C A L L F O R P A P E R S

The Past in the Present
History as Practice in Art, Design and Architecture

An International Interdisciplinary Conference
Glasgow, 27th-29th October 2007
THE GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART - DEPT. OF HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES

What is the role of historical research and critical reflection in art,
design and architectural practice?
How is historical research and critical reflection in art, design and
architecture informed by debates around leisure and commodification,
pleasure and sensation, technology and mobility?
* How is historical research in art, design and architecture manifest in
independent practice, study beyond the academy, cultural criticism and
journalism?

Conference Keywords:

Revivalism
Retro
Recycling
Palimpsest
Nostalgia
Pastiche
Parody
Appropriation
Quotation
Reframing
Re-visioning
Regression
Amnesia
Anamnesia
Memory
Memento mori
Trauma
Reverie

This three-day conference aims to bring together a broad range of
participants, including scholars, artists, designers, architects,
museologists, curators, archivists and collectors, to debate the ways in
which styles and genres from the past, both visual and written, have been
reinvigorated in the present for celebratory, nostalgic, or critical ends.

The organisers welcome speakers from any discipline, including (but not
limited to): art, design and architecture theory, history and practice;
media and cultural studies; sociology; history; gender/queer studies; Asian
and African-Caribbean studies; film studies; philosophy; new media and
information studies.

The conference will be structured using the following strands, with a
special invitation for papers on the key themes indicated below:

Leisure and Pleasure:
Nostalgic spaces of entertainment
Retro-design and leisure
* 'Heritage' environments and tourism

Technology and Culture:
New histories of art, design and architectural technology
'Dead' media and obsolete technologies
* Re-visioning technology's history

Historical and Critical Writing:
Relationships to history in critical writing practice in art, design and
architecture
The uses and abuse of theory
* Redefining the critical canon

Proposals are invited for 20-minute presentations. Panel proposals of up to
three speakers are also welcomed.

Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words, to 'The Past in the
Present', Department of Historical and Critical Studies, Glasgow School of
Art, 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 6RQ. Abstracts may also be sent by email
to pastinthepresent@gsa.ac.uk.

Deadline for abstracts: Tuesday 1st May 2007