[x-post H-Soz-u-Kult]

The Pictorial Turn in History. A cross-disciplinary Conference
Roehampton University, London
4-5 April 2008

This conference aims to theorise the relationship between history and
the visual image. Pictures and other forms of visualisation have for too
long been neglected by historians and left to art or film historians.
But recently there is evidence of change. There is however, as yet, no
consensus of how best to incorporate visualisation into historical
research. Do historians use appropriate methods and concepts in order to
operate successfully in areas which go beyond the pure text? How do we
imagine/visualize the past? What role did visual images have for
historical actors? How do visual images of the past affect the way
historians perceive it? Vice versa, how does historical study affect the
way we understand a visual image?

As Aby Warburg put it a hundred years ago, perception is culturally
constructed and historically specific. Its function in historical works
has often been relegated to illustrating historical evidence gleaned
from other more conventional written sources whereas the power of the
picture is not confined to representing the past but also constructs it.
Questions have recently been asked about the authority of the visual
image, how it can be invested with normative power and manipulate events
for political or ideological purposes.

Different kinds of visual representation (paintings, statues,
engravings, photographs, posters, documentary and feature films)
influence our perceptions of the past differently; i.e. photography may
be more inscrutable than, say, a painting. In other words, we need to
take seriously the medium not just the message as a topic for historical
research.

In this conference, we hope the input of representatives of history, art
history, material culture, cultural studies, medical history and
archaeology will stimulate ideas about how a new pictorial history might
emerge from a truly cross-disciplinary discussion.

Programme:

Friday 4 April 2008

10.00 Registration and coffee

11.00 Welcome and introduction
John Tosh and Cornelie Usborne (History, Roehampton)

11.15 Visual History: the Ten Commandments
Peter Burke (History, Cambridge)

12.15 The Text of Images
Dawn Ades (Art History, Essex)

1.15–2.15 Lunch

2.15 Power and Function of Images in Migration-Era Scandinavia
Charlotte Behr (History, Roehampton)

3.15 The Bayeux Tapestry: an accurate reflection of the real world of
the eleventh century or a work indebted to contemporary art?
Michael Lewis (History/Archaeology, British Museum)

4.15-4.45 Tea

4.4 The Evidence of the Conversation Piece
Kate Retford (Art History/History, Birkbeck)

7.00 Conference dinner

Saturday 5 April 2008

10.30 Registration and coffee

11.00 Just What is it that Makes the Pictorial so Different, so
Appealing?
Lynda Nead (Art History, Birkbeck)

12.00 Melodrama, migration and conservative modernity: a case study in
cultural transition
Erica Carter (Film History/Cultural Studies, Warwick)

1.00–2.00 Lunch

2.00 Gender and Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Annie Coombes (Material and Visual Culture, Birkbeck)

3.00 Patient Photography and Propaganda: Medical Images as Sources for
the Social History of Medicine
Philipp Osten (History, Heidelberg)

4.00–4.30 Tea

4.30 Round Table and Discussion

5.30 Conference close

Participation fee: £70.00 for 2 days, £40.00 for a single day
(£30.00/£15.00 for postgraduate students and Roehampton staff),
including lunch and refreshments.

For registration and further information please contact Dr Declan
O'Reilly
at D.O'reillyroehampton.ac.uk
Centre for Research in History and Theory.
Digby Stuart College
Roehampton University
Roehampton Lane
London SW15 5PH
+44 208 3284