Ecologies and the Making of Place in Early Modern Visual and Material Cultures, session at 2023 Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, San Juan, Puerto Rico, March 9–11, 2023

Papers focusing on the entanglements between visual and material culture, ecosystems, and the notion and making of ‘places’ are invited for a session at the Renaissance Society of America conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 9-11, 2023.

The analysis of human impact within natural ecosystems has become a key avenue of inquiry in the study of early modern cultures. The session intends to further contribute to this discussion by problematizing the interaction between ecosystems and objects, images, architectures, and landscapes. From this particular viewpoint, special attention will be afforded to case studies in which ‘places’ (architectural sites, monuments, cities, regions, islands, coastlines, mountains, etc.) emerge as complex geographical, social, and cultural constructs.

Papers may consider (but are not limited to) the following topics: the relationship between natural forces and the built environment (architecture and urban planning; energy engineering; material cultures of knowledge and technology); the visualization and representation of real and imaginary landscapes; geo-politics (borders and borderlands, contested territories, etc.); devotional practices and their relationship with nature (miraculous and holy sites, pilgrimage routes, etc.); processes of landscape creation, transformation, and destruction (in the aftermath of natural catastrophes, wars, climate change, etc.).

Panel organizers
Davide Ferri, University of Bern
Lunarita Sterpetti, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz