Enfilade

From H-ArtHist:

Bilder exotischer Tiere zwischen wissenschaftlicher
Erfassung und gesellschaftlicher Normierung, 1500–1800
Augsburg, 10–11 October 2017

Proposals due by 30 June 2017

Die Darstellung exotischer Tiere zählte zu den besonderen Herausforderungen an Künstler der Frühen Neuzeit. Ihr Innovationsbedarf war zweifach, da neben der textlichen Überlieferung der antiken Naturgeschichte die im Zuge der überseeischen Expansion rapide zunehmenden Kenntnisse außereuropäischer Fauna einer visuellen Fixierung bedurften: Im methodischen Spannungsfeld von humanistischer Textrevision und sammelnd-empirischer Erfassung avancierte das Bild zu einem primären Erkenntnisträger der vormodernen Zoologie. Epochale Forscher wie Ulisse Aldrovandi engagierten etwa Künstler, um ihr Wissen anhand der Visualisierung sowohl externer Bildvorlagen als auch lebender und präparierter Tiere aus den eigenen Sammlungen zu schärfen.

Ihre Erkenntnisse wurden jenseits der Naturkunde in zahlreichen Fällen in illustrierten Flugblättern popularisiert; umgekehrt konnten Flugblätter mit kommentierten Bilddarstellungen unbekannter Arten als Belege für die Forscher dienen. Analog dazu blieb auch die Betrachtung lebender oder präparierter Exoten nicht auf eine elitäre Sphäre begrenzt, sondern zählte zum Repertoire wandernder Schausteller in der frühneuzeitlichen Populärkultur. Zugleich wurden Motive exotischer Tiere im Bereich der repräsentativen Kunst adaptiert, indem sie in Embleme und Allegorien eingesetzt wurden. Neben dem weit verbreiteten Thema der vier Erdteile, für die Exoten zur Markierung insbesondere Afrikas und Amerikas dienten, sei etwa auf die Symbola et Emblemata des Joachim Camerarius verwiesen, die ausschließlich Motive der weltweiten Flora und Fauna beinhalten. Ihnen allen gemein war der Klassifikationsbedarf in einer von Mythen und Legenden geprägten Naturvorstellung sowie der Skala der Naturreiche.

Unter der Annahme, dass der Blick auf einen unbekannten Bereich der Natur mit der Prüfung des eigenen kulturellen Selbstverständnisses verbunden ist, stellt der projektierte Workshop die Frage nach Momenten sozialer und kultureller Normstiftungen in frühneuzeitlichen Bilddiskursen exotischer Fauna. Sie erweist sich dort als besonders triftig, wo Exoten in wertebestimmende Repräsentationssysteme aufgenommen und wo tradierte Ordnungsvorstellungen der Naturgeschichte und des Rangs des Menschen in der Natur durch die Zunahme neuer Erkenntnisse überlastet wurden.

Methodisch-theoretisch reagiert die Veranstaltung damit auf die Herausforderung der Human-Animal Studies: Das Verhältnis vom Menschen zum Tier (oder genauer: zu den anderen Tieren) ist in den vergangenen Jahren zu einem interdisziplinär diskutierten Thema geworden, zu dem die Kunstgeschichte Grundlagen einer historisierenden Perspektive beizutragen vermag. Auffällig ist allerdings, dass der Diskurs der Human-Animal-Studies bislang hauptsächlich domestizierte Tiere fokussiert, die als Nutz- und Haustiere in einer künstlich geprägten Sphäre zwischen natürlichem und vom Menschen bestimmtem Verhalten leben. In der Konzentration auf Exoten sollen nicht zuletzt besonders menschenferne und kaum zu domestizierende Tiere wie Haie, Schlangen und Krokodile thematisiert werden, deren Lebensraum gleichwohl infolge der europäischen Expansion beeinträchtigt wurde und die gerade in ihrer Fremdheit als besonderes Faszinosum auf die frühneuzeitliche Gesellschaft wirkten.

Als kunsthistorischer Workshop mit interdisziplinären Anschlussmöglichkeiten richtet sich die Veranstaltung an den wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs (Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden sowie Post-Docs) der Kunstgeschichte und Bildwissenschaft ebenso wie benachbarter Disziplinen (Ethnologie, Literaturwissenschaft, Geschichte und insbesondere Wissenschaftsgeschichte sowie Philosophie). Beiträge sollten in Fallstudien auf die folgenden Fragestellungen reagieren:
• Wie begegneten Augenzeugen der außereuropäischen Fauna auf Reisen? Können an Bild- und Textdokumenten Stereotype und Projektionen bestimmt werden, die auf eine gesellschaftliche bzw. kulturelle Selbstverortung der Autoren schließen lassen?
• Welche Rolle kam Tierdarstellungen in der Rezeption außereuropäischer Kunst zu? Lieferten außereuropäische Tierdarstellungen einen Beitrag zur europäischen Fremdwahrnehmung?
• Welche Bildpraktiken waren signifikant für die wissenschaftliche Erfassung exotischer Tiere? In welchem Zusammenhang standen Bilder etwa mit den Sammlungsstücken von Kunstkammern und Naturalienkabinetten?
• Wie wurden neu entstehende Motive exotischer Fauna in die Muster der Ikonographie eingefügt? Vermochten Exoten abstrakte Begriffe und moralische Vorstellungen zu versinnbildlichen?
• Welchen Zwecken dienten Darstellungen außereuropäischer Fauna im repräsentativen Apparat der Höfe? Können aus Bildern exotischer Tiere Rückschlüsse auf Herrschaftsansprüche und Herrschaftspraxis gezogen werden? Gab es bürgerliche Strategien zur gesellschaftlichen Distinktion vermittels der Darstellung exotischer Tiere?
• Welche Deutungen erfuhren exotische Tiere im populären Bereich? Vermochten z.B. Sensationsnachrichten über exotische Tiere Ängste und Bedürfnisse einer breiten Gesellschaftsschicht zu reflektieren? Welche Rolle kam dem Bild im Bereich von Schaustellern und Wandermenagerien zu?

Die Konferenzsprachen sind Deutsch und Englisch. Beiträge sollen eine Vortragsdauer von 30 Minuten nicht überschreiten. Um aussagekräftige Abstracts von rund 300 Wörtern nebst einem kurzen Lebenslauf wird bis zum 30. Juni 2017 gebeten:
Dr. Robert Bauernfeind: robert.bauernfeind@philhist.uni-augsburg.de
Pia Rudolph: pia.rudolph@dlma.badw.de
Für Vortragende werden die Kosten für die Anreise bezuschusst, jene für die Übernachtung während des Workshops übernommen. Eine Publikation der Beiträge wird angestrebt.

Thanks to Christina Smylitopoulos, who is again coordinating a HECAA session at this year’s UAAC Conference! Details and a full list of panels (57 in all) are available here»

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Universities Art Association of Canada / l’association d’art des universités du Canada
Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Alberta, 12–15 October 2017

Proposals due by 12 May 2017

HECAA Open Session
The objective of this society is to stimulate, foster, and disseminate knowledge of all aspects of visual culture in the long eighteenth century. This HECAA open session welcomes papers that examine any aspect of art and visual culture from the 1680s to the 1830s. Special consideration will be given to proposals that demonstrate theoretical or methodological innovations. Please email proposals for 20-minute papers to Dr. Christina Smylitopoulos (University of Guelph), csmylito@uoguelph.ca.

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From H-ArtHist:

The Histories of Loans: Memories and Challenges of Museum Loans
Histoires de prêts, mémoire et enjeux des prêts dans les musées
École du Louvre, Paris, 28-29 September 2017

Proposals due by 5 June 2017

Since the end of the 19th century, the expansion of temporary exhibitions has determined the emergence of an international system for museums, based on the circulation of artworks and objects. For museums, sharing pieces from their collection has become crucial to ensure that they in turn get the loans they need to organise their own exhibitions. Lending artworks to prestigious institutions, particularly foreign ones, also enables curators to guarantee a heightened visibility to their own collections. Where to exhibit, how often, and which pieces can be obtained from which partners: nowadays, these are the fundamental criteria of a museum’s positioning within the international hierarchy of cultural heritage prestige. But loan policy does simply affect an institution’s image: it acts directly on the definition of the objects. The acceptation or refusal of a loan is the result of complex transactions, formulated or not, during which the value of an artwork is negotiated and reviewed. It also reflects the importance and rank of institutions, sometimes even of towns and nations. This international symposium intends to question the policy for loaning works of art, both from the angle of the mobility of museum artworks and objects, and that of the reconfigurations of their status. The aim of this colloquium will be to explore the ways in which, historically, loan procedure has defined itself to the point of becoming a crucial challenge for museums.

The economic, political and legal dimensions are also at the heart of this discussion. The suggested themes, which are not meant as limitations but as possible avenues for reflection, include the following:
• The History of loans
• The memory of loans
• The museographical constraints of loans
• Loans and restorations
• Loans as tools for art history
• The geopolitics of loans
• The temporality of loans
• The economy of loans
• The principle of free admission in museums and its exceptions
• Loans and their legal framework
• Notions of public and private in museum loans

The field of study for this symposium also covers the pre-history of loans (such as the translation of relics in the Middle Ages). Alongside artworks and objects, all artefacts are liable to be retained, as long as they shed more light on the theme. The very contemporary period acts as the opposite time limit for the symposium, and can be addressed from a historical viewpoint or as an anthropology of scholarly practices. While it is often difficult to distinguish both notions, the symposium will focus on the question of loans, excluding the question of long-term deposits, which has been studied specifically in the past few years.

Researchers who wish to take part in the symposium must send their paper proposals as well as a CV (one page) to the organisers (colloques@ecoledulouvre.fr) before Monday 5 June 2017. Proposals must be no longer than 2000 characters or 300 words and can be written in French, English, German, or Italian. The organisers will establish the definitive programme along with the members of the scientific committee. The final selection of participants will be announced on 15 June 2017.

Scientific Direction
François-René Martin, ENSBA et Ecole du Louvre
Michela Passini, CNRS (IHMC-ENS) et Ecole du Louvre
Neville Rowley, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Scientific Committee
Claire Barbillon, Université de Poitiers, Ecole du Louvre
Françoise Blanc, Ecole du Louvre
Cécilia Griener-Hurley, Ecole du Louvre et Université de Neuchâtel
Violaine Jeammet, Musée du Louvre et Ecole du Louvre
François-René Martin, ENSBA et Ecole du Louvre
Sophie Mouquin, Université Charles-de-Gaulle, Lille
Michela Passini, CNRS (IHMC-ENS) et Ecole du Louvre
Natacha Pernac, Ecole du Louvre et Université Paris-Nanterre
Neville Rowley, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Panel proposals are due soon:

2018 American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Conference
Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace, 22–25 March 2018

Session Proposals due by 15 May 2017

Proposals for panels at the at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, to take place in Orlando, are now being accepted. Please complete the session proposal form (available as a Word document) and email it to asecs@wfu.edu.

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From H-ArtHist:

L’art du diorama, 1700–2000
Culture & Musées: Appel à proposition d’article pour un numéro thématique

Sous la direction de Noémie Etienne et Nadia Radwan

Proposals due by 30 June 2017

Entendu comme un dispositif d’exposition multidimensionnel et multimédia, le diorama est à la frontière de différentes disciplines et catégories d’institutions muséales. Ce dispositif intéresse les anthropologues, les sémiologues, les géographes, mais aussi les chercheurs en histoire naturelle, les préhistoriens, les historiens et historiens d’art. Il interroge également les artistes contemporains, comme le montre la persistance de ce que l’on peut appeler une esthétique du diorama chez des artistes tels que Marcel Duchamp, Edward Kienholz, Marc Dion, ou Thomas Hirschorn.

