Professor of Drama Carol Martin and Dr. Sharon Aronson Lehavi have been awarded a NYU-TAU Joint Research Grant for a three-day seminar, “Embodied Spaces and their Objects,” to be held at New York University. The project received $10,020 in joint funding from NYU and Tel Aviv University.
The seminar will bring together scholars and arts professionals to look at how objects shape physical spaces and the stories connected to them. Dan Soule and Dr. Daphne Ben-Shaul will participate. Martin and Aronson Lehavi also plan to invite Dr. Michele Bambling, curator of the galleries at Japan Society in New York City, and Navina Haidar, who oversees Arab acquisitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In their project statement, Martin and Aronson Lehavi write that objects can carry meaning through the people who create, collect, and use them. “Their significance emerges through touch, use, display, and interpretation,” they write. The project looks at objects ranging from tools and garments to symbols and relics, and considers how their meaning can change depending on how and where they are used.
The seminar will also explore what Martin and Aronson Lehavi describe as “embodied spaces,” including house museums, maquettes, theatre stages, courtrooms, altars, and other forms of religious architecture. These are spaces constructed to hold the stories of people, places, histories, and cultures. As they write in the statement, “Scenography relies on objects not only to build worlds we can imaginatively inhabit but also to shape the scenarios that unfold within them.”
Stay tuned for more about “Embodied Spaces and their Objects” and the upcoming seminar.