Online and New York City, Feb 10–13, 2021 Deadline: Sep 16, 2020
www.collegeart.org ArtHist Redaktion
College Art Association Annual Conference [1] The “Long” 18th Century?
[2] Textiles in Architecture
[3] Behind The Scenes Of Object-Based Art Histories [4] Gender and miniaturization in visual culture
[5] Eco Deco: Art and Environment in the Long Eighteenth Century [6] Visuality of the Disease and the Future of the World
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[1] The “Long” 18th Century?
From: Sarah Betzer, sb4fg@virginia.edu
CAA 2021 + Journal18 (Fall 2021)
Session Chairs / Issue Editors: Sarah Betzer, University of Virginia & Dipti Khera, New York University
We invite submissions for a special issue of Journal18, the subject of which takes off from the ubiquity of the phrase “the long eighteenth century.” Proliferating in calls for participation and panel descriptions, if the mark of an elongated eighteenth century is inescapable, we propose that this terminology merits fur- ther scrutiny. What is meant by the “long” eighteenth century? From which vantage points, and for whom, is it long? And to what ends has this elongation been directed?
It is our contention that we must understand the rise of a “long” eighteenth century alongside the signifi- cant transformation of art historical inquiry into expanded geographical and cultural terrains. Since 2003, the study of eighteenth-century art has been enriched by a new commitment to “worlding,” even if decol- onizing art histories remains an ongoing and incomplete project. As a result, habitual chronological slices, whether defined by European political history or by European stylistic shifts (e.g., Baroque, Rococo, Neo- classical), have been ripe for reconsideration as scholars have asked new questions about the transmis- sion and sedimentation of practices, experiences, and art objects around the world. When the focus on his- tories of colonialism and slavery forces us to look anew at the bodies, lands, and knowledge presented in art, how do our narratives change and how do the sites and objects of our inquiry shift? What are the impli- cations of this broadened scope of inquiry for habits of locution and the habits of mind that underwrite them? While the habitual slicing up of Britain’s eighteenth century to 1688–1815 is not that far out of align- ment with France’s 1643–1815, it looks very different from the perspective of, for instance, South Asia,
where an end point has tended rather to be located in the 1830s. What impact, if any, has a “worlding” of art history had upon our thinking about the relative length or shortness, narrowness or breadth, of the eigh- teenth century? What conceptually binds an eighteenth century once we have taken up the project of track- ing the entanglements of art, commerce, and empire across worlds? For whom is the eighteenth century long, from what vantage points, whether local, regional, or transregional, and to what ends? And what rela- tionship does this designation have to the equally omnipresent “long” nineteenth century, as well as to accounts of the Enlightenment, its seductions, and its repercussions?
We invite contributions that reflect upon a “long” and “broad” eighteenth century–its contours, analytic pos- sibilities, and limits. We particularly welcome submissions that explore new models for tracking intellectu- al and artistic through-lines and inheritances, and that spur us to rethink periodization, or stylistic terminol- ogy that has been too often limited in its utility by being yoked to the goal of a successional narrative telos. Authors are encouraged to explore this wide-angle view by way of one term, one object, one pheno- menon, or one margin. We welcome interventions that originate in art history or in other allied humanistic disciplines.
The deadline for CAA panel submissions is 16 September: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/webpro- grampreliminary/meeting.html
To submit a proposal, send an abstract of 250 words (or 500 words for multi-authored proposals) and a brief biography to editor@journal18.org<mailto:editor@journal18.org> and sbetzer@virginia.edu<mailto:s- betzer@virginia.edu>.
Accepted participants will be invited to virtually convene for a panel in February 2021 under the auspices of the College Art Association annual conference for presentation and collaborative workshopping of their contributions.
Accepted articles should not exceed 6000 words (including footnotes) and will be due on April 15, 2021.
