Hot on the heels of the History & Change symposium in Turku, Finland,
in October comes this conference call for Helsinki. Please read on.
Lesley Whitworth
List Administrator
---------- Forwarded message ----------
The Department of History at the University of Helsinki will organize a
research conference on material culture and design in may 18 - 20 2001.
We would be very much obliged if you could add the information of the
conference and the address of the conference website on your list.
Invitation and first call for papers to:
MATERIAL AND IDEAL -THINGS IN TIME AND SPACE
Research conference on material matters, culture and technology
http://materialandideal.uiah.fi/
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland May 18-20 2001
THINGS IN TIME AND SPACE
We are looking for perspectives on the interpretation of the Thing
(object) in time and space. We wish to invite a group of researchers to
a crossdisciplinary conference on material matters in a broad sense. We
want to create a conference with the character of a working session: a
lively discussive atmosphere where all the participants present a
paper, short or long. We welcome a broad spectrum of papers from a
variety of fields of study, such as history, art history, museology,
sociology, social anthropology, ethnology, technology, design and human
geography.
Civilized objects of control and self-control; objects of longing and
desire in past and present; things in a place and without a place,
virtual and tangible: these are what we wish will be materialized in
the contributions to the conference.
INVITED SPEAKERS include
PhD Arne Andersen, Lecturer, University of Bremen, Germany
Prof. Svante Beckman, Head of Arbetslivsinstitutet, Norrköping, Sweden
PhD Jukka Gronow, Lecturer, Senior Researcher, Department of Sociology,
University of Helsinki, Finland
Prof. Christian Keller, Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies,
University of Oslo, Norway
Prof. Robin Nagle, New York University, Graduate School for Arts and
Sciences
Prof. Gunnar Olsson, Department of Social and Economic Geography,
University of Uppsala, Sweden
SESSIONS
Sessions will be arranged from the perspective of the participants' own
contributions. In lieu of session headlines, we thus provide three
metaphorical objects for further contemplation: The Rocket, The Glass
Case (La Vitrine) and The Rubbish Bin.
The Rocket: symbolizes questions dealing with technology and everyday life,
expectations on the future, usefulness and uselessness, practices and life
management issues, and all varieties of "cults de progrés". How is the
future projected in present and past narratives of rational and "good"
goods?
The Glass Case - La Vitrine: The Vitrine contains sacred or sacralized,
edited representations of identity and other ritual uses of objects.
Discussions on the artefact and the Auteur, the curator, and the
collector; interpretations of the Other as well as the question of
authenticity, also fit into the Glass Case.
Treatises on individual and/or social appropriation of commodities are
also welcome.
The Rubbish Bin: In the Rubbish Bin we deal with the politics and meanings of
commodities in everyday life. We surround ourselves with objects laden
with meaning. Is it comfort that the actors and subjects of non-edited
materialities seek? How do the design(s) of our lived-in realities deal
with emotional and memorial aspects of goods/things? The role of garbage
as an "anti-vitrine" is also an important question to discuss.
IMPORTANT DATES:
January 31st 2001: Deadline for abstracts
February 7th 2001: Participants notified
February 15th 2001: Last date for registration
April 15th 2001: Final papers due
May 18th-20th Material and Ideal
FURTHER INFORMATION on submitting the abstracts, the schedule and all
general iformation is on the conference website:
http://materialandideal.uiah.fi
CONFERENCE FEE 300/150 (students) FIM.
VENUE The conference will be held at the Finnish National Museum.
http://www.nba.fi/NATMUS/Kmeng.html
CONTACTS
The email address of the conference is [log in to unmask]
Fax +358 9 1912 3217
Postal address:
Material and Ideal
Minna Sarantola-Weiss
PL 59
00014 Helsingin yliopisto
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