IMAGES IV – Images of the Other: Istanbul – Vienna – Venice
A 2-3-days international and interdisciplinary conference

Call for Papers

After the conferences IMAGES (I) – Films as Spaces of Cultural Encounters (2011), IMAGES (II) – Images of the Poor (2012) and IMAGES (III) – Images of the City (2013), the IMAGES project is planning to focus on Images of the Other as documented in the images/ representations of Istanbul, Vienna and Venice in its 2014 conference.

Starting from the Middle Ages all three cities have been (culturally) mythologized as points of cultural intersection in works of literature, arts and film; be it as the spaces where East meets West, where lines blur between the conscious and the subconscious, between life and death, between the visible/ the seen and the invisible/ the unseen, or as spaces identified with the evil, as the Moloch luring – all these mythologizations being part both of the self-perception documented in the native cultural production and of the perception from the (cultural) “outside”.

Regarding this fact the IMAGES project has decided to discuss the (historically) changing representation and perception of the three cities in its 2014 conference IMAGES (IV) – Images of the Other: Istanbul – Vienna – Venice; the representations being seen as documentations of cultural approaches and also of cultural concepts. Hence, the historically grown mythologizations of the three cities create a sheer unlimited number of potential cases of both cultural encounters and conflicts, including most of the socially relevant fields in the academic discourse on the topic, like politics, communication, culture, and migration.

In order to discuss issues like the above mentioned IMAGES (IV) – Images of the Other: Istanbul – Vienna - Venice invites scholars, but also architects, photographers, writers, artists and filmmakers to propose papers in the following fields of research and interest:

• The Making of a Myth (theoretical approaches with special reference to the three cities Istanbul, Vienna, Venice)
• The psychology of feeling Istanbulite, Viennese and Venetian
• The psychology of attraction (theoretical approaches with special reference to the three cities Istanbul, Vienna, Venice)
• Istanbul’s, Vienna’s, Venice’s cityscape as a (mythologized) statement
• The impact of the media (news, internet, daily soaps) on the perception of Istanbul, Vienna, Venice
• Images of Istanbul, Vienna, Venice in feature films (present and past)
• Images of Istanbul, Vienna, Venice in the Arts (present and past)
• Images of Istanbul, Vienna, Venice as seen by photographers (present and past)
• Images of Istanbul, Vienna, Venice in literature (present and past)

The conference IMAGES (IV) – Images of the Other: Istanbul – Vienna - Venice is planned as a 2-3 days interdisciplinary international conference.
It will bring together senior scholars with PhD students, postdoctoral academics, and members of the artistic community without following the classical keynote speaker pattern but rather inviting all speakers either to present their research findings in 20 minute (paper) presentations plus 10 minutes for discussion or in 120-150 minute panels (4-5 panelists).
There will be no parallel sessions. All sessions will be plenary sessions.

The conference language is English.

Selected articles of each session/ field of research will be published as a volume of conference proceedings. Münster, Berlin, Vienna and New York based LIT Verlag has already declared strong interest in publishing the conference proceedings. The publication will provide (limited) space for black-and-white illustrations.

Conference site and date:
Istanbul, Austrian Cultural Forum, 02-04 September 2014

Deadline for paper proposals:
20 June 2014 (24.00 MET)

Please, send paper proposals to images-1gmx.at and cc them to veronika.bernarduibk.ac.at and otuzunhotmail.com and gonul.ucelebahcesehir.edu.tr

Deadline for paper submission (for publication in conference proceedings):
1 month after conference

Planned date of publication of conference proceedings: July 2015

IMAGES project director: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard (University of Innsbruck)

IMAGES (IV) – Images of the Other: Istanbul, Vienna, Venice organizing committee (in alphabetical order):
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Veronika Bernard (University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck/ Austria)
Ass. Prof. Dr. Hatice Övgü Tüzün (Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul/ Turkey)
Prof. Dr. Gönül Ücele (Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul/ Turkey)