Sensorial Encounters: Haptic and Non-Visual Access in Art.

Sensorial Encounters: Haptic and Non-Visual Access in Art is an exploratory workshop that challenges the primacy of visual perception and terminology in art and art history. Inspired by the methodological insights of authors such as Georgina Kleege, Elizabeth Bearden, and Amanda Cachia, among others, this workshop questions the traditional conflation of sight with knowledge.
We invite scholars, artists, and thinkers to explore the dimensions of non-visual experiences in art. How do these experiences shape our understanding of subjectivity? What could we learn about an object if we were to feel it versus looking at it? How should these objects be displayed? We seek contributions that delve into these questions, offering diverse perspectives on sensory experiences and their implications for art and society.
This workshop will explore how artists who eschew ocular-centric practices have historically engaged with non-visual perception and created spaces to rethink access as more than a mere accommodation. We will examine how these artists' works offer new modes for understanding art and its interaction with the public.
This session seeks to redefine artistic encounters by emphasizing the role of touch, sound, and other senses in experiencing art, thus positioning disability not merely as a subject of representation but within the field of creative and affective agency. We encourage submissions that investigate the implications of these themes on the institutional representation of artists with disabilities, the evolution of tactile art museums, and creative accessibility practices in public spaces.

We invite papers of about 20 minutes, followed by a discussion. Please send an abstract of max. 500 words and a short CV to disabilitykhist.uzh.ch by June 23, 2024. Feedback on participation will be provided by the end of July 2024.

The workshop will take place at Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome on November 25–26, 2024. There will also be a possibility to participate online. Travel costs will be covered. We are striving to make this workshop as accessible as possible. Please let us know your access needs and we will accommodate them. A peer-reviewed publication of the proceedings is planned.

Co-organized by Tobias Teutenberg and Virginia Marano, Charlotte Matter, and Laura Valterio (research group “Rethinking Art History through Disability” at the Institute of Art History, University of Zurich).

https://www.khist.uzh.ch/de/chairs/neuzeit/res/disab.html