Project acronym 9 SALT
Project Reassessing Ninth Century Philosophy. A Synchronic Approach to the Logical Traditions
Researcher (PI) Christophe Florian Erismann
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITAT WIEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike.
Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).
Summary
This project aims at a better understanding of the philosophical richness of ninth century thought using the unprecedented and highly innovative method of the synchronic approach. The hypothesis directing this synchronic approach is that studying together in parallel the four main philosophical traditions of the century – i.e. Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic – will bring results that the traditional enquiry limited to one tradition alone can never reach. This implies pioneering a new methodology to overcome the compartmentalization of research which prevails nowadays. Using this method is only possible because the four conditions of applicability – comparable intellectual environment, common text corpus, similar methodological perspective, commensurable problems – are fulfilled. The ninth century, a time of cultural renewal in the Carolingian, Byzantine and Abbasid empires, possesses the remarkable characteristic – which ensures commensurability – that the same texts, namely the writings of Aristotelian logic (mainly Porphyry’s Isagoge and Aristotle’s Categories) were read and commented upon in Latin, Greek, Syriac and Arabic alike.
Logic is fundamental to philosophical enquiry. The contested question is the human capacity to rationalise, analyse and describe the sensible reality, to understand the ontological structure of the world, and to define the types of entities which exist. The use of this unprecedented synchronic approach will allow us a deeper understanding of the positions, a clear identification of the a priori postulates of the philosophical debates, and a critical evaluation of the arguments used. It provides a unique opportunity to compare the different traditions and highlight the heritage which is common, to stress the specificities of each tradition when tackling philosophical issues and to discover the doctrinal results triggered by their mutual interactions, be they constructive (scholarly exchanges) or polemic (religious controversies).
Max ERC Funding
1 998 566 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym AFRISCREENWORLDS
Project African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies
Researcher (PI) Lindiwe Dovey
Host Institution (HI) SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES ROYAL CHARTER
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2018-COG
Summary A half century since it came into existence, the discipline of Film and Screen Studies remains mostly Eurocentric in its historical, theoretical and critical frameworks. Although “world cinema” and “transnational cinema” scholars have attempted to broaden its canon and frameworks, several major problems persist. Films and scholarship by Africans in particular, and by people of colour in general, are frequently marginalised if not altogether excluded. This prevents exciting exchanges that could help to re-envision Film and Screen Studies for the twenty-first century, in an era in which greater access to the technological means of making films, and circulating them on a range of screens, means that dynamic “screen worlds” are developing at a rapid rate. AFRISCREENWORLDS will study these “screen worlds” (in both their textual forms and industrial structures), with a focus on Africa, as a way of centring the most marginalised regional cinema. We will also elaborate comparative studies of global “screen worlds” – and, in particular, “screen worlds” in the Global South – exploring their similarities, differences, and parallel developments. We will respond to the exclusions of Film and Screen Studies not only in scholarly ways – through conferences and publications – but also in creative and activist ways – through drawing on cutting-edge creative research methodologies (such as audiovisual criticism and filmmaking) and through helping to decolonise Film and Screen Studies (through the production of ‘toolkits’ on how to make curricula, syllabi, and teaching more globally representative and inclusive). On a theoretical level, we will make an intervention through considering how the concept of “screen worlds” is better equipped than “world cinema” or “transnational cinema” to explore the complexities of audiovisual narratives, and their production and circulation in our contemporary moment, in diverse contexts throughout the globe.
Summary
A half century since it came into existence, the discipline of Film and Screen Studies remains mostly Eurocentric in its historical, theoretical and critical frameworks. Although “world cinema” and “transnational cinema” scholars have attempted to broaden its canon and frameworks, several major problems persist. Films and scholarship by Africans in particular, and by people of colour in general, are frequently marginalised if not altogether excluded. This prevents exciting exchanges that could help to re-envision Film and Screen Studies for the twenty-first century, in an era in which greater access to the technological means of making films, and circulating them on a range of screens, means that dynamic “screen worlds” are developing at a rapid rate. AFRISCREENWORLDS will study these “screen worlds” (in both their textual forms and industrial structures), with a focus on Africa, as a way of centring the most marginalised regional cinema. We will also elaborate comparative studies of global “screen worlds” – and, in particular, “screen worlds” in the Global South – exploring their similarities, differences, and parallel developments. We will respond to the exclusions of Film and Screen Studies not only in scholarly ways – through conferences and publications – but also in creative and activist ways – through drawing on cutting-edge creative research methodologies (such as audiovisual criticism and filmmaking) and through helping to decolonise Film and Screen Studies (through the production of ‘toolkits’ on how to make curricula, syllabi, and teaching more globally representative and inclusive). On a theoretical level, we will make an intervention through considering how the concept of “screen worlds” is better equipped than “world cinema” or “transnational cinema” to explore the complexities of audiovisual narratives, and their production and circulation in our contemporary moment, in diverse contexts throughout the globe.
