Selected Publications
- Julia von Ditfurth und Bastian Rapp: Innovation in der Glasherstellung des 21. Jahrhunderts. Die »Glassomer«-Technologie und das transdisziplinäre Projekt »GlassAge«, in: Die Denkmalpflege 82.2 (2024), S. 184-187.
- Julia von Ditfurth: Schicht für Schicht. Semantische Überlagerungen in mittelalterlichen Evangeliaren am Beispiel des Würzburger Kiliansevangeliars, in: Mittelalterliche Handschriften und ihre Biographien. Betrachtungen aus kunsthistorischer und germanistischer Perspektive, hg. v. Margit Dahm und Julia von Ditfurth, Kiel 2022, S. 85-115.
- Julia von Ditfurth: Spätmittelalterliche Kaufhäuser und ihre Architektur als Mittel zur Repräsentation, in: Kaufhäuser an Mittel- und Oberrhein im Spätmittelalter. Funktionen und Funktionalisierungen, hg. v. Heidrun Ochs und Gabriel Zeilinger (Schriften zur Südwestdeutschen Landeskunde, Bd. 80), Ostfildern 2019, S. 113–144.
- Julia von Ditfurth: Der Reliquienwagen in St. Aignan in Orléans. Ein Unikat im typologischen und motivischen Kontext, in: Mittelalterliche Reliquiare und ihre Typen zwischen Innovation und Tradition, hg. v. Klaus Gereon Beuckers und Dorothee Kemper (Objekte und Eliten in Hildesheim 1130–1250, Bd. 2), Regensburg 2017, S. 155–182.
FRIAS Project
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia von Dittfurth is member of the Project Group “GlassAge – A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation”
The project group investigates the historic and cultural context of one of humankind’s earliest high performance materials the importance of which has only grown with time: glass. Since the early developments in glass shaping, the history of this material has been closely linked to the cultural context. Interestingly, many of the artefacts of glass that survive from premodern contexts today still surpass the dominating methods of glass processing in the 21st century, and many of the effects found in historic specimens have a surprising actuality. As an example, optical metamaterials have been documented over a span of two millennia with current technology unable to replicate the craftsmanship required to make these object. GlassAge will explore the cultural and historic context of glass and the breakthrough developments which have, for various reasons, been largely ignored by modern developments in the material.
Just as bionics takes nature as a model for material innovations, this project asks how the know-how of past cultures can inspire modern material developments. The project group envisions to provide inspiration for modern material systems which reach beyond the mere technological assessment, building on the rich history of material and material processing in its cultural context thus enabling a holistic retro- as well as a prospective vision for material systems in the 21st century.