The main interests of this conference may run a bit later than the Renaissance;
but it might still be of interest.

Rupert

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: The Color of Money Conference <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, August 31, 2001 8:44 AM
> Subject: CFP: Visuality and Economics Conference
>
> > CALL FOR PAPERS
> >
> > The Color of Money:
> > A Conference on Visuality and Economics
> >
> > Friday, April 27 - Saturday, April 28, 2002
> >
> > Organized by the graduate students of the
> > Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies,
> > University of California, Irvine
> > USA
> >
> >
> > Wealth and poverty are consistently powerful stimuli for visual
> > production, whether in celebratory, ambivalent or condemnatory modes.
> > Products of the mass media, as well as both marginal subcultures and the
> > elite art-world, must articulate themselves through and against the
> > framework set by general economic conditions. We invite submissions that
> > both subject these products to rigorous visual analysis, and frame them
> > within the historical and economic circumstances of their appearance.
> >
> > Submissions may address all visual arts and media, including film,
> > television, and "fine arts." Suggested themes include:
> >
> >
> > HOLLYWOOD VS. INDEPENDENT
> > Recent high-profit successes in independent film have caused an influx of
> > wealth and affluence into an industry traditionally known for low-budget
> > production, yet high aesthetic quality. The money-making potential of
> > independent film has also prompted Hollywood cinema to adopt new film
> > aesthetics and marketing strategies. What are the financial and aesthetic
> > differences (if any) between Hollywood and Independent cinema? What is the
> > impact of economic conditions on the relationship between the Hollywood
> > and Independent film studios? How have the Internet and digital film
> > technologies affected the nature of both industries? Is there presently an
> > alternative cinema to challenge both Hollywood and Independent film
> > productions? What roles do marginal and international cinemas play in the
> > current film market?
> >
> > SOCIETY PORTRAITURE
> > Commissioned portraits have been a powerful medium for the wealthy classes
> > to visually articulate their own ideology. What transformations occur
> > between the older examples, traditionally designed for viewing by members
> > of their own class, and those from the age of the mass media that verge
> > toward celebrity and are more broadly available for identification or
> > envy? How does old money visually differentiate itself from new money?
> >
> > THE ARTIST AND THE BOURGEOIS
> > We are interested in theorizations of the interdependency of visual
> > producers and their sponsors in the commercial class, who are bound
> > together by an umbilical cord of gold, as Clement Greenberg writes, but
> > who nonetheless have a history of mutual mistrust. How has the model
> > artistic career moved from an ideal of bohemian poverty to one of savvy
> > entrepreneurship?
> >
> > REPRESENTATIONS OF WEALTH
> > Patrons regularly use visual art to legitimate their wealth, or advertise
> > their taste or virtue. How effective are tributes to the piety of wealthy
> > patrons incorporated into the visual field itself, or alternatively
> > present as textual benedictions accompanying an exhibition? What is the
> > effect of representations of greed and accumulation, whether from a
> > perspective of approving, individualist adulation, or alternatively from
> > one of moralistic or socialistic censure? Can this be seen in terms of a
> > thematization of excess, waste or superfluity?
> >
> > THE CONVULSIVE BOOM
> > What are the visual symptoms of the social transformations accompanying an
> > influx of wealth into a society? Whether from trade, manufacturing,
> > colonization, technology, or speculation, new sources of wealth demand new
> > cultural representations, in circumstances ranging from the South Seas
> > Bubble and Tulipomania to the Gilded Age, the Roaring 20s, the Affluent
> > Society and the dot-com bubble. What is the function of visual productions
> > in either smoothing over the contradictions produced by these new
> > alignments, or highlighting them in progressive or reactionary protest?
> >
> > ART BOOMS
> > How do the economic conditions of the art market affect the form and
> > matter of art? How does an art-market boom affect the development of
> > lavish materials and exhibitions? How are ostensibly autonomous works of
> > art and their makers assimilated by the promotional functions of the mass
> > media, making media stars of the artists and inflating the market for
> > artworks? How can we generally rethink the relations between the economic
> > cycle and the spheres of art practice and commerce?
> >
> >
> > Abstract Deadline: Monday, December 17, 2001
> >
> >
> > Please forward 250-300 word abstract/CV via email to
> > [log in to unmask] or via FAX to (949) 824-2509.
> > For questions or comments, please contact
> > Shelleen Greene <[log in to unmask]>
> > or Benjamin Lima <[log in to unmask]>.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rupert Shepherd
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Material Renaissance Project
Essex House
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QN, UK
Tel. +44 (0)1273 872544
[log in to unmask]
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/arthist/matren/
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