Max ERC Funding
1 985 578 €
Duration
Start date: 2019-06-01, End date: 2024-05-31
Project acronym AlchemEast
Project Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE - 1000 AD)
Researcher (PI) Matteo MARTELLI
Host Institution (HI) ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary The AlchemEast project is devoted to the study of alchemical theory and practice as it appeared and developed in distinct, albeit contiguous (both chronologically and geographically) areas: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Byzantium, and the Near East, from Ancient Babylonian times to the early Islamic Period. This project combines innovative textual investigations with experimental replications of ancient alchemical procedures. It uses sets of historically and philologically informed laboratory replications in order to reconstruct the actual practice of ancient alchemists, and it studies the texts and literary forms in which this practice was conceptualized and transmitted. It proposes new models for textual criticism in order to capture the fluidity of the transmission of ancient alchemical writings. AlchemEast is designed to carry out a comparative investigation of cuneiform tablets as well as a vast corpus of Greek, Syriac and Arabic writings. It will overcome the old, pejorative paradigm that dismissed ancient alchemy as a "pseudo-science", by proposing a new theoretical framework for comprehending the entirety of ancient alchemical practices and theories. Alongside established forms of scholarly output, such as critical editions of key texts, AlchemEast will provide an integrative, longue durée perspective on the many different phases of ancient alchemy. It will thus offer a radically new vision of this discipline as a dynamic and diversified art that developed across different technical and scholastic traditions. This new representation will allow us to connect ancient alchemy with medieval and early modern alchemy and thus fully reintegrate ancient alchemy in the history of pre-modern alchemy as well as in the history of ancient science more broadly.
Summary
The AlchemEast project is devoted to the study of alchemical theory and practice as it appeared and developed in distinct, albeit contiguous (both chronologically and geographically) areas: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Byzantium, and the Near East, from Ancient Babylonian times to the early Islamic Period. This project combines innovative textual investigations with experimental replications of ancient alchemical procedures. It uses sets of historically and philologically informed laboratory replications in order to reconstruct the actual practice of ancient alchemists, and it studies the texts and literary forms in which this practice was conceptualized and transmitted. It proposes new models for textual criticism in order to capture the fluidity of the transmission of ancient alchemical writings. AlchemEast is designed to carry out a comparative investigation of cuneiform tablets as well as a vast corpus of Greek, Syriac and Arabic writings. It will overcome the old, pejorative paradigm that dismissed ancient alchemy as a "pseudo-science", by proposing a new theoretical framework for comprehending the entirety of ancient alchemical practices and theories. Alongside established forms of scholarly output, such as critical editions of key texts, AlchemEast will provide an integrative, longue durée perspective on the many different phases of ancient alchemy. It will thus offer a radically new vision of this discipline as a dynamic and diversified art that developed across different technical and scholastic traditions. This new representation will allow us to connect ancient alchemy with medieval and early modern alchemy and thus fully reintegrate ancient alchemy in the history of pre-modern alchemy as well as in the history of ancient science more broadly.
Max ERC Funding
1 997 000 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-12-01, End date: 2022-11-30
Project acronym ALDof 2DTMDs
Project Atomic layer deposition of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide nanolayers
Researcher (PI) Ageeth Bol
Host Institution (HI) TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT EINDHOVEN
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE5, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) are an exciting class of new materials. Their ultrathin body, optical band gap and unusual spin and valley polarization physics make them very promising candidates for a vast new range of (opto-)electronic applications. So far, most experimental work on 2D-TMDs has been performed on exfoliated flakes made by the ‘Scotch tape’ technique. The major next challenge is the large-area synthesis of 2D-TMDs by a technique that ultimately can be used for commercial device fabrication.
