Energy Consumption in Art History: State of the Interdisciplinary Field.
Session at the AAH Annual Conference 2024.

Making art demands energy. How do art historians study energy consumption? Taking the form of food, firewood, coal, oil, wind, sea wave, or sunlight, the energy that fuels the production of artworks and cultural artefacts falls into the focus of ecological art history. This session invites art historians and their interdisciplinary colleagues to reflect on the analytical frameworks, methods, and theoretical approaches that they employ to tackle art-historical issues regarding energy consumption, its contexts, and its consequences from the anthropocenic past to the foreseeable future. In-depth case studies in transregional and transcultural approaches are as warmly welcome as demonstrations of methodological innovation. Although a spatial boundary is firmly set to include the planet Earth and its only natural satellite, there is no limit in regard to the media, cultures, and traditions of artworks and the form of energy consumption. In addition, the agency and intervention of art historians in the current climate crisis and other ecological issues relevant to energy consumption can also constitute a self-reflexive discussion in the session.
The session will invite four critical reflections (talks accompanied by slides on a projected screen) on the current state and future directions of the field. After the annual conference, presenters will be invited to further submit a full paper to a thematic issue of a peer-reviewed journal.

Session Convenor: Feng Schöneweiß (he/his)
Postdoctoral Fellow, 4A_Lab, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut and Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
Email: feng.schoeneweisskhi.fi.it

To offer a paper, please email your proposals directly to the session convenor (feng.schoeneweisskhi.fi.it) by Friday, 10 November 2023. Please include in your paper proposal a title and an abstract (250 words max.) for a 20-minute presentation, besides your name and institutional affiliation (if any).

Please make sure the title is concise and reflects the contents of the paper because the title is what appears online, in social media and in the digital programme. You shall receive an email confirming the receipt of your submission within two weeks.