A conference to be held at The Courtauld Institute of Art and King’s College London

Friday 25 May 2012

Bodily, psychic and spatial interiors can be mapped, traversed and violated in multiple ways. This one-day conference will interrogate and re-evaluate the contested terrain of the interior in its varied forms. It will examine the interlacing and overlapping of different types of interiors, and seek to re-position the ‘interior’ in critical terms. Moreover, it will attempt to develop new ways of thinking about the relationship between the decorative arts, furniture, bio-technologies, anatomy and space. The conference will take place in The Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum and conclude with a keynote address in the Anatomy Theatre at King’s College London.

The conference will be built around three themes: Threshold, Incision and Autopsy. We encourage prospective speakers to outline how their papers engage with one or more of these themes.

This conference welcomes papers from across a wide range of periods and regions. Issues addressed might include, but are not limited to:

• Modes of mapping space
• Figurative and literal gateways/boundaries
• Temporality and space
• Space and subjectivity
• Domestic interiors
• Decorative arts and the body
• The fabrication of furniture
• Anatomical drawing
• Different types of medical imaging
• Medical portraiture

Please send your proposals of no more than 250 words (20-minute papers) by 30 November 2011 to probingtheinteriorgmail.com

Organised by Dr Lucetta Johnson (The Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Keren Hammerschlag (King’s College London)

This event is supported by The Courtauld Institute of Art Research Forum and the Centre for the Humanities and Health, King’s College London