AAH (Association of Art Historians) Annual Conference, University of
Glasgow

15-17 April 2010

Deadline for applications: 9 November 2009

PICTURING THE SENSORIUM IN ART FROM ANTIQUITY TO 1800

In recent years, scholarship has become increasingly sensitised to the fact
that historical human interaction with the material world, as it still does
today, engaged not only the visual, but also the spectrum of the sensory
and affective. The result has been a raft of histories of tasting,
smelling, touching and hearing ­ all of which, directly or indirectly, work
with and extend Baxandall¹s concept of the ³period eye². Then, as now,
these oral, aural, visual, olfactory and haptic practices were not only
culturally determined but also often communicated without written
explanation or in transitory form. We welcome papers that explore the
performance of the senses in art from Antiquity to 1800 (for example
hearing music, touching sculpture, smelling flowers, stroking animals,
tasting food) as well as affective responses, such as pleasure or disgust.
Papers might discuss sensorial engagement with art and/or its materials in
contexts such as the artist¹s studio, domestic interior or gallery/ museum.
They could also consider how art reflects the contingent medical and social
contexts of the senses or how artistic media, for example tapestries or
objects to be handled, were viewed in times when contagion was feared.
Equally, contributions could relate to the inhibition or loss of the
senses, such as the depiction of blindness or the deterioration of an
artist¹s own faculties of sight and/or colour as revealed in his/her
writings or work. This panel welcomes contributions that provide fresh
interpretations of existing knowledge, or presentations of new material
emerging from research, conservation, or archival discoveries.
Contributions will be limited to ca 25 minutes in length.

To submit a paper, please send a 250 word abstract to the two session
convenors (e-mail addresses as below) before 9 November 2009. Your name,
your institutional affiliation and full contact details should also be
included in the abstract.

Rachel King
Art History and Visual Studies
The University of Manchester, U.K.
r.kingcantab.net

Christopher Plumb
Centre for Museology and CHSTM (Centre for the History of Science,
Technology and Medicine)
The University of Manchester, U.K.
christopherplumbgmail.com