Unique Objects in an Age of Ubiquity: Functions and Potential
The international conference „Unique Objects in an Age of Ubiquity” addresses a central question that is of consequence for the humanities, social sciences and the arts as well as of great importance for cultural institutions such as museums and libraries: The question of the functions and potentials of unique objects in an age of digital reproducibility.
Unique objects are centres in a decentered, networked world. They signal unavailability and distance in a world of global digital availability. While in daily life unique objects serve as lifestyle items of individualization, in a cultural and scholarly context they have the subversive potential to disrupt processes of canonization and, as deep facts, rewrite history. Unique objects can, moreover, resist reproduction, through object-specific functions or close links between text and textual object.
Building on research concerning the materiality of the book, object biographies and historical practices of creating and exhibiting unique objects, the interdisciplinary conference aims to analyse the cultural function of unique objects in today's society. Contributions focus, on the one hand, on the social functions of unique physical objects and of practices of collecting and exhibiting such objects in a predominantly digital environment. On the other, they try to articulate the scholarly, literary and artistic potential of unique objects.
The interdisciplinary conference addresses scientists from media studies, material culture studies, book studies, museology, art history, literature studies, digital humanities, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, as well as practitioners from museums, archives and libraries.
Talks will be presented in English.
The conference is accompanied by an exhibition at the University Library.
Programme Thursday, September 15, 2022
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Guided City Tour “Regensburg – Experience a historic city”
Meeting point: Old Town Hall, Rathausplatz, 93047 Regensburg (OpenStreetMap, Tourist Information Am Rathausplatz)
from 12:30 p.m.
IBG Annual Meeting (only for IBG-members)
from 1:00 p.m.
Registration & Coffee
2:00 – 2:45 p.m.
Welcome
Prof. Dr. Ursula Regener, University of Regensburg
Dr. André Schüller-Zwierlein, Regensburg University Library
Prof. Dr. Christine Haug, Center for Book Studies:
Book research – Publishing Economics – Digital Media
2:45 – 3:30 p.m.
Keynote Talk
Does it matter if its unique? The acquisition of heritage items
Kristian Jensen, British Library/Director of the Consortium of European Research Libraries, CERL, Great Britain
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Coffee Break
4:00 – 4:45 p.m.
In glass and stone, in closets and drawers: Comparing the multivalence of objects in archival collections and in the family home
Eve Neiger, Lead Archivist at Boston Public Library, USA
4:45 – 5:30 p.m.
Atopia. The Unique and the Ethos of the Humanities
Prof. Dr. Christian Benne, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
7:00 p.m.
Dinner at Weltenburger am Dom
Domplatz 3, 93047 Regensburg
Programme Thursday, September 16, 2022
9:00 – 9:45 a.m.
To Make Way for the Unique, Know the Ubiquitous
Galadriel Chilton, Director of Collections Initiatives, Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, USA
9:45 – 10:30 a.m.
Copy as an unique object – qualities of the individual object
Prof. Dr. Ernst Seidl, Museum of the University of Tuebingen, Germany
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:00 – 11:45 a.m.
From work trousers to jumble of notes or: A short (Austrian) literary history drawing on objects
Dr. Bernhard Fetz, Austrian National Library, Literary Archive and Literature Museum, Austria
11:45 – 12:30 p.m.
The Double Face of the Unique
Dr. Stephanie Jacobs, German Museum of Books and Writing, Leipzig, Germany
12:30 – 1:00 p.m.
Summary & Farewell
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Lunch
2:15 – 2:45 p.m.
Guided Tour: Exhibition UNIQUE!? Unique Objects in an Age of Ubiquity: Functions and Potential at Regensburg University Library
Unique Objects in an Age of Ubiquity: Functions and Potential
The international conference „Unique Objects in an Age of Ubiquity” addresses a central question that is of consequence for the humanities, social sciences and the arts as well as of great importance for cultural institutions such as museums and libraries: The question of the functions and potentials of unique objects in an age of digital reproducibility.
Unique objects are centres in a decentered, networked world. They signal unavailability and distance in a world of global digital availability. While in daily life unique objects serve as lifestyle items of individualization, in a cultural and scholarly context they have the subversive potential to disrupt processes of canonization and, as deep facts, rewrite history. Unique objects can, moreover, resist reproduction, through object-specific functions or close links between text and textual object.
Building on research concerning the materiality of the book, object biographies and historical practices of creating and exhibiting unique objects, the interdisciplinary conference aims to analyse the cultural function of unique objects in today's society. Contributions focus, on the one hand, on the social functions of unique physical objects and of practices of collecting and exhibiting such objects in a predominantly digital environment. On the other, they try to articulate the scholarly, literary and artistic potential of unique objects.
The interdisciplinary conference addresses scientists from media studies, material culture studies, book studies, museology, art history, literature studies, digital humanities, psychology, sociology, cultural studies, as well as practitioners from museums, archives and libraries.
Talks will be presented in English.
The conference is accompanied by an exhibition at the University Library.
Programme Thursday, September 15, 2022
9:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Guided City Tour “Regensburg – Experience a historic city”
Meeting point: Old Town Hall, Rathausplatz, 93047 Regensburg (OpenStreetMap, Tourist Information Am Rathausplatz)
from 12:30 p.m.
IBG Annual Meeting (only for IBG-members)
from 1:00 p.m.
Registration & Coffee
2:00 – 2:45 p.m.
Welcome
Prof. Dr. Ursula Regener, University of Regensburg
Dr. André Schüller-Zwierlein, Regensburg University Library
Prof. Dr. Christine Haug, Center for Book Studies:
Book research – Publishing Economics – Digital Media
2:45 – 3:30 p.m.
Keynote Talk
Does it matter if its unique? The acquisition of heritage items
Kristian Jensen, British Library/Director of the Consortium of European Research Libraries, CERL, Great Britain
3:30 – 4:00 p.m.
Coffee Break
4:00 – 4:45 p.m.
In glass and stone, in closets and drawers: Comparing the multivalence of objects in archival collections and in the family home
Eve Neiger, Lead Archivist at Boston Public Library, USA
4:45 – 5:30 p.m.
Atopia. The Unique and the Ethos of the Humanities
Prof. Dr. Christian Benne, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
7:00 p.m.
Dinner at Weltenburger am Dom
Domplatz 3, 93047 Regensburg
Programme Thursday, September 16, 2022
9:00 – 9:45 a.m.
To Make Way for the Unique, Know the Ubiquitous
Galadriel Chilton, Director of Collections Initiatives, Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, USA
9:45 – 10:30 a.m.
Copy as an unique object – qualities of the individual object
Prof. Dr. Ernst Seidl, Museum of the University of Tuebingen, Germany
10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:00 – 11:45 a.m.
From work trousers to jumble of notes or: A short (Austrian) literary history drawing on objects
Dr. Bernhard Fetz, Austrian National Library, Literary Archive and Literature Museum, Austria
11:45 – 12:30 p.m.
The Double Face of the Unique
Dr. Stephanie Jacobs, German Museum of Books and Writing, Leipzig, Germany
12:30 – 1:00 p.m.
Summary & Farewell
1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
Lunch
2:15 – 2:45 p.m.
Guided Tour: Exhibition UNIQUE!? Unique Objects in an Age of Ubiquity: Functions and Potential at Regensburg University Library