Seeing and knowing with the bride of Christ: How a metaphor shaped thought and action in the Middle Ages
Line Cecilie Engh I learned from Line that metaphors car be used for "SEEING thoughts". Line read for us the story of the representation of marriage, between husband and wife, Christ and Church, or Christ and Soul, through the Middle Ages. She intended to explain how "bridal imagery produce cultural meaning" (and not vice versa) and, by extension, "how visual thinking can have political and social impact" -very relevant to the theme of SEING and KNOWING.
Line took us on a lively and erudite journey though the representation of marriage in the Middle Ages. At the end I had the impression to have listened to a brilliant essay about marriage in general, that is still relevant to the time we live in. Look at all the pink bubbles on the right hand side representation of the contemporary debate of same sex-marriage: if I am following Line, most of them must be a consequence of the metaphoric approach of marriage in the Middle Ages -not that I want to engage a political debate on this subject on this blog.
That being said, I liked that reflecting on neuroesthetic considerations such as "visual thinking", which may seem narrow and specialized at first sight, can actually be associated with such significant contemporary, political and social relevance.
Line took us on a lively and erudite journey though the representation of marriage in the Middle Ages. At the end I had the impression to have listened to a brilliant essay about marriage in general, that is still relevant to the time we live in. Look at all the pink bubbles on the right hand side representation of the contemporary debate of same sex-marriage: if I am following Line, most of them must be a consequence of the metaphoric approach of marriage in the Middle Ages -not that I want to engage a political debate on this subject on this blog.
That being said, I liked that reflecting on neuroesthetic considerations such as "visual thinking", which may seem narrow and specialized at first sight, can actually be associated with such significant contemporary, political and social relevance.
 A metaphor of marriage as represented in the Middle Ages (sketched from Line's presentation) |  A contemporary representation of same-sex marriage debate (http://www.namingandtreating.com/?p=21061). |
This is part of a series of posts on the 11th International Conference on Neuroesthetics (September 2014).
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