From the consecration vessel to the drone. Material Cultures of the Heroic in Transition
The place that is allocated to the heroic in the cultural, political and social conceptual system of communities becomes clear when you start by examining correspondingly expressive works of art, everyday items, architecture, texts, events, etc. This is why the drinking vessel dedicated to a heroic figure from the 4th century BC, for example, is just as enlightening with regard to the meaning of the heroic for a certain community as medieval coins on which rulers are represented with the attributes of heroic figures. For the modern era, such items that are interesting in this respect include, for example, bookmarks and porcelain plates upon which heroic figures are depicted; images, texts and books; theater buildings and stadiums in which singers and athletes, respectively, can appear as heroic figures; prostheses, medals, modern military equipment or Harry Potter’s wand.
In this respect each lecture in the series Vom Weihegefäß zur Drohne, all of which will be held in German, uses something visual from distinct time periods between Antiquity and the 21st century as a starting point in order to deal with important breaks, crises, intensifications or re-encodings of the heroic. In this manner the most important upheavals of the heroic are recognizable in a diachronic overview.