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Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 2012 SymposiumDumbarton Oaks is pleased to announce a symposium, to be held in the Music Roomof Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., on Friday, October 12th, Saturday,October 13th, and Sunday, October 14th, 2012. Please note that the symposiumwill be two and a half days: sessions will begin at 9 am on Friday, andconclude Sunday afternoon.In the Middle Ages and beyond, legal, documentary, exegetical, literary andlinguistic traditions have organized the relationship between image and letterin diverse ways, whether in terms of equivalency, complementarity or polarity.In this symposium, we wish to explore those situations in which letter andimage were fused, forming hybrid signs that had no vocal equivalent and werenot necessarily bound to any specific language.  Although imagistic scriptswork on the visible, arranging representation, they challenge the legible interms of linguistic signification. The incorporation of figures, objects,colors, even events, within the letter insists on the material dimension of thesign. As the iconicity of the letter transforms reading into gazing, thescript-like character of the image compels consideration of theco-signification of sign forms. In mediating each other into altered formats,the script-image disrupts a-priori models and ideas and thus redefines bothtext and image in terms of their signifying and representational processes. Thedisruptive effect of imagistic script inheres in a suspension of meaning thatopens the system of representation and signification in which it was producedand circulated.During the three-day conference, we propose to bring together scholars ofHebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Pre-Columbian cultures from numerousdisciplines – art history, history, literature, religion, linguistics, andlaw – to consider the purpose, operations, agency and specular forms oficonic scripts. What sort of communication did they facilitate? Did they implyreception by the inner eye? In prompting recognition of the aesthetic dimensionof texts, did they open governance, law, literature, diplomatics, and theologyto sensorial appreciation? Did they enforce a latent principle ofnon-representability? Does their use imply what might be called an iconomy, apractice of policing images?The symposium is organized with Brigitte Bedos-Rezak (New York University) andJeffrey F. Hamburger (Harvard University). Symposium speakers include ElizabethHill Boone, Ghislain Brunel, Anne-Marie Christin, Tom Cummins, Vincent Debiais,Ivan Drpić, Antony Eastmond, Beatrice Frankel, Cynthia Hahn, Herbert Kessler,Katrin Kogman-Appel, Didier Méhu, Irvin Cemil Schick and Irene Winter.Space for this event is limited, and registration will be handled on a firstcome, first served basis. For further information, including preliminaryabstracts, please visit the website ( &#60;http://www.doaks.org/news/2012-symposium&#62; http://www.doaks.org/news/2012-symposium) or contact Francisco López ( &#60;mailto:directorsoffice2011@doaks.org&#62; directorsoffice2011@doaks.org).