For further information, see http://www.journal18.org/future-issues/
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[2] Textiles in Architecture
From: Didem Ekici, didem.ekici@nottingham.ac.uk
This panel seeks to investigate the application of textiles in architecture via a variety of case studies from the Middle Ages through the present and from diverse geographic contexts. Among the oldest human tech- nologies, building and weaving have intertwined histories. Textile structures go back to Paleolithic times and are still in use today. Textile furnishings have long been utilized in interiors. Beyond its use as actual material, textile has offered a captivating model and metaphor for architecture through its ability to enclose, tie together, communicate, and adorn. Traditional woven buildings from around the world as well as modern architecture have employed fabrication techniques, structures, and textures from weaving crafts. Textile and costume have been used as metaphors in architectural theory from Vitruvius to Filarete and beyond expressing the rapport between body and building, enclosure, social status, zeitgeist, function etc. Mechanization of manufacture made textiles available to wider society leading to their abundant use in nineteenth-century interiors. Having long been associated with women, textile crafts consequently gained increasing attention from professional design circles. Investigations of textiles continued in archi- tectural modernism. Recently, architects have shown a renewed interest in textiles due to the use of com- puter-aided design, digital fabrication, and innovative materials.
This session invites papers that critically explore the technical, spatial, and material qualities, as well as cultural, gendered, political, and ecological significances of textiles and textile technologies in architec- ture. Papers that work across disciplines to provide new insights into the enduring relationship between textiles and architecture are particularly welcome.
Send the following to didem.ekici@nottingham.ac.uk before September 16, 2020.
1. Presentation title and abstract (max 250 words) as well as a statement on why your proposal is a good fit for this panel (max. 100 words).
2. A shortened CV (close to 2 pages).
3. (Optional) Documentation of work when appropriate, limit to five images as a single PDF, especially for sessions in which artists might discuss their own practice.
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[3] Behind The Scenes Of Object-Based Art Histories From: Carl Schmitz, cschmitz@catalogueraisonne.org
Affiliated Society or Committee Name: Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association Carl Schmitz, Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association / CalArts
Email Address(s): carlschmitz@alum.calarts.edu
“I guess what I’m asking is this: are these the only kind of questions that art historians should be asking:
Whodunnit? Or whatisit? Is there nothing else we can say?”
—Michael Ann Holly
From the proposition that the ontological basis of art history remains a ground for discovery, this session seeks perspectives on the relationships between the objects and subjects of study within the discipline.
How can the single artist catalogue raisonné— perhaps the ultimate expression of subject and object spe- cificity—be recontextualized as part of a speculative art history? Through all of the genealogies within art historiography, what are the conditions of possibility for an art history oriented toward the art object? What other ontologically dichotomous or even non-dichotomous art histories are possible?
Please refer to CAA (https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/webprogrampreliminary/meeting.html) for further details and to submit your proposal. Deadline for submissions: September 16, 2020.
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[4] Gender and miniaturization in visual culture From: Inbal Ben Asher Gitler, inbalbag@gmail.com
Miniaturizing images and visual messages (in two-dimensional format) is a long-established tradition.
Moreover, miniaturization has increased significantly with the developments of consumer society and digi- tization. Beyond the traditional miniaturization in graphic design, such as postage stamps, currency, medals and logos, there are now a growing number of digital icons and emojis. Both leading designers and anonymous creators have been responsible for such miniaturized images, encompassing numerous aspects of cultures and economies across the globe. While miniature images have been researched in vari- ous contexts such as art, communication, and semiotics, much is left to explore on gender issues. This session seeks papers on diverse forms of miniaturization focusing on women’s representation. It address- es gender as well as cultural, commercial and national issues. Papers will also discuss thematic, formal,
stylistic and media aspects. We invite papers dealing with contemporary as well as 20th century miniature images across the globe, focusing on gender from aspects of the design process and its outcome, and inclusion vs. marginalization of women in this area of visual culture. Among the questions addressed, but not limited to, might be, how does gender intersect with other social categories, such as: age, sexuality, reli- gion, geography, race, and ethnicity? How does stereotyping function in the miniaturization of feminine fig- ures? What distinguishes the depiction of known personages, for example in postage stamps, political pro- paganda or currency, and what is the contribution of such depictions to gender-conscious commemora- tion and education? How do emojis represent diversity of gendered figures?
