Popularizing Architecture

Historians of German and Central European Art Session
CAA 2014 Annual Conference

Chair: Wallis Miller, University of Kentucky

IMPORTANT NOTE: Participants in this session do not have to be CAA members and do not have to register for the conference.

Popularizing Architecture will focus on the dissemination and
circulation of new ideas in architecture to non-professional audiences
in Germany and Central Europe since the late nineteenth century, when
publications that included architecture began to emerge in large
numbers. While most of these publications served professional audiences,
non-professionals also began to form important audiences for
architecture, as they did for other cultural pursuits. Over time,
architectural exhibitions, film, radio, television, and the Internet
joined newspaper and magazine articles to form a complex media landscape
that continues to address a wide range of audiences today. Recent
research on architecture and media has been primarily concerned with
professional contexts, examining case studies focusing on Western Europe
and the United States. The session will shift this regional focus to
Germany and Central Europe to examine more explicitly the relationship
between architectural proposals--theoretical or built, traditional or
innovative--and non-professional audiences while also exploring the
concept of popularization. Papers on a range of places and periods since
the mid-nineteenth century might attend to the following questions: How
did non-professional audiences encounter new ideas about architecture?
How (if at all) did this experience diverge from that of professional
architects? To what extent did the dissemination of architectural ideas
exploit new media? How might a regional focus on Germany and Central
Europe prompt particular questions and conclusions regarding
architecture and its popularization?

Your submission should include an abstract of 250-500 words, a letter
explaining your interest and expertise in the subject as well as CAA
membership status, and a CV with contact information (including summer
contact information, if applicable). Please also inform us if you are
submitting proposals to other sessions at the conference.
CAA individual membership is required of all participants. No one may
participate in more than one session in any capacity. A paper that has
been published previously or presented at another scholarly conference
may not be delivered at the CAA Annual conference.
Acceptance in this session implies a commitment to attend that session
and participate in person.
The submission deadline is May 10. Please send submissions to
wmilleruky.edu.