Research in Topoi I (2007–2012)

knowledge about space

The exhaustively surveying of the two dimensions of space and knowledge in Topoi required a continual oscillation between space-driven analyses of knowledge and knowledge-driven analyses of space. In the first funding phase of Topoi, space represented the central category and thematic nexus in our considerations of knowledge. The topic was knowledge about space.

Areas Topoi 1

During the first funding period (2007-2012) the cluster was subdivided into five research areas. Four of them concentrated on the time from the 10th millennium B.C. to late antiquity. The area Transformations (E) studied the processing of ancient ideas of space, spatial orders and spatial cognition in later cultures own to the present day.

Hydrogeographical Model; Source: eTopoi. Special Volume 1

Area A

The reconstruction of the spatial environment and its shaping by human beings, as well as the assessment of human adaptation to the natural environment was the main topic of research area A …

Claudius Ptolemy, The World smal, public domain

Area B

The area researched the social control mechanisms through which spaces have, in the most diverse ways, been constituted, defined, formed and regulated, and through which space has been endowed with territorial, social, cultural, administrative, political or religious meaning …

Rome, Palatine, Imperial Palace. 3D-Model of the hypothetical reconstruction of the southeast corner (Flavian Phase) (image: Architekturreferat DAI Berlin, A. Müller, U. Wulf-Rheidt)

Area C

In this area researchers investigated how spaces, spatial relations, movements and directions are perceived and imagined, and how they were represented in various media …

Utriusque Cosmi Historia, Robert Fludd 1617-1621

Area D

Research Area D investigated ancient theories of space and ancient sciences that presuppose a conception of space. Ancient cosmology and ancient physics were at the center of this area’s research …

Zweidimensionales Raummodelle zeigt den sphärischen Raum / Autor und Copyright: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte

AREA E

This research area was concerned with the processing of ancient ideas of space, spatial orders and spatial thinking in later cultures until the present day. Area E formed a platform, on which the results of the individual projects of the cluster were discussed …

Ausstellung Jenseits des Horizonts / Foto: Dunja Antic / Copyright: EXC Topoi

Cross Sectional Groups

‘Cultural theory and its genealogies’, ‘The spread of knowledge through culture’, ‘Museums’ and ‘Space and collective identities’ were the topics of cross sectional groups. They investigated, for example, how ancient concepts of space are presented in the museums …