Call for Papers

SKIN DEEP? SURFACES AND BEYOND
April 30, 2005

Deadline: Feb 18th

The Bard Graduate Center invites proposals by graduate students for its
fourth annual Graduate Student Symposium. This symposium seeks to explore
the interpretation of surfaces of objects, structures, and settings within
larger art historical, cultural, and social contexts. Surfaces are often
interpreted as representative of the whole. Is this approach valid or is
the surface merely one of many layers of form, substance, space, and
meaning? We hope to address how surfaces are defined and how they
function in decorative arts, design, painting, sculpture, architecture,
and landscape.

Papers could address the following inquiries:

What is the significance of surface as texture, veneer, ornamentation,
embellishment, trompe l'oeil, et cetera?

How does the definition of a surface as a starting point or tabula rasa
influence the process of design and creation?

How do surfaces redefine or replace other strata – and vice versa? What
is the relationship between surface and what lies beneath, behind, or on top?

How does a surface function as a membrane between interior and exterior?
How are surfaces ruptured or made impermeable?

How do surfaces mediate social forces or impact national or cultural
identity?

As surfaces change over time, what is the effect of their degradation,
reconstruction, and/or historic preservation?

Please send a one- to two-page abstract for a 20-minute presentation
together with a CV to:

The BGC Graduate Student Symposium Committee
The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and
Culture
18 West 86th Street New York, NY 10024

and/or submit proposals and CV to gradsympbgc.bard.edu

Deadline: Friday, February 18, 2005

http://www.bgc.bard.edu/academic/index.shtml