Les dioramas ont été étudiés comme précurseurs du cinéma (Griffiths, 2002), ou comme dispositifs singuliers dans les domaines des sciences naturelles et de l’anthropologie (Rader, Cain, 2014). Les études postcoloniales, dans le sillage de l’article de Donna Haraway, ont porté un regard critique sur ces installations (Haraway, 1984 ; Mitchell, 1988 ; Çelik, 1992). Pourtant, ces études n’ont considéré que les exemples réalisés en Europe et aux États-Unis, tandis que ces dispositifs sont largement répandus en Amérique latine, en Asie ou au Moyen Orient.

Vingt ans après le numéro consacré aux dioramas par la revue Public & Musées sous la direction de Bernard Schiele (1996) qui questionnait le statut du diorama en muséologie, il importe de réinterroger ces installations. Ce numéro propose de remettre le diorama au centre d’une étude des institutions muséales, en insistant d’une part, sur la matérialité de ces dispositifs (Bennett, Joyce, 2010), et, d’autre part, sur l’identité de ceux qui les fabriquent. Il examinera également les questions liées à l’opérativité symbolique et sociale des dioramas et à leur réception par les publics. Enfin, l’authenticité des espaces ainsi créés sera au cœur des interrogations. Cette question est d’autant plus urgente que de nombreux musées discutent aujourd’hui de la conservation de ces dispositifs qui appartiennent à l’histoire des musées, mais aussi à son futur.

L’objectif de ce numéro est de réunir une série de recherches sur les dioramas entendus comme dispositifs muséographiques singuliers en allant de leur conception à leur réception par différentes catégories de publics. Trois entrées sont proposées :

Sémiotique et Matérialité

Les dioramas donnent une place aux fragments en les organisant dans un système et requalifient la culture matérielle (Kirschenblatt, 1998). Peut-on avec profit les aborder comme des assemblages (Bennett, 2010), des agencements (Bennett et alii, 2017), ou encore, pour reprendre un terme de l’art contemporain, des installations ? Nous nous intéresserons ici aux caractéristiques formelles de ces dispositifs : peut-on établir une grammaire des dioramas ? Quels en seraient les éléments, vu l’hétérogénéité des matériaux (cire, plâtre, bois), des médiums (peinture, sculpture, taxidermie), mais aussi des registres (réalistes, poétiques, etc.)? Enfin, comment les différentes échelles (maquette, mini-diorama, taille réelle, dispositifs monumentaux) déterminent-elles l’usage et la pratique des dioramas ?

Acteurs

On accordera une attention soutenue aux acteurs de ces dispositifs — qu’ils soient artistes, scientifiques, artisans, identifiés ou non. La carrière des sculpteurs, peintres, taxidermistes, photographes, décorateurs ou anthropologues, leur statut en tant que praticiens à la croisée de diverses disciplines, le rôle qu’ils ont joué dans la définition de leur pratique ainsi que les enjeux de la conception des dioramas, retiendront notre attention. En dehors des trajectoires individuelles et collectives, il sera possible d’examiner les réseaux transnationaux par lesquels s’effectue la transmission de savoirs à la croisée des approches scientifiques et artistiques : de plus, du point de vue d’une histoire sociale des métiers, on mettra en évidence les négociations et redéfinitions des identités professionnelles que ces projets collectifs et interdisciplinaires engendrent.

Réceptions

Les dioramas sont des lieux privilégiés de transmission, mais aussi d’élaboration — et parfois de contestation — des discours scientifiques et historiques, en marge d’autres espaces de production des savoirs (foires, université, livre, etc.). Quel est l’impact des dioramas sur les publics et comment saisir la réception de cette forme dans divers musées à une échelle globale ? Réciproquement, quelle est la portée des publics sur la transformation de ces dispositifs ? Les dioramas ont aussi une dimension esthétique, qui semble avoir inspiré de nombreux artistes. On s’interrogera enfin sur les récits ou encore les images que suscitent ces installations, pour questionner leur portée sensorielle et cognitive sur les imaginaires.

