2008 CAA Conference (Dallas, Texas February 20-23)

CFP for Panel Session:
Neuroscience and the History of Art

In 1972, Michael Baxandall founded his concept of the "period eye" with
the recognition that each of us processes visual information with
different neural equipment. Since then, knowledge of the brain has grown
immensely.
Norman Bryson has recently (2003) welcomed neuroscience as offering a new
conception of the human subject, and neuroscientists such as Semir Zeki
and Vilayanur S. Ramachandran are applying their expertise to the study of
art using the framework of "neuroesthetics." Thus, the time is ripe for
art historians to develop a "neuroarthistory." This session offers
participants the opportunity to contribute to this challenging project. No
one knows what the ultimate possibilities and limits of such an approach
might be, but papers are invited that either explore the general topic or
that use a specific area of neuroscientific knowledge to engage with a
particular phenomenon, or problem, in the history of the art.

Abstracts of 1-2 double spaced pages are due May 11, 2007.

Co-chairs: John Onians, University of East Anglia, and Benjamin Lima, Yale
University. E-mail abstracts to: ben.limayale.edu

For more information, consult CAA guidelines:
http://conference.collegeart.org/2008/

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