On behalf of my colleagues at SEARCH (Université de Strasbourg):

Framing/unframing spaces in the English-speaking world
UR SEARCH 2325, University of Strasbourg
October 15-16, 2021

Keynote speakers: Anne-Laure Amilhat Szary (geographer, University of Grenoble Alpes) and Paul Duro (art historian, University of Rochester)

After having organized several conferences and published several collective volumes on borders, the SEARCH research group at the University of Strasbourg pursues its research on space and its organization by addressing the issue of frames and their artistic, literary, historical, sociological and geographic significance.

The conference seeks to study operations of isolating and circumscribing space, as is the case in landscape painting, and also the “production of space” (Lefebvre), without setting the two in opposition. Space is understood in a physical and geographical sense, but also in a social sense (social spaces and their rules) and a material one (the canvas, the page, the stage, photographic or cinematic space, for instance). The notion of frame opens up a reflection on the ways in which space is constructed or deconstructed, according to norms or against them. Frames can be material, geographical or visual, but also social, ideological or epistemological. We seek to explore frames, but also the ways in which they organize experience (Goffman), the ways in which we create them or seek to abolish them, the ways in which we experience them or impose them.

Delimiting space

Frames imply a duality between inside and outside, and a relationship of inclusion, which is often informed by a hierarchical dimension. They also lead to transgression and interaction between inside and outside (Heller-Andrist). Such was the case in fundamental operations of delimiting space like the Northwest Ordinance (1787), which organized the division and the territorial expansion of the United States, and the Manhattan grid. This geographical framing corresponds to a conceptual and/or ideological framing, which may evolve over time. From this perspective, it is useful to address the evolution of spatial landmarks related to the Western expansion of the United States, or to the effects of climate change. Regarding the arts and literature, the frames that delimit the work can be studied in terms of how they circumscribe space (as with picture frames or the space of the page, for example). Another possibility is to study the attempts to break the frame, be it through transgression, dissolution or extension, from Dada to Happenings to Land Art.

Conceiving space

Delimiting space is inextricably bound with a certain understanding of the latter, be it the apprehension of a pre-existing space or the emergence of a new space (Derrida), as the English verb “to frame” denotes. This conception can be the result of a power struggle or be entangled with attempts to appropriate and confiscate space, as demonstrated by the carving up of Africa at the Berlin conference (1884-5) or the controversies surrounding the gendered dimension of urban planning and schoolyards. This is also true of historiographic frames insofar as they apply the spatial regimes of a given era to a past era. Landscape painting does not delimit a space as much as it constructs one. This construction constitutes a represented object while simultaneously giving rise to a subject observer. Rather than an interface, the frame becomes the mark of this act of separation. For Latour, the dichotomy between nature and culture leads to the emergence of nature as object appropriated and exploited by the Western subject. Thus, the notion of frame can be a starting point for an exploration of space not as a given, but rather as a series of relations. Literature also constructs spaces of representation. Literary forms and genres create relations of inclusion and exclusion, as do all artistic rules.

Embedding, superposing, telescoping spaces

Multiple framing phenomena can coexist and complement, superpose, or collide with one another. In a painting, mise en abyme and related effects of duplication, embedding and in-building (Stoichita), in other words the relationships among various embedded frames, make apparent the semantic potential of such superimpositions. Phenomena of intermediality and transmediality deserve further scrutiny in this context, since they are particularly suitable for “heteromedial” framing (Wolf & Bernhart), be it ekphrasis or hypotyposis in literature, the relation between text and image in the art of emblems, visual arts and performance art, in political art and action, or the transposition of the canvas/the page to electronic media. The study of these heteromedial phenomena will allow us to better understand the nature of the varied relationships of opposition, reinforcement and transformation among frames, more specifically how they regulate the circulation between inside and outside.

We encourage proposals on all English-speaking countries and all historical periods. We intend to publish a selection of papers in a peer-reviewed publication.

Possible topics:

- Aesthetic frames
- Frames and knowledge
- Frames and power
- Production of space
- Social spaces and their rules
- Frames of representation
- Norms and transgressions related to the frame
- Evolution of frames
- Intermediality/transmediality

Conference website:

https://langues.unistra.fr/search/actualites/actualite/news/appel-a-communication-cadres-et-espaces-dans-le-monde-anglophone-strategies-dappropriation-et-d/

Paper proposals in English or French (300 words) accompanied by a short bio should be sent to Pauline Collombier-Lakeman (collombierunistra.fr) and Rémi Vuillemin (vuillemunistra.fr) by May 31, 2021.

Organizing committee: Sandrine Baudry, Pauline Collombier-Lakeman, Gwen Cressman, Yves Golder, Hélène Ibata, Monica Manolescu, Mélanie Meunier, Fanny Moghaddassi, Ghislain Potriquet, Rémi Vuillemin.