Building upon pure 2D-TMDs, even more functionalities can be gained from 2D-TMD alloys and heterostructures. Theoretical work on these derivates reveals exciting new phenomena, but experimentally this field is largely unexplored due to synthesis technique limitations.
The goal of this proposal is to combine atomic layer deposition with plasma chemistry to create a novel surface-controlled, industry-compatible synthesis technique that will make large area 2D-TMDs, 2D-TMD alloys and 2D-TMD heterostructures a reality. This innovative approach will enable systematic layer dependent studies, likely revealing exciting new properties, and provide integration pathways for a multitude of applications.
Atomistic simulations will guide the process development and, together with in- and ex-situ analysis, increase the understanding of the surface chemistry involved. State-of-the-art high resolution transmission electron microscopy will be used to study the alloying process and the formation of heterostructures. Luminescence spectroscopy and electrical characterization will reveal the potential of the synthesized materials for (opto)-electronic applications.
The synergy between the excellent background of the PI in 2D materials for nanoelectronics and the group’s leading expertise in ALD and plasma science is unique and provides an ideal stepping stone to develop the synthesis of large-area 2D-TMDs and derivatives.
Summary
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) are an exciting class of new materials. Their ultrathin body, optical band gap and unusual spin and valley polarization physics make them very promising candidates for a vast new range of (opto-)electronic applications. So far, most experimental work on 2D-TMDs has been performed on exfoliated flakes made by the ‘Scotch tape’ technique. The major next challenge is the large-area synthesis of 2D-TMDs by a technique that ultimately can be used for commercial device fabrication.
Building upon pure 2D-TMDs, even more functionalities can be gained from 2D-TMD alloys and heterostructures. Theoretical work on these derivates reveals exciting new phenomena, but experimentally this field is largely unexplored due to synthesis technique limitations.
The goal of this proposal is to combine atomic layer deposition with plasma chemistry to create a novel surface-controlled, industry-compatible synthesis technique that will make large area 2D-TMDs, 2D-TMD alloys and 2D-TMD heterostructures a reality. This innovative approach will enable systematic layer dependent studies, likely revealing exciting new properties, and provide integration pathways for a multitude of applications.
Atomistic simulations will guide the process development and, together with in- and ex-situ analysis, increase the understanding of the surface chemistry involved. State-of-the-art high resolution transmission electron microscopy will be used to study the alloying process and the formation of heterostructures. Luminescence spectroscopy and electrical characterization will reveal the potential of the synthesized materials for (opto)-electronic applications.
The synergy between the excellent background of the PI in 2D materials for nanoelectronics and the group’s leading expertise in ALD and plasma science is unique and provides an ideal stepping stone to develop the synthesis of large-area 2D-TMDs and derivatives.
Max ERC Funding
1 968 709 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-08-01, End date: 2020-07-31
Project acronym ALTERUMMA
Project Creating an Alternative umma: Clerical Authority and Religio-political Mobilisation in Transnational Shii Islam
Researcher (PI) Oliver Paul SCHARBRODT
Host Institution (HI) THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary This interdisciplinary project investigates the transformation of Shii Islam in the Middle East and Europe since the 1950s. The project examines the formation of modern Shii communal identities and the role Shii clerical authorities and their transnational networks have played in their religio-political mobilisation. The volatile situation post-Arab Spring, the rise of militant movements such as ISIS and the sectarianisation of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East have intensified efforts to forge distinct Shii communal identities and to conceive Shii Muslims as part of an alternative umma (Islamic community). The project focusses on Iran, Iraq and significant but unexplored diasporic links to Syria, Kuwait and Britain. In response to the rise of modern nation-states in the Middle East, Shii clerical authorities resorted to a wide range of activities: (a) articulating intellectual responses to the ideologies underpinning modern Middle Eastern nation-states, (b) forming political parties and other platforms of socio-political activism and (c) using various forms of cultural production by systematising and promoting Shii ritual practices and utilising visual art, poetry and new media.
The project yields a perspectival shift on the factors that led to Shii communal mobilisation by:
- Analysing unacknowledged intellectual responses of Shii clerical authorities to the secular or sectarian ideologies of post-colonial nation-states and to the current sectarianisation of geopolitics in the Middle East.
- Emphasising the central role of diasporic networks in the Middle East and Europe in mobilising Shii communities and in influencing discourses and agendas of clerical authorities based in Iraq and Iran.
