Skin Manuscripts

International conference at the University of Copenhagen. 

Not only is human skin our largest biological organ. It's also “a potentially ever-changing personal tapestry that tells the world about who we are or who we want to be” (Jablonski, 2006). 

It bears wit­ness to the toll of years but also to joy, violence, and trauma. Consequently, our understanding of skin extends far beyond a conceptual description that attempts to reduce it to its empirical nature. Rather, dermal phenomena need to be understood in terms of complex connections between medicine, anthropology, biology, psychology, culture, and cultural practices such as reading and writing (literature) and art. Skin has long been a unique canvas for the study of cultural and social phenomena. The ‘legibility’ of skin manuscripts, a term yet to be established, continues to provide important insights into the interrelated narratives of philosophy, anthropology, medical history, literature, and art. Historically, the study of human skin has relied heavily on both images and detailed (clinical) descriptions to document and diagnose disease, thus proving to be an inexhaustible resource for exploring fundamental philosophical and aesthetic ideas that are intimately intertwined with the context of European intellectual history as well as European colonialism and racism.

In dialogue with approaches from various disciplines, this international workshop will bring together reflections on new technologies, on the history of our changing assumptions about what (human) skin is, with a wide range of literary and artistic representations of the ‘skins’ we all inhabit.

Programme