Dear all,
We would like to cordially invite you to submit your papers and/or
participate in the Automotive Histories / Driving Futures, the first annual
conference of Automotive Historians Australia.
Apologies for cross postings.
AUTOMOTIVE HISTORIES / DRIVING FUTURES
First annual conference of Automotive Historians Australia
Hosted by:
RMIT Design Archives RMIT School of Architecture and Design,
Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture Monash University
Melbourne, Australia 1– 3 September 2016
In 2004 British sociologist Mike Featherstone noted that while there had
been increasing academic engagement with the ‘mobility turn’, automobility
- the ‘modes of autonomous, self-directed movement’ afforded by the
motorcar - had been neglected as a subject of enquiry. Since then,
automobility studies have gained some traction in the academy, particularly
within social sciences and cultural studies. However, while the parameters
of automobility are set wide, and cross a number of different disciplines,
the practices of design within this context have rarely been the focus of
study. In Australia, which has been a centre of vehicle production for 120
years and is one of the few countries in the world that has the capacity to
design and manufacture vehicles from the ground up, there has been little
scholarly research in these areas.
The major Australian car companies - Toyota, Ford and General Motors Holden
- will cease manufacturing and exit the country by 2017 following
Mitsubishi’s closure in 2008. The implications of this dramatic shift in
terms of job losses, weakened industrial capacity and also the potential
loss of significant cultural heritage sites and assets, are becoming the
subject of increased concern and debate. Furthermore, as automotive design
rapidly changes under the forces of new propulsion, data and energy
technologies (autonomous, electric, solar cars); as increased urbanisation
means fewer young people want to own vehicles, with bike- and car-sharing
on the increase; as cities look to alternatives to private car travel; as
road congestion increases and oil supplies decrease, it is clear that the
dominance of the twentieth-century conception of the vehicle is waning.
It is timely therefore to reflect on the Australian condition, to consider
the broad themes of automobility through a particularly local and national
lense, both in terms of the past and the potential for the future. It is
hoped that the implications for design in what John Urry has called ‘the
car system’ will be addressed. That papers will examine the contributions
and legacies of Australian vehicle designers, of those who have designed
the road systems that these machines demand, and also of architects who
have designed the factories, salesrooms, garages and service stations that
build and maintain vehicles, and the motels, drive-in cinemas and suburban
shopping malls that mass ownership of private vehicles have brought into
being.
Papers need not be confined to these topics however, but can address any
area related to automobility including:
cultures of automobility;
automotive design in Australia, past present and future;
vehicles and the development of new architectural types: factories,
showrooms, petrol stations, motels, drive-in cinemas, garages (private and
commercial);
automobiles and urban planning and development;
highway and freeway development and their trans formation over time (sound
barriers and art projects);
the design of road safety (from seat belts to TV campaigns);
mobile homes;
practices of driving;
vehicles and the environment;
cars in Australian popular media, cinema, games and literature;
motoring and national identity;
the car and cultural identity;
cars and gender identity;
motoring and tourism;
motorsports;
vehicle makes and marques;
the car and industrialisation;
the car and the economy;
the psychology of automobility;
the car and land use;
the car and law;
the car and art/the arts;
autonomous vehicles;
advanced automotive technologies and business models.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted to the organising
committee by Friday 5 February 2016.
Abstracts will be blind reviewed by at least two members of the Conference
Academic Committee. Full papers (4500 words, including notes) will be
double blind peer reviewed and those accepted for presentation at the
conference will be published on the conference website.
Work submitted for review and for publication in the conference proceedings
should be original research that has not previously been published
elsewhere, or work that has undergone substantial development from a prior
publication.
Abstracts due Abstract acceptances sent out 5 February 2016 19 February 2016
Papers due for refereeing Final papers due Conference 30 April 2016 16 July
2016 1-3 September 2016
Abstracts may be in Word format with the following information and in this
order:
a) author, b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c)
email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of proposal
Emails should have in the subject heading: Automotive histories/driving
futures Abstract Submission
and be submitted to: [log in to unmask]
_________________________________________
Dr Mark Richardson
Lecturer, Department of Design (Industrial Design)
Monash University, Faculty of Art & Design
Building G, 900 Dandenong Rd
Caulfield East
3145, Victoria
Australia
Ph: +613 9903 1859
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