Références

Jane Bennett. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham : Duke University Press, 2010.

Tony Bennett et Patrick Joyce. Material Powers: Cultural Studies, History, and the Material Turn. London : Routledge, 2010.

Tony Bennett, Fiona Cameron, Nélia Dias, et alii. Collecting, Ordering, Governing: Anthropology, Museums, and Liberal Government. Durham : Duke University Press, 2017.

Zeynep Çelik. Displaying the Orient: Architecture of Islam at Nineteenth-Century World’s Fairs. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1992.

Alison Griffiths. Wondrous Difference: Cinema, Anthropology & Turn-of-the-century Visual Culture. New York : Columbia University Press, 2002.

Donna Haraway. « Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden Even, 1908–1936 ». Social Text 11 (1984–85): 19–64.

Barbar Kirschenblatt-Gimblett. Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1998.

Timothy Mitchell. Colonizing Egypt. New York : Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Karen Rader et Victoria E. M. Cain. Life on Display: Revolutionizing U.S. Museums of Science and Natural History in the Twentieth Century. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2014.

Envoi des résumés

Merci d’adresser vos propositions d’articles sous la forme de résumés (environ 5000 signes) par courriel avant le 30 juin 2017 à Noémie Etienne (noemie.etienne@ikg.unibe.ch), Nadia Radwan (nadia.radwan@ikg.unibe.ch) et Marie-Christine Bordeaux (mc.bordeaux@wanadoo.fr).

Les résumés comporteront :
• La revue Culture & Musées un titre
• 5 références bibliographiques
• les noms, adresse électronique, qualité et rattachement institutionnel (Université, laboratoire) de leur auteur.e.

Calendrier

Fin juin 2017 : réception des propositions (résumés)
Début juillet 2017 : réponse aux auteurs et commande des textes aux auteurs retenus
Fin octobre 2017 : réception des textes
Janvier 2018 : réponses définitives aux auteurs et propositions éventuelles de modifications
Avril 2018 : réception des textes modifiés et navettes éditoriales
Décembre 2018 : publication

Contact

Noémie Etienne
noemie.etienne@ikg.unibe.ch
Université de Berne
Institut für Kunstgeschichte
Hodlerstrasse 8, CH-3011 Bern

La revue Culture & Musées

Culture & Musées est une revue scientifique transdisciplinaire à comité de lecture. Ses publications sont orientées vers des travaux de recherche inédits sur les publics, les institutions et les médiations de la culture. Depuis 2010, elle possède une dimension internationale car elle est indexée à l’INIST et sur les bases Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Thomson Reuters). Les contributions, regroupées autour d’un thème, font de chaque livraison un ouvrage collectif chargé d’approfondir un thème ou une question. La revue est co-éditée par l’Université d’Avignon et les éditions Actes Sud.

Directeurs de la rédaction

• Frédéric Gimello-Mesplomb, directeur de publication, Université d’Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse
• Eric Triquet, directeur adjoint de publication, Université d’Avignon et des Pays de Vaucluse
• Yves Winkin, directeur de rédaction, Musée des arts et métiers, CNAM
• Marie-Christine Bordeaux, directrice de rédaction, Université Grenoble Alpes

From the conference website:

Building the Scottish Diaspora: Scots and the Colonial Built Environment, 1700–1920
University of Edinburgh, 17–18 November 2017

Proposals due by 24 July 2017

This symposium takes as a point of departure, colonial cultures of Scottish entrepreneurship operating and building in the hemispheres of the Atlantic and the India-Pacific from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. It seeks contributions that explore Scottish traders, merchants, agents, missionaries and others influential in colonial arenas of the Atlantic and India-Pacific ‘worlds’, especially within the analytical frameworks of regional, oceanic, and World/Global historiography, methods of cultural and historical geography, as well as economic and business history. We are interested in research that maps diasporic networks—familial, professional, entrepreneurial, religious etc.—and their material presence with a view to better understanding the significance of Scottish modes of operation, particularly (but not exclusively) those that demonstrate their achievement as entrepreneurs in a networked, international environment. In sum, we seek a range of disciplinary perspectives on the spatial and material dimensions of Scottish entrepreneurship in the colonial arena.

