Clark Conference 2007

April 27 and 28 2007, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute,
Williamstown, MA

What is Research in the Visual Arts?
Obsession, Archive, Encounter

What is research, why and how do we do it, and what place does it have in
the understanding and the making of art today? This year's Clark Conference
explores these fundamental questions, both philosophical and practical, for
those working with visual art. A full program is listed below.

Program

Friday, April 27

9:15am Welcoming remarks
Michael Ann Holly, Director, Research and Academic Program, Sterling and
Francine Clark Art Institute
Mark Ledbury, Associate Director, Research and Academic Program, The Clark

Session 1
What's a Discipline to Do? Research in/As Art History

9:30:
Marquard Smith, Kingston University, London
Conference Introduction

10.00: Michael Ann Holly, The Clark
What Is Research in Art History Anyway?

10.30-11:00: Break

11:00: Marc Gotlieb, University of Toronto
Our Monstrous Double

11.30: Alex Nemerov, Yale University
The Turn of the Screw and Art History

12:00 - 12.30: Discussion of Morning Papers

12.30-2:00: Lunch

Session 2
What Is Research? Old Practices, New Practices

2:00: Serge Guilbaut, University of British Columbia,
Factory of Facts: Research As Obsession with the Scent of History

2:30: Ernst Van Alphen, Leiden University and Clark Oakley Fellow, 2007-8
Obsessive Archives and Archival Obsessions.

3:00-3:30: Break

3:30: Chrissie Iles, Whitney Museum of American Art
Order! Taxonomy and Anxiety

4:00: Alex Potts
University of Michigan
The Art Work, the Archive, and the Living Moment

4:30: Discussion with afternoon speakers

5:30 pm : Reception at Williams College Museum of Art

Saturday, April 28
Session 3. Who or What Is the Researcher? Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

9:30 am:
Celeste Olalquiaga,
Independent scholar
The Researcher as Collector

10:00: Joanne Morra
University of the Arts, London
Remembering, Repeating, and Working---through Research

10:30-11:00: Break

11:00: Reva Wolf
State University of New York, New Paltz
The Scholar and the Fan

11.30: Sina Najafi,
Cabinet magazine
Toward a Culture of Curiosity?

12:00:Discussion of morning papers

12:30-2:00: Lunch

Session 4. Looking Elsewhere

2:00: W.J.T. Mitchell
University of Chicago
Image and Archive: The Case of Abu Ghraib

2:30: Akira Lippit
University of Southern California
The World Archive and Universal

3:00: Helen Molesworth, Harvard University Art Museum
Some Thoughts on Zoe Leonard's Analogue

3:30: Discussion of afternoon papers

400-4.15: Break

4.15: Mieke Bal, University of Amsterdam
Commentary

Followed by panel discussion with all Conference participants and aduience

6.00: Reception in the Lobby of the Clark for all attendees.

More information and registration forms can be found at
www.clarkart.edu/research_and_academic