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Papers by Michelle Oing
Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, vol. 1, 2023
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Oct 1, 2020
The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial an... more The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial and the natural. This article proposes the framework of puppetry as a means of understanding the transcendent potential of a group of medieval reliquary busts from Cologne. In both appearance and manipulation, these sculpted busts blurred the boundaries between life and death, much like puppets. I argue that the dual mimesis of these busts, both visual and kinetic, enhanced their theological purpose as vessels for the bones of saints, and points to a medieval interest in the productive paradoxes of representation. Through their puppet-like hybridity, these sculptures bridged the distance between humans and the divine for medieval viewers. The article concludes by proposing a parallel between the temporary lives of puppets and the hybrid nature of artificial intelligence, suggesting that medieval conceptions of mimesis can provide a means of thinking through twenty-first century technology.
denkste:puppe, 2020
The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial an... more The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial and the natural. This article proposes the framework of puppetry as a means of understanding the transcendent potential of a group of medieval reliquary busts from Cologne. In both appearance and manipulation, these sculpted busts blurred the boundaries between life and death, much like puppets. I argue that the dual mimesis of these busts, both visual and kinetic, enhanced their theological purpose as vessels for the bones of saints, and points to a medieval interest in the productive paradoxes of representation. Through their puppet-like hybridity, these sculptures bridged the distance between humans and the divine for medieval viewers. The article concludes by proposing a parallel between the temporary lives of puppets and the hybrid nature of artificial intelligence, suggesting that medieval conceptions of mimesis can provide a means of thinking through twenty-first century technology.
Sophie Dupont: Works 2010-2017, 2017
This piece puts the work of Danish artist Sophie Dupont in conversation with the transhistorical ... more This piece puts the work of Danish artist Sophie Dupont in conversation with the transhistorical practice of votive offerings, with a special focus on medieval Christian votives. In addition to being included in a publication on Dupont's work from 2017 (Roulette Russe), it can be found online here: http://www.sophiedupont.com/votive-bodies-making-space-text-by-michelle-oing/
Book Reviews by Michelle Oing
Speculum, 2021
Review of "Moving Women, Moving Objects (400-1500)," eds. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proct... more Review of "Moving Women, Moving Objects (400-1500)," eds. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany, Brill, 2019.
Conference Presentations by Michelle Oing
From moving statues to artificial animals to marionette performances, puppetry seems to have appe... more From moving statues to artificial animals to marionette performances, puppetry seems to have appeared in every sector of medieval and early modern European society. Jointed religious figures illustrated the liturgy, while dragon effigies processed through cities on feast days, and popular and courtly audiences enjoyed puppet shows of legendary and historical events. Despite the ubiquity of medieval and early modern puppets in Europe, scholarly consideration of these performing objects is often limited to case studies. Consideration of "puppetry" as a particular form with its own norms and commonalities is also uncommon, due in part to the marginal position of puppetry in Western culture. However, considering the variety and complexity of medieval and early modern European puppetry provides an opportunity to reassess the role of figural objects and performance in Western culture. As objects used in performance, puppets enrich expanding scholarship on the inter-and multimedial dimensions of medieval and early modern theater, liturgy, and entertainment. As imitative objects, puppets inform discussions about representation in medieval and early modern Europe. And as objects unsettling boundaries between animate and inanimate, puppets nuance conversations about object agency, object-oriented ontology, and the so-called "material turn" happening across the humanities.
Kalamazoo 2019, paper abstract
Kalamazoo 2018, paper abstract
Dead or Alive: Tracing the Animation of Matter in Art and Visual Culture, University of Copenhage... more Dead or Alive: Tracing the Animation of Matter in Art and Visual Culture, University of Copenhagen, 2016
Books by Michelle Oing
Kumano Kodo: Pilgrimage to Powerspots, 2022
*Kumano Kodo* is a journey into the hallucinogenic power of pilgrimage. Part travelogue, part spe... more *Kumano Kodo* is a journey into the hallucinogenic power of pilgrimage. Part travelogue, part speculative fiction, part scholarly history, this book speaks to the universal human impulse to explore the sacred through travel. By focusing on Japan's oldest pilgrimage route, the Kumano Kodo, the authors offer their readers a boldly transgressive and abundantly humorous look at the merry art of pilgrimage. Whether uncovering historical conspiracies, recounting bawdy folklore, or collecting ghost stories, this surrealist investigation establishes a new paradigm for spiritual travel inspired by an impressive breadth of scholarly research, and the authors' many years as pilgrims across the globe. Compiled in Kyoto at the height of the pandemic in 2020, the book is a unique reflection on the unwieldy power of the sacred in times of crisis, and contains dozens of original, full-color mandalas.
