Zurück zur Auswahl
79795-01 - Seminar: Ivory, Cloth, and Clay: Making and Meaning in West and West-Central Africa, 1300–1800 (3 KP)
| Semester | Herbstsemester 2026 |
| Angebotsmuster | einmalig |
| Dozierende | Ingrid Anna Greenfield (ingridanna.greenfield@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn) |
| Inhalt | This seminar takes ivory, cloth, and clay as points of entry into artistic production in West and West-Central Africa between c. 1300 and 1800. Each brought with it particular possibilities and constraints—of scale, durability, surface, pattern, sustainability—and carried distinct social and economic significance. Attending to these materials brings into view how objects took shape in practice and how forms and motifs moved across different media, from patterned surfaces to figurative imagery translated between textile, ceramic, and sculpted forms. Beginning with the materials themselves, we will follow processes of making from the ground up: from raffia palms and cotton plants processed into fibers and woven into cloth, to alluvial clays gathered and shaped by hand and transformed through heat, to elephant tusks cut from hunted animals and transported by caravan or ship. These processes foreground the environmental knowledge, skilled labour, and forms of extraction that underpinned artistic production. They also open onto larger histories of trade and exploitation, in which ivory circulated as a primary commodity alongside textiles and, increasingly, enslaved people within regional and Atlantic networks. Focusing on objects produced across a range of political and cultural contexts, the course considers how such materials were transformed into works implicated in systems of power, identity, and display. Particular attention will be paid to the ways artistic production registers processes of exchange: how motifs and visual languages moved across media and cultural contexts, and how they were adapted, reinterpreted, and given new meanings. In addition to classroom meetings, the seminar includes visits to local museum collections and hands-on sessions exploring the properties of clay and textiles. |
| Literatur | Required and supplementary reading materials will be provided at the beginning of the semester. |
| Teilnahmevoraussetzungen | Für den Besuch der Seminare sollte das Grundstudium abgeschlossen sein. |
| Anmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung | Anmeldung über MOnA notwendig (services.unibas.ch). |
| Unterrichtssprache | Englisch |
| Einsatz digitaler Medien | kein spezifischer Einsatz |
| Intervall | Wochentag | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Dienstag | 12.15-14.00 | Kunstgeschichte, Seminarraum 1. Stock 131 |
Einzeltermine
| Module |
Modul: Epochenübergreifende Fragestellungen (Bachelor Studienfach: Kunstgeschichte) Modul: Frühe Neuzeit (Bachelor Studienfach: Kunstgeschichte) Modul: Mittelalter (Bachelor Studienfach: Kunstgeschichte) Modul: Profil: Frühe Neuzeit (Master Studiengang: Kunstgeschichte und Bildtheorie) Modul: Profil: Mittelalter und Mittelalterrezeption (Master Studiengang: Kunstgeschichte und Bildtheorie) Modul: Werk und Kontext (Master Studiengang: Kunstgeschichte und Bildtheorie) Modul: Werk und Kontext (Master Studienfach: Kunstgeschichte) |
| Prüfung | Lehrveranst.-begleitend |
| Hinweise zur Prüfung | Presentation; detailed information will be provided at the beginning of the semester. |
| An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Wiederholungsprüfung | keine Wiederholungsprüfung |
| Skala | Pass / Fail |
| Belegen bei Nichtbestehen | nicht wiederholbar |
| Zuständige Fakultät | Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Anbietende Organisationseinheit | Fachbereich Kunstgeschichte |