Related questions include (but are not limited to): how do we begin to understand the particular Scottish contribution to the colonial built environment, and why is it important? Does reference to a ‘British’ empire in this context too readily encourage coagulation, even confusion, especially where clear ethnic predominance was seen to occur? And how might architecture have been used to forge, or even dissolve, distinctive forms of Scottishness within the wider limits of British identity? Please send paper abstracts of no more than 300 words, plus a brief bio of 150 words, to buildscotdiaspora@gmail.com by 24 July 2017.

Saint-Cloud to Bernardaud: New Horizons in French Porcelain, 1690–2000 
The French Porcelain Society Symposium
The Wallace Collection, London, 20–21 October 2017 

Proposals due by 15 June 2017

From top left: Saint-Cloud Vase, 1695–1710 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art); Bastien & Bugeard Clock, 1848–58 (Paris: Musée des Arts décoratifs); Mennecy Jug, 1760 (London: Victoria and Albert Museum); Villeroy Monkey, 1745 (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art); Guérhard & Dihl Vase, 1797–1804 (Clandon Park, National Trust); and Bernardaud Vase, 2015, by Hervé Van Der Straeten.

The French Porcelain Society is pleased to announce this year’s two-day symposium, entitled Saint-Cloud to Bernardaud: New Horizons in French Porcelain, 1690–2000. It will be chaired by Dr Aileen Dawson, former Curator, The British Museum, London, and will take place on 20–21 October 2017 at The Wallace Collection, London. The symposium will present new research on French porcelain factories outside royal or state control. At times unjustly neglected in favour of the royal manufactory at Sèvres, these earliest factories operated from the late seventeenth century; many continue in production today. They include, but are not limited, to Saint–Cloud, Villeroy, Mennecy, Niderviller, the Paris factories, such as Dihl, Schoelcher and Dagoty, and Limoges factories operating during the 19th century and up to the present day. Subjects for consideration include: locations, size, capitalisation, techniques of manufacture, employment of artists and designers, marketing, and clientele, each deserving of greater scholarly attention.

The French Porcelain Society encourages networking between academic researchers and museum professionals. Proposals are welcomed from doctoral candidates in art history as well as curators, collectors, and researchers; we are also pleased to receive papers from colleagues working in literature, philosophy, and history. Speakers confirmed to date include Sonia Banting, Howard Coutts, Aileen Dawson, Virginie Desrante, Nicole Duchon, Cyrille Froissart, Errol Manners, Audrey Gay-Mazuel, Hélène Huret, Tamara Préaud, and John Whitehead.

Themes for papers may include
• History of collecting (public and private) and connoisseurship
• Historical, political and socio-economic background to French porcelain production
• Design sources, production trends, fashion
• Cross-cultural influences
• Porcelain used as diplomatic gifts
• Domestic uses, tablewares and the history of dining
• Literary and theatrical themes, especially in figure production
• Porcelain as sculpture at Niderviller and other factories
• The art market

Papers should be between 20 and 50 minutes in length and fully illustrated. They may be presented in English or French. Please send a 300-word abstract with a short CV in the form of a PDF file to Aileen Dawson at aileendawson@hotmail.com by 15th June 2017.

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From H-ArtHist:

Imago Multitudinis: The Image of the Multitude in Art and Philosophy
The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 10 March 2018

Proposals due by 15 September 2017

The Courtauld Institute of Art, The British Academy and the Collège International de Philosophie are pleased to announce a one-day interdisciplinary conference focusing on the philosophical representation and the artistic conceptualisation of the multitude and its associated concepts: the many, the masses, the crowd, the mob, and the commonality.

