Course description
This hands-on, interactive course for PhD candidates (also open to RMA students if places are available) consists of two days in Spring 2027 and focuses on materials and objects as sources for cultural/historical research. The course comprises an interactive reading session and a practical workshop at the ArtLab of Utrecht University.
Materials and things are not only objects of study but also mediators of research. Paper, ink, water, and the material ecologies of digital infrastructures play an important role for scholars. A medium that is often overlooked because it is, ideally, invisible are adhesives. The idea of the adhesive is connected to the idea of collecting and literally bind findings. From sticky notes to Sellotape and binders to posters, material and metaphorical glueing is abundant in scholarly work and mnemonic culture.
The modern English word “glue” is etymologically related to the Latin term gluten. During ancient times, gluten was already used in the meaning by which we know it today – a substance used for sticking objects or materials together. Before the discovery and industrialization of synthetic glues in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, adhesives were derived from a wide variety of materials derived from natural resources – ranging from flour to cheese, and from animal proteins to plant resins. The historical understanding of the nature of adhesives was similarly far-ranging and encompassed methods and techniques that may surprise us today, including the mordanting of textiles, the binding of pigments to make paint, and the coating of objects to protect them from the atmosphere and mechanical damage.
As glues tend to disappear once they have formed their adhesive bond, they do not easily come into view as a subject of historical inquiry. Yet, the long-term history of sticky substances shows how the materials and techniques used to make glue were part of a rich socio-material world characterized by practices of durability, recycling, reuse, and repurposing. During the hands-on workshop, we will investigate these practices further by experimenting with historical recipes for making glue. By manipulating, smelling, hearing, seeing, and perhaps even tasting adhesives, the workshop inquires how processes of remaking can help bring into view the deeply sensorial nature of material ontologies of historical sticky stuff. We will discuss key theoretical concepts of working with material objects and engage in some hands-on work.
Programme and syllabus
The full programme and syllabus will be made available by mid-January 2027.
Objectives
- How and why materials and objects can be used as relevant research sources
- Insight into the types of knowledge connected to Visual & Material Culture, including tacit knowledge, sensory knowledge, as well as the political, social, economic dimensions of materials and things.
- First introduction to hands-on engagement with historical materials as research practice
- Understanding how you can use material objects, and results from re-making in your personal research
Registration
You may register via the form below. Although the course is suitable for both PhD candidates and Research Master students, please note that, when there will be a surplus of applications, PhDs will have priority access.
