“Materiality and Virtuality. Entanglements of Material and Virtual Worlds in Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture” is the topic of the Conference of the Interdisciplinary Center for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IZMF) and the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture (IMAREAL), University of Salzburg.

Materiality and virtuality do not form an irreconcilable binary opposition, it is, in our view, their productive interaction that in fact gives rise to the fabrics of signification in which ‘realities’ consist.  Based on the assumption that people create culture in continuously self-renewing processes of negotiation in the interplay of virtuality and materiality, the contributions explore how people generate virtuality, and how far they need sensual points of reference and connection in and with the material world.

In this context, we also reflect on the potential associated with the virtualization of research data and the various stages of modeling and analysis, in particular the challenges associated with the digital transformation of material objects.

The contributions of the interdisciplinary conference approach the following thematic fields: Materiality and Virtuality in the History of Knowledge | Visualizing Materiality and Virtuality | Sensing Materiality and Virtuality | Materiality and Virtuality in Space | Manuscripts between Materiality and Virtuality.

Conference details, programme and registration

Date: 19. – 21. September 2023
Venue: Krems/Donau
Organisation: Christina Antenhofer, Elisabeth Gruber, Alexander Zerfaß

The  Conference Programme is available for download.

Please register until 8. September 2023 at the latest via