A spectre is haunting our times: the spectre of the multitude. Uprisings, popular unrests, mass migrations, revolutions—the past ten years have been marked by unprecedented quests for freedom, embodied by unconventional political subjects pointing to the possibility of alternative outcomes of the crisis of both authoritarian regimes and representative democracies. Through the masterful drawing of Abraham Bosse, Hobbes attempted to tame the multitude forever. Constrained within the body politic of the monstrous Leviathan (1651), the multitude was transfigured into an obedient people and its potentia was (apparently) usurped. Yet, the multitude resisted—and still resists—this movement, challenging the predominant definitions of sovereignty. Following the collapse of modern master narratives, such as in the nascent seventeenth century, the multitude has returned.

Our investigation revolves around the political and aesthetic meanings of this omnipresent, if elusive, collective being. In particular, we would like to ask the following questions: how do philosophers represent the multitude and translate their concepts into cogent images? How do artists think about the multitude and its agency? This enquiry, which spans from the Middle Ages to the present, concentrates on the way in which images and iconographic motifs are elaborated in philosophy, as well as how political concepts are articulated in the visual arts. In order to understand the images pervading, and the concepts informing, recent collective political action (from Tahrir Square to the streets of Tunis, New York, Madrid, Ferguson via Rojava and Lampedusa), we intend to focus on their modern and contemporary genealogies. This is not only a historical enquiry. The history of the multitude can help us better understand the present. The aesthetic, agency and ambitions of this political subject do not only survive in books and museums, they also live on among us. The multitude resists, and if this is the conflict that characterises political modernity, then modernity has begun again.

Invited speakers: Horst Bredekamp (Humboldt-Universität); Claire Fontaine (artist); Sandro Mezzadra (Università di Bologna).

We invite submissions on the following topics including, but not limited to
• Political iconography (from the Revolt of the Ciompi to the Arab Spring via the German Peasants’ War)
• Feminism and the multitude
• The multitude in the USSR
• The multitude and the English Civil Wars
• Hobbes’ Behemoth
• Spinoza’s, Machiavelli’s, Negri’s, Deleuze’s and Schmitt’s depictions of the multitude
• The ‘popular hydra’ in nineteenth-century Paris
• Baroque and the multitude
• The multitude and migrations in contemporary art

Please send a title and an abstract of no more than 500 words together with a short CV to jacopo.galimberti@manchester.ac.uk by the 15th of September. Successful candidates will be notified in early October. Papers should not exceed 25 minutes in length.

From the conference website:

European Architectural History Network: The Tools of the Architect
Delft and Rotterdam, 22–24 November 2017

Proposals due by 15 May 2017

The European Architectural History Network (EAHN) is pleased to announce the EAHN’s fifth thematic conference The Tools of the Architect, to be held at Delft University of Technology and Het Nieuwe Instituut HNI (Delft and Rotterdam, The Netherlands) 22–24 November 2017.

Architects have for their activities of drawing, writing, and building always depended upon the potential of particular tools—ranging from practical instruments such as straight edges, French curves, compasses, rulers, and pencils to conceptual tools such as working drawings, collages, photographic surveys, infographics, diagrams, casts, and mass models.

As technologies advanced, the toolbox of architects has changed and expanded. Today architects have an extraordinary array of sophisticated tools at their disposal but also rely on many of same tools as their 18th- and 19th-century peers. Working drawings, pencils, and tracing paper continue to appear in the designer’s studio while their role and potential is being redefined.

Time and time again, architects have engaged with new tools. The quest to find the most appropriate and adequate tools to articulate, test and communicate design ideas has never ended, and in this pursuit architects have appropriated tools from other disciplines, such as art, historiography, sociology, philosophy, computer sciences and engineering. Out of this perspective the tools of the architect have become a field of intense exploration of the encounter of architecture with other disciplinary perspectives.

Inventions and innovations of tools throughout history have not only provided better answers to questions of analyzing and representing the built environment, but they have also pointed to new ways of conceiving and intervening. Ellipsographs made it possible to precisely draw an elliptical space in the 19th century and computer-aided drafting software has allowed for a new conception and construction of complex geometries in the 20th and 21st century. New tools have continuously affected the imagination, character and qualities of architectural projects.

