European Science Foundation Network
'Discourses of the Visible: national and international perspectives'

Call for Papers

Reading Images: Art History, Medicine, Astronomy and other Discourses

NIAS [Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study],
Wassenaar, the Netherlands,
21-23 April 2006

CONCEPT

Images surround us everywhere, they relate to every topic imaginable,
and are inextricably connected to how we perceive the world. In the
so-called 'visual turn' of the 1990s, images and imaging became central
to debates on art, science, technology, and their interconnections.
Their fascination is enhanced by the increasing use of
computer-generated images and new imaging technologies. This workshop
will discuss scientific and artistic imagery in a global context,
considering the modes of production and reception of non-art images
across disciplines and across cultures, and the cross fertilization
that occurs.

Art History has a long tradition of studying artistic imagery, but
worldwide images are also important means of communication and objects
of research for the physical and biological sciences, as well as a
range of other knowledge practices. Information about the body, the
brain, the natural environment, the cosmos, etc. that is not visible
with the naked eye, is made visual and is applied in scientific
research. Often, these images are assumed to represent objective
knowledge, but they are also culturally dependent and rely on specific
conventions of representation and practices of looking. This workshop
will therefore consider the following questions:

How do scientific and non-art images function?
What do such images represent in different contexts and discourses?
What is the impact of scientific imagery on artistic modes of
representation and how does art respond to and apply scientific
representations?
What is the relationship between non-art images, and what is their
impact on art (how do artists view and use them)?
* What happens when images shift from one domain to another with regard
to representing, communicating and producing knowledge?

In responding to these questions participants may wish to consider the
following topics:
The epistemic character of representation
The agency of images
Image as site and as modality (producing images, the image itself,
the audience)
Scientific imaging as a challenge for art and for the discipline of
art history, and vice versa
* Cultural diversity, globalisation and practices of visualization

Speakers are requested to submit a 200-word proposal for a 30-minute
talk by January 15, 2006 to Marta Filipova (marta.filipova@eca.ac.uk).
The working language will be English, but participants may also present
in French or German, provided that an English-language version of their
presentation is available in advance of the workshop. This workshop is
the fifth of the Discourses of the Visible research network funded by
the European Science Foundation. The ESF will pay for speakers' return
travel to the NIAS, accommodation and subsistence during the duration
of the workshop.

For further information on the 3-year project of 'Discourses of the
Visible. National and International Perspectives' please go to
http://www.visualdiscourse.uni-hamburg.de/