- Exploring new modes of cultural production in the form of a modern Shii aesthetics articulated in ritual practices, visual art, poetry and new media and thus creating a more holistic narrative on Shii religio-political mobilisation.
Summary
This interdisciplinary project investigates the transformation of Shii Islam in the Middle East and Europe since the 1950s. The project examines the formation of modern Shii communal identities and the role Shii clerical authorities and their transnational networks have played in their religio-political mobilisation. The volatile situation post-Arab Spring, the rise of militant movements such as ISIS and the sectarianisation of geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East have intensified efforts to forge distinct Shii communal identities and to conceive Shii Muslims as part of an alternative umma (Islamic community). The project focusses on Iran, Iraq and significant but unexplored diasporic links to Syria, Kuwait and Britain. In response to the rise of modern nation-states in the Middle East, Shii clerical authorities resorted to a wide range of activities: (a) articulating intellectual responses to the ideologies underpinning modern Middle Eastern nation-states, (b) forming political parties and other platforms of socio-political activism and (c) using various forms of cultural production by systematising and promoting Shii ritual practices and utilising visual art, poetry and new media.
The project yields a perspectival shift on the factors that led to Shii communal mobilisation by:
- Analysing unacknowledged intellectual responses of Shii clerical authorities to the secular or sectarian ideologies of post-colonial nation-states and to the current sectarianisation of geopolitics in the Middle East.
- Emphasising the central role of diasporic networks in the Middle East and Europe in mobilising Shii communities and in influencing discourses and agendas of clerical authorities based in Iraq and Iran.
- Exploring new modes of cultural production in the form of a modern Shii aesthetics articulated in ritual practices, visual art, poetry and new media and thus creating a more holistic narrative on Shii religio-political mobilisation.
Max ERC Funding
1 952 374 €
Duration
Start date: 2018-01-01, End date: 2022-12-31
Project acronym ANT
Project Automata in Number Theory
Researcher (PI) Boris Adamczewski
Host Institution (HI) CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE1, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary Finite automata are fundamental objects in Computer Science, of great importance on one hand for theoretical aspects (formal language theory, decidability, complexity) and on the other for practical applications (parsing). In number theory, finite automata are mainly used as simple devices for generating sequences of symbols over a finite set (e.g., digital representations of real numbers), and for recognizing some sets of integers or more generally of finitely generated abelian groups or monoids. One of the main features of these automatic structures comes from the fact that they are highly ordered without necessarily being trivial (i.e., periodic). With their rich fractal nature, they lie somewhere between order and chaos, even if, in most respects, their rigidity prevails. Over the last few years, several ground-breaking results have lead to a great renewed interest in the study of automatic structures in arithmetics.
A primary objective of the ANT project is to exploit this opportunity by developing new directions and interactions between automata and number theory. In this proposal, we outline three lines of research concerning fundamental number theoretical problems that have baffled mathematicians for decades. They include the study of integer base expansions of classical constants, of arithmetical linear differential equations and their link with enumerative combinatorics, and of arithmetics in positive characteristic. At first glance, these topics may seem unrelated, but, surprisingly enough, the theory of finite automata will serve as a natural guideline. We stress that this new point of view on classical questions is a key part of our methodology: we aim at creating a powerful synergy between the different approaches we propose to develop, placing automata theory and related methods at the heart of the subject. This project provides a unique opportunity to create the first international team focusing on these different problems as a whole.
Summary
Finite automata are fundamental objects in Computer Science, of great importance on one hand for theoretical aspects (formal language theory, decidability, complexity) and on the other for practical applications (parsing). In number theory, finite automata are mainly used as simple devices for generating sequences of symbols over a finite set (e.g., digital representations of real numbers), and for recognizing some sets of integers or more generally of finitely generated abelian groups or monoids. One of the main features of these automatic structures comes from the fact that they are highly ordered without necessarily being trivial (i.e., periodic). With their rich fractal nature, they lie somewhere between order and chaos, even if, in most respects, their rigidity prevails. Over the last few years, several ground-breaking results have lead to a great renewed interest in the study of automatic structures in arithmetics.
