Rhythms and Resonances. Sounding Objects in the Middle Ages

This interdisciplinary conference is dedicated to objects from the medieval period that produce music, repetitive sounds, or tones – from bells and organs, musical instruments, and sounding automata to the coins in one’s wallet. Also crucial is the question of how such sounds are echoed in ornament, images, and texts. In what terms might we describe and understand the relationship of object-generated sound to sight, touch, and other senses, as well as to voice and narration? In objects and architectures, how are sounds designed, staged, and received through movements and rituals? What intentions and meanings are conveyed in this way?

Submissions are welcome from history and art history, literary studies, musicology, cultural anthropology, and the fields of Sound History and Sensory Studies. Please send an abstract, not exceeding one page in length, by January 15, 2022.