The term ‘mythological panoramas’ is deliberately difficult to define. The mythologising of space or indeed spaces that are themselves imbued with mythology inherently involves a certain indefinability. What are the implications of mythology on landscape? Can and, indeed, should one try to define such spaces? Why and how do certain cultures define their space mythologically?
The spatial and chronological dimensions of mythological panoramas are also themselves immense. The research driving this conference comes from across the academic spectrum, from Roman art, to early modern cartography, and contemporary Brazilian poetry, and so we welcome attendees from all disciplines. With a keynote speech from Professor John Wylie (Geography, University of Exeter), Mythological Panoramas is a chance to explore the intricacies and peculiarities of these spatial and chronological dimensions.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided for all attendees.
With particular thanks to the London Arts and Humanities Partnership for their support and funding for this project.
9:30-10:00: Registration and coffee
10:00-10:15: Welcome from the organisers
10.15-11.30: Panel 1: Myth and the City
Sayan Skandarajah (The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL)
Authorship and Authority – Parallel Projection and Urban Imagination in “Rakuchu Rakugai zu” Paintings of Early Modern Kyoto
Janina Schupp (University of Cambridge)
From Suburban Paradise to Threat: The Reversal of a Mythologizing Cinematic Gaze in the Parisian Suburbs
Thierry Verburgh (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
“Soaking Up the Punky-funky All-feel of Eastern Kreuzberg”: Tourism and the Mythification of Subcultural Kreuzberg, 1960-2017
11:30-11:50: Coffee break
11.50-1.30: Panel 2: Myth and Identity
Ruth Bernatek (The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL)
Mapping the Mythical Landscape Through Sound and Voice in Iannis Xenakis’ Polytope de Mycenae (1978)
Pauline Harding (University College London)
Mythologising Archaeological Landscapes
Samuel Agbamu (King’s College London)
The Mediterranean and the Myth of Mare Nostrum
Yuliya Suleyeva (University College London)
Geographical and Metaphysical Insecurities of Contemporary Russia and the Postmodernist Myth of Russia’s Exceptionalism: Ontological Properties of the Spatio-Temporal Mythological Construct of the ‘Russian Path’
1:30-2:15: Lunch
2:15- 3:55: Panel 3: Mythologies of Landscape
William Melaney (The American University in Cairo)
Wordsworthian Tales: Myth, Nature and History
Monica Germanà (University of Westminster)
Sublime Mindscapes: Mythologised Other Places and the Creative Imagination in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Richard Kendall (University of Birmingham)
Mythological Flatness: The Myth of Icarus
Michael Economou (University of Oxford)
Reimagining the Sacred Landscape of the Judean and Samarian Hill Country
3.55-4.15: Coffee break
4.15-5.15: Keynote: Prof. John Wylie (University of Exeter)
The Common Line: Creating Landscape Mythologies
5.15-5.30: Closing Remarks
5.45-6.30: Wine Reception
For more information, please visit https://mythologicalpanoramas.com/