A primary objective of the ANT project is to exploit this opportunity by developing new directions and interactions between automata and number theory. In this proposal, we outline three lines of research concerning fundamental number theoretical problems that have baffled mathematicians for decades. They include the study of integer base expansions of classical constants, of arithmetical linear differential equations and their link with enumerative combinatorics, and of arithmetics in positive characteristic. At first glance, these topics may seem unrelated, but, surprisingly enough, the theory of finite automata will serve as a natural guideline. We stress that this new point of view on classical questions is a key part of our methodology: we aim at creating a powerful synergy between the different approaches we propose to develop, placing automata theory and related methods at the heart of the subject. This project provides a unique opportunity to create the first international team focusing on these different problems as a whole.
Max ERC Funding
1 438 745 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-10-01, End date: 2020-09-30
Project acronym ARCTIC CULT
Project ARCTIC CULTURES: SITES OF COLLECTION IN THE FORMATION OF THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN NORTHLANDS
Researcher (PI) Richard Charles POWELL
Host Institution (HI) THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary The Arctic has risen to global attention in recent years, as it has been reconfigured through debates about global environmental change, resource extraction and disputes over sovereign rights. Within these discourses, little attention has been paid to the cultures of the Arctic. Indeed, it often seems as if the Circumpolar Arctic in global public understanding remains framed as a 'natural region' - that is, a place where the environment dominates the creation of culture. This framing has consequences for the region, because through this the Arctic becomes constructed as a space where people are absent. This proposal aims to discover how and why this might be so.
The proposal argues that this construction of the Arctic emerged from the exploration of the region by Europeans and North Americans and their contacts with indigenous people from the middle of the eighteenth century. Particular texts, cartographic representations and objects were collected and returned to sites like London, Copenhagen, Berlin and Philadelphia. The construction of the Arctic thereby became entwined within the growth of colonial museum cultures and, indeed, western modernity. This project aims to delineate the networks and collecting cultures involved in this creation of Arctic Cultures. It will bring repositories in colonial metropoles into dialogue with sites of collection in the Arctic by tracing the contexts of discovery and memorialisation. In doing so, it aspires to a new understanding of the consequences of certain forms of colonial representation for debates about the Circumpolar Arctic today.
The project involves research by the Principal Investigator and four Post Doctoral Researchers at museums, archives, libraries and repositories across Europe and North America, as well as in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. A Project Assistant based in Oxford will help facilitate the completion of the research.
Summary
The Arctic has risen to global attention in recent years, as it has been reconfigured through debates about global environmental change, resource extraction and disputes over sovereign rights. Within these discourses, little attention has been paid to the cultures of the Arctic. Indeed, it often seems as if the Circumpolar Arctic in global public understanding remains framed as a 'natural region' - that is, a place where the environment dominates the creation of culture. This framing has consequences for the region, because through this the Arctic becomes constructed as a space where people are absent. This proposal aims to discover how and why this might be so.
The proposal argues that this construction of the Arctic emerged from the exploration of the region by Europeans and North Americans and their contacts with indigenous people from the middle of the eighteenth century. Particular texts, cartographic representations and objects were collected and returned to sites like London, Copenhagen, Berlin and Philadelphia. The construction of the Arctic thereby became entwined within the growth of colonial museum cultures and, indeed, western modernity. This project aims to delineate the networks and collecting cultures involved in this creation of Arctic Cultures. It will bring repositories in colonial metropoles into dialogue with sites of collection in the Arctic by tracing the contexts of discovery and memorialisation. In doing so, it aspires to a new understanding of the consequences of certain forms of colonial representation for debates about the Circumpolar Arctic today.
The project involves research by the Principal Investigator and four Post Doctoral Researchers at museums, archives, libraries and repositories across Europe and North America, as well as in Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. A Project Assistant based in Oxford will help facilitate the completion of the research.
