[1] Why Public Art? Practices, Strategies, and Rivalry in Post-Digital Societies

From: Analays Alvarez Hernandez <a.alvarezhernandezutoronto.ca>
Date: May 17, 2017

Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebration in 2017 has involved an
unprecedented number and variety of public art patrons, who have
commissioned high caliber, expensive projects relying on a vast range
of expertise, techniques, and mediums. This public art “hysteria”
appears to be a worldwide phenomenon. In Out of Time, Out of Place:
Public Art Now (2015), Claire Doherty argues that, in commissioners’
eyes, the work of public art might act as a symbol of a city’s
progressive, contemporary credentials to rival other megalopolis.
Indeed, never before has public art attracted the attention of
political and economical elites as it does today in major post-digital
societies. This session invites artists and scholars to reflect upon
why, and under which forms and approaches, is public art at the centre
of most post-digital cities’ urban planning and development. Within
this session, “public art” is understood as publicly situated art,
whether temporary or permanent.

Submissions are welcome for papers to be given in either French or
English; they have to be sent to the session chairs Analays Alvarez
[a.alvarezhernandezutoronto.ca] and Marie-Josée Therrien
[mtherrienfaculty.ocadu.ca] by May 25, 2017, at the latest.

Submissions must include: the name and email address of the applicant;
the applicant’s institutional affiliation and rank; the paper title; an
abstract (300 words maximum); and a brief bio (150 words maximum).
Submissions must be provided as an editable document, preferably in MS
word.

Proposals may be submitted by current members or non-members of UAAC.

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[2] Women and the Urban Field

From: Vanessa Fleet <vfleetyorku.ca>
Date: May 18, 2017

In her creative atlas of New York, Nonstop Metropolis (2016), writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit created “City of Women”: a re-imagining of the city’s subway map built on the names of significant women and the places where they lived, worked, performed, and made art. Solnit’s map to a feminist city counters the logic of everyday urban experience where, moving through city streets, women often are reminded that “this is not their world, their city, their street; that their freedom of movement and association is liable to be undermined at any time.” Exposing the gendered social fabrics of the city, this panel invites papers and presentations that consider urban encounters through feminist art practices: cartographic interventions, installations, performance art in public spaces, photography and video work of urban sprawl and post-industrial sites. How have women seen the urban field? How have they pictured themselves?and their aesthetic practices?shaped by the city? Where have they seen women missing? Papers considering intersectional positions are encouraged.

Extended deadline: 25 May 2017
Please send abstracts to session chair Vanessa Fleet (York University): vfleetyorku.ca

Submissions must include: the name and email address of the applicant; the applicant's institutional affiliation and rank; the paper title; an abstract (300 words maximum) and a brief bio (150 words maximum). Submissions must be provided in an editable document, preferably in MS Word.