective response to images of war elsewhere; to do more thinking and less feeling. A similarly critical lens has yet to be applied to memorial objects, which abound in museums worldwide. They have been figured variously as relics (Levitt, 2020), or imbued with special signifying value (Williams, 2007). Such objects, furthermore, often lead a double life as forensic evidence of atrocity.

Post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina is a case-study in the tensions and continuities of the categories of memorial aesthetics and conceptual art. Paired with the fact that studies of the artworks employed in memorial museums in the region often measure their empathy-eliciting and transitional justice capacities (Webber, 2018; Kerr, 2019 & 2024), there has been little criticism of the museum that puts aestheticized memorial objects at its center: the War Childhood Museum. Founded in 2017, the museum seeks to let adults, who were children during the war and siege, tell their stories through micro-histories and objects they associate with the war. Though the museum is celebrated as an innovative concept that universalizes the experience of war childhood (indeed, the museum has launched several satellite exhibitions abroad), its framing of objects and emptying out of any salient historical information risks leading to these objects, and ultimately the children represented by them, being fetishized, and furthermore, it risks blinding us to the realities of armed conflict.

Nupur Doshi

Transgressions in Objecthood: Art, Conflict, and Shifting Realities

This proposal seeks to explore the dynamic relationship between objects, context, and meaning in artworks created amidst political turmoil and conflict. In particular, it aims to examine how artists utilize objects as transgressive tools to challenge normative discourses and foster new interpretations of the world around them. This presentation seeks to highlight the situational nature of meaning and the radical expansion of the relationships that objects hold within their environments through the artistic medium.

Doris Salcedo's Shibboleth (2007) involved a long crack running the length of the Turbine Hall floor at Tate Modern. The crack, initially perceived as a minimalist gesture, gained deeper significance when viewers learned that it was intended to represent the violent history of colonialism and racism. By juxtaposing the sleek modernity of the museum space with the visceral reminder of past atrocities,

Salcedo challenged viewers to confront uncomfortable truths about power, privilege, and oppression. Drawing on examples from diverse cultural and historical contexts, this proposal will analyze how artists manipulate objects to evoke specific emotions, memories, and narratives. By contextualizing objects within the realm of art, artists empower them to flit from one paradigm to another, challenging viewers

o reconsider their preconceived notions and assumptions. Through the use of found objects, unconventional materials, and collaborative practices, artists imbue their creations with a multiplicity of meanings that transcend traditional subject-object dichotomies.

Andrea Sosa Fontaine

158 Centimeters

Globally, forced migration has increased significantly over the past decade, with the highest yearly increase recorded between 2021, and 2022. The circumstances of displacement include war and conflict, drought, and hunger, as well as local and global economies. Most forced migrations are unexpected, and result from an acute circumstance, where wellbeing, and safety are at immediate risk, and where people otien must leave their homes quickly without time or space to pack their most meaningful things. In many cases, the things that are packed must be portable, fiting in a suitcase. Many objects within our domestic spaces extend beyond utility, and contribute to forming our individual, cultural, and collective identities, and so leaving objects behind through forced migration can cause trauma and a significant disruption of one’s perception of identity.

158 centimeters, the otien-maximum allowable linear dimensions for checked luggage on a commercial flight, becomes a measure of cultural erasure, or rather the extent of identity that can be relocated. Even then, many personal objects, such as furniture, musical instruments, and artwork have dimensions well beyond 158. No matter if the personal objects fit within the scale of a suitcase, decisions sometimes must be made, to carry necessities of life, such as a water, medication, or baby formula, as opposed the meaningful objects from one’s home. The domestic objects that are otien leti behind, are those that depict cultural and individual identity.

While many memories can hold strength in our minds, and persist through sharing of narratives, and photographs, the impact of the objects that are leti behind can be detrimental. The presentation will share a methodology using new technology to preserve cultural identity, and memory, even when forced migration is inevitable, allowing for the remaking of cultural identity in displaced geographies.

Guglielmo Rossi

The Claimants Union

This presentation investigates the role of images as part of the Claimants Union movement, and the groups active in Britain between the early 1970s and the late 1980s in particular. Crucially, the Union of Claimants was formed by the poor – a group of people difficult to define, whose history is recorded in political and social history books – but whose rich material and visual culture – primarily visible through the publishing production and literature created by groups in different cities, remain largely overlooked by histories of design.

This presentation wishes to look at the political and social significance of poverty, which is central to the Claimants Union movement, how the Union of Claimants created a space for disadvantaged communities to form solidarity – joining together for collective action with the aim of helping disadvantaged people to access Social Security Benefits. Crucially, this collective endeavour prompted the writing, design, and publishing of a series of pamphlets. Often featured in these publications, are the multiple interpretations, reproductions and subversions of the Royal coat of arms – contributing to the creation of forms of representations for the community groups at the centre of the movement: unsupported mothers, the sick, disabled and pensioners.

To be part of the Claimants Union, a member had to claim Social Security. The Union had no federal structure or headquarters, each group was autonomous, but many features were common to different groups across the country. The Claimants Union therefore becomes a catalyst which brings together community groups affected by different forms of oppression – around the need to access the Welfare system. Using illustrations and publishing, to confront oppression, the Union created solidarity networks, support groups, and literature about tactics to access Social Security and to organised collective action.

Jacques Lange and Marguerite van der Merwe

Settlers, slaves, culture, politics and reconciliation: the role of the koeksister as a signifier of identity

In this paper, the authors interpret an iconic South African confectionary, the koeksister/koe’sister as an object, exploring its meanings within the broader historical, cultural, and socio-political landscape in South Africa. The koeksister’s story spans a wide gamut, and the paper aims to untangle some of its colourful and often contentious history. The authors reflect on the confection’s Dutch and slave origins, its legacy as a community fundraising tool, its links to both Cape Malay and Afrikaner identities, as well as its political power as a tool for reconciliation, leveraged by satirists, artists and designers.

The paper also considers the use of the koeksister as a symbol for South African and Afrikaner identity, including its application in art and architecture, discussing the cases of the Koeksister Monument in Afrikaner town Orania as well as the Koeksister Bench at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. Furthermore, the authors briefly explore linguistic adaptations of the word koeksister, which could denote conservativism, particularly gendered conservativism, or signify sexuality, particularly homosexuality.