On the occasion of the AAH (Association of Art Historians)
Annual Conference, 15-17 April 2010, University of Glasgow, we invite
proposals for the following session:
PICTURING THE SENSORIUM IN ART FROM ANTIQUITY TO 1800
In recent years, scholarship has become increasingly sensitised to the
fact that historical human interaction with the material world, as it
still does today, engaged not only the visual, but also the spectrum of
the sensory and affective. The result has been a raft of histories of
tasting, smelling, touching and hearing – all of which, directly or
indirectly, work with and extend Baxandall’s concept of the “period
eye”. Then, as now, these oral, aural, visual, olfactory and haptic
practices were not only culturally determined but also often
communicated without written explanation or in transitory form. We
welcome papers that explore the performance of the senses in art from
Antiquity to 1800 (for example hearing music, touching sculpture,
smelling flowers, stroking animals, tasting food) as well as affective
responses, such as pleasure or disgust. Papers might discuss sensorial
engagement with art and/or its materials in contexts such as the
artist’s studio, domestic interior or gallery/museum. They could also
consider how art reflects the contingent medical and social contexts of
the senses or how artistic media, for example tapestries or objects to
be handled, were viewed in times when contagion was feared. Equally,
contributions could relate to the inhibition or loss of the senses, such
as the depiction of blindness or the deterioration of an artist’s own
faculties of sight and/or colour as revealed in his/her writings or
work. This panel welcomes contributions that provide fresh
interpretations of existing knowledge, or presentations of new material
emerging from research, conservation, or archival
discoveries. Contributions will be limited to ca 25 minutes in length.
To submit a paper, please send a 250 word abstract to the two session
convenors (e-mail addresses as below) before 9 November 2009. Your name,
your institutional affiliation and full contact details should also be
included in the abstract.
Rachel King
Art History and Visual Studies
The University of Manchester, U.K.
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Christopher Plumb
Centre for Museology and CHSTM (Centre for the History of Science,
Technology and Medicine)
The University of Manchester, U.K.
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