Max ERC Funding
1 996 250 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-10-01, End date: 2022-09-30
Project acronym ARTECHNE
Project Technique in the Arts. Concepts, Practices, Expertise (1500-1950)
Researcher (PI) Sven Georges Mathieu Dupré
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), SH5, ERC-2014-CoG
Summary The transmission of ‘technique’ in art has been a conspicuous ‘black box’ resisting analysis. The tools of the humanities used to study the transmission of ideas and concepts are insufficient when it comes to understanding the transmission of something as non-propositional and non-verbal as ‘technique’. The insights of the neurosciences in, for example, the acquisition and transmission of drawing skills are not yet sufficiently advanced to be historically restrictive. However, only in the most recent years, the history of science and technology has turned to how-to instructions as given in recipes. This project proposes to undertake the experimental reconstruction of historical recipes to finally open the black box of the transmission of technique in the visual and decorative arts. Considering ‘technique’ as a textual, material and social practice, this project will write a long-term history of the theory and practice of the study of ‘technique’ in the visual and decorative arts between 1500 and 1950. The three central research questions here are: (1) what is technique in the visual and decorative arts, (2) how is technique transmitted and studied, and (3) who is considered expert in technique, and why? This project will make a breakthrough in our understanding of the transmission of technique in the arts by integrating methodologies typical for the humanities and historical disciplines with laboratory work. Also, by providing a history of technique in the arts, this project lays the historical foundations of the epistemologies of conservation, restoration and technical art history precisely at a moment of greatest urgency. The connection between the history of science and technology and the expertise in conservation, restoration and technical art history (in the Ateliergebouw in Amsterdam) this project envisions builds the intellectual infrastructure of a new field of interdisciplinary research, unique in Europe.
Summary
The transmission of ‘technique’ in art has been a conspicuous ‘black box’ resisting analysis. The tools of the humanities used to study the transmission of ideas and concepts are insufficient when it comes to understanding the transmission of something as non-propositional and non-verbal as ‘technique’. The insights of the neurosciences in, for example, the acquisition and transmission of drawing skills are not yet sufficiently advanced to be historically restrictive. However, only in the most recent years, the history of science and technology has turned to how-to instructions as given in recipes. This project proposes to undertake the experimental reconstruction of historical recipes to finally open the black box of the transmission of technique in the visual and decorative arts. Considering ‘technique’ as a textual, material and social practice, this project will write a long-term history of the theory and practice of the study of ‘technique’ in the visual and decorative arts between 1500 and 1950. The three central research questions here are: (1) what is technique in the visual and decorative arts, (2) how is technique transmitted and studied, and (3) who is considered expert in technique, and why? This project will make a breakthrough in our understanding of the transmission of technique in the arts by integrating methodologies typical for the humanities and historical disciplines with laboratory work. Also, by providing a history of technique in the arts, this project lays the historical foundations of the epistemologies of conservation, restoration and technical art history precisely at a moment of greatest urgency. The connection between the history of science and technology and the expertise in conservation, restoration and technical art history (in the Ateliergebouw in Amsterdam) this project envisions builds the intellectual infrastructure of a new field of interdisciplinary research, unique in Europe.
Max ERC Funding
1 907 944 €
Duration
Start date: 2015-09-01, End date: 2020-08-31
Project acronym BETACONTROL
Project Control of amyloid formation via beta-hairpin molecular recognition features
Researcher (PI) Wolfgang HOYER
Host Institution (HI) HEINRICH-HEINE-UNIVERSITAET DUESSELDORF
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE5, ERC-2016-COG
Summary The aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibrils is involved in various diseases which place a high burden on patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare systems, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes. While the therapeutic potential of the inhibition of amyloid formation and spreading has been recognized, there is a lack of effective strategies targeting the early steps of the aggregation reaction.
In BETACONTROL, I want to establish a structure-guided approach to the control of amyloid formation and spreading. I will develop small molecule and polypeptide-based ligands that interfere with the initial phases of amyloid formation and thereby suppress any toxic oligomeric or fibrillar assemblies. The ligands will target beta-hairpin molecular recognition features, which I found to be readily accessible in disease-related amyloidogenic proteins. Targeting beta-hairpins enables retardation of protein aggregation by substoichiometric amounts of the ligand, affording inhibition of amyloid formation at low compound concentrations. As the strategy addresses the common propensity of amyloidogenic proteins to adopt beta-structure, it will be applicable to a wide range of proteins associated with various diseases.
BETACONTROL will yield molecular-level insight into the mechanistic basis of amyloid formation and spreading. Furthermore, it will elucidate the significance of beta-hairpins as molecular recognition features in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and highlight the applicability of these features as targets for interference with protein-protein interactions of IDPs. Ultimately, BETACONTROL will provide a novel therapeutic approach to a range of devastating diseases.
Summary
The aggregation of proteins into amyloid fibrils is involved in various diseases which place a high burden on patients, families, caregivers, and healthcare systems, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and type 2 diabetes. While the therapeutic potential of the inhibition of amyloid formation and spreading has been recognized, there is a lack of effective strategies targeting the early steps of the aggregation reaction.
