Enfilade

This is one panel at the NORDIK conference. Conference organizers welcome paper proposals for the 21 sessions spanning a wide range of topics. More information: http://nordicarthistory.org/conference

Art History Conference NORDIK 2012
Stockholm, Sweden, 24-27 October 2012

Proposals due by 15 January 2012

Call for Papers: Art Theory as Visual Epistemology

How can we know? What does knowledge mean? These were the fundamental questions of epistemology in the 17th century. In response to continental rationalism the British empiricist John Locke proposed that the only knowledge humans can have is acquired a posterior. In a discussion of the human mind, he argues, the source of knowledge is sensual experience – mostly vision. With the central claim of epistemology, art became a question of truth and sound knowledge: Is the artist able to identify truth just like a scientist does? How can the artist contribute to a collective search for truth? Can pictures and statues represent knowledge about the world? Joshua Reynolds, the president of the Royal Academy in London, answered clearly: Yes, it is the task of the artist to see and compare nature in order to abstract the idea behind the mere visual. He stated that this “mental labour” is central to the artist’s occupation. Moreover, the artist is able to give those seen and imagined truths a representation on canvas and, thus, communicate ideas and add to the collective knowledge by visual means. (more…)

As noted at Le Blog de l’ApAhAu:

L’Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures de Montfaucon : genèse et réception
Bibliothèque Carré d’Art de Nîmes, 12 October 2012
Médiathèque du Grand Narbonne, 22 March 2013

Proposals due 15 April 2012

This second edition of Montfaucon's "L’Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures" is available from the Manhattan Rare Book Company for $13,000. Click on the photo for more information and images from the plates.

La publication à Paris en 1719 des 10 volumes de L’Antiquité expliquée et représentée en figuresa constitué un véritable événement éditorial, avec un chiffre de tirage imposant au regard de l’histoire du livre, et plus particulièrement du livre illustré – dans sa version finale, augmentée de 5 volumes de suppléments, l’ouvrage intègre plus de 1300 planches reproduisant œuvres d’art, monnaies, objets et monuments de l’Antiquité. Ce succès en concrétise un autre : celui, intellectuel, du long travail de collecte et d’érudition mené par le bénédictin dom Bernard de Montfaucon pour rassembler dans un monumental « musée de papier » les connaissances de l’époque sur l’Antiquité.

La place remarquable occupée par cette « histoire visuelle » dans l’évolution de l’antiquarisme et de ses réseaux en Europe est indiscutable : au xviiie siècle comme au xixe encore, nombreux sont ceux qui citent le languedocien Montfaucon et s’y réfèrent, explicitement ou implicitement, pour construire et étayer leur propre regard sur le passé, soit au travers d’une filiation soit en se démarquant de leur modèle. Dans le même temps, l’influence de l’ouvrage déborde le champ de l’histoire, infléchi par les deux disciplines émergentes de l’archéologie et de l’histoire de l’art, pour s’exercer aussi dans le domaine littéraire, une part de son rayonnement aujourd’hui encore sous-estimée.

Les deux journées d’études envisagées se donnent pour objectif de réévaluer la place de l’œuvre de Montfaucon dans l’histoire des idées et des savoirs, à la croisée des champs de l’histoire, de l’archéologie, de l’histoire de l’art et de la littérature ; elles proposent de mener une réflexion sur la genèse et les réceptions de l’AERF depuis sa parution. La première de ces deux journées, qui portera sur l’élaboration et la publication de l’œuvre, se déroulera à la Bibliothèque Carré d’Art de Nîmes le vendredi 12 octobre 2012 : il s’agira de contextualiser l’entreprise de Montfaucon en clarifiant son arrière-plan intellectuel (vie culturelle, littéraire et savante au début du xviiie siècle ; Montfaucon et la congrégation de Saint-Maur ; sources et références de l’AERF) et en examinant l’ouvrage en lui-même (intentions, genre, démarche scientifique, méthodes à l’œuvre, représentation véhiculée de l’Antiquité). La seconde de ces journées, qui s’intéressera aux réceptions, jusqu’à nos jours, de l’AERF, se déroulera à la Médiathèque du Grand Narbonne le vendredi 22 mars 2013 : y seront précisées les influences directes ou obliques de l’œuvre sur des ouvrages et/ou démarches ultérieures, à partir d’une réévaluation de son audience (public visé/public réel, réception critique, « autorité » de l’auteur, etc.).

Les propositions de contribution (300 mots environ) sont à adresser avant le 15 avril 2012 à Véronique Krings, Université de Toulouse, PLH ERASME (vkrings@mail.com) et Magali Soulatges, Université d’Avignon, IRCL Montpellier III (magali.soulatges@univ-avignon.fr).

Le souci de favoriser une approche pluridisciplinaire du sujet (par les historiens, archéologues, historiens de l’art et littéraires) guidera le choix des communications retenues.

