Workshop: Railway Representations in Imperial-Colonial Contexts. Decoding Visual Epistemologies in the Mediterranean and Beyond

They were seen as instruments of modernity and of progress and civilisation, and this narrative was even more strongly projected in the case of railway development in colonies in Asia and Africa so also in imperial contexts like Turkey–the Ottoman Empire. Various representations of this hegemonic discourse can be found in texts, sounds, images, physical artefacts as well as the landscape. As the railway historian Ian Kerr points out, “…the study of representation and representations opens up anything surviving from the past…as potential primary sources” (Kerr 2003), hitherto understudied. In distinguishing between representations and representation, Kerr emphasises the importance of studying images and processes—who was representing, how and for whom were the representations made, etc. This workshop takes recourse to both these aspects, with a particular focus on visual narratives of railway infrastructure produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Mediterranean becomes an emotive space, at the centre of colonial-imperial entanglements post 1800, and remains politically relevant today for issues of migration and decolonisation, the relation between Europe and the Islamic world, environmental and economic crisis. By centring the attention to infrastructure building processes—or machinery rooms in the Mediterranean, the workshop brings to the fore the complexities of mobilities and acceleration in the last two centuries and subsequently contributes to deposing the prevalent romanticized and decadent notions of the Mediterranean. It however, also looks beyond the Mediterranean to reveal the wider impacts of imperial-colonial railway politics.

Linked with this is the issue of archives, where the knowledge related to infrastructure is kept, and how it is problematised. Railway archives are vast, considering the ambitious, widespread railway building programmes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the extensive knowledge-transfer and exchange involved in the process. These archives thus become important sources to underline the complexities in decision-making, highlighting the presence and active negotiations of multiple state and non-state players that transcend the mere metropole-periphery binaries. Along with physical and digital archives and museums, railway buildings, like stations become key containers of knowledge. Railway stations were built to “signify”—be it the achievements of new technology and/or of imperial/colonial prowess. They served as “cathedrals of modernity” (Richards and MacKenzie 1986), gateways to cities and markers of new nations. The complex symbolism associated with railway stations reflected in their architecture, design and layout, and elaborate sculptural programme. The meanings associated with railway stations evolved and became more nuanced over time with use, changing technology, and transforming socio-political-economic contexts. The railway stations thus also become rich visual archives to decode questions of agency and representation.

This workshop aims to examine the underlying discourses and representations in railway building by focusing on visual sources—railway architecture, like stations, bridges, and other built elements as well as images of railways and railway stations in museums and archives—be it photographs, posters, postcards, paintings, games, and other media as (counter)-archives. It brings together invited historians, art historians, archivists, heritage and museum professionals with a goal to devise interdisciplinary approaches and common methodologies to reveal and subvert the relationships between the metropole and the periphery, notions of nation building, and critically reflect on the ruptures and continuities in their interpretations in the post-imperial, post-colonial times.