GRK Das Dokumentarische. Exzess und Entzug

Tabea Braun, Mag. Art., M.A.

braun_tabea

Universitätsstr. 105
44789 Bochum
E-Mail: tabea.braun@rub.de



Title of the Dissertation

Charles Gores Travel Albums, 1771–1807: Documenting Landscapes at the Intersection of Art and Knowledge Culture around 1800 (Working title)

Project Description

My PhD project explores topographical views in the late 18th and early 19th century with a focus on landscape drawing. In the period directly preceding the invention of photography, the graphic recording of landscape unfolds an innovative dynamic in areas as different as navigation, the military, earth science, and tourism. The study addresses the collaborative effect of these fields on specific pictorial representations of landscapes arising from their different social and cultural aims. Furthermore, the study intends to identify epistemological dispositifs and discourses in the culture of knowledge during the “saddle period”, which provide the backdrop for medial and formal aesthetic developments in visual recording: like, for instance, the emergence of the panorama, the technical advance of the camera obscura, and the rise of the prospect as souvenir and as scientific object. Topographical recording will thereby be analysed as a cultural practice at the intersection of art and knowledge culture.

To approach these issues, the project draws on a graphic oeuvre that is exceptional for its state of preservation and is, in many respects, paradigmatic: the five topographical volumes with drawings made by Charles Gore (Horkstow, Lincolnshire, 1729 – Weimar, 1807), which contain mainly tinted drawings recording Gore’s travels throughout Europe. They constitute a comprehensive oeuvre in both diachronic and interdisciplinary terms. The analyses will pursue and include as well the network of actors and works arising from the making and the utilization of the albums.

A central aspiration of the project is to strengthen, both terminologically and historically, documentary practices in the context of visual culture.

Scholarly Career

  • Since 10/2016: Doctoral Student Member of the DFG Graduate Research Group on “Documentary Practices: Excess and Privation”, Ruhr University Bochum (on parental leave 6/2018–6/2019, 2/2022–8/2023, 2/2024-8/2024)
  • 10/2011 to 04/2014: Master studies in Art History at the Philipps-University Marburg
  • 10/2005 to 09/2011: Magister Artium in Sociology, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Leipzig
  • 04/2009 to 07/2011: Student assistant to Monika Eigmüller in the junior research project “Europe as Social Space” at the Department of Sociology of the University of Leipzig

Awards/Fellowships

  • 09/2019 to 10/2019: Visiting scholar award, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University
  • 10/2015 to 04/2016: Graduate award, Klassik Stiftung Weimar

Talks

  • ‘Cartified views. A late 18th century concept of making spaces completely available through images’, at the conference ‘Remediated Maps: Transmedial Approaches to Cartographic Omagination’ by the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max-Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte, 12–14 Apr 2021
  • ‘Space turns into pages. Johann Gottfried Schultz‘ Picturesque Travels to Teplice, Karlovy Vary and Staniszów, the Krkonoše, Tharandt, 1769 to 1808′, at the conference ‘Pasted Topographies’ by the Network Topographic Visual Media, 20 Nov 2020
  • ‘Documenting Views, Viewing Documents in the Age of the ›Grand Tour‹. The topographical collection of Charles Gore, 1771–1807’, Visiting Scholars Lunch Seminar, Yale University, 7 Oct 2019
  • ‘Küstenlandschaften auf Papier – ›Research Architecture‹ im Kontext der Verzeichnung von Land und Meer um 1800’, Lecture series ‚Das Dokumentarische II‘, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 17 Jan 2019
  • ‘Drawn after Nature. Drawn Eyewitness Testimonials in the Context of Research Expeditions in the 19th Century’, at the conference ”On the Spot at the Time’. Eyewitnessing and Authenticity in the Visual Arts, c. 1800 to 2000′, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 28–30 Sep 2017
  • ‘Collecting landscapes. Charles Goreʼs travel albums, 1771-1807’, Göttingen Spirit Summer School: ‘The material culture of exploration and academic travel, 1700-1900’, Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Historic Observatory, University of Göttingen, Germany, 24–29 Jul 2017

Publications

Edited Volumes

  • Ulrike Boskamp, Tabea Braun, Amrei Buchholz and Annette Kranen (ed.), Pasted Topographies, Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net-ART-Books, 2023 (Terrain. Studies on Topographic Visual Media, Vol. 1), doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1323
  • Tabea Braun, Felix Hüttemann, Robin Schrade and Leonie Zilch (ed.), Dokumentarische Gefüge. Relationalitäten und ihre Aushandlungen, Bielefeld: transcript, 2023 (Das Dokumentarische. Exzess und Entzug, Vol. 3)

Articles

  • Tabea Braun, Places Glued to Pages. The Material Epistemology of Topographical Albums in the Collection of Johann Gottfried Schultz, in: Ulrike Boskamp, Tabea Braun, Amrei Buchholz und Annette Kranen (ed.), Pasted Topographies, Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net-ART-Books, 2023 (Terrain. Studies on Topographic Visual Media, Vol. 1), doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1323
  • Ulrike Boskamp, Tabea Braun, Amrei Buchholz and Annette Kranen, Pasted Topographies. Introduction, in: ead. (ed.), Pasted Topographies, Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net-ART-Books, 2023 (Terrain. Studien zu topografischen Bildmedien, Band 1), doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.1323
  • Tabea Braun, Felix Hüttemann, Robin Schrade und Leonie Zilch, Welt bilden, Welt erfassen, in: ead. (ed.), Dokumentarische Gefüge. Relationalitäten und ihre Aushandlungen, Bielefeld: transcript, 2023 (Das Dokumentarische. Exzess und Entzug, Vol. 3)
  • Tabea Braun, Assoziation und Kunstdeutung oder ‚Der gefährliche Faden der Dinge’, in: Friedrich Balke et al. (ed.), Exzess und Entzug. Ferres vor Gursky, Ferres vor Immendorff, Leipzig: Spector Books, 2020
  • Tabea Braun, Bezeugte Gelände. Topographische Ansichtszeichnungen als Augenzeugenberichte im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, in: Claudia Hattendorff, Lisa Beißwanger (ed.), Augenzeugenschaft als Konzept. Konstruktionen von Wirklichkeit in Kunst und visueller Kultur seit 1800, Bielefeld: transcript, 2019

Teaching

  • Summer term 2020: ‘Document – Invention – Expression. Introduction to the theory, history and technique of drawing’, Reading Seminar and Exercise seminar, Kunstgeschichtliches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
  • Summer term 2019: ‘Der Wert der Kunst: ökonomische und kulturwissenschaftliche Perspektiven auf den Kunstmarkt’, Working group at the Summer Academy of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, Leysin, 13–22 August 2019

Organisation of Events

  • Workshop series by the Network Topographic Visual Media  (ongoing)
  • Co-organisation of the international conference „GEGEN\DOKUMENTATION“ (Link), 8–11 Nov 2019
  • Conception and organisation of the workshop “Modelle des Dokumentarischen. Evidentielle Verfahren im Schatten der Fotografie”, Workshop with Peter Geimer at the DFG research training group “Documentary Practices. Excess and Privation”, Ruhr-University Bochum, 2 Feb 2018
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Miscellaneous