In BETACONTROL, I want to establish a structure-guided approach to the control of amyloid formation and spreading. I will develop small molecule and polypeptide-based ligands that interfere with the initial phases of amyloid formation and thereby suppress any toxic oligomeric or fibrillar assemblies. The ligands will target beta-hairpin molecular recognition features, which I found to be readily accessible in disease-related amyloidogenic proteins. Targeting beta-hairpins enables retardation of protein aggregation by substoichiometric amounts of the ligand, affording inhibition of amyloid formation at low compound concentrations. As the strategy addresses the common propensity of amyloidogenic proteins to adopt beta-structure, it will be applicable to a wide range of proteins associated with various diseases.
BETACONTROL will yield molecular-level insight into the mechanistic basis of amyloid formation and spreading. Furthermore, it will elucidate the significance of beta-hairpins as molecular recognition features in intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and highlight the applicability of these features as targets for interference with protein-protein interactions of IDPs. Ultimately, BETACONTROL will provide a novel therapeutic approach to a range of devastating diseases.
Max ERC Funding
1 920 697 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-06-01, End date: 2022-05-31
Project acronym BG-BB-AS
Project Birational Geometry, B-branes and Artin Stacks
Researcher (PI) Edward Paul Segal
Host Institution (HI) UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Call Details Consolidator Grant (CoG), PE1, ERC-2016-COG
Summary Derived categories of coherent sheaves on a variety are a fundamental tool in algebraic geometry. They also arise in String Theory, as the category of B-branes in a quantum field theory whose target space is the variety. This connection to physics has been extraordinarily fruitful, providing deep insights and conjectures.
An Artin stack is a sophisticated generalization of a variety, they encode the idea of equivariant geometry. A simple example is a vector space carrying a linear action of a Lie group. In String Theory this data defines a Gauged Linear Sigma Model, which is a basic tool in the subject. A GLSM should also give rise to a category of B-branes, but surprisingly it is not yet understood what this should be. An overarching goal of this project is to develop an understanding of this category (more accurately, system of categories), and to extend this understanding to more general Artin stacks.
The basic importance of this question is that in certain limits a GLSM reduces to a sigma model, whose target is a quotient of the vector space by the group. This quotient must be taken using Geometric Invariant Theory. Thus this project is intimately connected with the question of how derived categories change under variation-of-GIT, and birational maps in general.
For GLSMs with abelian groups this approach has already produced spectacular results, in the non-abelian case we understand only a few remarkable examples. We will develop these examples into a wide-ranging general theory.
Our key objectives are to:
- Provide powerful new tools for controlling the behaviour of derived categories under birational maps.
- Understand the category of B-branes on a large class of Artin stacks.
- Prove and apply a striking new duality between GLSMs.
- Construct completely new symmetries of derived categories.
Summary
Derived categories of coherent sheaves on a variety are a fundamental tool in algebraic geometry. They also arise in String Theory, as the category of B-branes in a quantum field theory whose target space is the variety. This connection to physics has been extraordinarily fruitful, providing deep insights and conjectures.
An Artin stack is a sophisticated generalization of a variety, they encode the idea of equivariant geometry. A simple example is a vector space carrying a linear action of a Lie group. In String Theory this data defines a Gauged Linear Sigma Model, which is a basic tool in the subject. A GLSM should also give rise to a category of B-branes, but surprisingly it is not yet understood what this should be. An overarching goal of this project is to develop an understanding of this category (more accurately, system of categories), and to extend this understanding to more general Artin stacks.
The basic importance of this question is that in certain limits a GLSM reduces to a sigma model, whose target is a quotient of the vector space by the group. This quotient must be taken using Geometric Invariant Theory. Thus this project is intimately connected with the question of how derived categories change under variation-of-GIT, and birational maps in general.
For GLSMs with abelian groups this approach has already produced spectacular results, in the non-abelian case we understand only a few remarkable examples. We will develop these examples into a wide-ranging general theory.
Our key objectives are to:
- Provide powerful new tools for controlling the behaviour of derived categories under birational maps.
- Understand the category of B-branes on a large class of Artin stacks.
- Prove and apply a striking new duality between GLSMs.
- Construct completely new symmetries of derived categories.
Max ERC Funding
1 358 925 €
Duration
Start date: 2017-09-01, End date: 2022-08-31
