Rituals from Life to Death: Performance, Arts and Society

Postgraduate Conference on Wednesday 25th June 2014

University of Warwick (Wolfson Research Exchange)

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Jenny Alexander, History of Art Department, University of Warwick, Public or Private Ritual Space? Lincoln Cathedral's Angel Choir in the later-medieval period

Dr. Yvette Hutchison, School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies, University of Warwick, Ritual in Contemporary Theatre and Performance: The Sacred and/as the Profane

Special Exhibition

Original ritual artworks by Filippo Biagioli (Tuscany, Italy)

Conference Abstract

This is a one-day postgraduate conference co-organised between the departments of History of Art and Cultural Policy Studies to explore the theme of ritual. The role of ritual in society has been largely acknowledged as fundamental for the construction and consolidation of identity. In everyday contemporary life, one finds ritualised cultural practices, such as sports and food consumption. This conference will explore their different manifestations and history through a comparative approach. Together we will investigate the emotional effect of ritual on its participants in the past as well as in our own time, and consider its impact on wider audiences. The role of artistic production in connection to ritual will be at the heart of our discussion, examining works of art from their conception to their dissemination and use. This will encompass the relationship between the enactment of ritual and the ritual object.

Speakers

Christian Attard, University of Malta, The Waiting Soul: the Imagery and Ritual of Purgatory in Malta

Thanavi Chotpradit, Birkbeck, University of London, Constituting the Constitution: Photographs of King Prajadhipok in the Royal Constitution Granting Ceremony

Stefano Colombo, University of Warwick, Religious Piety and Celebratory Rhetoric in the Seventeenth-Century Venetian Sepulchral Monuments

Steven Franklin, Royal Holloway, University of London, The Changing Face of Magna Carta Day

Tess Radcliffe, University of Wolverhampton, Still Life and Eroticism

Robert Rapoport, Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, Code and Causation: A Ritual Framing of Algorithmic Video Editing

Zahra Tharani, Kings College London, University of London, Ritual, Community and Cognition in the Cult of Isis

Naomi Vogt, University of Oxford, Reenacting Ritual: Mike Kelley's Installations as Anthropological Space?

Wei Yu, Birkbeck, University of London, Ritual, Physical Body and Sound Machine: On Lin Chiwei’s Tape Music Series

The final programme of the conference and the abstracts of the papers are available here.

Conference Programme

Registration Form
(CLOSED)

Travel and Accommodation Information

Libro da preghiera

Funding generously provided by the Research Student Skills Programme (RSSP) and the departments of History of Art and Cultural Policy Studies, University of Warwick.

Organizers

Alice Borchi

Claire FitzGerald

Kayoko Ichikawa

Diane James

Anna Roh

Contact us:

email: ritualpas at gmail dot com