Call for Papers & Submissions - January 2014

Call for Papers and Conference - Context and Meaning XIII

We cordially invite you to attend the graduate student conference Context and Meaning XIII: Contact, which will take place Friday, January 31st - Saturday, February 1st at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (36 University Ave), Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.  We are delighted to welcome presenters from programs in art history, art conservation, history, classics, archeology, and gender studies from a number of Canadian and American universities.  From this wide range of perspectives, we anticipate fascinating presentations and lively discussion on issues surrounding contact as expressed in visual and material culture.

Please see the schedule for a complete list of the sessions and talks.

Registration begins at 8:15 on Friday, January 31st, and Opening Remarks will be made at 8:30.

We would also like to invite you to the reception Context and Meaning's annual reception which will be held that evening at the Etherington House beginning at 6:00pm.  A buffet dinner will be served at the reception, and includes vegan (and gluten-free), and vegetarian options.

For more information, please contact: gvca@queensu.ca

Call for Submissions - The Cahén Foundation

Original research opportunity for graduate students looking for term paper and thesis topics, post-graduates, and established scholars.

The Cahén Foundation, now in conjunction with the Visual Literacy Foundation of Canada, is inviting researchers to produce in-depth scholarship on Canadian artist Oscar Cahén (b.1916-d.1956). We will provide access and research assistance to our holdings (original figurative and abstract art, original illustration art, mss, oral histories, family history, photographs, exhibition catalogs, correspondence, published illustration).

Additional information

For more information: http://oscarcahen.com/CFP.html

A colloquium is planned for April 26, 2014, and submissions will also be considered for an edited book. Chosen participants will be awarded honoraria.

We are holding an orientation on Friday, January 24, at 60 Bedford Rd., Toronto; and a briefing at UAAC in Banff.

The mission of the non-profit Cahén Foundation is to preserve the estate of Oscar Cahén and to develop knowledge about his unusual life and artistic contribution. The Visual Literacy Foundation of Canada exists to encourage art scholarship and appreciation in Canadian art.

Call for Papers and Conference - Innovation and Its Contestants

DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES

McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
Fifth Annual Graduate Student Conference
18 April 2014

Keynote Speakers

Keith Moxey, Barbara Novak Professor of Art History and Department Chair at Barnard College (Columbia University)
 
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 24 JANUARY 2014
 
The concept of innovation buttresses a paradigmatically modern Western belief in the possibility of infinite economic growth and technological progress. It is in fact a buzzword with remarkable contemporary currency, one that is instrumentalized as a constant search for new technologies, means of production, market adaptations, scientific discoveries and social changes. As a fundamental tenet in Western systems of thought, it is also - and has long been - inscribed within the West's very view of itself as more successful and more 'progressive' than other societies. Note, for example, G.W.F. Hegel's famous juxtaposition of Europe's ever- changing art against the allegedly stagnant visual culture of India: the first modality accounted for the privileged position of the West as the locus of the emanation of universal Geist; while the latter stipulated an essentially 'un-progressive' timelessness in India.
 
The Western valuation and definition of innovation has thereby been mobilized as a justification for diverse colonial, post-colonial and now neoliberal enterprises. It operates as a smoke screen to preserve dominant power regimes both within the West and globally, concealing simultaneously the biased valuation of cultural production, and the unequal distribution of technological and scientific headway among diverse social strata. This is the case even as the current global financial crisis challenges the West's ability to regenerate perpetually. In fact, the stakes involved in the Western impetus to innovate seem to intensify even as recent projections of economic acceleration in several non-Western countries rouse fears that the West is losing ground as innovation's main stimulant.
 
The innovation paradigm is moreover implicit within the bulk of humanistic academic production. As a case in point, the Greenbergian approach to art history, which dominated much of the twentieth century, revolves indisputably around a teleology of formal innovation. Meanwhile, within a number of current academic discussions - for instance those concerning experimentation and invention in the history of science (Galison); global art history (Elkins); visual culture studies (Moxey); history of ideas (Godin); the philosophy of mondialisation (Nancy); media archaeology (Parikka); technological obsolescence (Kittler); and the aesthetics of failure (Halberstam) - innovation is tacitly treated with caution, if not skepticism.
 
