In order to manifest itself, the act of traveling depends on diverse and different media. These kinds of media can either record, document, fictionalize or paraphrase: in any case, they offer testimony of travel. Consequently, an internal difference between the act of traveling and its medial reflection is inherent to all documents and modes of presentation as in words, images, sound or figures. Due to its posteriority, the travel testimony is always affected by the material properties and cultural conventions of its specific medium. It is this medial difference in the testimony of travel that we would like to discuss at our workshop. This comprises contrasts, changes, transitions, and combinations of and between media from the Middle Ages to the present. Papers could focus on any of the following issues:

• the historicity and specific distribution of media (according to epoch, gender, class, race, etc.)
• the aesthetic conventions in the representation of travel (fictional, iconic, musical or other)
• empirics, iconicity and narrative (communication und codification of travel knowledge)
• documentation, presentation and performance (written and oral tradition, performance of travel experience)

We would like to invite postgraduate and postdoctoral scholars around the world who are working on related projects. Please send an abstract of your contribution (one page max.) to the address given below by 27th January, 2003. The complete text of your contribution will be sent to our participants before the conference and accordingly should be handed in as a Word-Attachment no later than 28th April, 2003. Papers should not exceed a maximum of ten pages. The workshop itself will be discussion-oriented and should include only brief sketches of the contributions.