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dear all,
i'd like to draw your attention to a conference and an exhibition that  
i'm co-organising at the whitworth art gallery in manchester this  
february (see below).
For your information, the exhibition 'subversive spaces: surrealism  
and contemporary art' will include some of humphrey spender's mass  
observation photos of bolton playgrounds, juxtaposed with paintings by  
contemporary british artist george shaw.
Thanks in advance for circulating the information to anyone else whom  
you feel may be interested.
best wishes,
anna

'Dwelling, Walking, Falling: an international conference on the  
Experience of Everyday Space.'Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester,  
February 13-14, 2009.

How do we experience space? How do we navigate and inhabit the city?
The conference 'Dwelling, Walking, Falling' addresses the social,  
political and psychoanalytical modes through which we encounter and  
interact with urban space. The focus will be on the individual and  
collective experiences of architecture and urbanism, and the ways in  
which these experiences operate at the levels of everyday reality as  
well as imagination and fantasy. In order to develop a set of more  
accurate tools with which to approach this psycho-social nexus, we  
will let ourselves be guided by experimental practices and theories in  
the fields of twentieth- and twenty-first century art and  
architecture, engaging with the role of play, desire and fear within  
urban and architectural experience, focusing on liminal states such as  
sleepwalking or getting lost, and mapping out relations between  
falling bodies, urban decay, or abandoned spaces.

This inter-disciplinary conference will bring together art historians,  
architecture historians and geographers. Speakers will include: Simon  
Baker (Nottingham University), Steven Gartside (Manchester  
Metropolitan University), Susan Laxton (Columbia University, New  
York), David Lomas (University of Manchester), James Meyer (Emory  
University, Georgia), Arnauld Pierre (Université Paris IV-Sorbonne),  
Steve Pile (Open University), David Pinder (Queen Mary, London) Judith  
Rodenbeck (Sarah Lawrence College, New York), Frances Stracey  
(University College London), Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths College, London)  
(to be confirmed) and Richard Williams (Edinburgh University).

The conference will coincide with the new exhibition 'Subversive  
Spaces: Surrealism and Contemporary Art' at the Whitworth Art Gallery,  
which employs space as a rubric in order to trace some of the most  
vital legacies of surrealism in the work of a number of leading  
contemporary artists. The exhibition focuses on the domestic interior  
and the city street, two spaces that are fundamental to the surrealist  
imaginary and that resonate with contemporary art practice.

Registration fee: £30 (£15 student concessions).
For more information about the conference, please contact:
Samantha Lackey ([log in to unmask])
or Anna Dezeuze ([log in to unmask]).
For registration, please contact [log in to unmask] or  
on 0161 275 7463.

Dr. Anna Dezeuze,
Art History and Visual Studies,
University of Manchester,
Mansfield Cooper Building,
Manchester M13 9PL.

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