Given this tangle of collusions and complexities, how are we to approach and define innovation in academic discourse? Is the paradigm purely a means of disarming social pressure for an all-inclusive equalized prosperity; or might it be recuperated to provide a stimulus for sustainable growth? Can we understand innovation in a broader global spectrum without falling into the trap of cultural essentialism; or does this concept perpetuate Western-centric views and mores? Can the concept of innovation be used for the analysis of historical periods; or does it figure too easily in teleological narratives?
 
With these questions in mind, the graduate students of McGill University's Department of Art History and Communication Studies are opening an enquiry into the concept of innovation. We invite paper proposals addressing a broad range of academic disciplines and historical periods. Papers might address, but are by no means restricted to, the following questions:

• Socio-economic implications of innovation. How do societies and specific agents adapt to new conditions, once their old ways of life have been destroyed?
• The politics of innovation. Does innovation bring betterment or deprivation?
• What are the criteria of innovation?
• Challenging the Western canon of art built on the notions of style, progress, and originality
• Technological progress
• Patents
• Is Western-centrism pervasive in the concept of innovation?
• How does innovation affect personal identities (video games, Facebook, etc.)?
• How is innovation different from change?
• The contestations of innovation; the discursive counterpoints to innovation
• Centre vs. periphery; milieus of innovation
• Instances of anachronism masked as innovation in culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. Recurring regimes: the old in the new, the new in the old
• Does materiality matter in innovation?
• Temporality and innovation
• Commodity culture and innovation

We welcome proposals for 20-minute presentations. Please send your submission in the form of a 300-word abstract and a brief CV to ahcsconference@gmail.com. All candidates will be contacted by the first week of February.

For more information, please refer to the conference website or contact ahcsconference@gmail.com.

Call for Papers and Conference - Art Work: Art's Productive Economies

2014 Wollesen Memorial Symposium
Thursday, March 20, 2014

A one-day graduate symposium hosted by the Graduate Union of Students of Art, University of Toronto, Ontario.

Given the multivalent definitions "work" denotes (including, but not limited to: the product of labour; action involving effort directed toward a definite end; and the operation of a force in producing physical change), it is possible to understand the work of art - and no less, the art of work - through a wide range of critical perspectives. Whether in the process of making art, the products of art, and/or the overarching labour networks in which art exists, how can one think of work and art together in ways that do not unduly privilege one term over the other? How should one situate art as work within both creative and economic labour markets? And how - if at all - can one conceive work as art in light of the conditions those markets entail? That is, how does work negotiate the material dimensions of labour, production, and capital vis-à-vis the aesthetic dimensions of practice, process, and products? Indeed, such questions only begin to scratch the surface of this relation that lays at the heart of aesthetic production. To these questions, we invite proposals for scholarly papers spanning all relevant fields and time periods that touch upon the relation between art and work within the aesthetic, social, political, and cultural economies that encompass these terms.

Sample topics include, but are not limited to:

• Representations of work and/or workers throughout visual culture
• The physical labour of artmaking processes and practices
• Distributions of labour within artist studios (e.g. those of Rembrandt, Warhol, etc.)
• Disjunctions and correlations between conceptual and material labour in artmaking and/or art institutions
• The practice of art history/curating/etc. as forms of "the work of art"
• The aesthetic consequences of immaterial labour/post-Fordism/economic globalization/etc.
• The unseen labour practices that support art institutions (e.g. museum employees, art handlers, interns, etc.)
• The figure of the artist as worker
• The functional "work" of art objects.
  

Current graduate students may submit an abstract of 200-300 words (outlining 15-20 minute presentations) and a brief CV to gustasymposium@gmail.com by January 19, 2014.

