[1] Speculative Approaches to Intermedial Aesthetics
From: Corinna Kirsch
Date: 10 Apr 26

In his “Glossary” to Panaesthetics: On the Unity and Diversity of the Arts (2014), Daniel Albright encourages us to imagine each and every artwork haunted by eidolon, or the ghostly presence of other formal presentations of that work’s ideas and strategies: “An eidolon may be a more vagrant phenomenon, generated by (idle or intent) speculation about what an artwork in one medium might look like if translated to another. Synesthetes often find this easy, but anyone can play.” We like this idea of intermedial aesthetic theory as a kind of ludic séance, and invite you to join us in a seminar to explore speculations—whether idle or laden with intent—about the interpretation of intermedial works.

We are interested in:
- multiplicity, of interpretations but even more so of “ways in.” How do you start to read a work operating in/across multiple media or art forms?
- visibility, of form but also of social condition. What does art working in and traversing multiple forms make visible?
- collaboration, as a rubric and as a pedagogy. How do intermedial works unsettle authorship and how do we encourage our students to extend this unsettling?
- interlocutors, as influences for how we may speculate intermedially. We’re interested in new understandings of classic treatments (i.e., G.E. Lessing, T. Adorno, C. Greenberg) but even more so in theorists not usually considered “intermedial” who can expand our conversations.
- speculation, as a method of thinking otherwise as well as a vector for considering the economic alongside the aesthetic
- acquisitive affects, or, what are the feelings and frictions contained within intermedial works. Does any art form feel particularly jealous or envious of another?
- instructions and interpretations, and how individual permutations of a (digital) work might convey solidarity over singularity, or provoke a more networked engagement with others, whether human, element, or environment

This seminar will take place over two sessions. In the first session, we will share short papers (6–8 minutes) that identify exciting problems and possibilities in the criticism and interpretation of intermedial art. Alongside the talks, we invite each participant to contribute a text or object for a collective seminar reader — which we hope can be a pedagogical resource for beyond the conference — and in our second session, we will spend our time together trying out different readings of intermedial texts/artworks.

Please send brief (100–250 word) abstracts for your short papers and suggested intermedial texts or objects by April 15th to david.hobbsuleth.ca, corinna.kirschumt.edu, and lauranelsonprinceton.edu, with a short bio.

Please note that acceptance by us does not guarantee participation given that our call for papers is a preparation for our session proposal. ASAP only accepts panels that are fully constituted, and that have been subject to an open call process. ASAP will send notifications to panel organizers by May 24 regarding acceptance.

For further information please visit: https://www.artsofthepresent.org/conference/362/