Material and Materiality: Medieval Problems, Contemporary Answers

Questions pertaining to materials and materiality have become key to the study of medieval art and culture. With the understanding that interaction with the material object was achieved not only through the sense of sight but also through the other senses and by means of embodied relations between the viewer and the object, issues of the materiality and tangibility of the object have become crucial for the study of medieval art. Furthermore, developments in the field of history of science as well as the development of object-oriented theories have provided scholars with new means to contemplate the significance of material, process, and ritual in the work of the artisan and scientist. The interest in process has shifted the focus onto materials and onto the fabrication of knowledge generated by the interaction of practitioner and material object. Drawing further on these observations, the course will examine whether material and technique can serve as novel sites for experimentation and deliberation, and help explain artifacts in less traditional ways. The aim of this course is thus to examine notions regarding medieval materials as they are represented through artifacts and texts, and to consider their changing historical meaning through twenty-role of fashion in the changing social, cultural, and political systems in China and Japan. We will discuss how certain styles and silhouettes came to embody new gender identities, manifest nationalism in an age of crises, and symbolize ethnic tradition as time went by. We will pay special attention to the issues of how interactions with the West and globalization led to sartorial modernity and reinvention of the tradition in East Asia. The second part explores the multivalent construction and meanings of “East Asian dress” in global art and fashion. Issues to be discussed include Oriental clothing as inspirations for Western artistic movements and dress reforms, cross-cultural dressing, Asian elements in contemporary fashion by both Western and Asian designers, and museum exhibitions of Asian and Asia-inspired dress. This session prepares students with diverse approaches and theories for analyzing cultural exchanges through fashion. The course will schedule one visit to the storeroom at the Met to study selected examples of historical garments. Interdisciplinary methodologies and approaches are encouraged. Students are welcome to develop final projects that focus on fashion in other regions of Asia and their roles in the global imagination. 3 credits. Satisfies the non-Western requirement.