Please see gustasymposium.wordpress.com for more information.

Call for Papers and Conference - 20th Underhill Graduate Student Colloquium

We invite students from all academic fields to submit papers to the annual interdisciplinary conference organised by the graduate students of Carleton University's Department of History.

Submission deadline: January 17, 2014
Colloquium dates: March 6, 7, and 8, 2014

Call for papers

Poster

Call for Papers and Conference - The Gesamtkunstwerk: A concept for all times and places

Call For Papers | International Conference and Edited Volume

12 - 14 March 2014
Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon
Artistic Studies Research Centre, University of Lisbon (CIEBA/FBAUL)

Co-ordination
Rui Oliveira Lopes, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)
Fernando António Baptista Pereira, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)
Maria João Ortigão, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)
Fernando Rosa Dias, PhD (CIEBA/FBAUL)

The project The Gesamtkunstwerk. A concept for all times and places is integrated in the programme Art from a Global Perspective, which began in 2011 at the Artistic Studies Research Centre (CIEBA) of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon (FBAUL).

This programme aims at exploring specificities of the artistic creation, of emerging aesthetic formulations in cultural contexts all over the world. It also aims at exploring processes of artistic confluence and interaction which resulted from intercultural dialogue over time. The main goal of the programme Art in a Global Perspective is to establish a network of relationships between art histories, supported by universal concepts of artistic creation, together with identity singularities of artistic expression in several cultures, and to analyze the importance that globalization has had in contemporary art and culture.

The project The Gesamtkunstwerk. A concept for all times and places seeks to rethink the concept of the total work of art through an expanded analysis in time and place. Its aim is to go beyond the aesthetic definitions sketched by Richard Wagner and other philosophers of European Post-romanticism.

The frontier between the theoretical notion and the practical process of artistic creation characterized by the combination of several artistic forms was defined by the use of the concept Gesamtkunstwerk by German philosopher Karl Friedrich Trahndorff (1782-1863), in his work titled Ästhetik oder Lehre von der Weltanschauung und Kunst (published in 1827). There, Trahndorff stated that "the four arts, (...) the art of the sound of the word, of music, of mimicry [theatre] and dance, reunite the possibility of coalescence to become one single [artistic] production."

Later, in his essay Das Kunstwerk der Zukunft (The Artwork of the Future), published in 1849, Richard Wagner took the concept of total work of art to a different level, presenting Opera as the greatest example of union of all the arts, relating music, drama, writing and painting as a new means to dissolve frontiers between artistic genres, which is consummated, simultaneously, with the affirmation of collaborative art.

The aim of this project is to analyze and observe the way artists have worked models of synthesis and coalescence globally, not as a concept rooted in the context of European Romanticism but as a praxis of artistic creation common to all times and places. Thus, we seek to study the "totalizing" nature of the work of art in a double meaning: 1; The coalescence of the arts in the process of creation of a singular work of art; 2; And the process of artistic reformulation, where a work of art is created from another work of art.

Conference Description

The concept Gesamtkunstwerk (or total work of art) is defined by the universal, globalizing and totalizing nature of a work of art when it combines painting, sculpture, architecture, music, poetry and other arts.  In the specific context of German Post-Romanticism, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) attempted to synthesize the work of art in a resounding combination between symphonic music, dramatic action in text interpretation and stage representation, through painting and sculpture, seeking to awaken in audiences subtle and deep emotions. Although the German concept Gesamtkunstwert was not originally used by Wagner, the eloquent way he refers to an ideal of unification of all art forms by means of theatrical representation presents the "consummation of the artwork of the future."

This conference seeks to rethink the concept of Gesamkunstwerk, analyzing the way artists before and after Wagner, in Europe and the World, combined different forms of art, establishing unequivocal relationships between concepts and materials. We aim at systematizing creative processes that rely on the transgression of the individualizing tradition of the art forms in favour of symbiotic mechanisms between visual arts, multimedia art, performative arts, popular arts, and "primitive" arts.

