[1] Chance and Control Today
From: Taisuke Edamura, kulitayugagmail.com
Date: Sep 29, 2022

Convenor:
Taisuke Edamura, J. F. Oberlin University/Keio University, Japan, kulitayugagmail.com

The diminishment of authorial intention has been a key tenet of artistic movements since the early twentieth century, the time that saw the emergence of artists experimenting with chance as a provocative source of creativity. Chance remains crucial as a tool not only to mitigate ‘the sway of the Author’ (Roland Barthes) as a sole determinant of what his or her creation is meant to be, but to explore the complex interactions between human and non-human agencies in wider contexts. A good example of this lies in Olafur Eliasson’s recent eco-critical works, such as Memories from the Critical Zone (Germany-Poland-Russia-China-Japan, nos. 1-12) (2020) and a body of watercolours drawn by the melting of glacial ice. These works attempt to reconcile a reduced exercise in authorial control with an examination of human impact on the environment. Another example is found in the exploration of chance and control in computer-based art that can prompt a critical imagination of wide-ranging consequences brought by the transfer of dominance from human to technology.

Beyond the aesthetic positivism of reduction or automation, this session seeks to provide a larger picture of how the use of chance in art can contribute to a better understanding of contemporary issues in culture and society. Invited are papers that address recent as well as earlier explorations of chance (and its related concepts) with a focus on themes which include, but are not limited to: art in the age of climate change; human-technology interaction; wild resilience and the urban environment; the materiality of nature; chance and participation.

Please submit your paper proposals directly to the session convenor by 4 November 2022. Provide a title and abstract for a 20 minute paper (max. 250 words). Include your name, affiliation (if any) and email. You should receive an acknowledgement of receipt of your submission within two weeks.

For the Conference details, please visit https://forarthistory.org.uk/conference/2023-annual-conference/#forarthistory2023.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[2] Rethinking Global Conceptualism
From: E. Mazadiego, e.mazadiegouva.nl
Date: Sep 29, 2022

Almost 25 years ago, the exhibition Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s traced the “spontaneous” emergence of various practices across multiple localities, subsequently expanding the study of conceptual art beyond Anglo-American historiography. In the intervening decades, scholars have provided increasingly nuanced accounts of the trajectories and genealogies of conceptualism. However, in light of new methodologies and critiques of art history, the terms “global”and “conceptualism” appear more anthropocentric and Eurocentric than initially conceived. If the global has come to be associated with neoliberal economic globalization, how can transcultural exchanges as well as local circumstances be reconsidered along planetary lines? If Global Conceptualism is not to become a historiographic artefact, how can its underlying impulses towards inclusion and expansion be reconceived and rerouted?

This panel proposes a thorough reappraisal not only of the exhibition and its impact, but also of the oversights and viability of its central framework. With the revisionist spirit of the original curators and contributors in mind, we are particularly interested in approaching art histories of conceptualism from ecocritical and decolonial perspectives. We therefore invite proposals connecting wider debates to focused case studies. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: alternative imaginaries of the global (e. g. planetary, ecological, environmental); non-Western/ non-Eurocentric models of conceptualism; decolonial, non-aligned and anti-imperial histories of conceptualist practice; non-hierarchical historiographic principles (e. g. horizontal, lateral, cosmopolitan, synchronous); and intersections of transregional exchanges and local genealogies.

Please email your paper proposals to the session convenors at: cwilliamswynng.harvard.edu; e.m.mazadiegouva.nl.

Please provide a title and abstract (250 words maximum) for a 20-minute paper (unless otherwise specified), your name and institutional affiliation (if any).