EuroWeb Workshop “Theoretical concepts on dress and identity, visual codes in prehistoric and historic societies” – Call for Participants

The Call for Participants is now open for the EuroWeb Workshop “Theoretical concepts on dress and identity, visual codes in prehistoric and historic societies”. The workshop, organized in the framework of Working Group 2 and hosted by the Natural History Museum Vienna under the coordination of Karina Grömer (Natural History Museum Vienna), Kayleigh Saunderson (University of Vienna), and Elisabeth Trinkl (University of Graz), will take place between the 25th and the 27th of April 2022.

What is a “visual code”?

How do textiles contribute to identity?

In which contexts can we observe these processes?

Visual codes, which vary with and within different societies, comprise aspects of the external appearance of people that are communicated non-verbally. This includes clothing (also shoes and headgear) as well as hairstyles and various accessories.

Are there rules within a specific society that prescribe or even prohibit certain items of clothing, colours, raw materials (e.g., fur, silk), costume components, accessories for certain social groups, for men and women or for certain age groups?

In this workshop, we will work on theoretical concepts: different perspectives — such as cultural anthropology, material culture studies, social psychology, evolutionary anthropology and modern fashion studies. The discussions include theories on visual coding, body language, fashion theory, gender & age and social hierarchies. The
participants will:

– Receive a reader with 5 selected articles, with which we will discuss the theories;

– Present short statements with case studies from their own research;

– Set the case studies into a context with the theoretical approaches and form ideas on how to include theories in their own work.

If you are interested in registering for free, please send us your CV, a letter of motivation (max. 500 words) and a short description of what you would like to work on in our workshop (max. 500 words) to the following address: textiles@uni-graz.at until 31st January 2022.

We can only choose a maximum of 12 participants and will let you know if you are registered till 13th February. Feel free to ask us any questions via our e-mail.

For more information, check the full call here:

Workshop Call: Theoretical concepts on dress and identity, visual codes in prehistoric and historic societies

We look forward to hearing from you!