Cultures of Curating: Curatorial Practices and the Production of Meaning c. 1650-2000
University of Lincoln, 12-13 July 2012

Proposals due by 1 February 2012

The 2012 conference of the Museums and Galleries History Group

While museum history now acknowledges the constructed nature of the museum narrative, and maintains that museum work such as cataloguing, conserving and displaying is not neutral, but actually produces meaning, relatively little work has examined the ways in which curatorial practices have developed, and the specific consequences for museums. Display has attracted most of the work that has been done, but ‘behind the scenes’ activities have not been investigated in such depth. We seek submissions which investigate any aspect of the developing work of the curator, from creating an acquisitions policy, to labelling and documentation, to publicity work, as we wish to explore curating as both craft and profession. We also invite contributors to consider how curatorial practices constituted the museum object, and attempted to produce or suppress certain meanings for museum objects; and how such practices formed particular relationships between curators and other museum figures such as donors and visitors. We are interested in submissions which consider a wide variety of periods and places, and all types of curating, from fine art to science.

Keynote speaker: Dr Sam Alberti (Director, Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons)

We invite papers on themes such as:
• How curators were trained, and how they understood their role
• Cataloguing and museum documentation
• Acquisition – the role of the curator
• Conservation and storage
• Display and interpretation
• How and why curatorial practices changed
• The role of place and space in shaping curatorial practices
• Curatorial practices, disciplines and discourses of knowledge
• Curatorial practices and relationships with the wider public

We also invite session proposals. Session proposals should include a brief outline of the session (250 words) as well as three abstracts (300 words max. each) for the proposed session. For session proposals, please indicate who will chair the session. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to chair@mghg.org or Kate Hill (khill@lincoln.ac.uk).

IV Congresso de Historia da Arte Portuguesa
Lisbon, 21-24 November 2012

Proposals due by 29 February 2012

The Portuguese Association of Art Historians (APHA) is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the IV Congress of Portuguese Art History is now open and can be consulted on the site of the congress: http://www.chap-apha.com/pdf/CFP20110921.pdf). It consists of 12 thematic sessions, as well as a number of open sessions. The languages of the Congress are Portuguese, English, Spanish, French and Italian.

The abstracts, of no more than 300 words, should be sent by email (until February 29, 2012) both to the secretary of the congress (secretariado@chap-apha.com) and the organizers of the respective sessions. The abstracts should be accompanied by a brief curriculum vitae (including institutional affiliation, address and contact details).

The participants will be notified by March 31, 2012 and the program of the Congress will be available on May 7, 2012. The full texts of the communications should be delivered to the organizers of the respective sessions by July 31, 2012. The texts of each session should be made available to its participants to ensure an informed debate.

The abstracts and full texts of the communications will be published in print and digital form by September 30, 2012 and, based on that material, the organization of the Congress will publish in 2013 an Hommage to José-Augusto França, to whom the Congress is dedicated.

From the Association of Historians of American Art:

American Art: The Academy, Museums, and the Market
The Second Association of Historians of American Art Symposium
Boston, 12-13 October 2012

Proposals due 1 December 2011

We invite proposals on any aspect of American Art that relate to the symposium’s theme of the Academy, Museums, and the Market. Proposed papers should be 20-minute, formal papers on any period of American art, in any media, from 1600 to the present day. We are also inviting proposals, from current graduate students at the dissertation stage, for a Graduate Student Lightning Round Session at the conference. Proposed papers for this session should be a 5-minute synopsis of the larger research project. In the subject line of your email, please distinguish whether you are applying for inclusion in the general symposium (20-minute paper) or in the Graduate Student Lightning Round Session (5-minute paper). Please only apply to one type of session. Please send your proposal and a short cv by December 1, 2011 to both David Dearinger and Melissa Renn, AHAA Symposium co-chairs at dearinger@bostonathenaeum.org and melissa_renn@harvard.edu.

From Warwick:

Spaces of Work, 1770–1830
University of Warwick, 28th April 2012

Proposals due by 1 December 2011

Spaces of Work, 1770-1830 will address the relationships between workers and spaces in Britain. We aim to showcase current research and are particularly interested in interrogating under-analyzed types of work and space. For example, we hope to develop the theorization of types of work that critics have not conventionally understood as ‘work’ (the performance of music as practical activity, for instance). We also aim to bring attention to under-analysed spaces. For example, due to Romanticism’s traditionally rural focus, literary critics of this period have only recently begun to interrogate urban spaces; interdisciplinary discussion of urbanism in this period would therefore be particularly valuable. We aim to analyze the interfacing of work and space as two factors that fundamentally shape everyday life in order to gain a greater understanding of material life in the period. To these ends, 500 word abstracts are invited which attempt to answer questions such as the following:
• How do workers and their work uniquely shape space?
• How does space facilitate or hinder workers and their work?
• How does the social relationship among workers and between them and their supervisors/masters alter according to the work they are doing and the spaces in which they perform it?
• How does gender, race, and/or class inform workers’ relationship to each other in different contexts of space and work?

