CALL FOR PAPERS - Architexture 2008: Textual and Architectural Spaces

15-17th April 2008, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

A collaboration between the University of Strathclyde\'s Departments of
Architecture and English Studies.

CALL FOR PAPERS

This interdisciplinary conference investigates the relationships between
architectural and literary constructions of space. It will explore the
influence of spatial theories within literary texts; consider how writers
evoke and represent a sense of place; and invite new perspectives on the
aesthetic, physical, and social functions of texts in the design,
production and consumption of the built environment. The conference also
aims to discuss these insights within the context of Glasgow. The social
and performance events - to include a champagne reception at the City
Chambers, a walking tour of the Necropolis, a trip down the Clyde, and
visits to the old industrial and residential areas of the city - will
encourage participants to reflect on the connections between their
„academic“ and other uses of text and space.

We welcome a wide range of disciplinary theorisations of the concepts of
text and space, literature and architecture. This international event aims
to bring together scholars, artists, architects, writers, urban planners
and filmmakers and many other interested individuals and organisations. We
are happy to accept contributions in any media but proposals for 20-minute
presentations and 10-minute A2 poster sessions, focused around the
following Architextural themes are invited.

Abstracts of Papers (300 words max.) should be submitted by 30th January
2008, by email to c.p.mcleanstrath.ac.uk. Final draft of papers submitted
for publication by Monday 13th August 2008.

The accompanying questions are merely suggestive of some of the themes
that could be addressed:

DIFFERENT GENRES

What are the differences in the way in which novelists, poets,
journalists, and travel writers treat the subject of space in their work?
How do the attempts of architects and planners to construct a narrative of
space differ between urban, suburban and rural contexts? What if any are
the methodological similarities between the ways an architect or writer
works when constructing a spatial narrative?

HISORICAL MOVEMENTS

Movements like classicism, modernism, romanticism, and post-colonialism
are categories that are common to both architectural and literary history.
How do they relate to each other and how are notions of space dealt with
within each movement? What for instance are the connections between
modernism in literature and in architecture? How does nineteenth century
romanticism relate to eclecticism in architecture?

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIVES

The distinctions between what we understand by private and public space
are often confusing. How do architects, planners and writers tackle issues
like domesticity and the creation of private worlds? How do they tackle
the development of narrative forms in the public realm in places devoted
to retail or tourism? How have designers and writers addressed issues of
memory and identity?

NOTATIONAL SYSTEMS

How have the development of new technology and communication systems
blurred the boundaries between different creative disciplines? How are
texts and narratives transcribed from one discipline into another? Are
there parallels between the ways in which writers and architects
experiment with form and meaning?

CONFIRMED KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Jonathan Meades (Broadcaster and Author)
Prof. Thomas Markus (University of Strathclyde)
Prof. Victoria Rosner (Texas A & M University)
Dr Vesna Goldsworthy (Kingston University, London)

for more information and updates email: c.p.mcleanstrath.ac.uk

Craig McLean, Doctoral Student, Department of English Studies
Dr Sarah Edwards, Lecturer, Department of English Studies
Dr Jonathan Charley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture