My artistic practice deals with documents and, more specifically, with the use and the exploration of their narrative potential. This dissertation is about three different cycles of artworks I... Show moreMy artistic practice deals with documents and, more specifically, with the use and the exploration of their narrative potential. This dissertation is about three different cycles of artworks I produced as part of the research project. The notion of animation inheres in each of the three case studies: – Case 1 focuses on my artworks about Simone Pianetti (1858-?), an Italian mass murderer who escaped and disappeared, and who then became a puppet character, animated as a stock character.– Case 2 focuses on Augusto Masetti (1888-1966), an Italian soldier who shot at his superior officer and declared not to remember having done it, as if in a state of ecstatic possession, as if animated by an external entity. Mainly using publications and workshops, I produced a series of artworks related to legal, medical and anarchist records on his case.– Case 3 follows the appearance of a puppet character in Colombia, el espiritado, and its supposed connections to the Masetti case. I describe a series of artistic works I produced, starting from a puppet script about the self-destruction of a village, which can be read as a commentary on puppetry, anarchism and animation. Show less
This PhD-dissertation examines the social networks of the bishops Abraham of Hermonthis (ca. 590-621) and Pesynthius of Koptos (599-632) and the nature of their authority. They represented a... Show moreThis PhD-dissertation examines the social networks of the bishops Abraham of Hermonthis (ca. 590-621) and Pesynthius of Koptos (599-632) and the nature of their authority. They represented a relatively new, anti-Chalcedonian church hierarchy, which became the forerunner of the present-day Coptic Orthodox Church. As monk-bishops Abraham and Pesynthius resided in monasteries. Since Abraham was also abbot of the Monastery of St Phoibammon in Western Thebes, he lived there. Pesynthius usually lived in a monastery in the mountain of Tsenti, near modern Naqada, but during the Persian occupation of Egypt he stayed in Western Thebes as well. They fulfilled their office, while being supported by a network that connected eight monastic communities in the districts of Hermonthis and Koptos, but centered on Western Thebes. This book examines how Abraham and Pesynthius contributed to the success of the Theodosian church in the Theban region, the area from Huw almost to Esna, by analyzing their networks and use of authority. By means of a papyrological approach four datasets were prepared for the study of the bishops’ common (Theodosian and Theban) networks in ca. 600-630, their individual networks, and a topographical network, in order to establish the reach of their social ties. Show less
