The Journal of Curatorial Studies invites articles for a special issue on the theme of “Paranormal Exhibitions.” Preternatural and occult knowledges are being reconsidered as institutions are called upon to decolonize, recognize more diverse ways of knowing, and offer alternatives to positivist discourses. How might the extrasensory generate new epistemologies, systems of ethics and aesthetic experience in curatorial and exhibitionary practice? This special issue will explore how the curation of exhibitions defined by the extra-rational, nebulous, divinatory, mystical, miraculous and occult is formally and affectively configured in diverse contexts including museums, galleries, biennials, historical sites, and digital platforms. We invite analyses and case studies that pertain to exhibiting the paranormal, interpreted broadly. We are likewise interested in the tactics that curators have deployed to invite extrasensory engagement. How might psychic, intuitive, mystical or spiritual perception be articulated in terms of curatorial methodology?

Potential topics include:
-- exhibitions of occult art, spirit photography, and paranormal material culture
-- museum ghosts and the hauntology of the art collection
-- ethical issues pertaining to collections with ancestral and sentient artifacts
-- revisioning museum access to accommodate spiritual practices and rituals
-- performances exhibiting paranormal enactments: trance, séances, channeling, psychic readings
-- histories of Spiritualist museums and display culture
-- autoethnographic or autotheoretical investigations of “curatorial intuition”
-- supernatural interactions in augmented reality, virtual reality, and online environments
-- curatorial methodologies incorporating extrasensory modes to configure exhibition contexts for meditation, mystical experience, altered states or spirit communion

Send a 250 word abstract and bio by January 15, 2023 to the JCS editors:
Jennifer Fisher, York University, jefishyorku.ca
Jim Drobnick, OCAD University, jimdisplaycult.com

Article deadline: July 1, 2023
Article length: 5-8,000 words
Publication: Spring 2024

The Journal of Curatorial Studies is an international, peer-reviewed publication that explores the increasing relevance of curating and exhibitions and their impact on institutions, audiences, aesthetics and display culture. Inviting perspectives from visual studies, art history, critical theory, cultural studies and other academic fields, the journal welcomes a diversity of disciplinary approaches on curating and exhibitions broadly defined. By catalyzing debate and serving as a venue for the emerging discipline of curatorial studies, the Journal encourages the development of the theory, practice and history of curating, as well as the analysis of exhibitions and display culture in general.