Call for Papers: AAG Boston, 15-19 April

 

Visualising with the ‘Other’: collaborative art practices and politics

 

Convenors: Rachel Pain and Divya P. Tolia-Kelly

 

 

Research interest in visual art, and in particular methods and practices using visual art, is burgeoning in the social sciences, including human geography. The focus on art - as a media form, as a subject, as methodology, and in dissemination in research, policy and other texts - has evolved from being simply about textual representations, text and context. Recently there has also been a growth of interest in collaborative research strategies that build meaningful and effective participation beyond ‘traditional’ research groups, emphasising empowerment and transformation in research practices and processes. Art is gaining popularity as one of the methods, strategies and/or outcomes of such collaborations. These two approaches, in dialogue or in combination, have potential for challenging and rethinking the parameters of ‘art history’ and ‘visual culture’, as well as geography as a visual discipline.

 

Historically, in the public sphere, terms such as ‘art’ have had elitist connotations. This has delimited both access to and the meaning of art, operating to exclude sections of certain societies and groups from the production and consumption of art and art spaces. Here, we are engaging with a notion of art to include those normally outside the art and social science academies. The session aims to showcase the work of those involved in producing collaborative art practice that allows for mediating between those marginalised from ‘art’ and its spaces and research practice itself. The aim here is to consider the ways in which these new research practices with visual art can contribute to new theories and challenges to notions of art as history, art as an inclusive culture, and its potential to make the academy more accessible to those groups normally only involved as ‘community’ or ‘other’.

 

This session aims to:

  • showcase contemporary research collaborations with visual artists or using visual art
  • rethink relationships between visual theory and media from the perspective of ‘other’ groups and societies
  • explore themes and theoretical perspectives in geography and visual culture from collaborative perspectives
  • explore different modes and ethics of collaboration and participation using art
  • demonstrate and investigate new methodologies
  • highlight transformative research practices and outcomes which relate to goals of social justice and social change.

 

Contributors might wish to address questions at the nexus of visual methods and collaborative research literatures and practices in geography and elsewhere, including:

·        How can collaborative research using art help us rethink the ‘other’ in theory and practice?

·        Can we move towards a transcultural art theory?

·        What are the spaces and spatialities of collaborative art research practice?

·        How are notions of ‘lay’ and ‘professional’ art recast through collaborative research?

·        How do researchers navigate between sometimes conflicting principles and practices?

 

Please send an abstract of 150 words (maximum) to us by the deadline of 10th October 2007.

Please these to both Rachel Pain ([log in to unmask]) and Divya Tolia-Kelly ([log in to unmask]). For queries please write directly to Rachel.

 

 

Dr Rachel Pain

Department of Geography

University of Durham

Durham DH1 3LE

+44 (0)191 3341876

Social Well-Being and Spatial Justice cluster

 

Participatory Geographies Working Group