This conference seeks to put into perspective theoretical and practical models of synthesis of arts patent in the several cultural contexts all over the world.

In the context of the Gesamtkunstwerk, beyond these issues, it is important to examine not only the synthesis models of artistic forms, but also textual and visual references often aggregated by works of art.

Discussion themes include, although are not limited to:

• Contextualization of historical and aesthetic reflection on the concept Gesamtkunstwerk;
• Coalescence of visual arts, performance arts, multimedia art, popular art, and "primitive" arts;
• The Gesamtkunstwerk in the context of architecture: Design for the Total Building;
• Film as synthesis of poetics, performance, music, and photography;
• The impact of globalization in the combination of art forms;
• Collaborative art;
• Anthropophagy as an aesthetic procedure (adaptation and appropriation of styles and artistic forms by other artists, of others works or other cultures);
• Museums and exhibition programming as unifying element of art forms (exhibition and curatorial harmonization of different art forms, settings and interactions between the museum's architecture programme and museum practice);
• Decorative Arts: application and ornament (decorative arts as an expression of the combination of different forms of art, collaboration between artists - woodcarvers, designers, goldsmiths, painters, sculptors, upholsterers, etc.)
• Appropriation and Remediation (analysis of processes of artistic recreation, especially via digital art;
• Modern and contemporary perspectives on the Gesamtkunstwerk (extensions of the notion of the Gesamtkunstwerk in Modernism and the contemporary world;
• New definitions for the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk;
• Questions suggested by installation and the notion of place;
• Pastiche and the reinvention of the work of art;
  

Additional information

We particularly encourage the submission of proposals that crosscut cultural contexts, present diachronic perspectives or establish relationships between different universes.

Submissions for a 20-minute presentation and/or edited volume should be forwarded to the Scientific Committee, which will proceed to a peer review.

Submissions should be sent by email to agp@fba.ul.pt until 15 January 2014, with "CFP Gesamtkunstwerk" as subject message;

• The  abstract should only include title and a maximum of 500 words;
• The  abstract must be accompanied by a different file with a curriculum vitae (maximum: 1 page), that must include personal identification elements, the submission title, academic affiliation and a selection of a maximum of 5 bibliographic references;
• Notification of acceptance will be announced until 15 February 2014;
• Papers accepted for the conference will be published in a volume;
• The committee may accept proposed papers only for the edited book.

Working Languages: English / Portuguese

For further information please send an email to agp@fba.ul.pt

Call for Papers and Conference - Barriers and Bridges: Movement in the Atlantic World

16th Annual "History Across the Disciplines" Conference
March 21-23, 2014
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

For more information: Call for papers

Call for Submissions and Conference - Gods & Idols: (Ex)Changes of the Sacred and Sanctified

12th Annual English Graduate Colloquium
March 1, 2014
Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Gods & Idols: (Ex)Changes of the Sacred and Sanctified

During the humanist movement, there was a critical shift from theocentrism to egocentrism. In the 17th Century, Rene Descartes posited that rational argument could prove God's existence. Human reason was no longer accountable to God; God now needed to stand in the court of human reason. Paving the way for the Enlightenment and the subsequent movements of modernity and postmodernity, this transition witnessed philosophers and poets intellectually abandon the divine. Revealing the relevance of this shift for literary studies, Barthes famously decried the death of the Author-God function. Milton's muse has been replaced with a question mark.
 
In 2011, over 76% of Canadians reported an adherence to religious practices; however, this already broad statistic fails to take into account the fact that we all worship at the altar of pop culture. Despite Nietzsche's proclamation, gods and idols are alive and well in the modern world. Our conference is interested in the areas of cultural, political, and intellectual exchange between the sacred (gods) and the sanctified (idols): the cultivation of the public images of pop stars, politicians, and (anti-) heroes throughout the ages. Do the subjects of media and the entertainment industry replace the sacred or do they function alongside or against it? Does the corporatization of idol figures and role models establish their cultural capital and significance? In other words, has media started to authorize what was previously religious territory? Where does public authority lie and what are its interstices?

