Search results for ""Author M. Kemperink""

This volume contains the essays presented at the conference that was held on 19-21 October 2005 at the University of Groningen under the auspices of the Groningen Institute for the Study of Culture (ICOG). The conference was meant to be an occasion where the Groningen research into culture both past and present, as it occurs within ICOG, could present itself. The theme, Vision in Text and Image, was chosen on the one hand as a wide umbrella for practically the entire body of research being conducted in ICOG (from classical archaeology to modern literature), and on the other as a reference, albeit a modest one, towards a new, more context-oriented approach to text and image. In that sense the volume pinpoints to methodological strands of the study of arts. Nowadays there is little impetus to analyse literary texts and works of visual art per se, as was much more the case in the 1960s and 1970s. So, more attention has been paid to the ties between text/image and the surrounding contemporary culture. Furthermore, the study of arts is no longer considered as totally separate from the study of non-artistic images and texts, either methodologically or ideologically. It is the aim of this volume to reveal the shifts in divisions of labour within the study of arts. Apart from a keynote speech delivered by Jurgen Pieters, professor of literary theory at the University of Ghent, the book contains contributions from all disciplines within ICOG: from young PhD students as well as from senior staff members. Through their practical approach to research, and in some cases also by way of theoretical reflection, they illustrate the dynamics and interchange that characterise the relationship between text/image and culture.

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This volume focuses on the relationship between utopianism and the sciences in the period from 1880 to 1930. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Europe and the United States experienced a mushrooming desire for a more beautiful, happier world. During the nineteenth century, the older 'classic' utopianism of Plato and More started to develop into so-called 'modern' utopianism: ideas that used to be considered mere thought experiments were developing into programmes that could in fact be realised in time. The proposed societal ideal thus needed to be supported by convincing and preferably scientific arguments, particularly at a time when, despite all the criticism, people still kept faith in science. Science was thus strongly embraced by those engaged in theory formation, sociopolitical debate and artistic expression, all of which were directed at supporting the ideal of a better future. The contributions to this book demonstrate how scientific discoveries such as electricity and the X-ray, as well as scientific theories in the fields of physics, mathematics, biology, the medical sciences, sociology and even linguistics, were used to substantiate, illustrate and realise the future utopia. This volume is the result of recent interdisciplinary research in the fascinating field of utopian sciences and scientific utopias.

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