Dominik Lengyel

5.19 Abstract Visuality for New Knowledge Structures and New Ways of Learning (Paper)

Dominik Lengyel – Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany

Abstract:

Is it the fear of these very unexpected territories that accounts for the resistance to complex answers? Like many other disciplines, archaeology, as a science with great potential for public interest, faces the dilemma that much of the public demands simple answers, simple solutions, and simple messages. But science is complex by nature, and the historical humanities in particular often deal with uncertainty, with hypotheses based on analogies and probabilities that, while equally likely, may also be contradictory. While language is perfectly capable of conveying ambiguity in a way that is widely accepted, because language is always abstract, the possibilities of imaginative photorealistic so-called reconstructions often tempt people to sell pure fantasy with little scientific content as archaeological knowledge. But it is precisely the direct translation of abstract language into abstract models, especially when the abstract geometry is photographed as if it were built architecture, that can evoke mental images, actually explore unexpected territories, that can also create dangerous and disturbing images, disappoint and mislead. But this would take place in the mind of the viewer and depend on his or her own imagination. Deception would no longer be the central content of the image, but would be replaced by an inner search that could stabilise one’s self-awareness through visuality and sign systems, promote one’s imagination and also counteract fears through experienced self-efficacy. Breaking with this traditional visual language, which is tied to physical reality and its imitation in archaeology, and rediscovering abstraction in images, gives rise to new structures of knowledge and new methods of learning. The aim of this article is to illustrate how architecture can interact with archaeology in an interdisciplinary way, on the basis of exhibition projects for different museums that have been developed with this pedagogical objective in mind.