[1] Framing Space through Architecture and Film
Invitation to submit to Panel at the
Association for Art History 2018 Annual Conference
Courtauld Institute of Art & King’s College London
5 – 7 April 2018, London

Framing Space through Architecture and Film

Co-convenors:
Jessica Schouela, University of York, js1878york.ac.uk
Hannah Paveck, King’s College London, hannah.paveckkcl.ac.uk

Deadline for Proposals: 6 November 2017

We experience architecture and film as media of duration that unfold in time. The encounter of an embodied spectator or inhabitant with a film or a dwelling is informed principally by motion and the succession of one frame or screen (architectonic and cinematic) to the next. These two modes of construction investigate into the three dimensional occupancy and representation of space as it relates to both bodies and objects, framed within curated and mediated spaces. Instantiating an experience of space that is far more than visual, architecture and film activate both sound and touch, the latter being a mutual and relational ‘commitment’ of the body and the world (Jennifer Barker).

Adolf Loos famously writes: “it is my greatest pride that the interiors I have created are completely lacking in effect when photographed”. Does film function differently? How have architecture and film represented each other and in which ways do they, either similarly or distinctly, frame or design space? What happens to architecture when it is filmed and how might a building be described in terms of its cinematic qualities (Beatriz Colomina)?

Moreover, how can film and architecture challenge our perceptual habits? Can film convey atmosphere of space and the built environment (Gernot Böhme)? How might the representation of urban versus domestic narratives (i.e. exterior and interior space) through film result in distinct viewing experiences?

This panel explores the mutually informing link between architecture and film in an effort to not only open up the limits of these methods of representation but also to look beyond what typically gets included within the history of art. Proposals may address the relationship between architecture and film through ontological comparisons, the framing and representation of space, and/or the phenomenological experience of mediated spaces.

Please submit your proposal for a 25-minute paper to js1878york.ac.uk and hannah.paveckkcl.ac.uk by Monday 6th November. Proposals should include the title of the paper, a 250-word abstract, and a short bibliographical statement.

[2]
Soundscapes: New challenges, new horizons
London, April 5 - 07, 2018
Deadline: Nov 6, 2017

Soundscapes: New challenges, new horizons

Convenors: Margit Thøfner, University of East Anglia;Tim Shephard,
Sheffield University

There is a long and fruitful scholarly tradition of exploring the
relationships between art and music. Amongst other things, the study of
both entails working with objects, spaces and practices that are profoundly
embodied, sensory and emotional. To work with and between art and music
means becoming acutely attuned to the visceral as much as to the
analytical. Yet there is still more to be gained. Recently, when commenting
on the relationship between art history and musicology, Jonathan Hicks
speculated that ‘it may be precisely in attending to the locations of
expressive culture – whether noisy, spectacular, or a combination of
these and more – that our disciplines might find most common ground’.
Our strand will explore this proposition. What may be learned from focusing
on how music and sound – or even the silent evocation of sound – is
framed by places, spaces, objects, rituals and other performative contexts
and vice versa? More broadly, how does this common ground help us to map
out and explore the problems and challenges currently facing art historians
who work with music and musicologists working with art? For example, is it
still a problem that many of our current methods of enquiry have come from
studies of European modernism? What happens when they are applied to
earlier periods and/or different cultural contexts? We welcome papers that
address these and cognate issues, whether by engaging with broader
methodological problems or by exploring specific soundscapes from any
period and anywhere.