Possible topics for consideration:

• Spirituality and faith; Secularism
• Cult(ivation) of public/private image
• (Socio-)Political hierarchy and validation
• Mythology and folklore
• Anthropocentrism
• The trickster figure and the Picaro
• Authority/Authorship
• The (anti-) hero's quest
• The comic book and/or the graphic novel; the comix movement
• Issues and theorizations of (self-)representation
• Arts, artefacts and canonicity
• Translation and orality
• Blog culture and its narcissism/activism (ie: wikileaks)
• Activism, pacifism and violence
• Ideology, morality, ethics, justice, forgiveness and vengeance
• Exegesis and hermeneutics
• Amanuensis and anonymity
• Simulacra, constructions and emulations

Additional information

Please send your 200-word abstract and a brief bio to concordiacolloquium@outlook.com by January 10, 2014.

If you have a paper that you would like to submit but that doesn't seem to fit the topics we've listed, submit it anyway.  It's hard to predict how the sessions will compose themselves so it might very well find a home.

For more information: concordiacolloquium@outlook.com

Call for Papers - Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, Volume VII

Graduate Journal

Deadline for submissions: Monday, January 6, 2014
For more information: call for papers

Call for Submissions and Conference - The Enlightened Image: History and Uses of Projection

Thursday, May 22 - Friday, May 23, 2014
Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada

The purpose of this conference is to reflect on the issues concerning the projection of still images as this way of presenting images, used by museums and universities, plays an increasingly important role in the visual landscape. A projection can be part of an exhibition by artists or curators, its vocation can be recreational or educational, in any situation, the projection still monumentalises the image, which is placed in the heart of a collective experience. Thus, from the early development of magic lanterns in the middle of the seventeenth-century, the intermedial transposition has made the projection dedicated to the collective use of the image and gives it a status of mediator to the public.

The sharing of images provided by the projection is transformative: the projection dematerializes images, distances them, changes their scales and proportions, makes them ephemeral, etc. The projection also affects the way images are perceived in particular by focusing its iconicity at the expense of its texture. All these mutations influence how the projected image is received and creates perceptual habitus. The new visual literacies, which inaugurated the conception of numeric screens and their uses, seem to have been initiated by the luminosity of the projected image. Microsoft PowerPoint, for instance, borrows the word "slides" from projection lexicon.

The aim of this conference is to investigate the issues concerning the intermedial transposition operated by projection in order to understand what projection does to the image, how it is used, perceived and its received. These questions will be investigated through a long historical period (from 18th-century to today), to build a cultural history of the projection including the paradigm, rather than considering the projection as a pre-cinematographic phenomenon. By tracing the genealogy of techniques dedicated to the exhibition of images, the conference will outline the anchoring of the transition between a print culture and a screen culture.

The expected contributions will explore various aspects of the projection and its history through specific cases (exhibitions, art history lectures, etc.), narratives or representation of projections (advertising posters, scenes in novels, etc.), specific relationships between projection and print, photography or soundscape, technical developments (Kodachrome, e-readers, etc.) or metaphorical uses of the word "projection" (psychoanalysis, etc.).

Additional information

Organised by Joanne Lalonde, Vincent Lavoie and Érika Wicky (Department of Art
History, UQAM), this conference is held under the auspices of RADICAL (Repères pour une articulation des dimensions culturelles, artistiques et littéraires de l'imaginaire contemporain), a component of FIGURA, centre de recherche sur le texte et l'imaginaire.

A 300 word proposal in English or in French, with a brief CV, should be submitted by January 6, 2014 to wicky.erika@uqam.ca.

Call for Papers and Conference - The Art of Transforming Communities

Art Education Graduate Symposium, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec

February 28 - March 2, 2014

Email the completed application form and abstract to: symposiumarted@gmail.com

Submission deadline: Monday, January 6, 2013

For more information: Call for papers