Available on Amazon
Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, vol. 1, 2023
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Oct 1, 2020
The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial an... more The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial and the natural. This article proposes the framework of puppetry as a means of understanding the transcendent potential of a group of medieval reliquary busts from Cologne. In both appearance and manipulation, these sculpted busts blurred the boundaries between life and death, much like puppets. I argue that the dual mimesis of these busts, both visual and kinetic, enhanced their theological purpose as vessels for the bones of saints, and points to a medieval interest in the productive paradoxes of representation. Through their puppet-like hybridity, these sculptures bridged the distance between humans and the divine for medieval viewers. The article concludes by proposing a parallel between the temporary lives of puppets and the hybrid nature of artificial intelligence, suggesting that medieval conceptions of mimesis can provide a means of thinking through twenty-first century technology.
denkste:puppe, 2020
The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial an... more The essence of puppet performance is its balance between animacy and inanimacy, the artificial and the natural. This article proposes the framework of puppetry as a means of understanding the transcendent potential of a group of medieval reliquary busts from Cologne. In both appearance and manipulation, these sculpted busts blurred the boundaries between life and death, much like puppets. I argue that the dual mimesis of these busts, both visual and kinetic, enhanced their theological purpose as vessels for the bones of saints, and points to a medieval interest in the productive paradoxes of representation. Through their puppet-like hybridity, these sculptures bridged the distance between humans and the divine for medieval viewers. The article concludes by proposing a parallel between the temporary lives of puppets and the hybrid nature of artificial intelligence, suggesting that medieval conceptions of mimesis can provide a means of thinking through twenty-first century technology.
Sophie Dupont: Works 2010-2017, 2017
This piece puts the work of Danish artist Sophie Dupont in conversation with the transhistorical ... more This piece puts the work of Danish artist Sophie Dupont in conversation with the transhistorical practice of votive offerings, with a special focus on medieval Christian votives. In addition to being included in a publication on Dupont's work from 2017 (Roulette Russe), it can be found online here: http://www.sophiedupont.com/votive-bodies-making-space-text-by-michelle-oing/
Speculum, 2021
Review of "Moving Women, Moving Objects (400-1500)," eds. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proct... more Review of "Moving Women, Moving Objects (400-1500)," eds. Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany, Brill, 2019.
From moving statues to artificial animals to marionette performances, puppetry seems to have appe... more From moving statues to artificial animals to marionette performances, puppetry seems to have appeared in every sector of medieval and early modern European society. Jointed religious figures illustrated the liturgy, while dragon effigies processed through cities on feast days, and popular and courtly audiences enjoyed puppet shows of legendary and historical events. Despite the ubiquity of medieval and early modern puppets in Europe, scholarly consideration of these performing objects is often limited to case studies. Consideration of "puppetry" as a particular form with its own norms and commonalities is also uncommon, due in part to the marginal position of puppetry in Western culture. However, considering the variety and complexity of medieval and early modern European puppetry provides an opportunity to reassess the role of figural objects and performance in Western culture. As objects used in performance, puppets enrich expanding scholarship on the inter-and multimedial dimensions of medieval and early modern theater, liturgy, and entertainment. As imitative objects, puppets inform discussions about representation in medieval and early modern Europe. And as objects unsettling boundaries between animate and inanimate, puppets nuance conversations about object agency, object-oriented ontology, and the so-called "material turn" happening across the humanities.
Kalamazoo 2019, paper abstract
Kalamazoo 2018, paper abstract
Dead or Alive: Tracing the Animation of Matter in Art and Visual Culture, University of Copenhage... more Dead or Alive: Tracing the Animation of Matter in Art and Visual Culture, University of Copenhagen, 2016
Kumano Kodo: Pilgrimage to Powerspots, 2022
*Kumano Kodo* is a journey into the hallucinogenic power of pilgrimage. Part travelogue, part spe... more *Kumano Kodo* is a journey into the hallucinogenic power of pilgrimage. Part travelogue, part speculative fiction, part scholarly history, this book speaks to the universal human impulse to explore the sacred through travel. By focusing on Japan's oldest pilgrimage route, the Kumano Kodo, the authors offer their readers a boldly transgressive and abundantly humorous look at the merry art of pilgrimage. Whether uncovering historical conspiracies, recounting bawdy folklore, or collecting ghost stories, this surrealist investigation establishes a new paradigm for spiritual travel inspired by an impressive breadth of scholarly research, and the authors' many years as pilgrims across the globe. Compiled in Kyoto at the height of the pandemic in 2020, the book is a unique reflection on the unwieldy power of the sacred in times of crisis, and contains dozens of original, full-color mandalas.
Available on Amazon