This conference wants to focus on the changing practical and conceptual tools of the architect and their effect on the logos and praxis of architecture. The conference will be structured along three thematic lines:
• The Instruments of the Architect  (i.e. the apparata and equipment of the architect)
• The Tools of Analysis (i.e. the devices to study architecture and the built environment in general)
• The Tools of Intervention (i.e. the devices to intervene in the built environment)

We welcome papers that consider the tools of the architect from this threefold perspective. Papers should be based on well-documented research that is primarily analytical and interpretative rather than descriptive in nature. Abstracts (of 500 words) can be registered and uploaded. Please click here to register.

Time Frame
15 May 2017: Deadline Submission of abstracts
15 June 2017: Notification of Acceptance
1 September 2017: Full papers

Keynote Speakers
Mari Lending (Professor of architectural theory and history, Oslo School of Architecture and Design/ OCCAS: the Oslo Center for Critical Architectural Studies)
Michiel Riedijk (Professor at Chair of Public Building, Delft University of Technology/ Neutelings Riedijk Architects, Rotterdam)

Conference Chairs
Tom Avermaete, Delft University of Technology
Merlijn Hurx, Utrecht University

Organising Committee
Carola Hein, Delft University of Technology
Marie-Terese van Thoor, Delft University of Technology
Koen Ottenheym, Utrecht University
Petra Brouwer, University of Amsterdam
Dirk van den Heuvel, Jaap Bakema Study Centre/ Het Nieuwe Instituut

Scientific Committee
Tom Avermaete, Delft University of Technology
Merlijn Hurx, Utrecht University
Alona Nitzan-Shiftan, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa
Maristella Casciatio, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Anthony Gerbino, University of Manchester
Sebastian Fitzner, Freie Universität Berlin
Wolfgang Lefevre, Max Planck Institute, Berlin

From the conference website:

Fluctuating Alliances: Art, Politics, and Diplomacy in the Modern Era, 16th–18th Centuries
Technische Universität, Berlin, 21–22 September 2017

Proposals due by 20 May 2017

Macchina per le nozze de il Principe di Asturias e Isabel d’Orleans, Domenico Paradisi, Roma, 1721.

In January 1722 after a few days of heavy rain in Rome the ephemeral ‘macchina d’artificio’ built to celebrate the wedding between the Prince of Asturias and Isabel d’Orleans was finally burnt before the palazzo di Spagna. The machine, designed by Domenico Paradisi, showcased a clear message of unity and power between the former enemies: France and Spain. At the summit, allegories of both countries shook hands before the representation of the Four Continents. This functioned as a gentle reminder to their enemies after the years of turmoil surrounding the War of Spanish Succession, which had deeply affected the balance of power in Europe.

This symposium, Fluctuating Alliances: Art, Politics and Diplomacy in the Modern Era, seeks to explore the role played by prints, drawings, and any kind of artistic production, such as music and literature, which represented the changing alliances among kings, rulers and countries in the fluctuating early modern political environment.. Taking as an example the War of Spanish Succession, but not limited to it, we encourage researchers to explore the uses of art for that purpose.

We invite scholars at all stages of their careers to propose 20-minute presentations, preferably focused on case studies. We encourage proposals that deal with particularly tricky diplomatic encounters and which explain how art helped or, indeed, hindered these negotiations. There is no official language for the conference (we accept English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French), but for the sake of clarity all the communications, as well as the proposals, should be in English.

Candidates are invited to submit their proposals by 20 May 2017 to Pilar Diez del Corral diezdelcorralcorredoira@tu-berlin.de. They should include an abstract (up to 500 words) and a brief CV with recent publications (max. 1 page). Unfortunately, it will not be possible to cover travel and accommodation costs for participants. The scientific committee will inform all the applicants of the final selection by 31 May 2017.

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