Possible approaches could include, but are not limited to: genteel work and the city; work in spaces of ‘leisure’; work and (sub)urban domestic spaces; men’s work in the home; space and female accomplishment; work and emergent manufacturing/industrial spaces. Please send submissions to the conference organizers, Kate Scarth & Joseph Morrissey, at j.morrissey@live.co.uk by 1/12/2011. Papers at the conference will be thirty minutes in length, with a generous allocation for questions.

Confirmed keynote speakers: Karen Harvey (University of Sheffield) and Jennie Batchelor (University of Kent)

From the journal’s website:

Shift: Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture
Proposals due 1 March 2012

Shift welcomes academic papers, exhibition and book reviews, as well as discussions concerning other art-related events from current graduate students. The committee welcomes submissions dealing with visual and material  culture from any discipline. Papers may address a full range of topics and historical periods. Topics may include, but are not limited to, art and propaganda, patronage, gender and identity, spirituality and art, nationalisms and regionalisms, modernism and modernity, performance art, photography and film, perspectives in theory, methodology, and historiography, collection and representation, art and technology. Please see Submission and Style Guidelines on our website for appropriate guidelines.

For each issue, submitted papers will be reviewed by an Editorial Committee composed of current graduate students from The University of Western Ontario. Papers considered the strongest will be sent to the Editorial Board, which is composed of upper-level graduate students and established scholars. Papers judged by the Editorial Board as contributing to existing scholarship will be accepted for publication in the journal. All papers are selected by blind jury panel, and are therefore considered refereed.

This journal is an online publication. All manuscripts should be sent by email to editors@shiftjournal.org. Papers must be submitted to the editors of Shift by 1 March 2012. The issue launch will take place 1 October 2012.

Histories of British Art, 1660-1735: Reconstruction and Transformation
King’s Manor, University of York, 20-22 September 2012

Proposals due 2 March 2012

We welcome proposals from graduate students, academics working in History of Art and other Humanities disciplines, curators and all others engaged in research on the field. The conference is a key output of a major AHRC-funded project on art of the period, Court, Country, City: British Art, 1660-1735. This project is ran in collaboration between Tate Britain and the University of York, and led by Professor Mark Hallett (York), Professor Nigel Llewellyn (Tate), and Dr. Martin Myrone (Tate).

Conference costs will be heavily subsidized thanks to AHRC funding, however spaces for the conference are limited and priority will be given to speakers. A number of graduate student bursaries will be available. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to claudine.vanhensbergen@tate.org.uk

A PDF of the poster is available here»

Knowledge in a Box: How Mundane Things Shape Knowledge Production
Kavala, Greece, 26-29 July 2012

Proposals due by 15 January 2012

Organizers: Susanne Bauer (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany), Maria Rentetzi (National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece), and Martina Schlünder (Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany)

We invite proposals from scholars in the history of science, technology, and medicine, science and technology studies, the humanities, visual and performing arts, museum and cultural studies and other related disciplines for a workshop on the uses and meanings of mundane things such as boxes, packages, bottles, and vials in shaping knowledge production. In keeping with the conference theme, we are asking contributors to include specific references to the ways in which boxes have played a role—commercial, epistemic or otherwise—in their own particular disciplinary frameworks.

Boxes have always supported the significance of the objects they contained, allowing specific activities to arise. In the hands of natural historians and collectors, boxes functioned as a means of organizing their knowledge throughout the eighteenth century. They formed the material bases of the cabinet or established collection and accompanied the collector from the initial gathering of natural specimens to their final display. As “knowledge chests” or “magazining tools” the history of box-like containers also go back to book printing and the typographical culture. The artists’ boxes of the early nineteenth century were used to store the paraphernalia of a new fashionable trend. In the late nineteenth century the box became the pharmacist’s laboratory and a device for standardizing and controlling dosage of oral remedies. In the twentieth century radiotherapy the box was elevated to a multifunctional tool working as a memory aid to forgetful patients or as “knowledge package” that predetermined dosages, included equipment, and ready-made radium applicators.

Focusing on medicine, boxes have played a crucial role since the eighteenth century when doctors ought to bring instruments to their patient’s house for surgical or obstetrical interventions. In modern operating rooms boxes organize the workflow and build an essential part of the aseptical regime. Late twentieth century biomedical scientists store tissue samples in large-scale biobanks, where samples contained in straws are placed in vials, then the vials in boxes which in turn are stacked up in “elevators.” This storage system facilitates retrieval with barcodes, indexing each individual sample so that additional variables can be retrieved from a database. Thus the container and its content are tied up in a close epistemic and material relationship. (more…)