link to the session proposal at CAA: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/webprogrampreliminary/Ses- sion7143.html
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[5] Eco Deco: Art and Environment in the Long Eighteenth Century
From: Kristel Smentek (smentek@mit.edu) and Wendy Bellion, (wbellion@udel.edu)
How might an “ecocritical insurgency,” to use Lawrence Buell’s term, of environmental scholarship reorient studies of the decorative arts in the long eighteenth century? Proposing “Eco Deco” as a term for this inquiry, this session aims to catalyze an interdisciplinary conversation about environmental history, decora- tive arts, and design. The manufacture of early modern decorative arts involved an astonishing quantity of material substances harvested from a range of natural environments; the global systems of labor and tran- sportation that moved such products to consumers generated corresponding environmental effects that have yet to be critically examined. We invite papers that take a global view of the material stuff of design and the decorative arts (e.g. wood, cotton, metal, clay, glass, ivory, tortoiseshell, cochineal) within anthro- pogenic and/or nonhuman networks (e.g. slavery, colonialism, capitalism). How do the decorative arts expose historical ideologies and/or period imaginaries of nature, materiality, technology, and aesthetics?
How were the decorative arts implicated in processes of resource extraction, ecosystem disruption, spe- cies destruction, industrial pollution, waste, and toxicity?
Please email abstracts of 250 words and a short c.v. to Wendy Bellion (wbellion@udel.edu) and Kristel Smentek (smentek@mit.edu) by September 16, 2020. CAA requires that you become a CAA member if your proposal is accepted.
Additional guidelines are provided by CAA here: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/webprogramprelimi- nary/meeting.html
Additional FAQs can be found here: https://www.collegeart.org/programs/conference/FAQ
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[6] Visuality of the Disease and the Future of the World From: Nazar Kozak, knb_ua@yahoo.com
Nazar Kozak, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Halyna Kohut, Ivan Franko National University of Liviv. Ukraine
Email Address(s): knb_ua@yahoo.com , kohut_ua@yahoo.com
In January 2020 the empty streets of Wuhan, a multi million megalopolis in China that was locked down
due to the COVID-19 outbreak, emerged on global media screens like a Hollywood-filmed dystopia. By April, terrifying graphs envisioned the unstoppable rise in the number of infected cases worldwide. The Pope was praying at the gates of the cathedral alone and was blessing the empty square because gather- ing crowds of worshipers would spread the infection. Brazilian nurses laid down on the ground with can- dles burning on their chests in order to urge the public's awareness that death festers among the unpro- tected and exposed. COVID-19 is invisible to the naked eye and the images, such as those that just have been mentioned, render it visible. Yet they not only reflect the pandemics reality, they also affect its social construction and thus preprogram the world we will be living in after the pandemics ends. This session invites papers investigating the visuality of COVID-19 – that is, the multitude of images provoked by the disease’s outbreak – and its societal effects. Questions to consider include: How does this visuality expose biopolitical distortions? How does it provoke ideological contradictions? How does it define the power relationships between regions of the world, between the elite and the masses? How does it reveal the ‘particular truth’ of the postmodern fragmented subjects? And how does it help us negotiate our fears and our hopes?
Please send application materials to the both chairs by 16 September 2020.
For detail instructions see: https://caa.confex.com/caa/2021/webprogrampreliminary/meeting.html
Reference:
CFP: 6 Sessions at CAA (New York, 10-13 Feb 21). In: ArtHist.net, Sep 10, 2020 (accessed Feb 27, 2022),
<https://arthist.net/archive/23491>.
