Opening Keynote:
MEDIEVALIST IMAGES AND THE MAKING OF MEANING
Lesley Coote
U of Hull, UK
Adapting a phrase from film theorist Patrick Fuery, the we ‘look’ at and ‘read’ images is a matter of how we formulate relationships of meaning and subjectivity/identity. This is very true of neo/medievalist images. Such images are present for us in a wide variety of forms: two-dimensional forms such as pictures, logos and advertising, graphic novels/comic books (static), films, digital gaming programs and holographic displays (moving); and three-dimensional forms such as objects and artefacts (original and reproduced), textiles, cosplay and re-enactment, and other forms of performance - which move around us or we around them. The recent popularity of fantasy has heightened the profile of these things. It’s a subject so wide as to be impossible to cover in a single paper, so this one concentrates on those relationships of meaning and subjectivity. It employs a wide variety of examples and utilizes ideas more often associated with film studies to examine how neo/medievalist images ‘work’ for the viewing subject, how we view them and where their power (if any) lies.
Additional Information:
- This activity has a maximum capacity of 100 subscribers in the Zoom room, but will be broadcast live on YouTube for all other interested parties.
- The lecture will be entirely in ENGLISH, without simultaneous translation. However, our team will be on hand to help with the translation of questions or answers into Portuguese or Spanish.