Please circulate widely and encourage submissions. Apologies for crossposting.

Call for Papers

4th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies
University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands, July 1-3, 2013

Session:
Public Art and Architecture As Irritation: Mediating Politics,
Emotions and Space

Convenors:
Dr. Martin Zebracki & Dr. Martijn Duineveld
Cultural Geography Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands*

Session abstract:
Academic debates on the shift from art in the art world to art in the
public world have recently been developed at the crossroads of the
humanities and the social sciences (cf. Senie 2003; Kwon 2004; Hein
2006; Knight 2008), as have literatures on how cities have started to
promote the opening up of public spaces to art and architecture (cf.
Hayden 1998; Finkelpearl 2001; Hall 2003; DaCosta Kaufmann 2004; Miles
and Hall 2005; Sharp et al. 2005; Zebracki 2011). Artworks and
architecture in public space are often seen as a hitch in the built
environment, while a plethora of claims – without sound empirical
evidence – are made about their contributions to the living
environment (cf. Hall and Robertson 2001; Zebracki et al. 2010).
Public art and architecture act as an intermediating agency in visual
culture and hence as a powerful yet elusive player in spatial politics
(cf. Deutsche 1996). The rationales and expressions of art and
architecture can evoke explicit or rather subtle emotions and
irritation among its spectators (cf. Massey and Rose 2003). As such,
art and architecture manifest themselves in the sphere of the rational
unbecoming.

Hitherto, little is known about the relationships between public
art/architecture, politics, emotions and space, particularly from the
perspective of public space’s spectators. This session invites
scholars from across all disciplines, who are engaged with
multidisciplinary spatial articulations of social and cultural theory,
to critically analyse the politics and affects figuring in public art
and architecture.

Suggested topics this session attempts to explore include, but are not
restricted to, the following:

· The assemblages of materialities and practices of public
art/architecture and their emotional resonances (cf. De Landa 2006;
Deleuze and Guattari 2007 [1987])
· Governmentalities of public art/architecture (cf. Foucault 1991)
· Reflexive, performative and visual methodologies of affect-based
research on public art/architecture (cf. Rose 2001; Thrift 2008)
· The body as research instrument and site of research in cultural
geographies of public art/architecture (cf. Hawkins 2010, 2012)
· Engaging geographies of public art/architecture: relationships
between sensed, imagined and reified socio-spatial dimensions (cf.
Lees 2001; Zebracki 2012)
· The non-representational relationships between public
art/architecture, affects and the public sphere (cf. Mitchell 1992;
Thrift 2008)
· Emotional dimensions of site-specificness and publicness of public
art/architecture (cf. Mitchell 1992; Kwon 2004)
· Relational aesthetics and social relationalities of public
art/architecture (cf. Bourriaud 2002; Massey and Rose 2003)
· Spatial poetics of public art/architecture (cf. Bachelard 1994 [1958/1969])

Full reference list: www.zebracki.org/CFP2013emo

If you are interested in participating in this session, please submit
an abstract of no more than 250 words to Martin Zebracki
([log in to unmask]) and Martijn Duineveld
([log in to unmask]) by January 12, 2013. Conceptual and/or
empirical contributions are welcomed. Please feel free to ask Martijn
or Martin any questions related to this intended session.

Conference website: http://www.rug.nl/frw/onderzoek/emospa/index

*The Cultural Geography Group, Wageningen University, is committed to
social theory in all its spatial articulations and has a strong
international reputation in the field of human geography. In
particular, the work of the group is focused on mobility (including
tourism, leisure and migration studies) and cultural politics
(including questions of landscape, community and heritage) in relation
to spatial theory and modernity.
Website: http://www.sal.wur.nl/UK

Dr. M.M. (Martin) Zebracki
Lecturer & Researcher, Cultural Geography Group, Wageningen University
Academic Advisor, University College Utrecht
WWW.ZEBRACKI.ORG