'Writing Technologies' Study Day

TORCH stimulates, supports and promotes research activity of the very highest quality that transcends disciplinary and institutional boundaries, and engages with wider audiences.

TORCH

An international study day marking the culmination of two years as an interdisciplinary TORCH Network, and envisioning future activities.

Maison Française d'Oxford

An international study day marking the culmination of two years as an interdisciplinary TORCH Network, and envisioning future activities. Each panel picks up central themes explored by the Network over the course of its workshops, study days, and speaker events so far, with a final roundtable looking ahead to where this thinking will take us next.Conveners: Jenny Oliver (Worcester), Marie Thébaud-Sorger (CNRS), Viktoria Von Hoffmann (F.R.S.-FNRS, Université de Liège)PROGRAMME9:00 Registration9:15 Welcome: Jenny Oliver (Worcester College, Oxford) and Marie Thébaud-Sorger (CNRS, Paris)9:30 Panel I: Hands, touch, and gestureChair: Viktoria von Hoffmann (F.R.S.-FNRS, University of Liège)Making, writing, pointing, demonstrating, feeling, representing… hands work hard in early modern (making of) texts and images. This panel examines the language, imagery, and practices of handling, manipulation, and manoeuvre, exploring the importance of touch and ‘the knowing hand’ to writers, technicians and printers, as well as the forms and implications of prosthesis.John Gagné (University of Sydney): ‘Mechanism/Organism: The Premodern Iron Hand’Rachel Hindmarsh (Trinity College, Oxford): ‘Rabelaisian Touch’Joe Moshenska (University College, Oxford): ‘The Jaguar’s Hand’11:00 Coffee11:30 Panel II: From maniera to virtuosity: early modern embodied ingenuityChair: Caroline Warman (Jesus College, Oxford)This panel, carrying over and expanding certain interests from the first, explores the imaginative, authorial, and material practices deployed by writers, inventors, experimenters, artists, and artisans: embodied ingenious gestures, performances at the boundaries of nature and artifice, and the entanglement of organic and mechanical functions of body and language.Vittoria Fallanca (New College, Oxford): ‘Montaigne’s maniera’Pascal Brioist (University of Tours): ‘The “mechanics” of birds according to Leonardo da Vinci’Mélanie Traversier (University of Lille): ‘The enchanting virtuosity of machines and mechanisms of artistic virtuosity in the Enlightenment period’13:00 Lunch 14:15 Panel III: Unruly elements and environmentsChair: Katherine Ibbett (Trinity College, Oxford)Both the concept of the classical ‘elements’ and the notion of ‘environment’ propose neat divisions that are rapidly called into question by practical experiences of, and poetic responses to, nature. This panel explores the tensions between ‘elemental’ namings and framings, and the more complex, ‘unruly’ realities they would seek to make sense of.Phillip John Usher (New York University): ‘Inventing Botany’Tina Asmussen (Deutches Bergbau-Museum, Bochum): ‘Unruly Entanglements: Elemental Powers in Early Modern Mining Landscapes’Jerôme Baudry (EPFL Lausanne): ‘Science in the Mountains: Reconstructing the Scientific Expeditions of the 1770s to Mont Buet’15:45 Tea16:15 Roundtable: New Directions: (IM)PRINTChair: Jenny Oliver (Worcester College, Oxford)This roundtable will open up questions relating to the proposed new focus for the network, centering on the complex interrelation of literary, artistic-technical, and scientific forms of experimentation and innovation in the early modern period, and paying particular attention to conceptions of the human (mechanical and organic) and the mutual imprinting of humans and their built and natural environments. Participants will address the intertwining of the material senses of print and imprint (from writing, drawing, and grafting to developments in mechanised print processes) with the immaterial, cognitive sense of ‘impression’ as an early modern figure of imagination.Speakers: Katie Chenoweth (Princeton), Michael Drolet (Worcester College, Oxford), Rob Iliffe (Linacre College, Oxford), Matthew Landrus (Wolfson College, Oxford), Yelda Nasifoglu (History, Oxford), Perig Pitrou (CNRS, MFO), Marie Thebaud-Sorger (CNRS, Paris), Olivia Smith (Newcastle), Wes Williams (Oxford, TORCH)18:00 CloseIf you have any queries, please contact the organisers at writingtechnologies@torch.ox.ac.uk.This event collaboration with Maison Française d&#x27;Oxford.Find our more about the <a href="https://torch.ox.ac.uk/writing-technologies#tab-2619036" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Writing Technologies Network</a> here. While there are no current COVID-19 restrictions, there remains a risk of COVID-19 transmission.As such we encourage attendees to take steps to reduce COVID-19 risks, and be considerate towards others. This includes:•	Letting fresh air in when indoors•	Respecting those who choose to wear a face covering•	Respecting other people’s spacePlease do not attend this event if you have a fever or any flu like symptoms or have tested positive for COVID19.-----------------Eventbrite processes data (including any personal data you may submit by responding to this invitation) outside of the European Economic Area. Please only submit any personal data which you are happy to have processed in this way, and in accordance with Eventbrite’s privacy policy applicable to attendees (available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/support/articles/en_US/Troubleshooting/eventbrite-privacy-policy?lg=en_GB). If you prefer not to use Eventbrite for responding to this invitation, you may respond directly to torch@humanities.ox.ac.uk.

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